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l/fHt^n/xifru  4/  Yofui7(/ 


HISTOEY  OF  E:^aLAND 


FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  THE  DEATH 
OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 


BY 

BENJAMIN    TERRY,  Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR  IN  THK  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 


CHICAGO 

SCOTT,  FORESMAN  AND  COMPANY 

1901 


PA  3  2. 
T3 


COPYRIGHT,    1901,  BY 
SCOTT,    FORESMAN  AND  COMPANY 


IT  MORSE  S 


EPHClis 


PRESS  OF 

THK   HENRY  O.   SHEPARD   CO. 

CHICAGO. 


OuCL 


PREFACE 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  present  in  a  simple  and  con- 
nected story  the  record  of  the  founding,  unfolding,  and  expansion 
of  English  nationality.  In  covering  so  vast  a  field  an  author  must 
necessarily  depend  largely  upon  the  work  of  others ;  yet  in  select- 
ing and  organizing  material,  and  in  presenting  well-worn  themes 
from  new  points  of  view  he  may  reasonably  be  expected  to  show 
some  originality.  He  may  also  be  expected  to  present  with 
accuracy  and  simplicity  the  ordinary  body  of  technical  material 
which  reader  or  student  naturally  looks  for  in  a  text-book  on  Eng- 
lish History.  He  ought  also  to  present  this  material  supported 
by  such  a  body  of  narrative  as  shall  impart  some  life  to  events 
described,  so  that  the  institutions  of  a  people  shall  appear  not  as 
mere  abstractions  bii^^v.^umanvthya^%fcd  the  great  personages 
of  their  history  not  as  the  characters  of  an  algebraic  formula  but 
as  actual  men  and  women.  This,  in  a  word,  has  been  the  aim  of 
the  present  work.  That  it  has  not  been  attained  in  many  respects, 
no  one  can  be  more  conscious  than  the  author  himself.  Only  one 
who  has  gone  through  the  labor  entailed  by  such  a  task  can  appre- 
ciate the  difficulty  of  attaining  even  ordinary  accuracy  in  the  state- 
ment of  simple  fact,  to  say  nothing  of  properly  balancing  action 
and  motive,  or  of  placing  events  always  in  their  proper  proportions. 

In  general,  the  plan  of  the  book  has  been  to  weave  in  with  a 
thread  of  political  narrative  some  account  of  the  constitutional 
and  social  development  of  the  English  people.  In  carrying  out 
this  plan  conventional  proportions  have  been  sacrificed  somewhat. 
Less  space  has  been  given  to  the  petty  squabbles  of  modern  poli- 
ticians and  the  mere  twaddle  of  court  gossip  but  more  to  the 
development  of  early  institutions ;  less  to  the  intricate  processes 
of  modern  diplomacy,  but  more  to  Alfred  and  William  I.  and 
Henry   II.    and  Edward   I.      The   wars   of   Great   Britain  with 

iii 


'U 


0820S 


IV  PEEFACE 

Afghans  or  Zulus  or  Chinese  have  been  barely  mentioned,  but  an 
entire  chapter  has  been  given  to  the  Norman  reduction  of  Eng- 
land. In  order,  also,  that  each  chapter  may  present  a  distinct 
movement  as  a  whole,  the  familiar  arrangement  by  reigns  has 
been  abandoned  for  an  arrangement  by  topics. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  give  a  bibliography  or  even  a 
complete  body  of  notes.  The  few  references  which  appear  as 
footnotes  are  designed  simply  to  show  reader  or  student,  who  may 
not  have  the  command  of  a  large  library,  where  he  may  easily 
reach  a  few  of  the  most  important  authorities  or  sources.  Every 
school  library,  however  humble,  should  place  within  reach  of  its 
students  such  standard  works  as  those  connected  with  the  names 
of  Freeman,  Greene,  Ramsay,  Stubbs,  Taswell-Langmead,  Nor- 
gate,  Lingard,  Round,  Cunningham,  Seebohm,  and  Gardiner,  or 
such  collections  of  sources  as  those  connected  with  the  names  of 
Stubbs,  Gee  and  Hardy,  Prothero,  and  Gardiner.  The  English 
Historical  Review^  also,  will  be  found  to  be  a  mine  of  wealth  to  both 
student  and  teacher,  and  a  complete  file  may  still  be  easily  obtained 
for  a  very  moderate  outlay.  The  Epoch  Series  will  also  be  found 
invaluable  in  a  small  library.  References  have  been  given  to  these 
works  rather  than  to  the  more  formidable  collections  which  are 
beyond  the  reach  of  most  students,  in  the  hope  that  the  references 
will  be  actually  used  and  thus  prove  of  some  practical  value  in  the 
more  extended  study  of  important  movements.  Where  time  per- 
mits, such  documents  as  Magna  Charta^  The  Bill  of  Rights^  The 
Act  of  Union ^  The  Bill  of  Union,  and  the  several  Reform  Bills  of 
the  nineteenth  century  should  be  carefully  read  and  analyzed. 

In  preparing  the  work  I  have  levied  heavily  upon  my  old  stu- 
dents, my  colleagues  of  the  Department  of  History  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago,  and  upon  the  members  of  my  own  family.  Special 
credit  is  due  to  Dr.  James  F.  Baldwin  of  Vassar  College  who  has 
put  his  extensive  knowledge  of  the  English  Feudal  Period  at  my 
service  by  gathering  for  me  the  material  upon  the  basis  of  which 
I  have  prepared  the  text ;  he  has  also  read  the  finished  MS.  of 
this  part  of  the  work  and  made  many  valuable  criticisms  and  sug- 
gestions from  which  I  have  been  glad  to  profit.  For  a  similar 
service  in  the  preparation  of  the  MS.  upon  the  period  of  the 


PREFACE  V 

Tudor s  and  the  Stuarts  I  am  indebted  to  my  colleague,  Mr.  Ealph 
0.  H.  Catterall,  and  upon  the  Hanoverian  period  to  Professor 
Charles  Truman  Wyckoff  of  the  Bradley  Polytechnic  Institute. 
I  am  greatly  indebted,  also,  to  my  colleague,  Dr.  J.  W.  Thompson 
for  assistance  in  reading  the  proof  of  the  maps  and  for  sugges- 
tions which  have  added  greatly  to  their  value;  also  to  the  un- 
wearied service  of  Miss  Priscilla  Grace  Gilbert  of  Chicago  in 
verifying  quotations,  the  spelling  of  proper  names,  the  correct- 
ness of  dates,  and  in  preparing  the  MS.  for  the  printer.  I  wish 
also  to  mention  the  patient  service  and  kindly  interest  of  my 
colleague  Professor  George  S.  Goodspeed  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  and  of  my  father,  Mr.  J.  C.  Terry  of  St.  Paul,  Minnesota, 
in  reading  the  proof  of  the  entire  work. 

The  University  op  CHiCAao, 
August  1,  1901. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface iii 

List  op  Maps , xi 

List  op  Tables xii 


PART  I— TEUTONIC  ENGLAND 
The  Era  op  National  Foundation 

From  Earliest  Times  to  1042  , 

CHAPTER 

I.     Introduction— Britain  before  the  coming  of  the  Teutons 1 

II.     The  Teutonic  Settlement  of  Britain 18 

III.  The  Rival  Confederacies  of  Teutonic  Britain,  and  the  Found- 

ing of  the  National  Church 32 

IV.  The  Danish  Wars— Alfred  the  Great  and  the  Founding  of  the 

English  Kingdom 57 

V.    The  Reconquest  of  the  Danelagh  and  the  Expansion  of  the 
English  Kingdom  under  the  Great  Kings  of  the  House  of 

Alfred 78 

VI.     The  Days  of  Dunstan;  the  Early  English  Kingdom  passes 

Meridian 93 

VII.     The    Decline  of    the  Early  English   Kingdom;    the  Era  of 

Danish  Kings 106 


PART  II— FEUDAL  ENGLAND 
The  Era  of  National  Organization 

From  1042  to  1297 

L     The  Shadow  of  the  Norman 125 

n.     The  Conquest  of  England 145 

III.     The  Norman  Reorganization  of  the  Kingdom  and  the  Intro- 
duction of  Feudalism 167 

vii 


Vm  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

IV.    The  Organization  of  the  Kingdom  Continued — The  English 

Conquest  of  Normandy 184 

V.     Feudal  Reaction  and  the  Reconstitution  of  the  Kingdom 202 

VI.     The  Growth  of  Popular  Rights  and  the  Loss  of  the  Continental 

Possessions  of  the  Angevins 230 

VII.     The  Great  Charter « 249 

VIII.     The  Struggle  for  the  Charter , 266 

IX.     The  Chartered  Confirmed ,.  294 


PART  III— NATIONAL  ENGLAND 

The  Era  of  National  Awakening 

book  i — social  awakening 

From  1297  to  1485 

I.     The  New  Era;   Edward  I.    and  the  Beginning  of  the  Wars 
of    Foreign    Conquest  —  The    Struggle  of    the    Scots    for 

Independence.. 317 

II.     The  Barons  and  the  Royal  Favorites— The  Independence  of 

Scotland  Established 334 

III.  Edward  III.  and  the  Opening  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War 350 

IV.  The  Decline  of  Edward  III. — Second  Stage  of  Hundred  Years' 

War 381 

V.    The    Peasant   Revolt  —  The  Attack  of   the  King  upon  the 

Constitution 403 

VI.     The  Constitutional  Kings  of   the  House  of  Lancaster — The 

Third  Stage  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War 427 

VII.     The  Last  Stage  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War— The  Rivalry  of 

Lancaster  and  York 450 

VIII.     The  Fall  of  York  and  the  Close  of  the  Dynastic  Struggle 474 


BOOK  II— RELIGIOUS  REFORMATION 
From  1485  to  1603 

I.  The  Restoration  of  the  Monarchy 494 

II.  The  Monarchy  Supreme — The  Administration  of  Wolsey 512 

III.  The  Ecclesiastical  Revolt  of  England 528 

IV.  The  Progress  of  the  Reform 548 

V.  The  Catholic  Reaction 571 

VI.     Elizabeth;  the  Reform  Established 587 

VII.     Elizabeth;  The  Duel  with  Spain 606 


CONTENTS  IX 

BOOK  III — POLITICAL  REVOLUTION 
From  1603  to  1689 

CHAPTKK  PAGE 

I.  The  Breach  Between  King  and  Commons., , 618 

II.  The  Era  of  Arbitrary  Government 647 

III.  The  Long  Parliament  and  the  Civil  War 669 

IV.  The  Parliament  and  the  Army 697 

V.  Cromwell  and  the  Protectorate 722 

VI.    The  Stuart  Restoration 742 

VII.     The  Birth  of  the  Whig  Party.... 760 

VIII.    The  Whig  Revolution 782 

PART  IV— IMPERIAL  ENGLAND 

The  Era  of  National  Expansion 
From  1689  to  the  Close  of  the  19th  Century 

I.    The  Beginning  of  Party  Rule  in  England  and  the  Founding  of 

British  Foreign  Policy 805 

IL     The  Completion  of  the  Work  of  the  Revolution 836 

m.     Walpole  and  the  First  Era  of  Whig  Rule 861 

IV.    The  Pelhams  and  Pitt— The  Ocean  Empire  Secured 885 

V.     George  III.— The  First  Period  of  Tory  Rule  and  the  Loss  of 

the  American  Colonies 911 

VL     The  Second  Perioil  of  Tory  Rule  and  the  French  Revolution...  941 

VII.     The  Eastern  Question  and  the  First  Era  of  Reform 976 

VIII.     Peel  and  the  Dissolution  of  the  Old  Parties — The  Crimean 

War — Palmerston  and  British  Foreign  Policy 1009 

IX.     The  Rise  of  the  New  Democracy — Gladstone  and  the  Second 

Era  of  Reform 1037 

Index 1070 


LIST   OF   MAPS 

PAGE 

Teutonic  Britain  about  600 36 

Britain  about  792 52 

Partition  of  England  bv  Treaty  of  Wedmore 67 

England:  Later  Expansion  of  Wessex 80 

The  Great  Earldoms 118 

England:  1066-1068 145 

England  AND  Scotland:  1066-1328 184 

The  Angevin  Dominions 208 

Battle  OF  Bannockbcrn  ..   338 

Campaigns  OF  Hundred  Years'  War 350 

Battle  of  Crecy 365 

Battle  of  Poitiers 377 

Parts  of  France  held  by  England  after  Treaty  of  Troyes 380 

France  BY  Treaty  of  Bretigny 880 

General  Map  of  Hundred  Years'  War 444 

Field  of  Agincourt 446 

The  Wars  of  the  Roses 467 

England  during  Tudor  Period 528 

Battle  of  Edgehill 684 

England  during  Civil  Wars  and  Later  Stuart  Period 686 

Battle  OF  Marston  Moor 689 

Battle  of  Naseby 694 

Ireland  during  Civil  Wars  and  Later  Stuart  Period 710 

Scotland  during  Civil  Wars  and  Later  Stuart  Period 712 

Battle  of  Dunbar 714 

Europe:  1713-14 836 

Battle  of  Blenheim  or  Hochstadt 840 

Battle  of  Rami LLiES 844 

Spanish  Netherlands 850 

Europe:  1789 950 

Europe:  1812 970 

Peninsular  Campaigns  of  Wellesley , 96D 

Battle  of  Waterloo.... 973 

India ' 1028 

South  Africa „ , 1055 

xi 


LIST  OF  TABLES 

PAGE 

The  Family  of  Alfred 57 

Rival  English  and  Danish  Royal  Families 106 

The  Dukes  of  Normandy.     Early  Connection  with  the  Eng- 
lish Line 125 

Contemporaries  of  Edward  the  Confessor  and  William  1 166 

The  Family  of  the  Conqueror 167 

Families  of  Blois  and  Boulogne 202 

Contemporaries  of  later  Norman  and  Early  Angevin  Kings..  229 

Family  of  Henry  II 230 

Family  of  John  Lackland 266 

Prominent  Contemporaries  of  the  Era  of  the  Charter 293 

The  English  Constitution  from  the  11th  to  the  14th  Century  316 

The  Disputed  Succession  to  the  Scottish  Throne 317 

Contemporaries  of  Edward  1 333 

The  House  of  Lancaster 334 

The  Valois  Succession 350 

The  Uncles  of  Edward  III 351 

The  Breton  Succession 361 

Family  of  Edward  III 381 

Contemporaries  of  Edward  III , 402 

The  House  of  Lancaster ..,„ 427 

The  Descent  of  the  Rival  House  of  York 450 

The  Beauforts « 474 

The  Woodvilles 478 

The  Younger  Branch  of  the  Nevilles— The  De  la  Poles 494 

Prominent  Characters  of  the  Fifteenth  Century 511 

Royal  Descent  of  the  Staffords 512 

The  Howards 548 

The  Stuart  Succession 587 

Prominent  Contemporaries  of  the  Later  Tudors 605 

Contemporaries  of  the  Early  Stuarts 696 

The  Rival  Lines  of  Stuart 805 

Contemporaries  of  the  Later  Stuarts..... 835 

Claimants  to  the  Spanish  Succession 836 

Descent  of  the  House  of  Hanover 861 

Prominent   British  Statesmen   of  Modern   Times  Who  Have 

Entered  the  Peerage 1069 

xii 


THE 

HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


PART  I— TEUTONIC  ENGLAND 
THE   ERA   OF  NATIONAL   FOUNDATION 

FROM  EABLIEST  TIMES  TO  1042 


CHAPTER  I 


INTRODUCTION 
BRITAIN   BEFORE   THE   COMING   OF  THE   TEUT0N8 

The  entire  area  of  the  British  Islands,  roughly  estimated,  is 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  square  miles.     Of  this, 

England  occupies  less  than  one-half,  about  fifty-eight 
bSof^  thousand  square  miles;  not  a  very  large  country  as 
grea£s        modern  states  go.     And  yet,  what  has  been  lacking  in 

size,  has  been  more  than  made  up  by  physical  conditions, 
the  most  favorable  to  vigorous  and  prosperous  national  life.  An 
insular  position,  midway  in  the  north  temperate  zone,  provides 
a  climate  tempered,  yet  invigorated  by  ocean  breezes,  and  sup- 
plying that  most  urgent  of  agricultural  needs,  an  abundant 
and  regular  rainfall.  The  soil  is  diversified  with  mountain, 
river,  and  lowland;  and  under  intelligent  tillage,  is  generally 
capable  of  great  fertility.  To  resources  of  soil  and  favorable 
climatic  conditions,  is  also  to  be  added  a  vast  wealth  in  minerals, 
by  no  means  the  least  considerable  of  the  national  assets. 
Above  all,  and  of  the  greatest  political  importance,  the  continuous 

1 


2  EARLY   BRITAIN" 

boundary  of  ocean  and  channel,  by  protecting  the  people  from 
foreign  interference,  has  afforded  opportunity  for  the  develop- 
ment of  unique  political  and  social  institutions,  the  normal 
unfolding  of  a  healthy  national  life.  The  long  seaboard,  more- 
over, set  with  numerous  and  commodious  harbors,  has  naturally 
suggested  commerce  and  naval  enterprise;  offered  a  ready  outlet 
for  a  population  straitened  by  inflexible  natural  boundaries,  but 
peculiarly  energetic  and  adventure  loving ;  and  inspired  those  vast 
schemes  of  colonization,  which  have  resulted  in  the  founding  of  a 
Greater  Britain  beyond  the  seas. 

The  population  of  the  British  Islands  represents  in  about  equal 
proportions  the  two  great  branches  of  the  Aryan  race,  who  have 

taken  possession  of  central  and  western  Europe, — the 
H^ofme^'  ^®^^^  ^'^^  ^^^  Teutons.  To  the  first  belong  the  Scots, 
S?S  ^^^  Welsh,  the  Irish,  and  the  Manx;  to  the  second  the 

English.  The  Celts,  who  were  the  first  to  come, 
found  another  race  in  occupation  before  them;  these  they 
did  not  exterminate,  but  absorbed.  The  Teutons  in  turn  over- 
whelmed the  Celts,  and  while  they  probably  expelled  them  entirely 
from  the  eastern  parts  of  the  island,  in  the  west  and  the  north, 
Celt  and  Teuton  rapidly  blended,  until  to-day  they  so  shade 
into  each  other  that  it  is  difficult  to  tell  where  Celtic  Britain 
begins,  or  Teutonic  Britain  leaves  off.  Other  infusions  of  foreign 
blood  from  Denmark  and  Normandy,  from  Holland  and  France, 
have  since  been  received  and  lost  in  the  larger  population.  Hence 
the  population  of  the  British  Islands  to-day  is  the  result,  partly,  of 
a  layer  of  population  upon  population,  of  race  upon  race;  and  partly 
of  the  fitting  of  population  to  population,  like  the  pieces  of  a  mosaic, 
yet  so  skillfully  set,  that  the  seams  of  division  are  lost,  and  colors 
the  most  violent  in  contrast  shade  into  each  other  imperceptibly. 

The  history  of  the  people  of  the  British  Islands,  therefore, 
begins  far  back  beyond  the  Teutonic  migration,  when  the  first  of 

these  populations  appeared.     Then  a   huge  peninsula 

BmtS^  ^^  occupied  the  place  of  the  present  islands,  and  stretched 

^^'         away  from  the  continent,  far  into  the  northern  ocean. 

Its  vast  areas  of  woodland  and  marsh,  broken  here  and  there  by 

open  country,  afforded  a  home  for  the  bison  and  the  mammoth, 


EARLIEST   INHABITANTS   OF   BRITAIN  3 

the  reindeer  and  the  wolf,  and  many  other  creatures,  fierce  and 
strange,  which  have  long  since   disappeared.     A  people  who  are 

represented  to-day  by  the  Esquimaux,  fished  along  the 
Paleolithic      sedgy  rivers,  or  tracked  the  wild  beasts  to  their  lairs 

among  the  uplands.  They  are  known  to  scientists  as 
Paleolithic  or  Old  Sto7ie  men.  Of  these,  two  races  have  been 
distinguished.  The  oldest  or  first  comers  are  called  the  River  Drift 
7ne?i;  the  second  comers,  the  Cave  men.  They  represent  the  rudest 
form  of  human  life.  They  made  tools  of  flint  which  the  River 
Drift  men  used  without  handles.  They  also  protected  their  bodies 
from  the  extremes  of  the  weather,  much  more  violent  then  than 
now,  with  garments  made  of  skins,  rudely  stitched  together  with  the 
tendons  of  wild  beasts.  Though  barbarians  of  the  lowest  type,  they 
had  some  artistic  sense,  and  attempted  to  ornament  their  weapons 
with  rude  imitations  of  the  creatures  which  they  were  accustomed 
to  slay  in  the  chase.  Yet  they  had  no  domestic  animals;  knew 
nothing  of  spinning,  or  weaving;  and  took  no  care  of  their  dead. 
Existence  must  have  been  hard  and  precarious  at  best,  affording 
little  to  develop  the  nobler  instincts  of  human  nature. 

Then  untold  centuries  passed  away;   the  great  peninsula  was 
severed  from  the  mainland,  and  cut  up  into  the  group  of  islands 

which  we  know  to-day;  a  climate  better  suited  to 
Neolithic       primitive    life  also    succeeded.      The  earlier  races  of 

Men. 

men,  the  Old  Stone  men,  or  Paleolithic  men,'  disap- 
peared; and  a  new  race,  the  Neolithic,  or  New  Stone  men,  suc- 
ceeded them.  These  people  came  from  the  southeast,  and  must 
have  known  something  of  sea  craft.  They  brought  with  them  over 
the  narrow  seas  the  domestic  animals  now  so  familiar, — the  dog 
and  the  sheep,  the  ox,  the  goat,  and  the  hog.  They^  knew  some- 
thing about  spinning  and  weaving;  and  reverently  laid  away 
their  dead  in  long  chambers,  built  of  flat  stones,  over  which  they 
heaped  pear-shaped  mounds  of  earth.  These  mounds  are  still  to 
be  seen  in  parts  of  the  British  Islands,  and  are  known  as  long  bar- 
rows. From  remains  found  in  these  barrows,  we  learn  something 
of  the  appearance  of  the  New  Stone  men;  they  were  somewhat 
shorter  than  modern  Europeans,  with  swarthy  complexions,  black 
curly  hair,   and,  probably,   dark    eyes.      The    skulls,   seen    from 


4  EARLY   BRITAIN 

above,  were  oval;  the  faces,  also  oval;  chins  small,  foreheads  low, 
and  cheek  bones  not  prominent.  Kindred  peoples,  commonly 
distinguished  from  later  Neolithic  men  as  Iberians  or  Ivernians, 
extended  over  all  western  and  southern  Europe.  They  dwelt 
among  the  Swiss  lakes,  the  Lake  Dwellers;  they  were  found  upon 
the  plains  of  Italy  and  in  the  mountains  of  ancient  Etruria. 
Within  historic  times  they  appear  in  the  Iberians  of  Spain  and 
the  modern  Basques  of  the  Pyrenees.  Their  blood  is  repre- 
sented to-day,  probably,  in  most  of  the  populations  of  western 
Europe. 

How  long  these  men  of  the  long  barrow  and  the  oval  skull,  the 

first  Neolithic  men,  remained  in  undisputed  possession  of  their 

island  home  is  not  known.      But   sometime,   perhaps 

The  Celts, 

twenty  centuries  before  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  another  people,  also  in  the  Neolithic  stage,  entered 
Europe,  and  slowly  drifting  westward,  everywhere  displaced  the 
Iberians,  breaking  up  their  settlements,  and  either  exterminating 
the  inhabitants  or  absorbing  them.  These  people  were  the  Celts, 
the  first  great  historic  people  of  western  Europe.  They  repre- 
sented a  new  race — the  Aryan,  now  for  the  first  time  seen  upon 
European  soil.  In  marked  contrast  with  the  Iberians,  the  new- 
comers were  tall  and  muscular,  with  fair  skin,  yellow  hair,  and 
fierce  blue  eyes.  Their  skulls  were  round,  foreheads  high  and 
broad,  and  cheek  bones  prominent.  They  treated  their  dead  with 
reverent  care ;  but  covered  the  grave  with  a  round  or  bell-shaped 
barrow.  Later,  when  bronze  had  begun  to  take  the  place  of  stone, 
they  burned  their  dead. 

About  the    seventh  or    eighth  century  before  the   Christian 
era,  these  people  had  completed  the  conquest  of  Gaul,  and  were 

beginning  to  press  into  Britain.  They  did  not  come 
migration  to    all  at  oncc,  but  in  succcssivc  waves  of  population,  each 

people  pushing  their  predecessors  on  before  them,  to  be 
crowded  forward  in  turn  by  others  who  came  after.  In  Caesar's 
day  the  last  of  these  migrations  had  been  completed;  but  so 
recently,  that  the  last  comers  still  kept  up  a  close  connection  with 
their  kindred  of  northern  Gaul.  During  this  long  period  the 
Celts  also  were  passing  through  a  very  important  transition.     The 


THE    CELTS  5 

first  to  come  had  used  stone  weapons,  similar  to  those  of  the 
Iberians;  but  the  later  comers  had  letirned  the  secret  of  harden- 
ing copper  with  tin.  They  knew  how  to  make  huge  bronze  swords, 
and  to  protect  their  bodies  with  bronze  armor  and  bronze  shields. 
They  had  also  learned  to  use  the  chariot  in  war,  somewhat  after 
the  manner  of  the  Greek  nations  of  the  Mediterranean.  They 
must  have  been  very  formidable  opponents,  even  to  those  of  their 
own  people  who  were  already  in  Britain,  and  who  now  saw 
themselves  despoiled  of  their  choicest  fields  and  finest  hunting 
grounds. 

While  many  such  waves  of  Celtic  population  broke  upon  the 
British   Islands    during  this    period,   they  represented   only  two 

divisions  of  the  race,  the  OoideU  or  Oaels^  and  the 
mfuom?^    ^rt7ow5.      The  Gaels  are    represented  to-day  by  the 

people  of  Ireland  and  the  Scotch  Highlands ;  the  Brit- 
ons, by  the  Welsh.  It  is  thought,  too,  that  strains  of  the  old 
Iberian  blood  may  be  detected  in  the  short  stature,  black  hair, 
and  dark  eyes  which  prevail  in  certain  parts  of  Ireland  and  Scot- 
land. A  map  of  the  British  Islands  at  the  close  of  the  Celtic 
migration  would  show  in  the  hands  of  the  Britons,  middle  and 
southern  Britain  from  the  Firth  of  Forth  to  the  Channel  and 
about  one-half  of  Wales ;  in  the  hands  of  the  Goidels  the  modern 
Cornwall,  southern  Wales,  with  Anglesey  and  the  adjoining  penin- 
sula, the  Scotch  Highlands,  Man,  and  Ireland. 

The   Celts  were  an  exceedingly   interesting  people,  and   the 
ardent  researches   of  antiquarians  have   restored   many  of   their 

customs.  They  understood  agriculture,  but  their  chief 
^^om8.        wealth  consisted  in  cattle.     They  soon  discovered  the 

mineral  resources  of  their  new  home,  for  which,  espe- 
cially the  tin,  they  found  a  ready  market  among  the  peoples  of  the 
Mediterranean.     Along  the  channels  of   this  ancient  commerce, 

the  gold  and  silver  coins  of   the  Greek  cities  of  the 

south  found  their  way  into  Britain,  and  the  British  Celts 
soon  began  to  imitate  them  on  their  own  account.  Many  of  these 
imitations  have  been  found,  struck  long  before  the  era  of  Eoman 
occupation,  and  bear  no  slight  testimony  to  the  wealth  and  intelli- 
gence of  the  people  who  used  them,  the  more  remarkable  when  we 


6  EARLY    BRITAIK 

remember  that  ''Saxon  England  practically  never  had  a  gold  coin- 
age, and  that  even  Norman  England  never  saw  a  gold  coin  struck 
until  the  year  1257."' 

The  Celts  had  kings  or  tribal  cliieftaius;  but  they  seem  to  have 
been  unable  to  attain  any  permanent  political  union.     Like  Gaul  in 

the  time  of  Caesar,  or  Ireland  in  the  time  of  the  Plan- 

tagenets,  Britain  was  cut  up  into  scores  of  petty  tribal 
families,  each  family  held  together  by  a  theoretical  kinship  to  a 
tribal  chief.  There  were  laws  and  interpreters  of  laws ;  but  beyond 
the  tribal  family  there  was  no  judicial  machinery  by  which  inter- 
tribal quarrels  might  be  adjusted,  or  offenses  might  be  punished. 
Hence  the  tribal  chieftains  were  ever  quarreling  among  themselves, 
and  never  able  to  secure  a  lasting  peace. 

Another  institution  peculiar   to  the  Celts   was   the   order  of 
Druids^  a  body  of  men  of  learning,  who  were  held  in  great  honor, 

and  were  exempt  from  military  service  and  taxation. 

They  were  the  repositories  of  the  learning  of  the 
age,  which  they  received  as  oral  traditions  in  a  long  and 
arduous  tutelage.  Like  most  primitive  peoples,  the  Celts  offered 
human  sacrifices  to  their  gods,  and  the  Druids  officiated  in  these 
grim  rites.  The  famous  Stonehenge,  the  remains  of  which  are 
still  to  be  seen  in  the  great  Salisbury  plain,  is  generally  thought  to 
be  a  monument  of  such  ancient  British  worship.  Beside  their 
sacerdotal  functions,  the  Druids  were  also  professional  jurists; 
"they  could  give  legal  advice,  enunciate  the  law,  act  as  arbiters, 
but  could  not  enforce  a  decree."  They  existed  both  in  Gaul  and 
Britain,  and,  if  the  later  Irish  hrelions  or  judges  may  be  regarded 
as  representatives  of  an  ancient  order,  probably  in  Ireland  as  well. 
The  authentic  record  of  Celtic  Britain  begins  with  the  perma- 
nent Eoman  occupation,  about  the  middle  of  the  first  century  of  the 

Christian  era.  Some  three  centuries  earlier,  however, 
'^yfheas,  Pjtheas,  a  savant  of  the  Greek  city  of  Marseilles,  was  sent 
a^out325        Q^j^  ]3y  ^}jg  merchants  of  his  city  to  open  up  new  trade 

relations  with  the  people  of  the  north  coast  of  Europe. 
The  expedition  was  successful,  and  much  useful  information 
was  no  doubt  brought  back  to  the  Mediterranean  cities ;   but  unfor- 

^  Ramsay,  Foundations  of  England,  I,  p.  33. 


A.  D.  43]  CAESAR   IN    BRITAIN  7 

tunately  the  original  record  left  by  the  explorer  has  been  lost,  and 

all  that  remain  are  a  few  stray  references  or  allusions  on  the  pages 

of  his  critics.     When  Caesar  was  in  Gaul,  he  also  made 

Brftain,  B.  c.  two  expeditions  to  the  island ;  but  apparently  he  had  no 

55  and  54.  .       ^  ^.  ,^     .  ^\    J.X.     S  J 

serious  thought  of  conquest  at  the  time,  and  proposed 
little  more  than  a  recounoissance  in  force.  Hia  first  expedition 
was  unmistakably  a  failure.  On  his  second  expedition  he  remained 
two  months,  advancing  beyond  the  Thames,  and  breaking  up  a 
confederacy  of  tribes  which  the  chieftain  Cassivellaunus  had 
brought  together  to  resist  him.  He  also  exacted  a  promise  of 
tribute;  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  a  tribute  was  ever  collected  or 
that  any  effort  was  made  by  the  Eomans  at  this  time  to  secure  a 
permanent  footing  on  the  island.  They  were  soon  too  busy  with 
their  own  domestic  affairs  to  give  the  distant  Britons  further 
attention,  and  left  them  to  sink  again  into  the  oblivion  which  for 
so  many  centuries  had  hidden  their  island  from  the  eyes  of  civilized 
Europe;  nor  was  it  until  the  reign  of  Claudius,  ninety-seven 
years  later,  that  the  Romans  seriously  undertook  to  reduce  the 
Britons,  or  to  establish  their  power  beyond  the  Channel.  Here 
the  recorded  history  of  Britain  begins. 

A  great  king,  Cunobelinns,  the  **Cymbeline"  of  Shakespeare, 
had  closed  a  long  and  prosperous  reign  in  eastern  Britain.  His 
capital  was  at  Camulodunum,  among  the  Trinobantes, 
onhf"^^  the  site  of  the  modern  Colchester.  Both  north  and 
awudius"^  south,  the  neighboring  tribes  had  yielded  to  his  sway. 
Upon  his  death,  however,  his  kingdom  broke  up;  the 
tribes  were  embroiled  in  a  bloody  civil  war,  and  soon  exiled  chief- 
tains began  to  appear  at  the  court  of  Claudius,  only  too  ready  to 
sign  away  questionable  claims  to  paper  thrones,  in  order  to  secure 
the  aid  of  the  emperor  in  avenging  their  wrongs.  Claudius  deter- 
mined to  interfere  upon  pretext  of  the  'alliance  and  friendship'  of 
Rome  with  these  dispossessed  chieftains.  He  was,  moreover,  sadly 
in  need  of  a  military  reputation,  while  the  chronic  disorder  of  the 
island  promised  an  easy  conquest — much  easier  than  the  conquest 
of  the  incorrigible  Germans,  upon  whom  Augustus  had  spent 
the  whole  strength  of  the  empire  to  little  purpose. 

Accordingly,  in  the  summer  of  the  year  43  A.  D.,  Claudius  sent 


8  EARLY   BRITAIN 

forward  an  able  general,  Aulus  Plautius,  with  an  armament,  number- 
ing, both  legionaries  and  auxiliaries,  about  forty  thousand  men.   The 

Britons  were  able  to  make  no  effective  resistance  to  this 
^Auh!^^^^  force,  and  in  a  few  weeks  the  lands  of  the  Cantii,  the 
hautius,        region    of  the  later   Kent  and  Sussex,were  overrun. 

So  glowing  were  the  accounts  returned  of  the 
achievements  of  Eoman  prowess,  that  Claudius  ventured  to  expose 
his  sacred  person  by  ^appearing  among  the  legionaries,  and  was 
present  when  the  army  crossed  the  Thames  and  took  possession  of 
Camulodunum.  After  sixteen  days  he  returned  to  Eome  to  enjoy 
his  much-needed  triumph,  and  to  add  a  '^Britannicus"  to  the 
calendar  of  Eoman  national  heroes.  Aulus  Plautius  remained 
behind  to  complete  the  work  of  conquest,  and  within  four  years  the 
most  of  Eoman  Britain  was  secured.  Colonists  also  flocked  into 
the  island,  and  in  a  short  time  the  Eomanizing  of  the  new  provinces 
was  seriously  under  way. 

Other  governors  followed  Aulus  Plautius.    There  was  much  hard 
fighting  on  the  borders ;  but  for  eighteen  years  the  Eoman  advance 

failed  to  pass  the  Severn,  or  the  Humber.  Within  these 
^fBrSn^  lines,  however,  there  were  many  important  changes. 
J|^T~         Londinium,  the  modern  London,  was  rising  rapidly  to 

be  the  * 'commercial  center  of  the  island."  From  the 
southern  ports  the  inevitable  Eoman  roads  converged  upon  her 
gates.  A  great  road  led  away  to  Glevum  (Gloucester) ,  the  Eoman 
outpost  on  the  Severn.  The  famous  Watling  Street  stretched 
away  to  Uriconium  (Wroxeter),  and  Deva  (Chester),  the  outpost 
of  Eome  in  the  northwest.  Other  highways,  the  Icknield  Street, 
the  Ermine  Street,  and  the  Fosse-way,  then,  or  soon  after,  were 
laid  down  to  connect  the  remote  corners  of  the  province  with  the 
interior  and  with  each  other.  These  roads  were  designed  primarily 
for  military  purposes;  but  commerce  was  quick  to  take  advantage 
of  the  easy  and  safe  communication  offered  by  solid  roadbeds  and 
continuous  lines  of  depots  and  watch-stations ;  and  very  soon,  over 
the  Eoman  road,  as  along  the  line  of  the  modern  railroad,  the  subtle 
influences  of  civilization  began  to  pass  outward  in  ever-increasing 
volume,  from  the  older  cities  of  the  coast  into  the  western  and 
northern  wilderness. 


61]  BOADICEA  9 

But  how  fared  it  with  the  conquered  people  during  these  eight- 
een years?     The  Celtic  nature  is  not  averse  to  civilization ;  but  it 
was  the  peculiar  misfortune  of  the  British  Celts,  as  with 
of  the  their  kinsmen  of  Ireland,  to  come  first  in  contact  with 

civilization  on  its  most  unlovely  side.  Under  such 
emperors  as  Claudius  and  Nero,  Roman  public  service  was  at  its 
worst.  Officials  were  shamelessly  corrupt,  and  did  not  hesitate  to 
use  their  public  authority  to  extort  money  from  the  defenseless 
provincials  for  their  own  uses.  Troops  of  private  speculators, 
brokers  and  money-lenders,  had  also  followed  the  army,  and 
**offered  fatal  facilities  to  needy  chiefs."  Conscriptions,  taxation, 
and  requisitions  of  all  sorts,  enforced  by  punishments  which 
the  Britons  thought  fit  only  for  slaves,  were  the  order  of 
the  day. 

Such  blind  and  stupid  oppression  of  a  brave  people,  who,  though 
conquered,  still  retained  in  their  hands  unlimited  power  for  mis- 
chief, could  have  but  one  result.  In  the  year  61,  the 
BoadLm,6i.  Iceni,  a  vassal  tribe  who  dwelt  in  the  region  of  the  pres- 
ent Norfolk,  rose  under  the  leadership  of  their  widowed 
queen,  the  famous  Boadicea,  and,  joined  by  the  Trinobantes  and 
other  neighbors  to  the  south,  made  a  desperate  effort  to  destroy 
the  foreigners  and  break  the  Roman  yoke.  In  the  first  tide  of 
revolutionary  ardor  the  insurrection  bore  all  before  it.  The  recently 
established  colony  at  Camulodunum  was  overwhelmed.  Veru- 
lamium,  the  modern  St.  Albans,  and  London  were  stormed  and 
sacked.  Frightful  massacres  attended  these  successes;  seventy 
thousand  persons,  it  was  said,  perished.  The  nearest  legion,  the 
Ninth,  hastened  to  the  scene  of  the  revolt,  but  only  to  be  swept 
away  in  the  flood.  Help,  however,  was  not  far  off.  Suetonius  Paul- 
linus,  the  governor,  was  already  returning  from  the  distant  Mona, 
the  later  Anglesey,  where  he  had  been  engaged  in  an  attempt  upon 
the  warlike  Ordovices.  He  hastened  his  march  in  the  hope  of 
saving  London;  but  when  he  found  that  he  was  too  late,  he  fell 
back  to  a  strong  position  somewhere  on  the  line  of  the  Thames, 
and  there  awaited  the  advance  of  the  enemy.  Boadicea  led  the 
charge  in  her  war  chariot ;  her  people  supported  her  with  great  spirit, 
but  their  valor  was  no  match  for  the  dogged  endurance  of  the 


10  EARLY    BRITAIN 

Romans.  After  the  first  wild  and  furious  onslaught,  their  energies 
were  soon  spent,  and  they  were  easily  swept  away  before  a  well 
timed  counter  charge  of  the  legionaries.  Boadicea  ended  her  life 
with  poison.  Southern  Britain  was  not  only  conquered,  but 
crushed;  and  never  again  disputed  the  Roman  supremacy.  Yet 
the  rising  was  not  without  its  lesson  to  the  Romans;  and  when 
the  overthrow  of  the  last  of  the  Claudian  Caesars  and  the  subse- 
quent establishment  of  the  Flavians,  afforded  an  opportunity  for  a 
change  in  the  policy  of  the  provincial  administration,  the  Britons 
were  among  the  first  to  share  the  benefit  of  the  new  order.  The 
governors  who  now  came  out  to  the  province  were  good  men,  who 
sought  to  reconcile  the  people  to  the  Roman  rule  by  removing  the 
causes  of  irritation. 

Among  the  new  governors  was  the  famous  Agricola,  immor- 
talized by  the  pen  of  his  son-in-law,  the  historian  Tacitus.     He 

came  to  Britain  in  the  year  78,  and  at  once  under- 
BritainV^  took  the  reduction  of  the  wild  tribes  of  the  island,  who 
'^^'^^'  had  not  yet  recognized  the  Roman  rule.    In  three  years, 

he  had  overrun  the  western  highlands,  the  later  Wales;  then, 
turning  north,  he  crossed  the  Humber  and  advanced  to  the  line  of 
the  Clyde  and  the  Forth.  It  took  two  years  more  to  clear  the 
lowlands,  and  in  the  summer  of  84  he  entered  the  mountain  fast- 
nesses of  the  Caledonians,  as  the  Picts  were  then  called,  the  only 
people  who  still  defied  the  authority  of  Rome  in  Britain.  The 
difficulties  which  confronted  the  Romans  in  the  unaccustomed 
mountain  warfare  were  serious,  but  the  Caledonians  greatly  sim- 
plified the  task  by  massing  their  forces  at  a  place  known  as  Mons 
Graupius,^  where  Agricola  defeated  them  in  a  single  pitched  battle. 
If  we  may  believe  his  biographer,  Agricola  left  ten  thousand  of 

their  warriors  dead  upon  the  field.  It  was  one  of  the 
S£fL«^„.-  most  brilliant  victories  which  Roman  arms  had  won 
&nd'84^^    since  the  day  of  the  great  Caesar.    Yet  it  was  impossible 

to  hold  or  fortify  the  Highlands,  or  secure  the  fruits  of 
victory  by  permanent  possession,  and  Agricola  was  forced  to 
return  to  the  province.     The  fleet,   however,   he  sent  forward  to 

1  It  is  now  generally  agreed  that  Mons  Graupius  is  not  to  be  identified 
with  the  Grampian  Hills. 


84]  ROMAN   CIVILIZATION  11 

explore  the  northern  coast.  They  turned  the  cape,  and  discovering 
the  Orkneys,  returned  by  way  of  the  Irish  Sea  and  the  Channel  to 
their  winter  station.  They  were  the  first  representatives  of  civiliza- 
tion to  circumnavigate  the  island. 

Agi-icola,  in  the  meantime,  was  meditating  great  things  for  his 
next  campaign.    He  proposed,  in  short,  the  complete  reduction,  not 

only  of  the  people  of  the  Highlands,  but  of  the  Irish 
Ayricoia,        Gaels  as  Well.    But  the  suspicious  Domitian  was  already 

jealous  of  the  growing  fame  of  his  brilliant  lieutenant, 
and  determined  to  recall  him,  leaving  three  legions  in  the  island, 
sufficient  for  a  guard,  but  not  sufficient  to  tempt  another  lieuten- 
ant to  a  career  of  conquest. 

The  Roman  advance  in  Britain  now  ceased  for  a  season.  The" 
government,  in   accordance  with    a  policy,  deliberately   adopted, 

sought  henceforth  not  to  make  new  conquests,  but  to 
medcJauHve    s®^"^®  ^^®   ^^^^   practicable    military   frontier.     The 

northern  Gaels  kept  up  their  old  active  hostility,  and 
again  and  again  swept  into  the  Lowlands;  the  Brigantes,  who  dwelt 
south  of  the  Tyne,  also  gave  the  unfortunate  Ninth  Legion  which 
was  stationed  at  York,  much  hard  work;  yet  Home  persisted  in 
her  defensive  policy.  Hadrian,  who  was  a  thrifty,  business-like 
emperor,  decided  that  the  conquests  of  Agricola  north  of  the  Tyne 
were  not  worth  the  trouble  which  it  cost  to  hold  them,  and  aban- 
doning all  this  region,  withdrew  south  of  the  Tyne  and  the  Sol  way; 

marking  the  new  frontier  by  a  permanent  fortification, 
Ant4jnlnu»,     the  remains  of  which  are  still  to  be  seen.*     Antoninus 

13S 

Pins,  who  succeeded  Hadrian  in  138,  however,  advanced 
again  to  the  old  frontier,  connected  the  Clyde  and  the  Forth  with  a 
second  line  of  fortifications,  and  made  the  intervening  country  once 
more  Roman  territory.    This  practically  ended  the  Roman  advance. 

One  hundred  and  twenty-four  years  after  the  battle  of 
sevent^Tn  Mous  Graupius,  Scptimius  Severus  once  more  took  up 
Br^mn,         ^hc   aggrcssivo   policy   of    Agricola,    and   made   a  last 

attempt  to  complete  the  conquest  of  the  island.     But 

^  For  description  of  the  famous  walls  of  Hadrian  and  his  successors, 
see  Mommsen,  The  Provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire  I,  pp.  200-205;  and 
Ramsay,  Foundations  of  England  I,  pp.  75-79. 


12  EARLY    BRITAIN 

he  died  before  he  had  hardly  begun  his  work.  His  successors  were 
too  deeply  occupied  at  home  with  military  mutinies  and  barbaric 
inroads,  to  burden  themselves  with  the  old  quarrel  with  the  High- 
land Gaels. 

After  the  death  of  Septimius  Severus,  Eoman  historians  have 
little  to  say  of  Britain  for  nearly  a  hundred  years ;  a  fact  which  may 
be  taken  to  indicate  that  the  history  of  the  country  was  unevent- 
ful, and  hence  peaceful.  Agricola  had  begun  to  train  the  British 
chieftains  in  the  use  of  Latin.  He  had  also  introduced  the  luxuries 
of  the  bath  and  the  banquet.  He  gave  liberally  for  the  erection  of 
temples  and  courthouses,  and  introduced  more  durable 
cimiization     dwellings  to  take  the  place  of  the  huts  of  clay  and  thatch. 

in  Britain.  .  «     -n  <.    n       t^  ,  ,      .-a 

Numerous  remains  of  villas  of  the  Roman  type  testify 
to  the  extent  to  which  the  Britons  profited  by  these  lessons.  Some 
of  these  villas  must  have  been  of  considerable  magnificence  for  private 
dwellings.  Agriculture  remained  the  common  flourishing  industry 
of  the  island;  in  the  time  of  Probus,  Britain  sent  large  shipments 
of  grain  to  Italy.  Additions  were  also  made  to  the  flora  and  fauna 
of  the  island;  the  chestnut  and  the  walnut,  the  elm  and  the  poplar, 
the  rabbit  and  the  fallow  deer,  are  supposed  to  date  from  this  era. 
Bede  mentions  mines  of  lead,  iron,  and  coal;  and  in  more  recent 
times  numerous  discoveries  of  Eoman  pig  iron  testify  to  the  actual 
output  of  these  mines.  Little,  however,  is  known  of  other  forms 
of  native  industry.  The  Eomans  also  brought  in  many  customs 
connected  with  the  occupation  of  the  soil,  which  scholars,  in  some 
quarters  at  least,  are  beginning  to  think  survived  the  later  Teutonic 
migration,  and  possibly  formed  no  inconsiderable  element  in  pre- 
paring the  foundation  of  the  later  medieval  social  system  in 
Britain,  as  well  as  in  other  parts  of  the  west.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten, however,  that  the  Eoman  occupation  of  Britain  was 
primarily   a   military   occupation.     A   military   purpose   dictated 

the  laying  down  of  the  famous  roads  and  the  planting 
Natureof  ^^  Eoman  colonies.  There  is  no  evidence,  moreover, 
OcJupatimi.     ^^^^  there  ever  existed  in  Britain  any  such  municipal 

life  as  existed  in  Gaul  or  Spain ;  or  that  beyond  the 
four  colonies,  Camulodunum  (Colchester),  Glevum  (Gloucester), 
Eboracum  (York),  and  Lindum  (Lincoln),  any  other  cities  received 


800]  PLANTING    OF   CHRISTIANITY  13 

the  municipal  franchise.  The  towns  which  the  Romans  occupied, 
were  really  great  camps  or  forts,  and  remained  so  down  to  the 
coming  of  the  Teutons.  The  upper  classes  of  the  Britons, 
who  were  brought  into  direct  contact  with  the  Roman  officials, 
spoke  Latin,  adopted  Latin  names,  and  aped  Italian  manners;  but 
outside  of  the  Roman  camp  cities,  and  beyond  the  line  of  the 
Roman  roads,  the  people  remained  still  Celtic,  Latin  a  foreign 
tongue,  and  the  Roman  a  stranger. 

First  and  last,  therefore,  the  relations  of  the  Romans  to  Britain 
were  like  those  of  the  English  to  India — essentially  a  military 

occupation  of  a  foreign  country  inhabited  by  a  subject 
Roman  population — and   with  similar   results.      No   new  and 

powerful  nationality  rose  from  the  wreck  of  the  old 
independent  British  states.  Instead,  even  *Hhe  remembrance  of 
past  independence"  faded  away;  the  sense  of  nationality  disap- 
peared; individuality  was  destroyed;  all  capacity  for  self-help  was 
stifled  in  the  languor  and  hopeless  apathy,  generated  by  a  system 
of  paternalism,  which  insisted  upon  doing  everything  for  its 
dependents,  and  sternly  frowned  down  every  effort  at  self-help. 
Even  at  its  best,  the  Roman  system  of  government  was  burdensome 
and  oppressive.  In  Britain  it  was  never  at  its  best.  Though  the 
better  emperors  checked  the  plundering  instincts  of  their  subordi- 
nates, the  government  itself  was  always  the  most  gi-ievous  plun- 
derer, from  whose  exactions  there  was  no  redress.  It  was  always 
needy,  and  even  when  it  meant  well,  seemed  never  able  to  stay  its 
hand. 

One  ray  of  light  there  is,  however,  which  comes  to  us  out  of 
the  deep  gloom  of  these  centuries  of  Roman  military  rule  in  Britain. 

It  comes,  however,  not  from  Rome  or  Roman  institu- 
ingof  tions,  but  from  the  despised  and  forbidden  religion  of 

the  Christian.  The  time,  and  even  the  traditions,  of 
the  early  conquests  of  Christianity  in  this  Land's  End  of  the 
ancient  world,  have  been  forgotten ;  evidence  positive  that,  as  in 
the  time  of  the  apostles,  the  consolations  of  the  Gospel  here  also 
came  first  to  the  htimble  poor.  The  progress  of  Christianity,  how- 
ever, when  once  planted  in  Britain,  must  have  been  very  rapid. 
When  Tertullian  wrote  in  the  early  third  century,  he  could  claim 


14  EARLY    BRITAIN 

the  Britons  as  a  Christian  people.  In  the  year  314  the  British 
church  was  recognized  as  a  part  of  the  great  western  brotherhood 
of  churches,  and  was  represented  by  three  of  her  bishops  at  the 
Council  of  Aries. 

If  we  know  little  of  the  founding  of  British  Christianity,  we 
know  hardly  more  of  the  British  church.  In  the  year  359  its 
bishops  were  conspicuous  for  their  poverty  among  the  prosperous 

ecclesiastics  who  gathered  at  the  Council  of  Rimini, 
CMi^h^^^    and   were  compelled  to  accept  alms  at  the  hand  of  the 

emperor.  With  their  poverty,  the  British  churches 
seem  also  to  have  united  a  sturdy  orthodoxy,  and  through  all  the 
controversies  which  distracted  the  wealthy  eastern  churches  of  this 
period,  adhered  loyally  to  the  teachings  of  Athanasius. 

Three  noted  names  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  British 
church — -Pelagius,  Ninian,  and  Patricius,  the  last,  better  known 

as  St.  Patrick.  But  valuable  as  these  lives  are  in 
names^^^  giving  US  types  of  British  Christianity,  they  reveal  little 
mm-cii^^      of  the  British  church  itself.    Pelagius,  the  arch  heretic, 

lived  and  wrote  in  Italy  and  Palestine;  Ninian  and 
Patrick  toiled  among  the  Gaels  of  the  north  and  west — the  pioneer 
missionaries  of  Scotland  and  Ireland. 

Of  the  political  history  of  Britain,  something  more  is  known. 
When  Diocletian  and  Constantino  reorganized  the  empire,  Britain 

was  constituted  one  of  the  six  dioceses  of  the  great 
izatwnof       Western  Praefecture,  and  placed  under  its  own  vicar, 

Britain  as  .  „  .  ,       i  «  ^x     i 

a  part  of        or  vice  prefect,  with  the  seat  of  government  at  York. 

the  empire. 

The  region  south  of  Hadrian's  Wall  was  further  sub- 
divided into  four  provinces,  the  exact  boundaries  of  which  are  not 
known.  In  general,  however,  these  provinces  lay  as  follows :  Britan- 
nia Prima,  south  of  the  Thames;  Britannia  Secuyida,  west  of 
the  Severn ;  Flavia  Caesarie?isis,  between  the  Thames  and  the  Hum- 
ber;  Sind  Maxi7na  Caesariensis,  between  the  Humber  and  Hadrian's 
Wall.  Later,  the  region  within  the  walls  was  known  as  Valentia, 
and  is  sometimes,  although  improperly,  designated  as  a  province. 
Each  province  was  governed  by  a  praeses^  er  president,  whose 
functions  were  entirely  civil,  and  distinct  from  those  of  the  three 
great  military  officials  who  directed  the  defense  of  the  island.     Of 


EARLY    BARBARIAN   INVADERS  15 

these  latter  the  Count  of  the  Saxon  shore  commanded  the  army 
which  guarded  the  eastern  coast   from  the  Wash  to  the  Isle  of 

Wight,  cantoned  in  nine  permanent  coast  camps.  Some- 
(Meiaiiiin       times  the  littoral  Count  was  assisted  also  by  a  fleet  of 

considerable  strength.  The  famous  Carausius  was 
one  of  tliese  counts,  who  by  the  support  of  his  fleet  was  able  to 
throw  off  his  allegiance  to  the  emperor  and  establish  himself  in 
CaravMvM  I^^itain  as  a  sort  of  pirate  emperor,  where  he  maintained 
287-2i>4.  ijjg  sway  for  nearly  eight  years.    His  career  is  important 

as  the  first  hint  of  the  possibilities  of  Britain  as  a  base  for  a  great 
naval  power.  The  Duke  of  the  two  Britains  commanded  the  legions 
stationed  at  Caerleon,  Chester,  and  York.  A  third  officer  was 
the  Count  of  Britain^  who  seems  to  have  been  commander-in- 
chief. 

The  disposition  of  tliese  forces  was  dictated  by  new  dangers 
which   began   to   threaten   the    existence    of    Roman    Britain  as 

early  as  the  third  century.  Bands  of  wild  Scots,  Gaels 
liarharic       who  then  dwelt  on  the  east  coast  of  Ireland,  crossed 

the  Irish  Sea,  and  uniting  with  other  hordes  of  Gaels 
from  the  Highlands,  the  old  Caledonians,  descended  upon  the 
lands  between  the  Clyde  and  the  Severn,  and  after  burning  and 
The  Scots  ravaging  the  country,  retired  again  with  troops  of 
ajidPictK.  captives  and  herds  of  cattle.  A  still  greater  danger 
threatened  the  Koman  Britons  in  the  southeast.  The  successes 
of  Probus  had  cut  off  the  Franks  and  other  neighboring  con- 
federations from  their  long-accustomed  predatory  raids  by  land. 
The  sea,  however,  still  lay  open,  and  along  this  ''swan  road  of 
the  water"  small   piratical  fleets  soon  began   to  find  their  way 

westward   and   descend   upon    the    shores   of    Britain. 

The  Saxons,  whose  terrible  name  appears  first  upon 
Roman  annals  about  the  year  160,  were  the  most  troublesome  of 
these  marauders.  In  the  third  century  they  had  extended  over  all 
the  region  between  the  lower  Elbe  and  the  land  of  the  Franks,  and 
began  seriously  to  menace  the  coasts  of  Britain  and  northern 
Gaul. 

During  the  long-continued  helplessness  of  the  period  of  the 
Barrack  emperors,  Britain  suffered   much  from  the  robbers  who 


16  EARLY   BRITAIN" 

thus  swept  down  upon  her  from  the  northern  mountains  and  the  two 
seas.     Carausius  met  the  pirates  on  their  own  element,  and  daring 
f  iiof      ^^^  eight  years'  reign  once  more  gave  the  land  peace. 
Roman  The  cmpcrors  of  the  House  of  Constantino  continued 

^ntain.  }^{q  work,  and  for  fifty  years  preserved  the  tranquillity 
of  the  country.  But  after  this  family  of  princes  had  passed  away, 
with  barbaric  hordes  marching  and  countermarching  the  plains  of 
Moesia  and  Gaul  and  Italy,  with  revolting  generals  sup- 
ported by  mutinous  legions  hatching  into  rival  emperors, 
the  legitimate  emperors  were  no  longer  able  to  give  thought  to  a 
remote  outlying  province  like  Britain.  If  an  emperor  honestly  sought 
to  protect  his  distant  subjects,  and  sent  out  from  his  scanty  legions 
at  home  a  military  force  sufficient  to  help  them,  the  chances  were  that 
the  soldiers,  taking  advantage  of  their  remoteness  from  the  capital, 
would  make  an  emperor  of  some  favorite  officer  or  provincial  gover- 
nor, and  force  him  to  lead  them  back  again,  in  order  to  tilt  with  the 
already  distracted  occupant  of  the  throne.  Emperor-making  was  far 
more  profitable  than  fighting  barbarians  on  the  lonely  heaths  of  the 
north.  Between  the  years  383  and  407  this  very  thing  happened 
twice ;  when  the  entire  British  garrison  crossed  the  Channel,  and  with 
their  mushroom  emperor  plunged  into  the  confusion  of  strife  and 
intrigue  which  marked  the  collapse  of  Eoman  authority  in  Gaul. 
The  Picts  and  Scots  and  Saxons  were  also  quick  to  take  advantage 
of  the  defenseless  condition  of  the  Provincials,  and  from  all  sides 
began  to  pour  into  the  country.  A  wild  panic  seized  the  people; 
all  who  could,  the  most  of  the  Eoman  population  and  the  wealthier 
class  of  the  Britons,  left  the  island  and  withdrew  to  the  continent. 
The  tillers  of  the  soil,  the  slave  and  the  serf,  the  poor,  the  artisans 
and  mechanics  only  were  left.  All  the  conservative  elements  of 
society,  the  so-called  "respectable  elements,"  the  men  who  made 
the  laws  and  supported  the  courts,  were  gone.  Civil  authority  dis- 
appeared ;  the  country  rapidly  reverted  to  barbarism  and  anarchy. 
A  crop  of  guerrilla  kings,  the  representatives  of  violence  and  dis- 
order, sprang  up  in  the  place  of  the  lapsed  civil  order,  plun- 
dering the  people  and  warring  upon  each  other  whenever  the 
barbarians  afforded  them  a  respite.  The  wail  of  the  British 
provincials  reached  the  ears  of  the  feeble  Honorius  behind  the 


4141  ^^^   ^^   ROMAN    POWER 


17 


lagoons  of  Ravenna.  But  he  had  no  more  troops  to  send,  and  bade 
the  Britons  take  care  of  themselves.  Once  again,  when  thirty  years 
later  the  fame  of  the  mighty  Aetius  reached  the  island,  a  second 
cry  for  help  was  sent  out  from  this  ** Algiers  of  the  ancient  empire." 
'The  barbarians  drive  us  back  into  the  sea,'  the  people  moaned; 
Hhe  sea  drives  us  back  upon  the  barbarians.  We  must  die  by  the 
sword  or  drown;  we  have  none  to  help  us.'  And  so  Britain  drifted 
away  from  the  nerveless  hand  that  could  no  longer  retain  its  grasp, 
and  disappeared  in  the  deep  night  of  the  fifth  century. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   TEUTONIC    SETTLEMENT    OF    BRITAIN" 

The  first   chapter   of    British   history  ends  in  the   wild  con- 
fusion which  followed   the  departure  of   the  Roman  legionaries. 

Of  the  next  two  centuries,  known  as  the  era  of  the 
CTmngesin  Anglo-Saxon  conquest,  few  records  have  survived  to 
mwitJi^  ^^  furnish  a  basis  for  the  compilation  of  an  authentic 
the  Romans,    history.     Yet  violent  and  far-reaching  changes  are  in 

progress,  and  when  the  curtain  rises  upon  the  second 
act  of  the  drama  the  old  stage  setting  has  been  entirely  changed. 
Where  were  populous  cities,  or  swelling  grain  fields,  are  now  only 
dreary  wastes  of  marsh  and  fen,  or  solemn  forests  of  beech  and 
oak.  A  new  people  of  strange  tongue,  and  uncouth  manners,  living 
the  simple  life  of  the  wilderness,  hunt  along  grass-grown  Roman 
roads,  or  camp  among  the  silent  ruins  of  villa  or  temple.  There 
are  Britons  still  to  be  found  in  the  western  part  of  the  island,  who 
speak  the  Celtic  tongue  and  live  under  the  strange  old  Celtic  laws, 
but  the  Roman  Britons,  with  all  that  Rome  had  given  them,  have 
disappeared. 

The  new-comers  were  the  so-called  Anglo-Saxons,  the  ancestors  of 
the  present  English  people.     They  were  Germans,  of  pure  Teutonic 

stock,  and  represented  the  second  great  wave  of  Aryan 
E^amum^  population  to  break  over  western  Europe.  When  Py theas 
Eurtme^^^  entered  the  northern  seas  this  second  group  of  Aryan 

peoples  had  reached  the  Elbe  and  behind  it  were  holding 
the  entire  southern  Baltic  basin ;  but  wken  Caesar  began  his  career 
in  Gaul,  two  hundred  and  seventy  years  later,  they  had  long  since 
passed  the  Elbe,  and  were  crowding  upon  the  Celtic  populations  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Rhine.  The  interposition  of  Rome  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Rhine  as  the  eastern  boundary  of  her  trans- 
alpine empire,  at  once  checked  the  Germanic  advance,  but  the 
crowding  of  populations  upon  the  Rhine  frontier  did  not  cease, 

18 


450]  EARLIEST   SETTLEMENTS   OF    GERMANS    IN    BRITAIN  19 

and  when  at  last,  after  five  hundred  years,  the  decline  of  Roman 
civilization  made  it  impossible  longer  to  hold  the  outer  defenses 
of  tlie  empire,  Teutonic  hordes  began  again  to  stream  across  the 
boundary  river  and  within  a  generation  had  overwhelmed  all  west- 
ern Europe,  permanently  establishing  themselves  among  the  ruins 
of  the  great  cities  of  the  west  and  south. 

The  Teutons  who  settled  in  Britain  belonged  to  a  group  of 
tribes  who  had  long  occupied  lands  on  the  lower  Elbe  and  along 

the  Danish  peninsula.  Of  these  the  Angles  were  known 
Mention  of  ^^  Tacitus ;  and  although  the  Saxons  do  not  appear 
sSfw.^"'*     by  name  until  later,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  they  were 

represented  among  the  peoples  who  figured  in  the 
ancient  war  of  liberation  when  the  Germans  who  dwelt  between 
the  Khine  and  the  Elbe  rose  against  the  generals  of  Augustus, 
and  threw  off  the  Roman  yoke.  Just  when  the  Germans  of 
the  lower  Elbe  began  to  form  permanent  settlements  in  Brit- 
ain is   not  known;    but   the  time   apparently   was  much   earlier 

than   that    assigned    by   the    traditional    accounts    of 

First  perma-  mi 

nent settle-      the    conqucst.     The   eastern   coasts  of   lower   Britain 

ment  of  the  «.        -i  ^  ,     . 

Saxons.  offered  an  easy  approach  to  their  shallow  barks,  and 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  even  before  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Romans  they  had  made  a  permanent  lodgment  upon  the  coast 
of  modern  Essex,  the  ** Saxon  Shore."  New  arrivals  continued  to 
swell  the  ranks  of  the  first  comers,  and  with  the  increasing  feeble- 
ness of  the  defense  steadily  pushed  their  way  westward,  taking  up 
land  as  they  needed  it,  until  at  last  they  reached  the  neighborhood 
of  London. 

Soon  after  the  settlement  of  the  *' Saxon  Shore,"  other  bands 
also  succeeded  in  making  a  lodgment  on  the  southern  shore  of  the 
_    ^  ,         Thames   mouth.     According  to  later  traditions  these 

The  Jutes 

TJ^^.        .     people  belonged  to  the  Jutes,  a  tribe  dwelling  on  the 

Cnntwarain    V,      .  ,  . 

Kent  Danish  peninsula,  and  came  under  two  war  chiefs  or 

ealdormen,  Hengist  and  Horsa,  who  had  been  invited 
by  the  Britons  to  assist  them  against  their  old  hereditary  foes  the 
Picts.  These  Jutes  proved  to  be  very  troublesome  allies,  and,  like 
their  kindred  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Thames,  proceeded  to  take 
land  as  they  needed  it,  pushing  south  and  west,  forcing  the  south- 


20  THE    TEUTONIC    SETTLEMENT    OP    BRITAIN 

em  Britons  back  upon  London,  and  finally  taking  possession  of  the 
entire  peninsula  of  the  ancient  Cantii.  The  name  of  the  dispos- 
sessed Britons  reappeared  in  the  Cantwara^  or  men  of  Kent ;  but 

the  old  Durovernum  gave  way  to  Cantwarahyrig  (Can- 
waraandthe  terbury).  Other  tribes  of  Jutes,  represented  in  the 
Wight  and     later    WHitioara  and  Meanwara,  continued   along  the 

southern  coast  until  they  came  to  the  sheltered  waters 
about  Portsmouth,  where  they  took  possession  of  the  Isle  of  Wight 
and  the  mainland  opposite,  and  extended  their  conquests  over  a 
large  part  of  the  modern  county  of  Hampshire.  The  Saxons  also 
seem  to  have  found  their  way  into  the  Channel  at  an  early  date, 
and,  pushing  into  the  rivers  and  estuaries  which  were  at  that  time 
more  numerous  on  these  coasts  than  now,  began  a  series  of  settle- 
ments south  of  the  great  forest  of  Anderida,  and  probably 
extended  even  west  of  the  Wihtwara. 

The   Britons   of    the   south   did   not   surrender   their   homes 
graciously  to  these  strangers.     There  are  grim  traditions  of  attacks 

and  counter  attacks,  of  fierce  battles,  of  whole  cities 

TflB  ilTSt 

perindof        massacrcd  in  the  fury  of  storm,  of  a  wave  of  fire  which 
surged  across  the  island  from  sea  to  sea,  nor  ceased 
its  fury  until  it  had  bathed  its  flames  in  the  western  ocean ;  then 
followed  a  long  period  of  truce,  when  the  Germans  retired  to  the 
coast  again  and  rested  on  their  arms,  while  the  Britons  wasted 
their  strength  and  their  resources  in  riotous  living  and  civil  brawls. 
With  the  opening  of  the  new  century^  the  activities  of  the 
Saxons  began  anew.     Passing  up  the  left  bank  of  the  Thames  they 
overran  the  regions  occupied  by  the  modern  counties  of 
the  middle      Middlesex  and  Hertfordshire;   then  passing  the  Chil- 
terns  they  added  the  modern  Buckinghamshire,  Oxford- 
shire,   and    Northamptonshire,    and   turning   south    crossed   the 
Thames  and  began  the  conquest  of  Berkshire.     This  region  west 
of  the  Chilterns,  the  middle  Thames  country,  was  the  original  land 
of  the  West  Saxons,  the  ''geographical  complement"  of  the  lands 
east  of  the  Chilterns,  which  now  by  contrast  began  to  be  known 
as  the  land  of  the  East  Saxons.^ 

^  See  English  Historical  Review,  Oct.  1898,  p.  671.     Art.  by  Henry  H. 
Haworth,  and  also  the  reply  by  W.  H.  Stevenson  in  Review  of  Jan.  1899. 


ANGLES   IN   THE   NORTH  21 

When  the  Saxons  began  the  conquest  of  the  broad  lowlands 
which  to-day  stretch  away  from  the  suburbs  of  London  to  the 
southwest,  the  modern  Surrey,  the  ''South  Kingdom,"  is  not 
known,  but  it  is  fair  to  suppose  that  this  region,  at  least  the  parts 
north  of  the  forest  of  Anderida,  was  conquered  not  by  the  Saxons 
who  had  settled  on  the  southern  coast,  but  by  the  bands  who  had 
overrun  the  adjacent  country  across  the  Thames.  Possibly  the 
conquest  belongs  to  the  later  era  when  West  Saxon  and  Cantwara 
met  in  deadly  struggle  for  supremacy  south  of  the  Thames. 

The  beginnings  of  the  Anglian  settlements  are  as  obscure  as  those 
of  the  Saxons.  The  Angles  do  not  seem  to  have  been  very  active 
until  the  sixth  century,  when  coasting  along  the  shores 
in  the  east  of  the  aiicicnt  Frisia  in  the  track  of  the  Saxons,  and  pass- 
ing by  the  Thames  month  their  fleets  first  found  shelter 
among  the  islands  and  estuaries  on  the  coast  of  East  Anglia, 
where  two  distinct  settlements  may  be  traced  in  the  familiar 
Northfolk  and  Sonthfolk.  The  wild  Fen  country  and  the  deep 
indentations  of  the  Wash,  however,  afforded  no  such  easy  egress 
to  the  west  as  had  invited  the  Saxons  to  the  conquest  of  the 
Thames  basin.  Later  comers,  therefore,  according  to  tradition 
coming  in  overwhelming  numbers,  and  including  first  and  last 
a  great  part  of  the  nation  of  the  Angles,*  passed  on  up  the  coast 
until  they  reached  the  broad  mouth  of  the  Ilumber.  At  this  time 
the  northern  provinces  of  Roman  Britain  must  have  been  in  some 
such  condition  as  northern  Italy  on  the  eve  of  the  Lombard  migra- 
tion. A  century  of  Pictish  inroads,  followed  by  years  of  famine 
and  pestilence,  had  left  the  land  depopulated  and  desolate.*  No 
echoes  of  any  great  battles,  no  traditions  of  long  and  bitter  strife, 
such  as  linger  about  the  Saxon  advance  in  the  south,  have  ever 
reached  us  from  this  northern  conquest.     If  any  of  the  original 

^  A  part  of  the  Angles  were  left  behind  to  be  finally  merged  in  the 
Thuringians. 

2  An  ofiicial  report  of  the  Mayor  of  Santa  Clara  County  in  Cuba  showed 
that  in  only  three  years,  1896,  1897,  1898,  80  per  cent  of  the  population  had 
perished.  Conceive  this  state  of  affairs  lasting  for  a  hundred  years,  and 
we  have  some  idea  of  the  condition  of  the  northern  part  of  the  Roman 
provinces  of  Britain  when  the  Angles  came.  And  we  may  also  under- 
stand why  there  was  so  little  show  of  resistance. 


22  THE   TEUTONIC    SETTLEMENT   OF   BRITAIN 

population  had  survived  the  earlier  Pictish  inroads,  they  were  too 
feeble  to  resist  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the  new  invaders. 
Two  tribes,  later  known  as  Deirans  and  Bernicians,  turned  north 
and  took  possession  of  the  lands  between  the  Humber  and  the 
Firth  of  Forth.  Other  tribes  turned  south,  and  advancing  along 
the  basin  of  the  Trent  soon  appeared  far  down  in  mid-Britain, 
leaving  to  the  east,  between  the  lower  Trent  and  the  Wash, 
the  modern  Lincolnshire,  the  Gainas  and  the  Lindiswara.  Still 
farther  to  the  southeast,  the  Girwas  found  their  way  into  the  Fen 
country,  while  other  Anglian  communities  took  up  their  station 
about  the  later  Leicester,  where  they  appear  as  Middle  Angles; 
others  still,  the  South  Angles,  appeared  among  the  hills  of  North- 
ampton, where  they  began  to  encroach  upon  the  earlier  settlements 
of  the  West  Saxons.  Other  tribes  worked  their  way  out  of  the 
Trent  basin  to  the  west,  where  they  appear  as  North  Angles  and 
West  Angles. 

It  is  perhaps  to  the  era  when  the  Angles  were  pushing  rapidly 
to  the  south  that  we  are  to  ascribe  the  advance  of  the  West  Saxons 
into  the  Severn  country.     Apparently  they  could  not ' 
ofthe  hold  their  own  against  the  increasing  pressure  of  the 

rVcst  Saxons,  ^ 

Angles  upon  their  northern  borders,  and  began  to  seek  a 
new  extension  of  territory  to  the  west  and  south,  overrunning  the 
later  Wiltshire,  Dorsetshire,  and  eastern  Somersetshire.  It  is 
probable  also  that  at  this  time,  or  soon  after,  there  occurred  the 
direct  southward  advance  of  the  West  Saxons,  crossing  the  lower 
Thames,  expelling  the  Jutes  of  Kent  from  Surrey  and  Sussex,  and 
conquering  the  kindred  Meanwara  of  Hampshire,  and  the  Wihtwara 
of  Wight. 

This  last  movement  is  associated  by  tradition  with  the  name  of 
Ceawlin,  the  first  really  authentic  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  and 
it  is  not  improbable  that  the  great  part  of  these  later 
ZTfJo^'  conquests  were  carried  on  by  him  or  his  immediate  pred- 
ecessors. It  is  also  not  unlikely  that  out  of  the  mili- 
tary need  of  the  hour  there  arose  the  first  great  confederation  of 
Teutonic  tribes  in  Britain.  At  one  time  Ceawlin  appears  at  war 
with  the  young  king  Ethelbert  of  Kent,  when  he  drives  in  the 
western  outposts  of  the  Cantwara  in  Surrey  and  Sussex.     Again 


577-603]  ETHELFRID       THE   DEVASTATOR  23 

he  appears  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  overthrowing  the  Wihtwara,  pur- 
suing their  kings  through  the  country  of  the  Meanwara,  and  adding 
their  hinds  to  his  dominions;  probably  forcing  the  Jutes  of  Wight 
and  Hampshire  to  join  the  West  Saxon  confederation.  Again,  he 
appears  in  the  valley  of  the  Severn,  hunting  the  Britons  out  of  the 
country,  and  in  577  winning  the  decisive  victory  of  Deorham.  The 
old  cities  of  Bath,  Gloucester,  and  Cirencester  fell  to  the  spoil  of 
war,  and  their  blackened  ruins  lay  for  centuries  to  tell  of  the 
furious  valor  of  Ceawlin.  The  victory  of  Deorham  gave  the  West 
Saxons  the  valley  of  the  Severn,  where  the  Hwiccas  at  once  took 
possession  and  extended  their  settlements  over  Gloucestershire  and 
Worcestershire. 

While  the  West  Saxons  were  thus  drawing  together  under  the 
inspiration  of  Ceawlin's  leadership  and  preparing  for  the  great 
TheNfn-th-  ^^^^  which  they  were  to  play  in  the  future  history  of 
rwifeSra-  ^^®  island,  the  Angles  north  of  the  Humber,  possibly 
ti<m.  under  the  pressure  of  the  Scots  upon  their  western  bor- 

der, were  also  learning  to  combine  their  strength  for  offensive  and 
defensive  war.  These  Scots  were  representatives  of  the  old  Irish 
Goidels,  who  some  time  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  centuiy  had  begun 
to  cross  in  greater  numbers  to  the  opposite  coasts  of  Argyle  and 

Strathclyde,  and  had  swarmed  over  the  western  High- 
strafiwiyde    ^'"^^s,  subduing  the  old  Picts,  probably  merging  with 

them  and  forming  the  basis  of  the  later  Highland  popu- 
lation. They  were  no  match,  however,  for  the  warlike  lords  of 
the  lowlands.  A  generation  after  Ceawlin  had  united  the  West 
Saxon  tribes  of  southern  Britain,  the  Scot  king  Aidan  led  an  army 
of  Scots  and  Picts  and  Britons  down  into  the  lands  of  the  Berni- 
cians.  The  recently  confederated  Berniciaus  and  Deirans  advanced 
to  meet  them  under  their  king,  Ethelfrid.     The  battle  was  joined 

at  Dawstone  near  Carlisle.  The  Scots  and  their  allies 
DnwsUyne,       ^^q^q  routed,  and  so  great  was  the  slaughter  that  for 

more  than  a  century  the  memory  of  the  terrible  ven- 
geance of  Ethelfrid  **The  Devastator"  was  enough  to  deter  the 
Scots  from  any  further  attempts  upon  the  lands  of  the  Bernicians. 
Ten  years  later  Ethelfrid  won  a  second  victory  over  the  western 
Britons  under  the  walls  of  Chester.     The  city  was  taken  and  sacked, 


24  THE   TEUTONIC    SETTLEMENT   OF   BRITAIN 

and  for  three  centuries  lay  in  mournful  ruins.  The  victory  of 
Chester  gave  the  Northumbrian  Angles  possession  of  all  the  lands 
between  Leeds  and  the  Irish  Sea. 

With  these  later  victories  of  Ceawlin  and  Ethelfrid  the  era  of 
the  Teutonic  conquest  and  settlement  of  Britain  ends.  The 
fertile  lands  of  the  old  Eoman  provinces  were  now 
End  of  era  of  securely  in  the  possession  of  the  invaders,  abundant  for 
andc(mquest.  all  needs  for  many  years  to  come.  West  Wales  or 
Cornwall,  North  Wales  or  Wales  proper,  and  Strath- 
clyde,  separated  from  all  land  communication  with  each  other, 
alone  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Celts.  The  Teutons  had 
already  begun  to  call  them  JVelsh,  or  Strangers,^  and  under  this 
name  the  remnant  of  the  once  great  people  pass  into  modern  his- 
tory. The  memory  of  their  last  brave  stand  in  defense  of  the 
inheritance  of  their  fathers,  when  for  once,  but  too  late,  they 
dropped  their  quarrels  and  united  for  the  common  defense,  long 
lingered  in  the  name  of  Kymry  or  Allies. 

Thus,  by  the  close  of  the  sixth  century,  the  Teutons  had  estab- 
lished themselves  in  Britain.  It  had  taken  them,  however,  two 
hundred  years  to  accomplish  what  Roman  legionaries 
oMhe^^^^  had  accomplished  in  four  years.  This  was  due  not  to 
advance  ^^^  stubborn  resistance  of  the  Britons,  for  the  Britons 
had  long  since  ceased  to  be  capable  of  resistance,  bat 
wholly  to  the  method  of  the  Teutonic  advance.  The  Germans  had 
settled  in  Britain  as  they  had  settled  on  the  Rhine  when  Caesar 
knew  them,  not  under  any  common  king,  or  in  one  compact  horde, 
but  in  detached  tribes  or  kindreds;  each  kindred  or  maegtli^^  mov- 
ing out  for  itself,  as  it  needed  more  room,  driving  the  skeleton 
British  population  on  before  it,  taking  what  lands  its  present  need 
demanded,  and  here  settling  as  a  kind  of  frontier  colony  and  giv- 
ing its  name  to  the  surrounding  region.  Each  colony  was  thus  an 
independent  state, — civitas,  as  Caesar  or  Tacitus  would  call  it;  liv- 
ing under  its  own  local  laws  and  under  the  government  of  its  own 
elective  chieftains,  or  ealdormen,  but  ready  to  unite  in  loose  con- 

^  See  Freeman  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  VIII,  p.  269,  for  use  of  this 
word  both  in  Britain  and  on  the  continent. 
2  Bede  uses  the  word  of  the  Mercian  tribes. 


METHOD    OF   THE    SETTLEMENT  25 

federation  with  neighboring  and  similar  communities,  whenever 
threatened  by  common  danger.  They  then  selected  some  chief- 
tain, renowned  in  war  or  in  council,  who  led  the  allied  hosts  to 
battle,  and  for  the  time  exercised  a  regal  authority.  The  West 
Saxon  Ceawlin  was  such  a  war  chief,  certainly  not  the  first,  but 
probably  the  first  to  unite  all  the  Saxon  tribes  west  of  the  Chilterns 
under  one  leadership.  It  is  significant,  however,  that  such  con- 
federations as  those  associated  with  the  name  of  Ceawlin  or  Ethel- 
frid  belong  to  the  later  period  of  the  conquest,  and  mark  its  final 
stages.  The  great  part  of  the  territory  was  first  abandoned  by 
the  Britons  and  then  seized  by  the  Teutons,  not  as  conquerors, 
but  as  simple  settlers;  not  as  a  whole,  but  a  fragment  at  a  time  as 
the  needs  of  a  new  generation  dictated. 

A  similar  instance  may  be  found  in  the  series  of  movements  by 
which  the  lands  along  the  upper  Rhine  and  the  Danube  were  finally 
detached  from  the  empire  and  became  German  territory.  Here, 
in  the  rich  valleys  which  now  belong  to  the  modern  Baden  and 
Wurtemberg,  the  old  Alamannia,  were  once  flourishing  settlements 
of  Roman  colonists  introduced  from  bjeyond  the  Rhine.  During 
the  third  century  there  was  frequent  and  severe  fighting  on  this 
frontier.  But  long  before  the  Germans  had  made  a  permanent 
lodgment  the  older  population  had  begun  to  recede.  For  a  long 
period  there  is  no  record  of  battles,  or  traditions  of  cities  stormed 
or  sacked ;  and  yet  the  recession  of  the  older  populations  steadily 
continued,  and  the  Teutonic  population  as  steadily  filled  in  behind 
them,  swarming  about  the  dwindling  cities  and  effectually  taking 
possession  of  the  land  clear  to  the  Rhine  and  the  Swiss  Lakes ;  and 
yet  so  gradually  withal,  that  no  historian  can  tell  just  when  this 
region  ceased  to  be  Roman,  or  began  to  be  wholly  German.  The 
Marcomannic  conquest  of  what  is  modern  Bavaria  is  still  more  to 
the  point.  Here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Angles  in  north  and  mid 
Britain,  the  invaders,  in  overwhelming  masses,  poured  into  a  coun- 
try already  depopulated  by  centuries  of  anarchy,  war,  famine,  and 
pestilence.  The  remnant  population  did  not  try  to  resist,  but 
retired  into  the  remote  Alpine  valleys,  or  shut  themselves  up  in 
their  few  remaining  cities,  where,  in  time,  by  a  steady  process  of 
infiltration,  the  survivors  of  the  old  population  disappeared  in  the 


26  THE   TEUTON^IC    SETTLEMENT   OF   BRITAIN 

new,  assimilating  to  them  in  language,  institutions,  and  physical 
appearance. 

So,  apparently,  Britain  also  was  won,  not  by  a  storm,  followed 
by  a  deluge,  as  when  the  Goth  swept  into  Italy,  or  the  Vandal 
swept  over  Gaul  and  Spain;  but  rather,  after  the  first  fiery 
eruption  into  the  Thames  basin,  described  by  Gildas,  by  a  steady 
recession  of  the  Celtic  population,  attended  by  a  corresponding 
advance  of  the  Germans.  The  new-comers  were  no  such  fiends 
incarnate  as  commonly  represented,  fired  only  by  a  wild  frenzy  for 
the  shedding  of  blood,  or  bent  only  upon  exterminating  the  original 
inhabitants ;  they  were  rather  a  race  of  herdsmen  and  farmers,  and 
as  long  as  they  were  not  attacked  themselves,  or  were  driven  by  no 
pressure  of  expanding  numbers  to  seek  new  lands,  were  for  bar- 
barians, in  the  main,  peaceably  inclined.  Hence  long  periods  appar- 
ently passed,  in  which  the  new-comers  remained  quietly  and 
peacefully  within  the  last  established  borders.  The  meager  Celtic 
population  beyond  these  borders,  without  protection  and  not  liking 
the  rough  ways  of  their  neighbors,  quietly  and  steadily  withdrew, 
leaving  an  ever-widening  belt  of  wilderness  between  them  and 
the  dreaded  strangers.  When  a  particular  Teutonic  settlement 
had  outgrown  its  territories,'  a  new  swarm  again  moved  out  into 
the  regions  beyond,  sometimes  driving  out  the  depleted  Britons 
altogether,  sometimes  allowing  them  to  remain  in  a  servile  relation, 
but  more  likely  finding  only  a  deserted  wilderness.  Then  the  same 
process  went  on  again,  the  Britons  steadily  withdrawing  as  the 
Teutons  advanced. 

Where  there  were  cities  the  stages  of  the  process,  perhaps,  were 
somewhat  different,  but  the  results  were  virtually  the  same.  Some- 
times the  inhabitants  stood  at  bay  behind  their  walls,  or  within  the 
lines  of  an  old  Koman  camp,  and  maintained  themselves  in  the 
midst  of  surrounding  Teutonic  tribes.  Sometimes,  possibly  in 
an  attempt  to  dislodge  the  new  settlers  from  the  neighborhood, 
they  drew  down  the  wrath  of  the  invaders,  and  in  a  short,  quick 
action  lost  everything;  the  pitiless  swords  of  the  enemy  exter- 
minating the  inhabitants  and  leaving  only  a  desolate  heath  to  mark 
the  spot  where  once  had  stood  a  British  town.  This  could  not 
have  been  the  general  experience,  however,  as  the  survival  of  so 


EARLY   ENGLISH   INSTITUTIONS  27 

many  Roman  town  names  at  the  end  of  this  era  indicates.  It  is 
more  likely  that  as  each  city  was  cut  off  from  all  support  from  the 
neighboring  country,  its  Celtic  population  dwindled,  or,  if  recruited 
at  all,  was  recruited  from  Teutonic  elements  which  rapidly  absorbed 
the  remnant  Celtic  stock.  It  is  to  be  remembered,  however,  that 
the  Germans  did  not  love  the  city,  and  much  preferred  the  open 
country;  hence  it  is  more  likely  that  if  a  city  survived,  it  was  only 
to  be  submitted  to  this  process  of  dwindling,  until  little  was  left 
save  the  name  and  a  pitiful  cluster  of  habitations  suitable  for  the 
needs  of  its  present  mongrel  population,  and  sufficient  to  mark  the 
ancient  site  and  preserve  the  ancient  name. 

In  the  north  the  advance  was  more  rapid  than  in  the  south,  but 
there  is  no  record  of  any  great  battles.     More  significant  still, 

during  the  whole  early  period,  there  is  no  trace  of  the 
admnce  formation  of  any  great  confederations  of  Teutonic 
Jj^^^  tribes,  such  as  we  might  expect,  had  the  Britons  ever 

been  able  to  exert  any  military  strength.  Instead,  we 
have  on  the  part  of  the  Germans  the  same  advance  in  detached 
bands,  each  band  taking  up  its  station  as  an  independent  colony, 
where  wood  or  watercourse  or  valley  attracted  them,  as  in  the  days 
of  Tacitus.  The  advance  was  more  rapid,  because  the  Angles  came 
in  far  greater  numbers  than  the  Saxons,  and  larger  areas  of  land 
were  needed  at  once.  But  there  is  no  record  of  any  concerted 
action  on  the  part  either  of  Celt  or  Teuton,  until  we  reach  the  time 
of  Ceawlin  and  Ethelfrid. 

Of  the  ancient  laws  and  institutions  of  the  Teutonic  tribes  who 
entered  Britain,  directly,  we  know  no   more  than  we  do  of   the 

events  of  the  so-called  conquest.  Nothing,  however,  has 
English         yet  been  advanced  to  show  that  they  differed  materially 

inatitutions.      \,  ,        .        .      '  .  .     ,       rr.  .         ..  , 

from  the  institutions  of  the  Teutonic  tribes  who  were 
known  to  Caesar  and  Tacitus.  Monogamy  was  the  rule:  woman- 
hood was  honored;  children  were  loved  and  cherished.  Each  tribe 
or  kindred  was  a  small  state  by  itself,  sufficient  to  all  the  needs  of 
local  government.  The  male  members  of  the  community,  the  free 
warriors,  were  both  citizens  and  soldiers.  They  met  under  arms 
in  an  assembly,  or  folkmote^  to  discuss  matters  of  general  impor- 
tance.     In  this  capacity  they  were  also    a  court  to  try  serious 


^S  '  THE   TEUTONIC    SETTLEMEISTT   OF   BRITAIIT 

offenses  against  the  customary  laws  of  the  tribe.  Here,  too,  the 
young  warrior  was  formally  initiated  by  appropriate  ceremonies 
into  the  company  of  free  citizens.  In  this  assembly  also  they 
elected  the  ealdormen,  the  principes  of  Tacitus,^  whose  duty  it 
was  to  make  regular  circuits  through  the  settlements,  appre- 
hending criminals  and  holding  courts  of  justice.  In  this  service 
they  were  attended  by  a  body  of  select  companions,  the  comitatus, 
who  assisted  in  capturing  and  trying  criminals  and  enforcing  the 
laws.  These  companions,  the  gesiths,  were  bound  by  special  oath 
to  support  their  chief  in  the  performance  of  his  duties.  They 
lived  at  his  table,  and  for  this  the  other  members  of  the  tribe 
brought  their  regular  gifts ;  thus  recognizing  the  public  nature  of 
the  service  of  the  ealdorman  and  his  companions  and  the  common 
obligation  of  supporting  them.  In  time  of  war  the  ealdorman 
with  his  following  of  gesiths  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  host.  The 
several  magistrates  together  formed  a  tribal  council,  the  germ 
of  the  later  national  ivitenagemot.  It  was  their  custom  to  come 
together  while  the  free  warriors  were  gathering  for  the  folkmote, 
as  a  sort  of  preliminary  council  to  prepare  the  business  which  was 
to  be  submitted  to  the  people.  Of  kings  in  the  later  sense,  the 
early  Germans  of  Britain  had  none,  though  the  germ  out  of  which 
the  king  subsequently  developed  is  to  be  found  in  the  common 
chieftain  elected  by  several  tribes  on  the  eve  of  a  general  war. 
His  powers,  however,  were  only  temporary,  and  when  the  war  was 
ended  his  authority  ceased,  and  the  confederating  tribes  again  fell 
apart,  each  pursuing  its  independent  life  as  before. 

Of  the  freemen  there  were  two  classes,  eorls  and  ceorls.     The 
eorl  was  a  noble,  but  his  nobility  seems  to  have  entitled  him  only 
to  a  precedence  in  rank.     His  life  also  was  protected  by 
of  the  a  higher  luergeld^  the  fine  or  indemnity  which  the  mur- 

derer or  his  family,  paid  to  the  family  of  his  victim. 
The  ceorl  was  the  simple  freeman,  whose  political  liberty  was 
attested  by  his  right  of  meeting  with  his  fellows  for  public  business 
with  arms  in  his  hands.  Chattel  slavery  as  it  existed  among  the 
Eomans  was  never  popular  among  the  Germans.     Servitude,  how- 

*  Stubbs,  Constitutional  History  of  England,  I,  p.  125. 


CLASSES  OF  THE  POPULATION"  29 

ever,  was  by  no  means  uncommon,  but  it  took  a  form  of  serfage, 
wherein  a  tenant  and  his  heirs  were  bound  to  perform  certain 
services  for  a  master  who  was  at  the  same  time  owner  of  the  soil. 
Tacitus  compares  the  position  of  the  German  slave  to  that  of  the 
Roman  colonus^  who  in  Tacitus'  day  was  really  a  free  tenant  whose 
home  was  protected  by  law,  and  whose  right  of  marriage  was  recog- 
nized. >We  have  no  way  of  knowing  what  the  relative  proportion 
of  the  unfree  was  to  the  free  until  the  time  of  the  Domesday 
Survey ;  but  then  the  organization  of  English  society  had  become 
very  complex  compared  with  that  of  the  primitive  Teutonic  tribes, 
and  the  servile  condition  itself  had  been  differentiated  into  a 
series  of  degrees,  or  gradations,  the  distinctions  of  which  are 
obscure.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  numbers  of  the  servile  popula- 
tion were  largely  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  the  conquered 
Britons.  Servitude  was  also  frequently  prescribed  by  the  courts  as 
a  penalty  for  crime.  It  may  be  that  in  the  more  thickly  populated 
parts  of  Britain,  the  south  and  west,  where  Teutonic  occupation 
was  more  after  the  nature  of  a  conquest,  that  the  new  population 
was  superimposed  upon  an  older  servile  population.  It  may  be  also 
that  the  members  of  this  servile  population  were  of  German  blood, 
and  represented  the  results  of  earlier  Roman  conquests  beyond  the 
Rhine  and  the  upper  Danube,  when  whole  nations  were  corralled 
and  deported  to  distant  parts  of  the  empire  and  settled  as  colo7ii 
or  tenant  farmers.  Thousands  of  these  unwilling  settlers  had 
been  introduced  into  Britain. 

The  civitas  or  tribal  state  was  subdivided  into  judicial  districts, 
which  seem  at  first  to  have  had  various  names  in  different  parts  of 

Teutonic  Britain.     For  simplicity  we  may  call  this  sub- 

*  division  the  hundred,  although  the  name,  thougli  known 

on  the  continent,  does  not  appear  in  the  laws  of  England  until  the 

time  of  Edffar.     Undoubted  traces  of    the  institution 

959-975- 

however,  are  to  be  found  as  early  as  the  time  of  Tacitus, 
and  it  may  be  taken  as  one  of  the  most  characteristic  features  of 
the  early  Teutonic  state.  Here  at  regular  intervals,  every  four 
weeks,  as  fixed  by  the  laws  of  Edgar,  the  freemen  of  the  district 
came  together  in  the  htmdredgemot,  constituting  a  court,  in  which 
civil  suits  were  tried,  or  quarrels  between  neighbors  were  adjusted. 


30  THE   TEUTONIC    SETTLEMENT    OF    BRITAIN 

Below  the  liuiiclred  was  the  town  or  tun.     The  town  consisted 
of  a  cluster  of  detached  dwellings,  each  with  its  court  or  door- 
yard,  stables,  and  outhouses.     The  adjacent  lands  also 

The  Tun  ^         '  '  >> 

belonged  to  the  town.  Here  the  freeman  possessed  a 
shifting  severalty  in  the  arable  land,  and  a  share  in  the  common 
use  of  meadow  and  woodland.  The  town  also  had  its  popular 
assembly  or  tungemot.  The  tungemot  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
a  civil  court  like  the  hundredgemot ;  its  functions  were  economic 
rather  than  judicial. 

When  the  period  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  codes  began,  private  owner- 
ship of  land  was  already  recognized ;  yet,  if  the  progress  of  Germanic 
institutions  on  the  continent   be  considered,    we   may 
ouymrsUp      believe  that  in  Britain  also  the  lands  of  each  settlement 

of  Land. 

were  at  first  held  by  the  freemen  in  common;  but  with 
the  increase  of  population  the  exclusive  right  of  individuals  to  par- 
ticular pieces  of  land  was  allowed.  The  first  form  of  tenure  how- 
ever was  ^YohQ\A  J  folk-land  or  land  held  by /o/^-ri^/^^,  distinguished 
later  from  hook-land  or  land  set  apart  by  special  charter  or  grant. 
The  charter,  however,  suggests  the  influence  of  the  priest,  nor  is  it 
unlikely  that  the  church  is  largely  responsible,  if  not  for  the  intro- 
duction, at  least  for  the  rapid  extension  of  privileged  ownership 
in  land  among  the  Teutons  of  Britain.  If  so,  this  is  only  one  of 
the  many  ways,  economic,  social,  and  political  in  which  Christianity 
affected  profoundly  the  life  of  the  new-comers. 

Before  the  priest  came,  they  were   a  simple  people,  knowing 
little  of  the  arts  of  civilized  life,  but  much  of  forest  craft ;  living 

under  their  curious  old  laws  of  custom,  yet  far  re- 
Cwsttr        moved  from  the  condition  of  the  mere  savage.     They 

had  their  traditions  and  war  songs;  but  knew  noth- 
ing of  letters.  They  had  also  their  conceptions  of  deity,  but 
worshiped  God  as  they  saw  him  revealed  in  the  wild  tumult  of 
the  storm,  or  the  wilder  tumult  of  their  own  rude  natures.  They 
knew  nothing  of  temples,  but  reared  their  altars  in  the  silence  of 
the  sacred  grove,  or  upon  some  lonely  hill  top.  Here  they  sought 
to  solve  the  mysteries  of  their  own  lives,  in  offerings,  sometimes  of 
human  victims,  more  often  of  the  animals  supposed  to  be  the 
favorites  of  their  special  deities.     These  deities  were  the  great 


CHARACTER   OF   THE   PEOPLE  31 

gods  Till,  Wotan  or  Odin,  and  Donar  or  Thor.  There  were  also  a 
multitude  of  lesser  deities.  The  practical  religion  of  the  people 
was  made  up  largely  of  beliefs  in  omens  of  good  luck  or  ill  luck ; 
in  elves  and  fairies;  *'cursing  stones"  and  "wishing  wells";  nor  is 
it  likely  that  'Hhe  common  villagers  ever  rose  to  any  sublimated 
theories  of  deity ;  or  were  ever  conscious  of  more  than  a  confused 
unthinking  worship  of  things  held  to  be  holy,  whether  beings  or 
places."  There  were  deities  for  river  and  grove  and  fountain,  for 
the  upper  air  and  the  world  of  the  dead,  for  the  forest  and  the 
grain  field,  for  the  field  of  battle  and  the  wedding  festival,  for  the 
home  and  the  hearth,  for  the  flock  and  the  sheepfold,  in  short, 
for  everything  that  touched  the  lives  of  the  people,  or  for  anything 
they  could  not  understand,  they  had  their  deity. 

They  loved  war  and  the  chase,  and  constantly  manifested  their 
contempt  for  a  life  which  was  hard  and  rigorous  at  best.  They 
lived  upon  milk  and  cheese,  the  flesh  of  their  herds,  and  the 
quarry,  and  the  products  of  a  limited  agriculture.  They  could  not 
have  been  very  cleanly  in  their  habits.  The  word  itch,  as  also  the 
common  names  of  most  of  the  well-known  dirt  diseases,  are  old 
English  names.  But  so  are  the  words  clean^  wholeso^ne,  healthy ^ 
hale,  and  hearty.  Possibly  the  former  were  winter  words,  asso- 
ciated with  the  dreary  months  when  the  people  were  compelled  to 
hive  themselves  with  their  cattle  in  close  dens  or  caverns  for  pro- 
tection from  the  weather;  while  the  latter  were  summer  words, 
associated  with  joyous  days  when  open  fields  and  fresh  winds, 
springing  flowers  and  flowing  streams  invited  the  people  to  a  dif- 
ferent life.  All  in  all  they  were  very  human,  these  first  Teutonic 
settlers  of  Britain,  and  not  very  different  from  what  the  people  who 
dwell  upon  their  lands  to-day  would  be  under  similar  circumstances. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   EIVAL   CONFEDERACIES   OF   TEUTONIC   BEITAIN,  AND   THE 
FOUNDING    OF   THE    NATIONAL   CHURCH 

The  next  stage  in  the  history  of  Teutonic  Britain  is  one  of  great 
importance;   in   it   English  nationality   assumes   its   first  forms. 

The  time  is  still  far  distant  when  we  may  use  with  any 
new  era  accuracy  the  words,  ^'England"  or  ^"English."  The 
fminding  of     newcomers  are  still  Germans ;  just  such  Germans  as  were 

dwelling  on  the  Weser  and  the  Ems,  living  under  the 
same  laws  and  under  the  same  tribal  organization.  There  is  also 
the  same  bewildering  succession  of  names  without  forms,  of  forms 
without  outline,  of  progress  without  unity,  such  as  marks  the 
history  of  contemporary  Teutonic  life  on  the  continent ;  and  yet 
within  this  confusion,  obscured  by  the  shifting  shadows,  the 
Teutons  of  Britain  were  molding  to  new  habits  of  thought  and 
action,  entirely  alien  to  the  old  isolated  tribal  life,  and  preparing 
for  the  advent  of  the  nation. 

By  the  close  of  the  sixth  century  all  the  most  fertile  parts  of 
the  island  had  been  seized;  but  the  crowding  of  population  upon 

population  continued,  and  soon  embroiled  the  new  pos- 
of  the  sessors  of   the  soil  in  an   endless  series  of   intertribal 

wars,  waged  for  the  possession  of  what  they  had  taken 
from  the  Britons.  Leagues  and  counter-leagues  rapidly  succeeded 
one  another.  The  old  tribal  lines  gradually  dissolved,  and  the  elected 
war  chief  of  temporary  powers  passed  into  the  permanent  king; 
the  isolated  tribal  settlements  into  the  seven  or  eight  confederacies, 
the  ''kingdoms,"  of  the  so-called  "Heptarchy."  Then  followed 
a  bitter  rivalry  of  these  ''Heptarchy"  kings,  a  fierce  strife  for 
supremacy,  which  ended  at  last  in  the  final  triumph  of  the  kings 
of  the  West  Saxons  and  the  establishment  of  the  permanent 
hegemony  of  Wessex. 


591-616]  ETHELBERT   IN   KENT  33 

Such  in  outline  is  the  history  of  the  new  era.  Its  events  may  be 
grouped  about  two  movements :  firsts  the  growth  of  a  habit  on  the 
part  of  neighboring  tribes,  of  acting  together  in  great 
-Analysis  confederacies,  culminating  at  last  in  the  permanent  union 
of  all  the  tribes  in  a  national  state ;  and,  seco7id,  the 
introduction  of  Christianity,  and  the  final  organization  of  the 
national  church. 

When  the  period  of  settlement  closed,  as  we  have  seen,  Ceawlin 
was  already  at  the  head  of  a  widely  extended  kingdom  or  con- 
federation of  the  West  Saxon  tribes.  His  kingdom,  if 
hreakiTw  up  kingdom  it  can  be  called,  included  all  the  tribes  from 
Kinadom,  the  Severn  to  the  downs  of  Surrey,  and  from  the  basin 
of  the  middle  Thames  to  the  sea.  It  is  not  likely  that 
his  power  rested  upon  other  foundation  than  the  shadowy  authority 
conferred  by  confederated  tribes  upon  the  elective  war  chief. 
Such  loose  confederations  were  very  common  among  the  Germans 
of  the  continent  down  to  the  close  of  the  migrations.  The  counter- 
parts of  Ceawlin 's  career  may  be  found  in  the  Cheruscan  and  Mar- 
coman  kings  of  Tacitus.  Possibly  also,  as  in  the  case  of  the  German 
national  hero,  Arminius,  it  was  the  attempt  of  Ceawlin  to  transfer 
the  temporary  authority  of  the  war  chief  into  the  permanent  and 
more  substantial  power  of  a  true  king  that  led  directly  to  his  fall  and 
the  dissolution  of  this  early  confederation  of  the  West  Saxon  tribes. 
This  event  took  place  in  591,  two  years  before  Ceawlin's  death. 

East  of  the  confederation,  which  by  habit  we  call  the  kingdom 
of  the  West  Saxons,  lay  the  Jutish  tribes,  who  had  settled  on  the 
south  bank  of  the  lower  Thames.  We  have  already  seen 
mh6Uh\he  them  under  the  leadership  of  their  young  king  Ethel- 
heaemmy  |^^^^^  struggling  with  Ceawlin  on  the  borders  of  the 
^antwara,  j^Qj-est  of  Anderida,  for  the  possession  of  the  downs  of 
Surrey.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Ethelbert  also  took  part 
in  the  overthrow  of  the  West  Saxon  king,  though  the  first  shock  to 
Ceawlin's  power  seems  to  have  come  from  the  Hwiccas,  whom  he 
himself  had  recently  settled  on  the  Severn.  At  all  events,  after 
the  fall  of  Ceawlin,  Ethelbert  succeeded  to  his  prestige  in  south 
Britain,  and  built  up  a  similar  confederation  of  the  eastern  tribes. 
According  to  Bede,  his  dominions  reached  to  the  Humber ;  that  is, 


34  THE    CONFEDERACIES   OF   TEUTONIC    BKITAIK 

all  the  East  Saxon,  East  Anglian,  Middle  Anglian,  South  Anglian, 
and  a  part  of  the  West  Saxon  tribes  entered  the  new  confederation, 
and  either  voluntarily,  or  by  compulsion,  recognized  the  overlord- 
ship  of  Ethelbert.  This  second  confederation  lasted  nntil  the 
death  of  Ethelbert,  when  it  in  turn  also  dissolved,  and  the  tribes 
east  of  the  Chilterns  regrouped  themselves  under  the  leadership 
of  Eaedwald,  king  of  the  East  Angles. 

The  great  name  of  Ethelbert  had  extended  to  the  continent, 

and  enabled  him  to  make  an  alliance  with  the  family  of  Frankish 

kings  who  ruled  over   the  conquests  of  Clovis.     The 

Introduction    ^  «    -r.   .  ^    .  ,  .^  i      ,    ,  i      -i-,        i 

of  Chris-  Uermans  of  Uritam  were  still  pagans,  but  the  l*  ranks 
had  long  since  adopted  Christianity.  The  men  of  the 
Frankish  royal  house  as  a  class,  however,  had  been  little  influenced 
by  the  teachings  of  Christianity;  they  were  for  the  most  part 
graceless  ruffians.  But  many  of  the  women  furnished  examples  of 
sweet  and  noble  piety,  honored  a  difficult  station  by  blameless  lives, 
and  passed  to  their  gi'aves,  leaving  behind  them  a  precious  memory 
of  good  deeds  and  helpful  influence.  Some  of  these  royal  prin- 
cesses went  out  from  their  own  homes  to  serve  Christ  in  the  halls 
of  heathen  lords,  where  they  became  most  efficient  missionaries 
of  the  church.  Thus  it  happened  that  Bertha,  the  granddaughter 
of  Clotaire  the  Great,  left  her  father's  court  at  Paris  and  entered 
the  home  of  Ethelbert  of  Kent.  By  special  arrangement  she  was 
allowed  to  bring  her  chaplain,  Luithard,  with  her.  The  long- 
deserted  British  church  of  St.  Martin  at  Canterbury  was  refitted 
for  his  use,  and  the  old  walls  looked  down  once  more  upon  the 
stately  service  of  the  Christian  church.  Here  the  good  chaplain 
chanted  and  preached ;  here  the  pious  queen  with  burdened  heart 
bowed  and  prayed,  waiting  for  the  redemption  of  her  heathen  lord 
and  her  adopted  people.  How  much  she  and  her  friends  had  to 
do  with  rousing  the  church  of  the  continent  to  any  direct  mission- 
ary effort  we  do  not  know.  But  it  is  more  than  likely,  if  the  truth 
were  known,  that  the  coming  of  the  first  missionaries  was  due  to 
her  efforts  and  her  influence  quite  as  much  as  to  Pope  Gregory's 
happy  knack  of  making  Latin  puns.^     Certain  it  is  that  the  band 

^See  Green,    History  of  the  English  People,  I,   p.  37,  for  the  well- 
known  story. 


."397-601]  INTRODUCTION   OF   CHRISTIANITY  35 

of  monks  led  by  Augustine  whom  Gregory  sent  out,  came  under  the 
special  patronage  and  protection  of  the  neighboring  Prankish  kings, 
and  that  when  they  at  last  landed  at  Thanet  in  the  spring  of  597, 
they  found  Ethelbert  prepared  for  their  coming  and  ready  to  listen  to 
their  teaching.  On  June  2,  Whitsunday,  Ethelbert  himself  abjured 
the  faith  of  his  fathers  in  Wotan  and  Doiiar,  and  received  Christian 
baptism.  Thousands  of  his  subjects  followed  his  example,  and 
within  a  year  the  mission  had  become  a  flourishing  church.  In 
June,  601,  Gregory  sent  to  Augustine  the  archl episcopal  pallium 
or  pall,^  with  a  complete  plan  for  the  organization  of  the  island 
church.  As  yet,  however,  Christianity  had  not  advanced  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  the  original  Kent.  Neither  East  Saxons,  South 
Saxons,  nor  West  Saxons  were  ready  to  receive  Christian  teachers. 
But  the  sanguine  Gregory  had  his  four  square  plan  of  organization 
ready.  The  entire  island  was  to  be  divided  into  two  nearly  equal 
metropolitan  sees,  each  with  its  twelve  bishops;  the  primate  of 
the  northern  province  was  to  be  established  in  York;  of  the 
southern  province  in  London.  Augustine  wisely  selected  Canter- 
bury, under  the  immediate  protection  of  Ethelbert,  as  a  far  more 
eligible  site  for  his  archiepiscopal  seat,  and  left  to  the  future  the 
founding  of  the  northern  primacy,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
twenty-four  bishoprics. 

Augustine  was  not  content  with  simply  baptizing  his  new  con- 
verts. He  brought  with  him  a  knowledge  of  the  ways  of  the  great 
civilized  world,  and  he  and  his  monks  taught  their  royal  con- 
verts many  useful  lessons.  It  was  due  to  his  influence,  probably, 
that  about  the  year  600  the  old  customaiT  laws  of  the 
Etheiurt,       Cautwara  were  reduced  to  wntmir  and  put  into  code 

600 

form;  **the  first  formal  record  of  the  laws  of  an  English 
people,''  preceding  by  ninety  years  the  like  record  which  Ine 
made  of  the  laws  of  the  West  Saxons.  Thus  we  owe  to  Ethelbert 
almost  all  our  knowledge  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  institutions  as  they 
existed  at  the  close  of  the  era  of  settlement.  As  represented  in  his 
laws,  they  remind  us  of  the  descriptions  which  Tacitus  gave  of  the 
Germans  who  lived  on  the  borders  of  the  empire  in  the  first  century 

^  The  distinctive  badge  of  the  archbishop,  a  sort  of  scarf  or  stole  worn 
round  the  neck,  with  falling  ends  in  front,  marked  each  with  three  crosses. 


36  THE    CONFEDERACIES   OF   TEUTONIC    BRITAIN 

of  the  Christian  era,  and  show  that  the  Teutons  of  Britain  had  not 
yet  advanced  very  far  beyond  the  condition  of  the  Germans  who 
were  first  known  to  the  Eomans.  The  only  penalties  known  to 
Ethelbert's  laws  were  fines,  or  indemnities,  covering  almost  every 
conceivable  injury  to  life  or  limb  or  property,  and  varying  from  the 
ordinary  indemnities  prescribed  for  the  wrongs  of  a  freeman,  to  the 
ninefold  penalty  prescribed  for  injury  to  the  king  or  his  property ; 
the  elevenfold  penalty  prescribed  for  injury  to  a  bishop,  and  the 
twelvefold  penalty  prescribed  in  the  case  of  him  who  destroyed  the 
* 'goods  of  God."  Here  we  may  plainly  read  the  influence  of  the 
priest,  and  see  the  high  estate  which  the  church  had  already  won. 
The  overlordship  of  Ethelbert,  like  that  of  Ceawlin,  passed 
away  with  the  generation  to  which  he  belonged,  and  the  con- 
federacy of  Jutes,  Saxons,  and  Angles  dissolved  once 
reactwnin  more  into  "a  chaos  of  warring  tribes."  A  reaction  also 
set  in  against  the  church.  Edbald,  the  new  king  of  the 
Cantwara,  not  only  rejected  his  father's  faith,  but  compelled  the 
Christian  teachers  to  retire  into  Gaul. 

When  Ceawlin  was  closing  his  long  career  in  the  southwest, 

Ethelric,  the  king  of  the  Bernicians,  was  extending  his  power  over 

the  neighborinsr  Deirans.     In  593  his  son  Ethelfrid, 

The  Urst  o  o  7 

Norlhumhri-  "the  Devastator,"  succeeded  to  the  headship  of  the 

united  Northumbrian  tribes.      We  have  already  seen 

him  at  Dawston  overwhelming  a  combined  host  of  Scots,  Picts, 

and   Britons;    and  again,   a    few  years    later,   overwhelming  the 

Britons   in  a  decisive  engagement  far  down  under  the  walls  of 

Chester.     For  twenty  years  this  terrible  king  lorded  it  over  the 

north  and  extended  his  power  far  to  the  south.     His  efforts  to 

extend  his  power  here,  however,  brought  him  face  to  face  with  the 

new  East  Anglian  confederation  of  Eaedwald.     The  two 

armies  met  at  Retford  in  Nottinghamshire;  Ethelfrid 

was   slain,  and   Raedwald   for   the   time   secured   his   supremacy 

south  of  the  Humber. 

The  Northumbrian  confederacy  of  Ethelfrid,  which  had  now 
outlasted  two  kings,  did  not  break  up  at  his  death,  but  passed  to 
the  exiled  king  of  the  Deirans,  Edwin.  Ethelfrid  had  pursued 
him  relentlessly  from  one  exile  to  another,  and  it  was  the  refusal  of 


.i    ,.t!t-:rtk  i.ii4  i-rt  *  V, 


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V.\i.,'^ 


,<r' 


"^■i.M.i   ;nw  i,uiv^:uii'i  '.rir    *-!T''iK.  ;.;) '!i.[    !]j-' ^'It^Hf^l!'.  '- 


617-627]  C0NVERSI0:N^   of   KORTIIUMBRIA  37 

Raedwald  to  betray  his  unfortunate  giiest  which  led  to  the  war  so 
fatal  to  Ethelfrid.     Edwin  now  returned  to  his    people,  and  soon 

extended  his  authority  even  beyond  that  of  his  old 
»mces»orof     enemy,  Ethelfrid.     He  awed  the  Celtic  princes  on  his 

western  borders,  and  compelled  Man  and  Anglesey 
to  recognize  his  overlordship.  The  Anglian  kings  to  the  south, 
breaking  away  from  the  East  Anglian  confederacy,  also  accepted  his 
supremacy.  He  also  pushed  his  conquests  to  the  north,  and  here, 
on  a  hill  overlooking  the  Forth,  built  a  frontier  fortress,  to 
which  he  left  his  name,  the  beginning  of  the  modern  Edinburgh. 
Then  the  great  king  looked  about  him  for  a  consort  worthy  to 
share  his  honors.     He  found  her  in  Ethelburga,  the  daughter  of 

Ethelbert;    and  again  a  Christian  princess  turned  her 

Convcrftifm  t  -,      -, 

of  Northum-  back  upon  her  own  people  and  entered  the  court  of  a 
pagan  king.  The  same  stipulations  were  made  as  in 
the  case  of  her  mother,  Bertha;  and  again  a  devout  princess 
prayed  and  waited  in  her  land  of  exile,  and  her  pious  chap- 
lain preached  and  taught.  Edwin,  however,  was  not  to  be  as  easily 
won  as  Ethelbert.  He  long  withstood  the  earnest  entreaties 
of  his  wife,  and  the  fervid  arguments  of  her  chaplain,  Paulinus. 
At  last,  under  the  skillful  representations  of  the  queen  and  the 
chaplain,  the  birth  of  a  daughter,  a  narrow  escape  from  the 
dagger  of  an  assassin,  and  a  successful  raid  upon  the  West 
Saxons,  presented  themselves  with  such  combined  force  to  the 
mind  of  the  king  as  evidences  of  the  favor  and  power  of  the  Chris- 
tian's God,  that  he  consented  to  refer  the  matter  to  his  witan,  as 
the  counselors  of  the  king  were  called.  They  met  in  solemn 
assembly,  the  vvitenagemot,  and  listened  while  Paulinus  presented 
his  case.  The  **tall,  stooping  form,  slender  aquiline  nose  and 
black  hair  falling  round  a  thin,  worn  face,  were  long  remembered 
in  the  north."  The  hearts  of  the  grim  old  warriors  softened  as 
the  faithful  priest,  like  Paul  of  old,  talked  to  them  of  ''righteous- 
ness and  judgment,"  of  Christ's  love  and  eternal  life.  Then  an 
aged  ealdorman  arose,  and  in  words  of  rare  beauty,  gave  voice  to 
the  new  hope  which  the  words  of  the  preacher  had  kindled:  *'The 
life  of  man,  0  king,"  he  cried,  *'is  as  a  sparrow's  flight  through 
the  hall,  when  a  man  is  sitting  at  meat  in  wintertide  with  the 


38  THE    CONFEDERACIES   OF   TEUTONIC    BRITAIN 

warm  fire  lighted  on  the  hearth,  but  the  chill  rainstorm  without. 
The  sparrow  flies  in  at  one  door  and  tarries  for  a  moment  in  the 
light  and  heat  of  the  hearth  fire,  and  then  flying  forth  from  the 
other,  vanishes  in  wintry  darkness  whence  it  came.  So  tarries  for 
a  moment  the  life  of  man  in  our  sight.  For  what  is  before  it  and 
what  after  it  we  know  not.  If  this  new  teaching  tell  us  aught 
certainly  of  these,  let  us  follow  it."^  Still  thewitan  hesitated, 
until  Coifi,  the  king's  priest,  denounced  the  gods  whom  he  had 
served  and  asked  that  he  himself  might  set  fire  to  the  pagan 
temple  at  Godmundham.  Then  Edwin  hesitated  no  longer,  and 
on  Easter  Day,  April  12,  627,  acknowledged  his  submission  to 
the  new  faith  in  the  rite  of  Christian  baptism. 

With   the  accession    of   the   powerful   Edwin,  the   conversion 

of  'the    north    advanced    rapidly.      York   was    made    an    archi- 

episcopal  see,  and  Paulinus  was  established  as  its  first 

TllS  tl07*tliC7*7h 

primacy  arclibishop.  Whenever  the  king  went  through  his  king- 
dom upon  a  royal  progress,  his  bishop  attended  him, 
and  each  court  day  was  made  the  occasion  for  preacliing  and 
baptizing.  Vassal  kings  also  followed  the  example  of  Edwin.  In 
628  (?)  the  son  of  his  old  friend  Raedwald  of  East  Anglia  sub- 
mitted to  baptism,  and  three  years  later  Felix,  a  Burgundian 
bishop,  established  himself  among  the  East  Angles.  Paulinus  also 
preached  among  the  Lindiswara,  and  built  a  stone  church  at  Lin- 
coln, where,  in  628,  he  consecrated  Honorius,  the  new  archbishop 
of  Canterbury.  A  few  years  later  the  Pope  formally  recognized 
the  northern  primacy  by  sending  to  Paulinus  the  coveted  pallium. 
As  with  Ethelbeft  in  the  south,  the  presence  of  the  priest  by 
the  side  of  the  barbaric  king  told  powerfully  for  civilization;  for 
Edwin,  also  under  priestly  tutelage,  honestly  strove  to 
ihemTks^  S^^^  ^is  people  the  precious  boon  of  peace  under  good 
Iria^^^**^'  ^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^  administration.  It  was  said  first  of  him 
that  in  his  days,  ''a  woman  with  her  babe  might  walk 
scatheless  from  sea  to  sea.''  The  people  tilled  their  fields  and 
gathered  their  harvests  in  quiet  and  safety.  Men  no  longer  feared 
the  thief  or  the  robber;  stakes  were  driven  by  the  roadside  spring, 

1  Bede,  Ecclesiastical  Histoi-y,  II,  13.  Quoted  in  Green,  H.  E.  P.,  I,  p.  46. 


626]  PENDA   IN   MERCIA  39 

where  the  traveler  found  a  brass  ciip  hanging  for  his  use,  and  no 
thief  durst  carry  it  off.  From  the  priest,  too,  Edwin  learned  to 
adopt  a  certain  pomp,  until  then  unknown  to  the  simple  barbaric 
war  chief.  When  he  passed  through  the  villages  on  his  royal  tours, 
a  standard  of  purple  and  gold  preceded  him;  a  tuft  of  feathers,  also, 
the  Roman  tvfa^  surmounted  his  spear,  and  was  carried  before  him  as 
he  walked,  the  symbol  of  the  royal  presence; — forerunners  of  crowns 
and  thrones  yet  to  come. 

Thus  the  church,  as  the  great  civilizer,  had  already  begun  its 

work  in  Teutonic  Britain.     But  the  conquest  of  the  island  was 

not  to  be  completed  without  a  long  and  bitter  struggle. 

reaction  in      The  proverbial  hatred  of  the  barbarian  for  foreign  insti- 

the  North.        ...  ,  ^        ^       .^  ° 

tutions  was  soon  awakened.  In  Kent,  the  death  of 
Ethelbert  had  been  the  signal  for  reaction.  In  the  north,  the 
reaction  did  not  wait  for  the  death  of  Edwin,  but  was  the  cause  of 
his  overthrow. 

The  rise  of  "^^^  Anglian  tribes  of  mid-Britain  were  very  early  known 
Mercia.  ^s  Mercians,  or  the  border  people.  In  the  later  sixth 
century,  they  had  begun  to  draw  together  into  a  confederacy  sim- 
ilar to  those  about  them.     But  it  was  not  until  the  time  of  their 

great   king   Penda   that   this  fifth    leasrue  became    a 

Penda,  626.       °        •  i   ,  i      i  i         ,    ,       • ,  .    ,  ,  t^      , 

formidable  threat  to  its  neighbors.  Penda,  moreover, 
was  not  a  common  conqueror,  like  Ceawlin,  fighting  only  for 
dominion.  He  represents  the  protest  of  the  adherents  of  the  old 
faith  against  the  innovations  which  the  foreigner  had  introduced. 
About  him  gathered  all  the  dissatisfied  elements  of  mid-Britain, 
to  make  a  last  stand  for  the  faith  of  their  fathers.  Penda  was 
also  a  politician,  as  well  as  a  pagan  reactionary,  and  did  not  hesitate 
to  ally  himself  with  Cadwallon,  the  Christian  king  of  North  Wales. 
The  Celtic  Christians  had  always  held  aloof  from  their  pagan 
neighbors,  a  fact  which   Gil  das  had   deplored   even  in  his  day. 

They  had  not  only  refused  to  take  any  steps  to  convert 
omTci^&  them  to  Christianity,  but,  even  after  the  Teutons  had 
chiir^hes?^^  received  Christian  teachers  from  the  continent,  they 

stoutly  refused  to  recognize  the  new  church.  Augus- 
tine, by  the  help  of  Ethelbert,  had  arranged  a  conference  with  the 
Welsh  bishops  on  the  banks  of  the  Severn,  in  the  hope  of  enlisting 


40  THE   CONFEDEEACIES   OF  TEUTONIC   BRITAIN 

them  in  his  work  of  converting  their  neighbors.  The  Welsh 
listened  willingly  at  first,  but,  when  they  learned  that  cooperation 
The  crnifer-  ^^^^^  ^^^^  recognition  of  the  supremacy  of  the  new  arch- 
A^^ustin's  l^ishop,  and  the  acceptance  of  the  innovations  which  two 
oak,  "j.tist."  hundred  years  had  added  to  the  western  church,  they 
stubbornly  refused  to  accept  the  terms  of  compact,  and  allowed  the 
council  to  break  up  with  hard  and  bitter  words.  *'If  ye  will  not 
have  peace  with  us  as  brethren,"  cried  the  angry  primate,  ''ye 
shall  have  war  with  us  as  enemies ;  if  ye  will  not  preach  the  way  of 
life  to  the  Angles,  you  shall  at  their  hands  suffer  the  vengeance  of 
death." 

Nothing  had  been  done  in  the  generation  since  to  cement  this 
breach.  The  hand  of  the  terrible  Ethelfrid  had  fallen  heavily 
upon  the  Welsh.  Their  "holy  men,"  to  the  number  of 
hmimi^f  ^^^  thousand,  had  been  slain  before  Chester,  an  event 
TeiOom^  which  they  could  not  fail  to  connect  with  the  bitter 
prophecy  of  Augustine.  The  Christian  Edwin  had  fol- 
lowed the  pagan  Ethelfrid,  and  gleaned  where  he  had  reaped ;  nor 
did  it  make  his  dominance  more  acceptable,  that,  unlike  Ethel- 
frid, he  was  a  Christian  prince.  In  the  wild  ferocity  of  their 
neighbors,  the  Welsh  could  hardly  distinguish  Christian  from 
pagan. 

The  western  Celts,  therefore,  although  Christians,  were  ready 
to  unite  with  Penda  for  a  joint  attack  on  Edwin,  and  an  expul- 
Aiiiance  ^^^^  ^^  Paulinus  and  his  monks  from  Northumbria. 
and^^^  The  allied  armies  met  Edwin  at  Hatfield,  near  the  north 
B^tteof^'  Anglian  border.  Edwin  was  killed,  his  army  routed, 
Hatfield.  and  his  confederacy  broken  up.  Archbishop  Paulinus, 
with  Ethelburga  and  her  children,  fled  to  Kent,  where  the  con- 
version of  Edbald  had  recently  put  an  end  to  the  pagan  reaction, 
and  once  more  established  Christianity  among  the  Cantwara. 

Penda  now  succeeded  to  the  supremacy  of  Edwin  in  mid- 
Britain;  and,  for  the  first  time,  all  the  Anglian  tribes  west  of  the 
Recmeryof  ^^^^  country  were  united  in  one  confederation.  The 
Northumhrm.  regions  north  of  the  Humber,  however,  he  left  to  his 
ally,  Cadwallon,  who  lorded  it  here  for  twelve  months  with  great 
cruelty.     The  glorious  Ethelfrid  had  left  a  son,  Oswald,  who,  dur- 


634-642]  OSWALD   AND   PENDA  41 

ing  the  triumph  of  Edwin,  had  remained  in  exile  in  lona,  a  Celtic 
mission  station,  on  a  barren  rock  off  the  west  coast  of  Scotland. 
From  his  lonely  exile,  he  heard  the  cry  of  his  people  under  the 
cruel  hand  of  Cadwallon,  and,  with  a  small  but  determined  band, 
Denisbum  <iescended  the  north  Tyne ;  overthrew  and  slew  Cadwal- 
^^^'  Ion  on  Denisburn,  not  far  from  the  Roman  wall,  and 

made  himself  supreme  in  all  Northumbria.  He  then  set  to  work 
to  restore  the  broken  altars  of  the  Christian  faith.  He  refused  to 
recall  Paulinus,  however,  for  he  had  been  identified  with  the  rival 
dynasty  of  Edwin,  and  the  Bernicians  had  already  refused  to  heed 
his  teachings.  Oswald,  therefore,  sent  to  his  old  friends  at  lona 
for  help.  The  monk  Aidan  responded ;  a  man  who  combined  tact 
with  purity  of  life  and  real  nobility  of  character,  and  by  *' teaching 
not  otherwise  than  he  and  his  followers  lived,"  he  soon  won  the 
confidence  of  the  Bernicians.  Christianity  rapidly  regained  its 
hold  in  the  north.  At  Lindisfarne,  or  Holy  Island,  Aidan  estab- 
lished the  inevitable  monastery,  and,  from  this  as  a  center,  he 
sent  out  his  missionaries  to  teach  the  people.  Aidan  represented 
the  older  form  of  wowhip;  yet  Oswald  felt  none  of  the  hostility  of 
Cadwallon  to  the  southern  form  of  Christianity.  He  supported 
the  Lombard  Birinus,  who  had  begun  a  work  amojig  the  West 
Saxons,  and  was  present  and  acted  as  godfather  when  the  king 
Cynegils  was  baptized. 

The  relations  between  Oswald  and  Panda  remained  peaceful 
for  many  years.  Apparently,  Penda  was  forced  for  the  time  to 
Oswald  and  ^^^P  ^^^^  ^^^®  vassal  relation;  for,  according  to  Bede, 
Pemia.  Oswald  brought  under  his  dominion  all  the  nations  and 

provinces  of  Britain.  So  wide-reaching  was  his  influence,  that, 
even  in  distant  Kent,  the  children  of  Edwin,  the  rival  line  of 
Deira,  were  thought  to  be  no  longer  safe,  and  were  sent  by  their 
mother  across  the  Channel  to  her  Prankish  kindred  for  safe  keep- 
ing. Penda,  however,  was  not  the  kind  of  spirit  to  bear  long  even 
the  loosest  chains,  and,  in  the  year  G42,  we  find  him  in  battle 
THumph  of  ^^^^^  ^^^  over-king  on  the  bloody  Maserfield,  somewhere 
Mercia.  j^  Sliropshire.  Oswald  was  defeated,  and  later  put  to 
death,  and  Penda  was  left  to  reign  as  the  one  great  king  among 
the  Teutonic  tribes. 


42  THE   CONPEDERACIES   OF   TEUTONIC   BRITAIN 

The  Northumbrian  tribes  did  not  lose  their  independence  alto- 
gether upon  the  the  fall  of  Oswald.  They  remained,  however, 
Second  broken  and  divided,  until  they  were  again  united  under 

mnthmn^ria  Oswald's  brother,  Oswy.  But,  for  thirteen  years,  Penda 
^^-  and  his  Mercians  carried  on  a  cruel  war  against  the 

northern  kingdoms.  Oswy  pleaded  hard  for  peace,  but  all  his 
efforts  at  reconciliation  were  treated  with  scorn  by  Penda.  At 
last,  in  654,  a  decisive  battle  was  fought  on  the  Winwaed,  not  far 
from  the  modern  Leeds,  and  Penda,  nov>^  eighty  years  old,  per- 
ished in  the  fight.  The  victory  of  Oswy,  who  fought  against 
vastly  superior  numbers,  was  probably  due  to  the  discontent  of 
Penda 's  vassal  kings,  who  were  weary  of  the  lordly  ways  of  the 
old  pagan,  and  dissatisfied  with  his  long  wars  against  their  Chris- 
tian brethren  of  the  north. 

With  the  fall  of  Penda,  the  last  bulwark  of  paganism  was  swept 
away.  Even  while  he  lived,  his  son  Wulfhere  had  submitted  to 
baptism,  and  his  Mercians  had  begun  to  follow  Chris- 
ChSFanity  tian  teachers  under  his  very  eyes.  When,  therefore, 
inMercia.  ^^^^^  ^^^^^  ^^^^^  Penda's  death,  W^ulfhere  succeeded 
to  the  royal  title  in  Mercia,  and  the  last  of  the  great  confed- 
eracies had  thus  accepted  a  Christian  king,  the  strength  of 
paganism  was  broken.     It  survived  only  among  the  South  Saxons. 

Sixty  years  had  now  passed  since  the  baptism  of  Ethelbert,  and, 

although  Teutonic  Britain  was  virtually  won  for  Christianity,  there 

was,  as  vet,  no  uniform  rule  of  faith,  or  harmony  of 

The  Teutfyfiic  ^  j      ^  t  j 

church^ in  practice;  there  was  no  commonly  accepted  authority 
theitn  before  which  rival  bishops  might  bring  their  quarrels 

for  adjustment,  or  the  unworthy  might  be  tried  and 
punished.  North  of  the  Hnmber,  Oswald  had  restored  the  older 
form,  which  ho  had  learned  at  lona.  Kent  had  been  converted  by 
missionaries  sent  out  directly  by  the  Roman  church;  the  East 
Anglians  had  been  won  by  the  Burgundian  Felix,  and  the  West 
Saxons  by  the  Lombard  Birinus.  There  was  no  such  serious 
divergence  in  practice  between  the  converts  of  these  southern  mis- 
sionaries, as  between  them  and  the  northern  Christians,  but  the 
universal  authority  of  the  Pope  had  not  yet  been  so  thoroughly 
established  in  the  minds  of  western  Christians  as  to  assure  the 


634]  WILFRID  43 

supremacy  of  his  representative  at  Canterbury  over  the  disciples 
of  Felix  and  Birinus.  The  tribal  life  was  still  strong ;  the  spirit 
of  local  independence  still  persistent  and  defiant.  The  bishop  was 
only  the  royal  chaplain,  and  had  little  influence  and  few  interests 
outside  of  the  lines  which  marked  the  limits  of  his  master's 
authority.  If  he  recognized  the  primacy  of  the  archbishop  of 
Canterbury  at  all,  it  was  a  primacy  of  prestige  and  dignity,  rather 
than  of  actual  authority.  Sees  were  overgrown  and  unmanage- 
able. Their  boundaries  advanced,  or  receded,  with  the  success  or 
failure  of  the  arms  of  the  royal  patrons.  Churchmen  were  not  all 
saints;  and  too  often  the  bishops  shared  fully  in  the  ambitious 
rivalries  of  their  masters,  and  lent  their  influence  to  conquest  and 
land  spoiling,  in  order  to  enlarge  their  authority,  or  curtail  that  of 
some  troublesome  neighbor.  The  bishops,  moreover,  did  not 
always  wait  for  conquest;  but  interfered  directly  in  each  other's 
affairs.  Bitter  quarrels  arose  over  jurisdiction  or  precedence,  to 
be  settled  at  last  by  an  arbitrary  judgment  of  the  king,  who  was 
often  himself  an  interested  participant  in  the  quarrel,  and 
eager  for  a  pretext  under  which  to  extend  his  authority.  There 
must  have  been  some  community  of  life,  some  feeling  of  com- 
mon sympathy,  some  sense  of  common  interest,  but  the  idea 
of  unity  was  at  best  only  vaguely  apprehended,  and  burned  so 
feebly,  that,  aJone  and  unaided,  it  could  never  have  materially 
counteracted  the  political  influence  of  the  age.  Here,  then,  was  a 
great  work  to  be  done,  to  take  advantage  of  the  natural  desire  of 
Christian  men  for  unity,  to  bring  all  the  churches  of  Teutonic 
Britain  into  one  organic  system,  united  under  one  national  primate. 
This  great  work,  the  union  and  organization  of  the  National 
Church,  is  associated  with  the  names  of  Wilfrid  and  Theodore. 

Wilfrid  was  born  about  the  year  G34.     At  fourteen,  he  attracted 

the  attention  of  Eanfled,  the  queen  of  Oswy,  and  was  sent  by  her 

to  Lindisfarne  for  his  education.     Here,  the  lad's  mind 

Wilfrid.  r.       1       .  1         1      .  1  ^n     •   i  •  IT 

was  nred  with  a  desire  to  see  the  great  Christian  world, 
of  which  his  people  knew  so  little;  and  especially  to  visit  Rome, 
regarded  by  many  as  the  first  home  of  Christianity  in  the  west.  His 
royal  patroness  humored  him  in  his  visions  of  travel  and  learning, 
and  finally  sent  him  on  his  way  in  company  with  Benedict  Biscop. 


44  THE   CONFEDERACIES   OF   TEUTONIC    BRITAIN 

After  an  absence  of  four  years,  he  returned  to  his  people,  and  was 
installed  as  abbot  of  Kipon.  Travel  and  contact  with  the  world 
had  opened  the  eyes  of  the  young  monk  to  the  isolation  of  his  own 
people.  He  had  looked  upon  the  greatness  of  Rome;  he  had 
caught  the  spirit  of  her  mighty  traditions,  and  bowed  to  the 
authority  of  the  greater  Christendom.  He  returned,  therefore, 
to  denounce  the  peculiar  practices  of  the  Celtic  church  as  schis- 
matic, and  to  demand  that  the  church  of  Northumbria  should  order 
itself  in  harmony  with  the  common  practice  of  other  Christian 
nations.  There  were  many  of  the  old  disciples  of  Paulinus  at 
hand,  ready  to  second  the  earnest  words  of  their  young  champion. 
The  strife  increased  in  bitterness,  until,  finally,  King  Oswy  him- 
self became  interested,  and  consented  to  summon  a  meeting  of 
northern  bishops  to  settle  the  dispute. 

The  synod  met  at  Whitby.  Colman,  the  bishop  of  York, 
argued  for  the  practices  of  the  Celtic  church,  as  the  church  of 
their  fathers.  Wilfrid  pleaded  the  universal  practice  of 
wnmy^mf  Christendom.  But  Oswy  at  last  cut  the  knot  in  a  sim- 
ple fashion  of  his  own.  ''Is  it  true,"  he  asked  Colman, 
''that  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  were  given  to  Peter  by 
our  Lord?  Has  any  such  power  been  given  to  Columba,  the 
founder  of  the  Scottish  church?"  "None,"  Colman  was  forced 
to  answer.  Then  said  the  king,  "If  Peter  be  the  door-keeper,  he 
is  the  man  for  me."  The  king's  logic  was  final.  Colman  and 
his  monks  withdrew,  and  once  more  the  Northumbrians  began  to 
follow  the  customs  which  they  had  learned  from  Paulinus. 

Four  years  after  the  famous  decision  at  Whitby,  Theodore  of 
Tarsus,  a  Greek  monk,  was  appointed  by  Pope  Vitalian  to  the 
Theodore  Vacant  see  of  Canterbury.  When  he  reached  Canter- 
i/c^ai!^'^  bury  the  following  May,  he  found  that  a  plague  had 
hury,  665.  recently  devastated  the  island.  The  church,  in  par- 
ticular, had  suffered  severely ;  several  bishops  had  fallen  at  their 
posts ;  and  the  people  were  awed  and  softened.  Theodore  saw  his 
opportunity,  and  began  at  once  a  visitation  of  the  several  king- 
doms ;  reorganizing  the  churches,  filling  vacant  sees,  and  introduc- 
ing a  stricter  conformity  to  the  Roman  system.  In  the  north,  he 
found  a  serious  quarrel  on  between  Wilfrid  and  Oswy.    Wilfrid, 


673-680]  HISTORIC   COUNCILS   OF   THEODORE  45 

after  his  success  at  Whitby,  had  been  chosen  bishop  of  York,  and 
had  gone  to  the  continent  to  assure  himself  of  a  canonical  conse- 
cration, but,  upon  his  return,  found  that  Oswy  had  installed  the 
Celtic  monk  Chad  in  his  place.  Theodore  interfered  and  deposed 
Chad  on  the  ground  of  an  uncanonical  consecration,  and  estab- 
lished Wilfrid.  Chad,  however,  had  won  the  heart  of  Theodore 
by  his  humility,  and,  after  reconsecration,  was  appointed  to  the 
vacant  see  of  the  Mercians  at  Lichfield.  Theodore  also  made 
appointments  to  the  vacant  sees  of  Rochester,  Dunwich,  and  Dor- 
chester. Thus,  in  the  first  two  years  of  his  administration,  the 
new  primate  had  filled  five  of  the  six  sees  of  Britain. 

The  existing  sees,  however,  were  unwieldy ;  some,  as  York,  or 
the  Mercian  see,  were  very  large.     In  G73,  Theodore  invited  the 

bishops  to  meet  him  at  Hertford,  to  consider  the  ques- 
SrSfo/  ^^^^  ^^  reorganization.  All  responded  except  Wine,  the 
H&rtford673  ^^^^^P  ^^  London,  who  was   resting  under  the  grave 

charge  of  simony.  The  gathering  was  not  only  the  first 
council  of  the  English  church,  but  the  first  assembly  in  which  rep- 
resentatives from  all  parts  of  the  future  nation  met  to  discuss 
matters  of  common  interest.  Theodore  proposed  to  subdivide  the 
unwieldy  sees,  and  place  each  subdivision  under  a  particular  bishop. 
Each  bishop,  moreover,  was  to  confine  himself  to  his  own  diocese; 
the  priest  was  to  minister  only  in  the  diocese  of  the  bishop  from 
whom  he  received  his  license;  monks  also  were  to  remain  under 
their  abbots.  The  plan  of  subdivision  did  not  meet  with  the  favor 
of  the  bishops;  but  the  proposition  to  confine  the  activity  of 
each  official  to  his  proper  district  was  accepted,  and  a  foundation 
laid    for   the  further   introduction   of   the   orderly   methods   of 

the  Roman  church.     Seven  years  later,  680,  Theodore 

held  another  synod  at  Hatfield,  at  which  the  bishops 
accepted  the  decrees  of  the  General  Councils,  and  so  formally 
decreed  the  orthodoxy  of  the  new  national  church. 

Theodore  was  by  no  means  disposed  to  accept  the  decision  of 
the  synod  of  Hertford  upon  the  question  of  subdividing  the  sees 
as  final,  and  the  next  year  proceeded  to  divide  the  see  of  East 
Anglia,  by  creating  a  new  bishop's  seat  at  Elmham.  In  676,  he 
settled  a  long-standing  quarrel  of  Cenwahl  and  Wulfhere,  over  the 


46        THE  CONFEDERACIES  OF  TEUTONIC  BRITAIN 

see  of   Dorchester,   by  finally   establishing  an  episcopal   seat    at 

Winchester,    thus  giving  the   West  Saxon  king  a  bishop   at  his 

own  capital.     The  great  see  of  York,  however,  under 

izationof       the  masterful  Wilfrid,  lonff  defied  Theodore's  plan  of 

the  Church. 

reorganization.  It  was  the  most  unwieldy  of  all  the 
sees,  and  included  not  only  the  lands  of  the  Deirans  and  Berni- 
cians,  but  an  indefinite  region  beyond  the  Forth  over  which 
Northumbrian  kings  had  extended  an  overlordship,  as  well  as  the 
Lindiswara,  south  of  the  Humber.  But  the  popularity  and  influ- 
ence of  Wilfrid  finally  roused  the  jealousy  of  King  Egfrid,  Oswy's 
successor,  and  the  king  himself  determined  to  divide  the  diocese. 
Wilfrid  refused  to  yield ;  but  Theodore  supported  the  king,  and,  in 
a  council  at  York,  at  which  he  presided,  Wilfrid  was  deposed,  and 
Bernicia  formally  separated  from  York,  with  its  own  bishop  at 
Lindisfarne.  Wilfrid  possessed  too  much  of  the  spirit  of  the  later 
Becket  to  submit  to  what  he  regarded  as  an  unjust  invasion  of  his 
episcopal  rights,  and  retired  to  Kome  to  appeal  in  person  to  the 
Pope.  On  his  outward  journey,  he  was  thrown  upon  the  coast  of 
Frisia,  and  here  he  spent  the  winter  preaching  to  the  heathen 
Frisians  and  laying  the  foundations  for  the  future  mission  of  his 
pupil  Willibrord.  The  next  year  he  reached  Eome,  but,  when  he 
returned  to  Northumbria  with  a  papal  decree  directing  that  he  be 
reinstated,  the  king  and  his  witan  treated  the  decree  with  con- 
tempt, and  cast  the  unruly  priest  into  prison.  Nine  months  later, 
he  was  released,  and,  after  more  wandering,  finally  found  a  field 
congenial  to  his  energetic  temperament,  among  the  heathen  Saxons 
of  the  Andred's  weald.  Here  Wilfrid  labored  five  years.  The 
people  were  apparently  the  most  degraded  and  barbaric  of  any  of 
the  Teutonic  settlers  of  Britain.  They  were  ignorant  of  the  sim- 
plest arts  of  life.  The  king,  Ethelwald,  appointed  Wilfrid  a  resi- 
dence at  Selsey,  where  he  laid  the  foundations  of  the  future 
bishopric. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Theodore  was  steadily  pushing  forward  his 

great  plans  for  the  organization  of  the  church.     At  the  request  of 

Kinff  Ethelred,  he  divided  the  Mercian  see,  which  was 

Suhdivision  o  '  ' 

of  Mercian     almost  as  unwicldy  as  that  of  York,  by  establishing  a 
separate  bishop  for  the  Hwiccas  at  Worcester,  and  an- 


681-689]  RESULTS   OF   THEODORE'S   WORK  47 

other  for  the  Middle  Angles  at  Leicester.    The  Lindiswara,  who  had 

lately  been  restored  to  the  Mercian  confederacy,  also  received  a 

separate  bishop,  whose  seat  was  fixed  at  Sidnacester; 

Beniieia        Lichfield  remained  the  episcopal  seat  of  Mercia  proper. 

diviclcd,  681  XT       sr 

Two  years  later,  Theodore  further  divided  the  see  of 
Bernicia  by  establishing  a  bishop  at  Hexham  for  the  Bernicians, 
and  one  at  Abercorn  for  the  Picts. 

In  the  year  686  Wilfrid  made  his  peace  with  Theodore,  and  was 

allowed  to   return  to  York  and  be  reinstated.      His  submission 

completed   the  triumph  of   Theodore.      The   plan   of 

Th&)dore'8      Gregory   for   the   establishment   of   a  great   northern 

primacy  had   been   definitely  abandoned  for  the   plan 

of  uniting  all  the  Teutonic  sees  under  the  primate  of  Canterbury. 

After  Wilfrid's  return  to   York,  one  more  see  was   established 

among  the  Magesaetas  at  Hereford.     The  next  year,  at 

'  the  advanced    age  of    eighty-eight,    Theodore  passed 

quietly  to  his  well-earned  rest. 

Theodore  is  the  great  man  of  the  seventh  century.  He  created 
the  national  church.  When  he  came,  in  669,  he  found  six  dis- 
cordant sees,  overgrown  and  unwieldy  for  administrative 
Theodore's  purposcs.  When  he  laid  down  his  work  twenty  years 
later,  the  six  had  been  broken  up  into  fifteen,  and  all 
united  under  the  close  supervision  of  the  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. There  was  in  all  the  west  no  ecclesiastical  province  which 
y^jg  was  in  better  stead,  or  more  efficiently  organized.     But 

oTi'Mmai  ^^^^y  ^^  important  as  the  work  of  Tiieodore  for  the 
Eiiniand.  church,  was  his  influence  upon  the  future  political 
development  of  the  Teutonic  tribes  of  Britain.  The  original 
smaller  tribal  divisions  were  breaking  down.  The  great  confeder- 
acies were  passing  into  permanent  federations.  But  the  five  great 
states  of  Mercia,  Northumbria,  Wessex,  East  Anglia,  and  Kent 
still  stood  over  against  each  other  as  fiercely  jealous  and  hostile  as 
ever.  The  patient  teaching  of  the  monks  had  done  much  to 
assuage  the  fires  of  ancient  feuds ;  still,  if  a  permanent  union  were 
ever  secured,  apparently,  it  must  be  by  the  sword.  But,  under 
Theodore,  the  church,  with  its  perfected  territorial  organization, 
recognizing  but  one  country  and  one  people,  called  up  a  new  vision 


48  THE   CONFEDERACIES   OF   TEUTONIC    BRITAIN 

of  unity,  *' clothed  with  a  sacred  form  and  surrounded  with  divine 
sanction,"  embodied  in  the  one  national  primate,  and  expressing 
its  will  through  the  legislative  action  of  one  national  coun- 
cil. That  this  new  organization  was  ecclesiastical,  made  its 
influence  none  the  less  national  and  political.  Men  had  not  yet 
differentiated  church  and  state,  and  it  was  only  a  step  from  the 
national  ecclesiastical  organization  to  a  national  political  organiza- 
tion ;  from  the  local  organization  of  the  bishoprics  of  Theodore  to 
the  shire  organizations  of  Ine ;  from  the  national  council  of  the 
church  to  the  national  council  of  the  state;  from  the  national 
primate  to  the  national  king. 

In  other  ways,  also,  Theodore  assisted  in  laying  deep  and  stable 
the  foundations  of  the  England  to  come.     His  penitential  system 
instilled  into  the  barbaric  mind  a  new  conception  of  vice 
encesof  and  crime  as  sin  against  God;  thus  preparing  a  founda- 

tion for  the  work  of  the  future  Glanvilles  and  Bractons, 
in  the  quickening  moral  sense  of  the  people.  His  school  at  Can- 
terbury, under  the  direction  of  his  friend,  the  abbot  Hadrian,  gave 
instruction  in  Latin  and  Greek,  arithmetic  and  astronomy,  and 
the  themes  of  Holy  Scripture — the  forerunner  of  the  great  schools 
of  Jarrovv  and  York.  He  also  did  much  to  diffuse  a  knowledge  of 
the  stately  Gregorian  music,  which  had  been  as  yet  hardly  known 
outside  the  borders  of  Kent. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  Theodore  is  not  the 
only  great  name  which  the  church  of  this  era  has  given  to  English 
history.  We  have  already  seen  Wilfrid  struggling  in 
wiifHd's  his  own  way  to  solve  the  Northumbrian  church  prob- 
lems.  The  course  of  his  life  after  the  death  of  Theo- 
dore continued  as  stormy  as  ever.  He  quarreled  with  the  successors 
of  Egfrid  and  Theodore  and  wasted  his  declining  years  between 
English  synods  and  the  papal  curia  in  a  vain  attempt  to  recover 
his  lost  honors.    He  died  at  Oundle  in  709. 

Wilfrid  was  one  of  those  turbulent  energetic  natures,  whose 
lot  it  is  to  make  a  great  stir  in  the  world,  and  so  get  credit  for  an 
influence  and  importance  which  they  do  not  really  deserve.  His 
old  friend,  Benedict  Biscop,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  quiet, 
unassuming  man,  whose  merits  later  generations  have  hardly  rec- 


670-687]  CUTHBERT   AND   CAEDMON  49 

ognized.  He  was  the  first  to  introduce  stained  glass,  bringing 
glass  workers  from  Gaul,  in  order  to  provide  his  own  monastery 
Benedict  ^^  Wearmouth.  He  founded  the  famous  monastery  and 
BUicop.  more  famous  school  at  Jarrow,  going  himself  to  Rome  to 

procure  books  and  pictures  for  its  library.  **To  his  enlightened 
zeal,  the  world  owes  Bede,  the  school  of  York,  and  the  great 
Alcuin." 

To  this  era  belong  also  the  names  of  Cuthbert,  consecrated 
bishop  of  Lindisfarne  by  Theodore,  famous  peasant  preacher  and 

saint,  who  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life  among  the 
dhd^si^'^^^'  ^^^^^^^'  mountain  settlements  of  Northumbria,  '*from 

whose  roughness  and  poverty  other  teachers  turned 
aside";  Caedmon,  also,  the  peasant  Milton,  the  cowherd  of 
Whitby,  whose  untutored  lips,  touched  by  divine  vision,  *sang  of 

the  creation  of  the  world,'  the  'origin  of  man,'  .  .  . 
dudahmit      'of    the    incarnation,      'passion    and    resurrection    of 

Christ,'.  .  .  *of  the  terror  of  future  punishment,  the 
horror  of  hell  pangs,  and  the  joys  of  heaven,' — 'Hhe  first  great 
English  song." 

In  the  year  G70,  Oswy,  first  of  English  royal  saints,  had  passed 
to  his  grave.     Egf rid,  his  son  and  successor,  was  a  very  different 

man  from  his  peace-loving  father.  He  tore  the  Lindis- 
u?eNtrth       ^^^^  from  Wulfhere  of  Mercia;   he  revived  the  long 

feud  with  his  Celtic  neighbors,  driving  them  out  of 
Cumbria,  and  taking  possession  of  the  south  bank  of  the  Solway  to 
the  sea.  But,  in  an  evil  hour,  he  determined  to  conquer  the 
Picts,  who,  it  seems,  were  still  as  troublesome  and  incorrigible  as 
in  the  days  of  Agricola.  He  gathered  his  Northumbrian  thanes, 
and,  leading  them  across  the  Forth,  disappeared  among  the  wild 
glens  of  the  Pict  land.  Neither  he  nor  his  army  ever  returned. 
Ncehtam-  ^^®  solitary  fugitive,  after  long  wanderings  among  the 
mere,685.  mountains,  and  after  incredible  hardships,  at  last  came 
back  to  tell  how  King  Egfrid  and  his  thanes  fell  by  the  shores  of 
the  North  Sea,  'bitten  to  death'  by  the  sword  of  the  Pict. 

Northumbria  never  recovered  again.  Her  glory  lay  in  the 
corpse-ring,  which  surrounded  her  fallen  lord,  **in  the  far-off 
moorland  of  Nechtansmere."     For  twenty  years,  Eldfrid,  the  dead 


50  THE   CONFEDERACIES   OF  TEUTONIC    BRITAIN 

king's  brother,  continued  to  hold  Northumbria  together.  But, 
after  his  death,  evil  days  fell  fast  upon  the  North  Humber  lands. 
The  witan  dominated  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  and 
deSwof^*^  their  quarrels  filled  the  land  with  disorder.  In  a 
Northum-  period  of  thirty-eight  years,  nine  different  kings  rapidly 
succeeded  each  other.  Of  these,  three  were  assassin- 
ated; five  were  formally  deposed,  one  being  afterward  executed 
for  presuming  to  return  from  exile. 

The  fall  of  Egfrid  at  Nechtansmere  left  the  Mercians  and  the 
West  Saxons  sole  competitors  for  the  overlordship  of  Britain. 
Decline  of  -^^^^'  ^^  y®^'  ^^^  West  Saxons  had  given  little  promise 
wessex.  Qf  their  great  future.     Some  petty  conquests  of  Cenwahl 

(643-672),  on  the  Avon  and  among  the  Mendip  hills,  by  which  he 
extended  his  borders  to  the  Parret  in  Somerset,  could  hardly  offset 
the  effect  of  AVulfhere's  conquest  in  661,  when  he  not  only  drove 
the  West  Saxons  out  of  the  Xorth  Thames  basin,  but  tore  from 
them  the  eastern  conquests  of  Ceawlin,  including  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  and  added  them  to  the  lands  of  the  king  of  Sussex,  thus 
raising  a  new  and  worthy  rival  to  Wessex  south  of  the  Thames. 
Cenwahl  managed  to  hold  the  remnant  of  his  kingdom  together 
until  his  death  in  672.  But,  during  the  thirteen  years  following, 
even  this  remnant  was  still  further  divided  and  torn  by  the  rivalries 
of  petty  kings.  The  affairs  of  Wessex  were  then,  perhaps,  at 
their  lowest  ebb. 

In  685,  Cadwalla,  one  of  the  petty  kings  of  the  West  Saxons, 
fought  his  way  to  supremacy  over  his  fellows,  and  once  more  suc- 
ceeded in  drawing  the  fragments  of  Cenwahl's  kingdom 

The  rise  of  o  o  o 

Wessex.         together.      Two  years  later,   he  ravaged  Sussex,   and 
to  death  of      regained  what  Wulf  here  had  given  to  its  king.     Through 
Sussex,  he  entered  Kent,  and,  overrunning  the  country 
in  two  successive  years,  compelled  the  people  to  acknowledge  his 
lordship.     In  688,  Ine  became  king  of    the  West   Saxons.      In 
him  the  Mercian    kings  found  a  rival  worthy  of  all 
their  strength.     He  completed  the  conquest  of  Somer- 
set, and  secured  his  new  territories  by  a  wooden  fort  on  the  Tone, 
the  modern  Taunton.     In  715,  he  was  called  upon  to  measure  his 
strength  with  Ceolred  of  Mercia,  at  Wamborough ;  and,  although 


715-751]  INE   IN  WESSEX  61 

neither  side  could  chiim  a  victory,  Ine  prevented  the  Mercians  from 
gaining  a  foothold  south  of  the  Thames.  All  the  country  was  now 
his  between  the  Thames  and  the  sea,  and  from  Dorset  to  Thane t. 
Within  these  borders,  Ine  sought  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a 
real  kingdom,  by  defining  the  power  of  his  administrative  officers. 
The  Laws  ^^^  gi^i^g  Uniformity  to  the  customary  law  by  reduc- 
ofine.  ing  it  to  a  code.     The  shire  here  first  appears  as  the 

territorial  unit  of  the  judicial  administration.  The  ealdorman  is 
responsible  for  the  arrest  of  the  criminal  in  his  shire ;  if  he  allows 
him  to  escape,  he  forfeits  his  office.  Military  service,  the  fi/rd,  is 
required  of  all,  high  or  low;  and  heavy  fines,  but  graded  to  the 
rank  of  the  laggard,  are  prescribed  for  failure  to  respond  to  the 
call  to  arms.  Like  the  laws  of  Ethelbert,  these  of  Ine  also  show 
the  influence  of  the  priest.  Sunday  labor  is  prohibited;  a  merci- 
ful ordinance  when  the  labor  of  the  community  was  performed  largely 
by  serfs.  The  precincts  of  the  king's  palace,  or  a  bishop's  palace, 
are  sacred  against  acts  of  violence,  and  are  equally  protected  by  a 
fine  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  shillings, — the  hurg-hryce.  In 
these  laws,  the  conquered  Briton  appears  as  a  bondsman, — 
theoiu  luealh;  but  there  is  also  mention  of  the  Welsh  freeman  with 
one  hide  of  land,  and  of  the  Welsh  rent-paying  tenant;  the  king 
also  has  his  mounted  Welshmen.  There  is  also  the  Welsh  noble, 
with  five  hides  of  land. 

The  later  days  of  Ine  were  covered  with  gloom.     His  old  age 
was  saddened  by  domestic  intrigue  and  revolt,  the  curse  of  the 

early  Teutonic  kingdom.  Then,  after  thirty-six  years 
daysof^ine.    ^^  thankless  toU,  Ine  threw  down  his  work  in  disgust, 

and,  like  so  many  of  his  peers,  must  go  a  pilgrimiug  to 
Rome.     The  peace  which  he  sought  came  to  him  on  the  way. 

While  the  fortunes  of  Wessex  were  rising,  those  of  Mercia  were 
declining.     There  is  no  great  king  after  the  death  of  Wulfhere 

(075)  until  we  reach  the  era  of  Ethelbald,  when  once 
f^Ma-cia^  more  a  Mercian  king  threatens  the  independence  of 
716^757^^'      Wessex;  but  a  defeat  at  the  hands  of  a  Northumbrian 

king,  whose  lands  Ethelbald  had  invaded,  so  shattered 
his  strength,  that  his  hold  upon  the  south  was  weakened,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  face  a  revolt  of  Cuthred,  the  new  vassal  king 


52  THE    CONFEDERACIES    OF   TEUTON^IC    BRITAIif 

of  Wessex.  After  a  long  struggle,  Cuthred  won  a  decisive 
victory  at  Burford  in  Oxfordshire.  No  more  glorious  day 
had  yet  dawned  in  West  Saxon  history.  All  the  vassal  kings 
of  the  Mercian  overlord,  the  kings  of  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Essex, 
besides  those  of  his  own  Mercia,  had  followed  him  to  that 
fatal  field.  Opposed  were  the  people  of  Wessex,  marshaled  under 
the  famous  golden  dragon,  and  fighting  for  independence.  The 
victory  was  final;  the  great  Mercian  confederacy  was  shat- 
tered, and  no  shred  of  Ethelbald's  power  south  of  the  Thames 
remained.  Six  years  later,  757,  Ethelbald  was  foully  slain  at 
night  by  his  own  people. 

No  account  of  the  reigns  of  Ine  and  Ethelbald  would  be  com- 
plete that  did  not  mention  their  great  contemporary,  Bede,  the 
^^^  first  English  historian.     He  was  born,  probably,  in  the 

^5-755.  yery  year  of  Theodore's  historic  council  at  Hertford. 

At  seven,  he  was  put  under  the  instruction  of  Benedict  Biscop, 
who  had  shortly  before  built  his  monastery  at  Wearmouth.  Bede 
very  early  committed  himself  to  the  quiet  and  uneventful  life  of 
the  scholar.  He  passed  his  years  between  Wearmouth  and  thQ 
later  foundation  of  Jarrow.  Now  and  then,  echoes  from  the  busy, 
turbulent  world  outside  reached  him  in  his  quiet  retreat;  but 
never  to  allure  him  from  his  patient  round  of  '^reading,  teaching, 
and  writing."  One  marvels  at  what  he  accomplished.  The 
library,  which  his  old  master  had  brought  from  Rome  for  the  two 
monastery  schools,  was  his  sole  workshop.  ''I  am  my  own  secre- 
tary," he  writes ;  ''I  make  my  own  notes ;  I  am  my  own  librarian. " 
Yet,  he  mastered  the  knowledge  of  the  time,  and  left  a  list  of 
thirty-seven  works  to  testify  to  his  industry.  He  revived  for 
England  the  traditions  of  the  older  culture  of  the  almost 
forgotten   classical    world,    and  impressed  the  warlike  thanes  of 

Northumbria  with'Hhe  quiet  grandeur  of  a  life  con- 
afHis^%'  secrated  to  knowledge."  His  reputation  to-day  rests 
th^A^^f^  upon    his    ''Ecclesiastical    History  of    the    Nation  of 

the  Angles," — the  beginning  of  authentic  English 
history;  the  only  light  to  cast  a  gleam  into  the  darkness  which 
separates  the  Britain  of  Gildas  from  the  Britain  of  Ine  and 
Ethelbald. 


/a/TisrM 


rr         "-v 


^/^  ^^-^ 


n  his 


iie 


757-796]  OFFA   IN  MERCIA  53 

Under  the  powerful  Offa,  who  ruled  Mercia  from  757-796,  the 
long  struggle  for  supremacy  seemed  again  about  to  be  decided  in  favor 
^-^  of  the  middle  kingdom.     Of  the  first  year  of  his  reign, 

^!nvS-Tt  ^^^^^®  ^^  known;  but,  in  771,  we  find  him  parceling  out 
zenitK  the  lands  of  Sussex,  with  the  kings  of  Wessex  and  Kent 

acting  as  attesting  parties;  evidence  that,  even  at  this  date,  Offa 
had  established  himself  south  of  the  Thames,  and  that  Wessex  had 
again  lost  her  independence.  His  greatest  wars,  however,  were 
waged  against  the  Welsh,  whom  he  drove  out  of  the  valley  of  the 
Severn,  advancing  his  own  borders  to  the  Wye.  This  conquest  he 
secured  by  the  introduction  of  colonists  and  the  erection  of  a 
♦•ofrt'8  frontier  rampart,  the  famous  *'Offa's  Dyke,"  connecting 

-^i/^«"  the  lower  Severn  and  the  Dee.     The  line  of  "Offa's 

Dyke"  has  remained  virtually  the  permanent  boundary  between 
Wales  and  England. 

Apparently,  Offa  accepted  the  threefold  division  of  Teutonic 
Britain  as  final,  and  sought  to  secure  conformity  to  this 
arrangement  in  the  organization  of  the  church,  by  rais- 
mdropniitan  ing  the  866  of  Lichfield  to  metropolitan  honors,  coor- 
dinate  in  authority  with  Canterbury  and  York,  the 
archiepiscopal  dignity  of  the  latter  having  been  restored  in  735. 
The  pope  granted  Offa's  request,  and,  for  thirteen  years,  Mercia 
could  boast  of  an  archbishop  of  its  own. 

Offa  died  in  790,  and,  for  a  few  years,  Mercia  maintained  the 
position  to  which  he  had  elevated  her.  Then,  one  by  one,  the 
achievements  of  Offa  were  undone.  The  primacy  of  Lichfield 
was  abandoned,  and  the  under-kings  slipped  back  again  into  their 
old  independence.  In  802,  the  young  Egbert,  of  the 
Sj2-83J'  royal   house   of  Wessex,    returned  from   the  court   of 

Charles  the  Great,  whither  he  had  been  driven  by  the 
persecutions  of  Offa.  The  years  which  he  had  spent  abroad 
had  not  been  lost.  He  had  been  within  that  charmed  circle 
which  surrounded  the  mighty  Frank.  He  had  looked  upon  a 
Teutonic  monarchy  at  its  best,  and  had  doubtless  studied  deep  and 
long  the  art  of  ruling  men ;  but  most,  the  peculiar  institutions 
which  lay  at  the  basis  of  the  Prankish  system.  How  much  he 
brought  back  with  him,  and  just  what  he  introduced  into  the 


54  THE    CONFEDERACIES    OF   TEUTONIC    BRITAIN  [egbkkt 

English  system,  we  shall  never  know;  but  the  striking  resem- 
blances of  English  and  Frankish  institutions  of  the  ninth  century 
can  not  all  be  ascribed  to  similarity  of  Teutonic  origin.  For  the 
first  thirteen  years  of  his  reign,  Egbert  seems  to  have  been  rally- 
ing the  shattered  forces  of  his  kingdom  and  nourishing  its  strength. 
In  814,  he  began  the  series  of  operations  against  the  West  Welsh, 
Cornwall,  which  resulted  in  the  final  subjugation  of  the  penin- 
sula. English  colonization,  however,  stopped  at  the 
Tamar.  For  centuries,  the  Cornishmen  retained  their 
own  dialect,  and  enjoyed  a  semi-independence.  Even  as  late  as  the 
seventeenth  century,  there  survived  a  Cornish  parliament,  with 
independence  enough  to  arrest  a  king's  sheriff  and  hold  him  until 
released  by  a  special  order  of  the  English  parliament. 

From  West  Wales,  Egbert  returned  to  protect  his  northern 
frontiers  against  an  advance  of  the  Mercians.  The  armies  met  at 
Eiiandun  Ellandun,  in  Wiltshire.  The  Mercians  were  utterly 
*^^-  routed,  and  Egbert  passed  at  once  to  the  overlordship 

of  the  region  south  of  the  Thames.  The  next  year,  the  East 
Angles  imitated  the  example  of  Wessex ;  renounced  the  Mercian 
dependence,  and  added  their  strength  to  the  growing  power  of 
Egbert.  Again  and  again,  the  allies  smote  the  sinking  Mercians. 
Two  successive  kings,  and  five  great  ealdormen,  were  slain  in  bat- 
tle. A  third  king  found  refuge  in  exile.  When,  in  829,  Egbert 
made  a  royal  progress  through  Mercia,  it  was  practically  his, 
as  much  as  Wessex.  The  Northumbrians  alone  remained,  but  a 
century  of  discord  had  so  weakened  their  power,  that  only  madness 
could  induce  their  king,  Eanred,  to  measure  swords  with  the  vic- 
tor of  Ellandun.  The  challenge  of  Egbert,  therefore,  was  sufficient 
to  bring  Eanred  to  his  southern  border,  there  to  acknowledge  the 
supremacy  of  the  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  and  enter  the  new  con- 
federacy as  a  vassal  king. 

By  the  end  of  830,  with  the  exception  of  Celtic  Strathclyde,  all 
the  lands  south  of  the  line  of  the  Forth  and  the  Solway  had  sub- 
mitted to  Egbert.  Through  all  this  magnificent  region,  the  princes, 
whether  Celt  or  Teuton,  acknowledged  the  overlordship  of  the 
southern  king.  The  vague  recognition  of  this  overlordship,  how- 
ever, did  not  constitute  these  vassal  states  into  a  kingdom  or  an 


830-839]  THE   KINGDOM    OF    EGBERT  55 

empire,  still  less  into  a  national  state. ^     Such  terms  applied  here 

are  only  confusing  and  misleading.     Egbert  had,  after  all,  only 

brought  together  such  another  confederacy  as  that  which 

The  nature  °,         °  ^         ,,         ^„  ,     ,  .  .       , 

of  the  80-  once  obeyed  Oswald  or  Offa;  only  larger  m  extent,  and, 
*'Kirwdomof  for  the  moment,  confronted  by  no  possible  rival 
north  or  south.  Yet,  it  had  been  established  by  the 
sword,  and  was  held  together  only  by  threat  of  the  sword.  Its 
size,  moreover,  was  a  source  of  weakness  rather  than  strength,  and 
made  the  advent  of  reaction  inevitable.  It  possessed  no  new  ele- 
ments of  permanence.  The  monarchy,  as  an  institution,  was 
firmly  established  in  the  minds  of  the  people.  The  church  had 
thrown  around  it  the  charm  of  special  sanctions,  borrowed  from 
the  imagery  and  rites  of  the  Old  Testament.  Yet,  the  monarchy 
was  not  one,  but  many ;  and,  although  the  right  of  the  witan  to 
select  the  sovereign  was  generally  recognized,  the  unwritten  laws 
of  the  tribes  also  recognized  the  claim  of  certain  royal  families, 
the  male  members  of  which  were  known  as  Elhelhigs,  to  the  exclu- 
sive enjoyment  of  the  royal  title  in  their  several  states.  Only  com- 
plete extermination  could  dissolve  this  claim,  or  save  the  king 
who  held  his  authority  by  conquest  from  the  challenge  of  some 
fugitive  rival  of  the  favored  blood.  As  long  as  this  idea  of  the 
ineradicable  nature  of  the  hereditary  claims  of  each  royal  family 
survived  in  the  laws  of  Mercians  or  East  Anglians,  of  Northum- 
bria  or  Kent,  any  consolidation  of  the  kingdoms  into  an  organized 
state,  under  one  sole  king,  and  administered  through  all  its 
parts  by  his  appointed  representatives,  was  impossible.  At  best, 
it  could  be  merely  a  question  of  time  before  the  confederacy  of 
Egbert,  also,  should  break  up,  and  the  constituent  kingdoms 
regroup  themselves  about  new  centers. 

And  yet  this  did  not  happen.  A  new  element,  the  Danish, 
now  violently  obtruded  itself  into  the  history  of  the  English 
tribes,  and,  although  the  great  part  of  the  conquests  of  Egbert  were, 
for  the  time,  torn  from  the  grasp  of  his  successors,  though  TVes- 
sex   itself  was  foully  smitten,   and  her  strength  shattered;   yet, 

^For  significance  of  term  Bretwalde,  as  used  by  Chronicle,  etc.,  cf. 
Freeman,  Norman  Conquest,  I,  Append.  A.,  and  Stubbs,  C.  H.,  I,  pp.  180 
and  181. 


56  THE    COJs'FEDEIlACIES    OF    TEUTONIC    BRITAIN  [egbert 

with  each  successive  defeat,  her  kings  returned  to  the  conflict  more 
desperate  and  more  determined  than  ever,  and,  at  last,  succeeded 
TheCmifed-  ^^  regaining  not  only  their  old  position,  but  much 
E^herftorn  ^^^'^-  ^^^»  ^^  ^^^®  ^^^S  struggle,  iiot  Only  wcre  all  other 
l^y  *H.  ^f  royal  lines  exterminated,  and  the  old  tribal  partitions 
the  Danes.  ^s  political  divisions  erased,  but  the  many  dominions 
were  at  last  fused  into  one  kingdom,  and  the  many  lordships 
absorbed  in  one  kingship.  In  a  word,  Teutonic  Britain  became 
England,  and  the  kings  of  the  West  Saxons  became  kings  of  the 
English.  The  progress  of  these  changes  constitutes  the  subject 
matter  of  the  next  chapter  of  English  history. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE    DANISH    WARS.        ALFRED    THE    GKEAT    AND    THE    FOUNDING 
OF   THE    ENGLISH    KINGDOM 

THE  FAMILY  OF  ALFRED 

Egl)ert,  802-830 

1 

Ethelwulf,  889-855,  d.  858 

I 

I 1 1 1 

Ethelbald,  85.>-860       Ethelbert,  800-806         Ethelred,  800-S71  Alfukd,  871-901 


Edward  tlio  Elder,  901-925  Ethelfleda,  d.  019. 

I  '*The  I  Jidy  of  the  Mercians' 


I  I  I  =  Etiielrod,  Ealdormau  of 

Athelstan,  925-910  Edmund,  940-946  Edred,  946-966        Merclu. 

Edwy,  955-959  Edgar,  959-973 

For  two  hundred  years,  Britain  had  received  no  fresh  accessions 
of  Teutonic  life  from  beyond  the  seas;  but,  in  the  closing  years  of 
the  eighth  century,  a  new  wave  began  to  break  upon  the  eastern 
shore,  and,  increasing  in  volume  with  the  opening  of  the  ninth  century 
threatened  to  sweep  away  the  older  Teutonic  settlers,  as  the  Angles 
and  Saxons  had  once  overwhelmed  and  swept  away  the  remnant  of 
the  Britons.  This  new  Germanic  population  came  from  the  two 
great  peninsulas  which  separate  the  waters  of  the  Baltic  from 
the  waters  of  the  North  Sea.  The  people  of  Britain  called  them 
Danes;  the  Irish,  whose  eastern  coasts  were  harried  by  them  as 
severely  as  the  coasts  of  Britain,  knew  them  as  Ostmen^  or  Eastmen; 
the  people  of  the  continent,  as  Northmen.  The  name  which  they 
themselves  used  was  Vikings^  or  Creehmen.  They  were  of 
Teutonic  stock,  like  the  Angles  and  Saxons,  and  possessed  in  gen- 
eral the  same  institutions. 

57 


58  THE    DANISH    WARS  [egbert 

The  first  experience  of  the  inhabitants  of  Britain  with  these 
new  troublers  of  the  peace  of  the  island  dates  as  far  back  as  the 
year  787,  when  three  strange  crafts  suddenly  appeared 
anceofthe  '  before  the  town  of  Warham,  in  Dorset.  The  simple- 
minded  reeve^  ignorant  of  the  true  character  of  the 
strangers,  went  out  to  collect  his  port  dues,  and  bring  the  sup- 
posed merchants  to  the  king,  as  was  his  duty;  but  was  straightway 
slain  for  his  pains.  It  was  not,  however,  until  six  years  later, 
that  the  Northmen  gave  the  people  of  Britain  a  fore- 
taste of  the  mischief  which  they  might  expect  at  their 
hands,  when  they  swooped  down  upon  Lindisfarne  and  plundered 
its  famous  church.  The  next  year,  they  returned,  and  Benedict 
Biscop's  settlements  at  Wearmouth  and  Jarrow  suffered  the  same 
fate.  The  Christian  ruffians  of  the  age  generally  passed  by  such 
retreats.  The  legends  of  hoarded  wealth  failed  to  rouse  their 
cupidity  to  the  extent  of  braving  the  wrath  of  the  protecting 
saints.  But  the  appeals  and  imprecations  of  shaveling  monks, 
who  had  forgotten  how  to  fight,  only  roused  the  derision  of  the 
pagan  Northmen  and  added  to  the  sport  of  the  plundering. 

In  the  year  795,  they  reached  Ireland,  and  began  a  series  of 
depredations  on  the  eastern  coast,  which  continued  for  more  than 
TheNfrrfhmen^  quarter  of  a  century.  In  832,  the  pirate  king  Thorkil 
in  Ireland,  made  a  permanent  settlement  on  the  north  coast,  and 
established  his  capital  at  Armagh.  About  the  same  time,  another 
settlement  was  made  at  Limerick ;  a  little  later  others  were  made 
at  Dublin  and,  in  the  next  century,  at  Waterford  and  Cork. 

The  first  comers  were  probably  from  Norway,  and  had  used 
only  the  northern  route,  which  lay  directly  across  the  North  Sea; 
Increased  ac-  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^^'  '^^  doubt,  that  the  lower  coasts  of 
DmiLs^dfier  ^^'i^^i'^  owed  the  long  immunity  from  attack  whicli  fol- 
alarilsVie  ^^^^^  ^^^  plunder  of  Lindisfarne  and  Jarrow.  But, 
Great,  814.  after  the  death  of  Charles  the  Great,  the  people  of 
the  Danish  peninsula  began  to  take  part  in  these  piratical  expedi- 
tions, picking  their  way  along  the  coasts  of  the  modern  Holland  and 
Belgium,  running  their  long  black  crafts  up  into  each  river  inlet,  in 
search  of  monastery  or  unprotected  river  town  for  plunder.  Each 
year  they  extended  their  depredations  farther  to  the  west ;  spread- 


833-843]  .    THE    DAXES    IX    SOUTHERN    IJIilTAIN  59 

ing  terror  before  them,  and  leaving  a  memory  of  horror  behind 
them.  Homesteads  were  burned,  men  slaughtered,  chiklren  tossed 
on  pikes,  and  women  were  driven  away  into  slavery;  monasteries 
were  rifled,  churches  destroyed,  and  priests  slain  at  their  altars. 
Rumor  everywhere  added  to  the  actual  horrors  of  these  scenes. 
The  courage  of  strong  men  melted  as  in  the  presence  of  the  pes- 
tilence. The  pious  saw  the  hand  of  God,  who,  out  of  the  mysteri- 
ous mists  of  the  boundless  sea,  had  let  slip  these,  his  avengers,  to 
punish  his  people  for  their  sins. 

At  last,  in  the  year  833,  a  fleet  of  twenty-five  vessels 
iM)on  South     appeared  in  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  and  ravaged  the 

little  island  of  Sheppey.  In  834,  another  band,  esti- 
mated at  twelve  hundred  strong,  made  a  landing  in  Dorset. 
Egbert  hastened  to  meet  thom,  but  was  virtually  defeated;  the  next 
Henaeatdun  y^*^^»  however,  at  Ilengestdun,  he  succeeded  in  winning  a 
^^'  brilliant    victory    over    a    third     horde,    which     had 

descended  from  Ireland  upon  Cornwall.  He  was  not  again  molested 
during  his  reign.  The  memory  of  the  slaughter  at  Ilengestdun 
was  enough  to  keep  the  Danes  at  bay  until  the  accession  of 
Ethel  wulf. 

With  Ethelwulf,  the  attempts  of  the  Danes  upon  south  Britain 
began  again.     The  new  king,  like  his  contemporary,  Louis  the 

Pious,  was  entirely  unfitted  for  the  work  to  which 
iin^uifa/ter  destiny  had  appointed  him;  a  fairly  respectable  monk 
Euben  having  been  spoiled  in  making  a  king.     Each  ealdorman 

was  left  to  do  the  best  he  could  for  his  own  district; 
and  a  noble  record  those  ealdormen  made,  in  glaring  contrast 
with  the  shameful  incompetency  of  the  king.  Sometimes  the 
ealdormen  were  successful,  as  when  Eanulf  and  Osric  won  a  victory 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Parret  in  848;  but  more  frequently  the 
ealdorman  fell  in  hopeless  battle,  as  Ethelhelm  at  Portland,  or 
Herebryht  in  the  Fen  country,  or  he  retired,  beaten,  to  die  of  his 
wounds,  as  Wulfheard  after  Southampton.  The  climax  was 
reached  in  842,  when  London  and  Rochester  were  sacked,  their 
population  scattered,  and  the  cities  left  in  ruin. 

The  suffering  of  those  who  survived  these  raids  can  hardly  be 
overdrawn.     Homes    were    broken   up,    the   means   of    livelihood 


60  THE    DANISH   WARS  .  [ethklwulf 

destroyed,  and  families  scattered  never  to  be  reunited.     In  844, 

the  devastations  of  the  country  had  become  so  widely  extended,  that 

Ethel wulf  proposed  a  remission  of  the  royal  rents  as  a 

%  ^Ye  S^^^  poor,  always  the  first  to  suffer  in  "hard  times, "  had 

so  increased  in  numbers,  that  the  king  made  special 
provision  in  his  will  for  feeding  and  clothing  them  at  the  expense 
of  the  royal  estates. 

Thus  far  the  invaders  had  come  mostly  in  detached  bands  of  a 
few  hundred  warriors,  bent  only  upon  securing  plunder,  and  mak- 
ing off  with  it  before  a  sufficient  force  could  be  gathered 
S^JT^"^'^  to  punish  them.  But,  in  the  year  850,  a  fleet  of  three 
atockiey,  hundred  and  fifty  ships,  carrying  possibly  ten  or  twelve 
thousand  men,  wintered  at  Sheppey,  and,  in  the  early 
spring,  boldly  entered  the  Thames.  Canterbury,  and  London  for 
the  second  time,  had  to  pay  dearly  for  their  prominence  among 
the  cities  of  the  southeast.  Beorhtwulf ,  the  vassal  king  of  Mercia, 
threw  himself  in  the  path  of  the  invaders,  but  was  defeated  and  his 
army  scattered.  Then  the  host  crossed  into  Surrey,  but  at 
Ockley  Ethelwulf  met  them  at  the  head  of  the  West  Saxon  fyrd, 
and  administered  such  a  beating,  that  the  * 'memory  of  the  great 
slaughter  of  heathen"  long  remained  in  Saxon  tradition.  Ethel- 
wulf, however,  seems  to  have  taken  little  advantage  of  his  victory, 
wasting  his  strength  in  a  useless  war  upon  the  Welsh;  while  his 
ealdormen  struggled  alone  to  dislodge  the  Danes  from  Thanet  and 
other  places  where  they  had  gained  a  permanent  footing.  When, 
in  855,  another  horde  gathered  at  Sheppey,  preparatory  to  a 
descent  upon  the  neighboring  coasts  in  the  spring,  the  king  seized 
the  moment  to  go  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Eome,  quite  the  "fad"  among 
the  rich  saints  of  the  day.  So,  to  Rome  he  went,  with  another 
war  cloud  about  to  burst  upon  his  people;  and  the  witan.  Justly 
indignant,  held  a  meeting  at  Selwood,  and,  exercising  their  consti- 
tutional right  of  deposition,  the  corollary  of  their  right  of  election, 
made  Ethelbald,  the  eldest  son,  king. 

Ethelwulf  returned  in  856,  but  had  to  content  himself  with  an 
under-kingdom  made  up  of  Kent,  Essex,  Surrey,  and  Sussex.  He 
survived  only  two  years,  and  then  his  sons  followed  him  in  quick 


8C0-870]  HEALFDENE    AKD    IVAK   THE    BONELESS  61 

succession.     When  Ethelbald  died,  in  860,  the  second  brother, 
Ethelbert,  was  already  the  vassal  king  of   Kent,   but,   instead    of 

appointing  a  successor  in  Kent,  he  retained  both  crowns, 
Mheiwuif     ^^^  ^^^^  ^^®  existence  of  Kent  as  a  separate  kingdom 

came  to  an  end.  After  six  years,  death  again  made  way 
for  another  of  Ethelwulf's  sons,  and  Ethelred  became  king.  Dur- 
ing Ethel bert's  reign,  the  old  capital,  Winchester,  had  been  taken 
and  sacked  by  the  Danes,  and  eastern  Kent  overrun.  The  Danes, 
moreover,  had  been  showing  alarming  intentions  of  permanently 
establishing  themselves  upon  English  soil.     In  the  year  866,  the 

first  of  Ethelred's  reign,  a  great  host  landed  in  East 
Northum-       Anglia,    under   the   leadership   of   the   famous   chiefs, 

Healfdene  and  Ivar.  The  East  Auglians  saved  them- 
selves for  the  time  by  supplying  the  invaders  with  provisions  and 
liorses,  and  in  the  spring,  saw  the  horde  disappear  to  the  northwest, 
upon  a  regular  inland  campaign.  The  Danes  swept  through  Lindsey, 
devouring  the  country  and  burning  what  they  could  not  carry  off. 

The  Ilumber  was  crossed  and  Deira  overrun.  In 
Nmxmhcr,   '  November,   York  fell.     Then   the  two  rival  kings  of 

Northumbria,  Ella  and  Osbert,  whose  strife  had  made 
their  country  a  prey  to  the  Danes,  arranged  their  differences,  and 
united  for  the  recovery  of  the  northern  capital;  but  their  reckless 
courage  only  gave  the  enemy  a  better  opportunity  for  slaughter. 
Both  kings  were  slain  under  the  walls  of  York,  and  the  Northum- 
brian army,  with  its  eight  ealdormen,  dispersed.  Healfdene 
established  himself  at  York,  and  set  up  a  puppet,  one  Egbert,  over 
the  Bernicians. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Ivar,  known  by  the  curious  nickname  of  *Hhe 
Boneless,"    advanced    into    Mercia,    and   established   himself    in 

Nottingham.  Mercia  would  have  followed  the  fate  of 
Boneless:'      Northumbria  had  not  Ethelred  marched  to  the  aid  of 

in  Mercia  ,  ti.  -r»  n  iiiciiTirj. 

and  East  the  under-king,  Burgred,  at  the  head  of  the  West 
Saxons.  Alfred  appears  in  this^  campaign  holding  high 
command  under  his  brother,  and  is  henceforth  one  of  the  prom- 
inent figures  in  the  wars.  The  Danes  were  disheartened  by  the 
vigorous  campaigning  of  the  West  Saxon  princes,  and  agreed  to 
retire  across  the  Humber.    But  the  year  870  saw  them  again  on 


62  THE    DANISH    WARS  [ethelred 

the  war  path,  under  the  same  Ivar,  *'the  Boneless,"  and  heading 
toward  East  Anglia.  The  Lindiswara  were  reduced,  and  the  Fen 
country  was  overvyhelmed.  In  East  Anglia,  the  under  king, 
Edmund,  attempted  to  face  them,  but  was  routed,  taken,  and 
afterwards,  in  company  with  his  bishop,  Humbert  of  Elm  ham, 
tied  to  a  tree  and  shot  to  death  with  arrows.  He  is 
'^Edmund  ^^  known  in  church  traditions  as  "the  Martyr," — the  Eng- 
lish St.  Sebastian.  To  the  panic-stricken  people,  the 
struggle  was  rapidly  assuming  the  aspect  of  a  religious  war.  The 
invaders  turned  their  fury  particularly  upon  the  visible  representa- 
tives of  the  Christian  faith.  Every  church  edifice  in  the  line  of 
march  was  burned.  The  monks  of  Medehamstede,  the  later  Peter- 
borough, were  massacred  without  mercy.  The  monks  of  other 
monastic  communities,  as  Croyland  and  Ely,  probably  shared  the 
same  fate.  The  bishop  of  Lindsey  escaped  only  by  hasty  flight, 
but  other  priests,  like  Humbert  of  Elmham,  died  with  their 
people.  The  episcopal  sees  were  broken  up,  and  the  flocks  scat- 
tered. Nearly  a  century  passed  before  Lindsey  and  Elmham  again 
saw  a  bishop.     Dunwich  never  recovered. 

The  Danes  had  already  prepared  themselves  to  hold  what  tbcy 
had  won  in  East  Anglia,  by  constructing  elaborate  earthworks  at 

Thetford,   the  remains  of    which,   even  to-day,   cover 
The  *'Y'ecir 
of  Battles,"     about  thirteen  acres.     Their  purpose,  apparently,  was 

not  to  settle  as  colonists,  but  to  make  East  Anglia  a 

base  in  operating  against  the  richer   country  which  lay  to  the 

west.     Accordingly,  in  871,  with  numbers  greatly  strengthened  by 

later  accessions,  under  Healfdene  and  "a  host  of  jarls,"  they  took 

the  old  Eoman  road,  the  Icknield  street,  and  advanced  directly 

upon  Wessex.     The  moment  was  a  critical  one  in  English  history. 

Northumbria    and   East    Anglia    were    already   conquered;     the 

strength  of  Mercia  was  broken;  only  Wessex  remained,  the  last 

bulwark  of  England.     If  the  West  Saxons  failed  now,  the  end  was 

near.    The  opening  of  the  year,  long  known  as  the  *  'year  of  battles, ' ' 

was  discouraging  enough.     The  Danes  took  up  a  strong  position 

at    Reading,  between  the  Thames  and  the  Kennet,  where  they 

fortified  themselves,  as  was  now  their  custom.     Then  they  began 

to  spread  out  over  the  country  in  search  of  forage;  for  a  medieval 


87l]  THE    YEAR    OF    BATTLES  63 

army,  even  of  civilized  nations,  had  no  other  way  of  sustaining 
itself  in  the  field.  King  Ethelred  and  Alfred  Etheling,  however, 
soon  pnt  a  stop  to  the  foraging  by  driving  the  Danes  behind  their 
earthworks.  They  had  then  only  to  sit  down  to  a  regular  siege, 
and  hunger  would  soon  have  compelled  the  Danes  to  treat.  Such 
simple  tactics  were  followed  later  with  great  success.  But  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  West  Saxons  could  not  be  restrained,  and,  in  an 
jittempt  to  carry  the  camp  by  storm,  they  were  beaten  off  with 
great  slaughter  and  compelled  to  retire  up  the  Thames,  where  a 
second  battle  was  fought  at  Ashdown.  Here,  though  forced  to 
fight  at  a  great  disadvantage,  the  West  Saxon  princes  were  success- 
ful, and  compelled  the  Danes  again  to  retire  upon  Reading. 
Within  two  weeks,  a  tliird  battle  followed  at  Basing,  and  still  a 
fourth  at  Me r ton,  in  Surrey. 

The  fatigue  and  anxiety  of    such  vigorous  campaigning  told 

heavily  upon  King  Ethelred,  who  finally  broke  under  the  strain, 

and  died  about  a  fortnight  after  Merton.     Alfred,  who 

of  Alfred,       had  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  successes  of  the 

871 

army,  who  had  endeared  himself  to  his  men  by  the 
exhibition  of  true  soldierly  qualities,  and  had  won  their  confidence 
by  his  wisdom  and  skill  as  a  leader,  was  at  once  selected  as  king. 
Two  sons  survived  Ethelred,  but  the  law  of  strict  hereditary  suc- 
cession had  not  yet  been  established.  These  were  days,  moreover, 
when  regal  honors  were  neither  to  be  lightly  sought  nor  lightly 
conferred;  so  the  young  children  of  Ethelred  were  set  aside,  and 
the  young  man  Alfred,  probably  in  his  twenty-sixth  year,  became 
king,  the  ''people's  darling,"  the  hope  of  the  England  to  be. 

Alfred  had  little  time  for  fetes  or  celebrations,  and  at  once 

addressed  himself  to  the  serious  problem  of  the  hour :  how  to  rid 

his  eastern  kingdom  of  the  Danes  and  restore  again  his 

The  Danes  .  °  ^r-  ^  .  ^       -,,-,•,  - 

retire  from  smitten  country.  Withm  a  month,  he  brought  his 
battle- weary  people  to  face  their  foes  again  at  Wilton, 
whither  they  had  recently  advanced  from  their  old  camp  at  Read- 
ing. The  Danes  won  the  day,  but  the  hard  fighting  was  beginning 
to  tell  upon  their  strength,  for  they  had  been  forced  to  fight  nine 
pitched  battles  in  five  months.  They  were  glad,  therefore,  to  take 
advantage  of  their  last  victory  and  retire  from  Wessex. 


64  THE    DANISH    WAllS  [alfred 

The  next  position  of  the  Danish  army  was  on  the  lower 
Thames,  near  London.  Here,  however,  the  country  had  already 
been  stripped  bare,  and  they  were  soon  compelled  to 
inEaS!mi  ^^^^^  ^  ^^^^^  camp  at  Torksey,  on  the  Trent,  whence  they 
'and^myrth-  ^^^^^^  Operations  upon  Mercia,  and,  in  a  short  time, 
'^t>ria,  reduced  all  the  eastern    and  central  parts.     Bnrgred, 

the  last  Mercian  king  of  the  old  line,  apparently,  saw 
little  chance  of  success  in  continuing  the  struggle,  and  took  him- 
self off  to  Rome  to  die.  As  in  Northumbria,  Ilealfdene  set  up 
a  puppet  king  over  the  parts  of  Mercia  which  he  did  not  care  to 
take  for  his  people ;  but  the  parts  about  Leicester,  Nottingham, 
Derby,  Stamford,  and  Lincoln  he  divided  among  his  followers. 
These  towns,  the  famous  "Five  Boroughs,"  soon  became 
Bw-'imgM  '  ^^go^ous  Centers  of  Danish  life.  We  do  not  know  the 
terms  upon  which  the  Danes  settled,  but  it  is  not  likely 
that  they  disturbed  the  tillers  of  the  soil,  who  were  now  practically 
serfs  over  all  England.  It  is  more  likely  that  they  simply  ejected 
the  landowners  and  lived  upon  the  labor  of  their  tenants. 

The  memory  of  the  old  life  of  plunder,  however,  was  still  too 
strong  upon  the  Danes  to  allow  them  to  settle  down  into  quiet  land- 
lords, and,  leaving  a  sufficient  force  to  hold  what  they 
armput^the  ^^^^  won,  they  continued  to  lead  out  their  armies  both 
theStif  north  and  south,  to  plunder  the  country  and  exhaust 
the  resources  of  the  states  which  still  survived.  In 
the  spring  of  875,  Healfdene  led  a  horde  up  the  west  coast,  to 
complete  the  pillage  of  North umbria.  Carlisle  was  left  in  ruins, 
and  so  remained  until  restored  by  William  Eufus  more  than  two 
hundred  years  later.  The  Britons  of  Strathclyde  and  the  Picts  of 
Galloway  bowed  to  the  storm.  Then  Bernicia,  which  had  been 
spared  in  867,  was  also  compelled  to  yield  up  its  treasures.  Lin- 
disfarne,  which  had  recovered  somewhat  from  the  raid  of  793,  was 
again  destroyed,  and  every  monastery  from  sea  to  sea,  it  is  said, 
shared  the  same  fate. 

The  north  now  lay  in  ashes.  The  libraries  of  Jarrow  and 
York,  associated  with  the  great  names  of  Bede  and  Alcuin,  had  gone 
up  in  flames.  The  "art  treasures"  and  the  "book  treasures"  so 
carefully  gathered  by  Benedict  Biscop  had  been  either  destroyed  or 


876]  GUTHRUM   IN   WESSEX  G5 

scattered.     The  service  of  the  chnrch  had  been  supplanted  by 
the  bloody  feasts  of  Odin  and  Thor,  and  the  successors  of  Wilfrid 

and  Cuthbert  either  been  slain  at  their  altars  or  driven 
^m"*^^?*  out  to  wander  in  strange  lands.  Then,  when  there  was 
%alieis  nothing  left  to  plunder,  the  booty  thirst  of    Healfdene 

and  his  pirates  seemed  to  be  satisfied,  and  they 
began  in  serious  earnest  to  make  themselves  homes  in  the  land 
which  they  had  desolated.  To  know  how  numerous  and  widely 
extended  these  settlements  were,  then  and  later,  the  student  has 
only  to  take  a  modern  map  and  note  the  town  names  of  eastern, 
middle,  and  northern  England.  Wherever  he  finds  an  English 
town  with  the  ending  %,  he  may  know  that  he  is  on  the  track  of 
Healfdene  and  other  Danes,  who,  like  him,  came  to  rob  and 
pillage,  but,  weary  of  plunder  at  last,  settled  down  into  peaceable 
landowners. 

Wliile  Healfdene  was  thus  clearing  the  ground  for  the  planting 
of  Danish  communities  in  the  north,  Guthrum,  an  East  Anglian 

Dane,  who  had  succeeded  Ivar,  **the  Boneless,"  gath- 
Smid^r  ®^®^  ^  ^^^^^y  ^^^^  ^°  ^^®  spring  of  876,  took  to  the  sea. 
H^««ex,         Passing  around  Kent  and  sailing  westward,  he  made  a 

junction  with  a  second  fleet,  coming  probably  from  Ire- 
land, and  brought  the  combined  hordes  to  land  at  Wareham,  in 
Dorset.  Here,  as  at  Reading,  the  Danes  fortified  themselves,  and 
began  to  overrun  the  surrounding  country,  extending  their  depre- 
dations over  the  entire  region.  In  the  spring,  they  advanced  to 
Exeter,  which  a  band  of  their  comrades  had  seized  the  year  before. 
Alfred  followed  warily,  crippled,  no  doubt,  by  the  instability  and 
irregularity  of  the  fyrd,  the  '*minute  men"  of  early  English  his- 
tory; avoiding  pitched  battles,  he  could  yet  cut  off  foraging 
parties  and  prevent  the  Danes  from  getting  supplies.  Thus,  at 
Exeter,  as  at  Wareham,  hunger,  the  vigorous  ally  of  Alfred,  soon 
compelled  the  Danes  to  move,  and  a  part  of  the  horde  marched 
into  Mercia  and  took  up  a  third  station  at  Gloucester. 

Medieval  armies,  by  common  consent,  were  accustomed  to  dis- 
band in  the  winter  months  and  return  to  their  homes.  The 
Danes,  however,  by  their  custom  of  establishing  permanent  for- 
tified camps,  were  able  to  winter  m  the  field  and  so  had  a  great 


Q6  THE    DANISH    WARS  [.\m.m.;i> 

advantage  over  the  temporary  levies  of  Alfred.  The  English, 
moreover  were  rendered  inert  by  fear;  they  shrank  from  the 
sufferings  and  perils  of  a  winter  campaign  in  the  face 
Atheiney.  of  such  an  enemy.  Furthermore,  men  who  had  left 
their  families  for  months  to  the  care  and  pro- 
tection of  old  men  and  boys,  could  well  plead  that  they  were 
needed  at  home.  Alfred,  therefore,  found  it  impossible  to  keep 
the  field,  and  withdrew  to  the  deep  recesses  of  the  forests  of 
Somerset.  Late  in  the  winter,  he  established  himself  in  a  fort  at 
Athelney,  behind  the  marshes  of  the  Parret,  where  he  was  pro- 
tected against  any  sudden  advance  of  tlie  Danish  cavalry,  but 
could  watch  their  movements  and  offer  a  rendezvous  for  his  people. 
Athelney  was  Alfred's  "Valley  Forge";  nor  is  it  difficult  for  the 
imagination  to  picture  the  patient  waiting  and  the  heroic  suffer- 
ing of  the  little  band  who  still  clung  to  their  king,  as  they  watched 
and  waited  for  the  spring  to  open  the  ways  of  the  forest  and  enable 
the  thanes  of  Somerset  to  join  their  standard  again. ^ 

Soon  after  Easter,  the  fyrd  of  Somerset  began  to  come 
and  in,  and  Alfred  was  soon  enabled  to  leave  his  hiding-place 

and  take  the  field.     On  the  eastern  margin  of  Selwood, 
near  Warminster,  the  fyrds  of  Wiltshire  and  Hampshire  also  joined 
him,  and  with  this  force  he  advanced  to  meet  the  Danes  at  Chip- 
penham, whither  they  had  removed  from  Exeter  in  Jan- 
Edington,       nary.     At  Edington,  eight  miles  from  their  camp,  he 
took  up  a  strong  position,  and  waited  for  them  to  attack 
him.     The  battle  was  long  and  bloody,  but  the  Danes  were  beaten 
and  compelled  to  retire.     Then,  for  fourteen  days,  Alfred  besieged 
them  at  Chippenham,  and,  finally,  by  the  grim  logic  of 
famine,   brought  them    to  accept   his   offer  of   peace. 
They  must  leave  Wessex  and  settle  down  as  peaceful  landowners 
east  of  the  old  line  of  Watling  Street.     This  land  was  already 

^  The  old  tale  of  Alfred  and  the  burned  cakes,  belongs  to  this  winter 
at  Athelney.  Its  authority,  however,  is  somewhat  doubtful;  and  yet  it  is 
not  unlikely  that  the  incident  or  something  like  it,  really  happened,  in 
connection  with  some  one  of  the  many  expeditions  in  which  Alfred  no 
doubt  often  went  out  in  person  to  seek  news  of  the  enemy  or  find  forage 
for  his  men. 


8'r 


.       i  liia^  *ii<<iti 


OITITSA'-? 


bi-m  ^tiiv 


PARTITION  OF 

ENGM.AND 

by  treaty  of 

WEDMORE 


878j  ALFRED    AND     GUTHRUM'S    PEACE  67 

theirs.  They  had  wasted  it  and  occupied  it;  now  let  them  stay 
there.  They  should  not  be  disturbed,  only,  as  a  pledge  of  good 
faith,  let  Guthrum,  their  king,  acknowledge  Alfred  as  overlord 
and  submit  to  Christian  baptism.  The  pledge  of  Guthrum  was 
fulfilled  to  the  letter.  He  and  thirty  of  his  nobles  were  baptized 
at  Aller,  near  Athelney.  Alfred  himself  acted  as  godfather  to  his 
new  vassal,  and  gave  him  the  now  Christian  name  of  Athelstan. 
Godfather  and  neophyte  tlien  retired  to  Wedmore,  where  the 
terms  of  the  truce  were  formally  ratified  in  the  famous 
i,i  wahnurc,  *'fryth,"  kuowu  as  ''Alfred  and  Guthrum's  Peace."  * 
*'This  is  the  peace,"  it  runs,  *'that  King  Alfred  and 
King  Guthrum,  and  the  witan  of  all  the  nation  of  the  Angles,  and 
all  the  people  that  are  in  East  Anglia,  have  all  ordained,  and  with 
oaths  confirmed,  for  themselves  and  for  their  descendants,  as  well 
born  as  for  unborn,  who  reck  of  God's  mercy  or  of  ours." 

By  the  agreement  of  the  two  kings,  the  boundaries  of  their 
kingdoms  were  definitely  fixed  as  follows,  *'up  on  the  Thames,  and 
then  on  the  Lea,  and  along  the  Lea  unto  its  source, 
„f  nir^^^  then  right  to  Bedford,  then  up  on  the  Ouse  unto  Wat- 
ling  Street."  Each  people  were  to  keep  to  their  own 
side  of  the  boundary.  The  Danes  were  not  to  seek  service  under 
Alfred;  his  people  were  not  to  seek  service  under  Guthrum;  but 
commercial  dealings  were  to  be  allowed,  and  Englishmen  and  Danes 
were  to  be  held  ''equally  dear"  on  either  side  of  the  boundary,  and 
to  be  protected  by  the  local  laws.  Thus,  all  England  east  of 
Watling  Street  was  formally  ceded  to  the  Danes.  Wessex,  and 
Western  Mercia,  however,  had  been  saved.  This  was  much.  It 
was  more  to  have  established  some  basis  upon  which  Englishmen 
and  Danes  might  dwell  together  in  peace. 

England,  east  of  the  line  of  Wedmore  and  north  to  the  borders 

of  Bernicia,  soon  became  known  as  the  Danelagh;  that  is,   the 

country,  where  the  law  of  the  Danes  prevailed,  in  dis- 

wcTkIi         tinction  from  the  country  where  English  law  prevailed. 

meMi'u'^^      This  region,  however,  was  not  one  kingdom,  but  many. 

The  Danes,  like  the  Teutonic  settlers  of  two  centuries 

^  The  so-called  Treaty  of  Wedmore,  as  we  have  it,  was  probably  made 
a  year,  possibly  several  years,  later.     Stubbs,  Select  Charters,  pp.  63,  64. 


68  THE    DANISH    WARS  [ Alfred 

earlier,  gathered  in  separate  communities,  about  centers  of  popu- 
lation, each  under  its  own  jarl  or  king;  but  linked  together  in 
loose  confederacies.  South  of  Watling  Street,  there  was  now  one 
kingdom  and  one  king.  It  is,  moreover,  significant,  that,  although 
Alfred  continued  through  his  reign  to  style  himself  simply  *'king 
of  the  West  Saxons,"  in  the  Treaty  of  Wedmore  his  people  are 
called  * 'English"  in  distinction  from  the  Danes.  Possibly  the 
application  of  the  name  to  the  West  Saxons  had  been  brought  into 
general  use  by  the  Danes,  who  failed  to  distinguish  between 
Angles  and  Saxons,  and  knew  only  the  name  of  the  people  with 
whom  they  had  first  come  in  contact.^ 

Alfred  could  now  undertake  the  great  work  of  his  reign,  the 
restoration    and    reorganization    of    the    Anglo-Saxon    kingdom. 

Little  of  the  old  order  was  left;  ealdormen  and  kings 
demsluion     ^^^  been  swept  away;   peace  officers  had  disappeared, 

and  the  old  rude  courts  for  the  protection  of  private 
rights,  abandoned.  Sees  had  been  broken  up;  churches  and 
monasteries  destroyed,  and  bishops  and  abbots  slaughtered  or 
driven  into  exile.  Cities  lay  in  ruins;  whole  regions  were  waste, 
their  populations  destroyed  or  scattered  by  famine  and  the 
sword.  With  the  destruction  of  the  church,  the  sources  of  moral 
and  intellectual  life  had  also  dried  up.  The  very  fibers  of  society 
were  loosened.  Yet,  in  spite  of  the  general  wreck,  there  still  sur- 
vived the  elements  of  the  older  organization,  elements  into  which 
the  character  of  the  people  had  already  breathed  its  life.  With 
rare  wisdom,  Alfred  seized  upon  these  elements,  and  made  them 
the  foundation  of  the  new  England. 

Western  Mercia  was  committed  to  Ethelred,  who  ruled  it  as  a 
dependent  principality,  under  the  title  of  ealdorman.     Alfred  gave 

his  own  immediate  attention  to  Wessex  and  the  other 
^anizts^and  kingdoms  south  of  the  Thames.  Here,  he  sought  to 
thtx^siem    ^®^^  ^^®  shattered  fragments  of  these  ancient  states  into 

a  single  compact  kingdom.  As  far  back  as  the  days  of 
Ine,  Wessex  appears  to  have  enjoyed  a  somewhat  thoroughly 
organized  shire  system.     But  Wessex  was  very  small  then,  and  her 

*See  Gregory's  letter  to  Augustine  for  early  use  of  name  "English" 
(Angli)  as  a  general  term.     Gee  and  Hardy,  Documents,  etc.,  p.  9. 


ALFRED    ORGANIZES   THE    KINGDOM  69 

handful  of  shires  occupied  only  a  small  portion  of  the  territory  of 
Teutonic  Britain.  The  rest  of  the  country  was  governed  by 
petty  kings,  or  semi -independent  ealdormen,  who  ruled  each  in  his 
own  seven-by-nine  kingdom,  holding  his  court  in  the  open  gate  and 
knowing  no  intermediate  jurisdiction  between  himself  and  the 
local  court  of  the  hundred.  But  now  the  old  kingdoms  were  gone, 
with  king  and  ealdormen,  their  hundred  courts  and  their  gate 
courts ;  yet  the  names  and  boundaries,  and,  most  valuable  of  all,  the 
habit  and  the  traditions  of  local  cooperation  for  local  administration 
remained.  Upon  the  lines  of  the  old  tribal  kingdoms,  therefore, 
Alfred  organized  and  established  the  new  shires ;  each  a  simple 
administrative  district,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  its  own  court, 
and  presided  over  by  its  own  steward,  the  scir-gerefa^  whom  wo 
know  by  the  modern  name  of  sheriff.  By  the  side  of  the  sheriff 
sat  also  the  ealdorman  and  the  bishop.  It  is  not  possible  to  dis- 
tinguish clearly  the  respective  duties  of  these  officers  in  the 
shire,  but  the  sheriff  was  **the  constituting  officer''  of  the  court. 
It  is  not  likely  that  ealdorman  and  bishop  were  always  present, 
but  the  sheriff,  as  the  representative  of  the  king,  must  be ;  without 
him,  there  could  be  no  shire  court.  It  was  his  duty,  also,  to  look 
after  the  interests  of  his  master  in  the  care  of  the  crown  lands  within 
his  shire,  and  the  collection  of  fines  and  dues.  It  was  the  ealdor- 
man's  duty  to  command  the  military  levies  of  the  shire, — the  fyrd. 
He  was  responsible  for  their  condition;  for  the  promptness  with 
which  they  took  the  field.  It  was  his,  also,  to  lead  them  in  bat- 
tle, to  encourage  them  by  his  example,  to  hearten  and  cheer  them 
by  his  fortitude  under  trial,  by  his  courage  in  the  face  of  peril.  The 
sheriff  was  appointed  by  the  king,  but  the  ealdorman  was  elected 
by  the  witan,  of  which  august  body  he  was  also  a  member,  and  to 
whose  councils  he  contributed  his  wisdom.  The  bishop  also  had 
his  interests  in  the  shire;  his  people  were  amenable  to  its  court; 
the  innocent,  the  poor,  and  the  friendless  must  be  protected 
against  injustice  in  the  name  of  law;  the  various  religious  forms 
connected  with  the  crude  methods  of  trial  must  be  superintended 
in  the  name  of  the  church. 

The  king  himself  might  be  present  in  the  shire  court;  for  this 
is  to  be  born  in  mind,  that  the  shire  court  was  the  lineal  successor 


70  THE    DANISH    WARS  [alfred 

of  the  old  petty  royal  court.  Hence,  its  character  as  a  king's  court 
was  always  maintained.  The  king  and  his  witan  were  theoretically 
present  in  the  sheriff,  the  ealdorman,  and  the  bishop. 

Neither  shire  nor  shire   court  was    the   invention  of  Alfred; 
both  had  existed  in  Wessex  for  fully  a  hundred  years  before  his 

time.  The  name  scir,  which  was  used  at  first,  prob- 
Aifredin  ^^^J?  ^^  some  such  general  way  as  the  kindred  word 
s/ilreswsfew^  5ec^^on   in  America,    had   been   applied   sometimes   to 

the  wards  of  a  city,  sometimes  to  the  hundreds  of  a 
subkingdom.  In  Wessex,  it  had  already  come  to  indicate  the 
greater  divisions  of  the  consolidated  state.  In  Alfred's  day,  there- 
fore, neither  the  thing  nor  the  name  was  new.  What  he  did  was 
to  restore  the  ancient  shires  of  Wessex,  and  reorganize  alongside 
of  them  as  coordinate  shires,  the  ancient  kingdoms  of  Kent,  and 
Sussex,  and  Surrey,  thus  making  them  organic  parts  of  one  cen- 
tralized state;  but,  in  so  doing,  he  gave  to  the  sJiir-e  a  significance 
which  had  not  belonged  to  it  before.  The  expedient,  moreover, 
was  a  happy  one;  for,  while  on  the  one  hand  it  preserved  the 
habit  of  local  self-government,  so  essential  to  the  development  of 
free  institutions,  on  the  other,  it  afforded  an  opportunity  for  the 
development  of  a  strong  central  government,  so  essential  to  the 
attainment  of  great  statehood. 

The  association  of  neighboring  villages  into  minor  judicial  dis- 
tricts, known  later  in  England  as  hundreds,  was,  as  we  have  seen, 

like  the  shires,  not  a  new  thing.  These  also  Alfred 
the  system  of   reorganized  and  harmonized,  and  greatly  strengthened 

and  extended  as  the  foundation  of  the  shire  system. 
To  give  weight  and  dignity  to  the  decisions  of  the  hundred  court, 
the  great  landowners  of  the  district  who  possessed  five  hides  of 
land  or  more,  the  thanes,  were  required  to  be  present  and  to 
assist  the  court  in  rendering  just  decisions.  They  themselves, 
however,  were  exempt  from  tlie  jurisdiction  of  the  local  court,  and 
held  in  their  own  halls  a  coordinate  court  for  their  people.  In  all 
cases,  the  king  held  the  presiding  judges  responsible  for  the 
decisions  of  their  respective  courts,  nor  did  he  hesitate  to  inter- 
fere or  punish  the  judge  who  was  neglectful  of  his  duty  or  gave 
other  evidence  of  his  unfitness.      Even  the  ealdorman   was  not 


ALFRED    AND    THE    LAWS  71 

above  the  king's  displeasure,  and  might  be  removed  for  connivance 
at  crime  or  injustice.  The  poor,  the  remnant  of  the  old  free 
ceorls,  the  friendless  peasantry  upon  whom  the  heavy  hand  of  the 
great  magnates  was  apt  to  rest  with  unsparing  severity,  were  the 
special  objects  of  the  king's  solicitude;  *'for  the  poor  had  no 
friend  save  the  king." 

Side  by  side  with  a  better  civil  organization,  Alfred  established 
also  a  better   military  organization.      By  old  Teutonic  law,  the 

great  body  of  freemen  were  held  to  military  duty,  and 
■^J^^[f^^  might  be  called  into  the  field  in  the  presence  of  common 

w-'mlizatum  ^^^S^^-     ^^^^  ^^®  ^^^S  campaigning  of  the  earlier  years 

of  Alfred's  reign,  and  the  need  of  keeping  the  nation 
constantly  under  arms,  had  been  a  severe  strain  upon  the  older 
system,  and  it  had  more  than  once  failed  in  an  hour  of  greatest 
peril,  as  in  the  winter  of  877.  Alfred  sought  to  remedy  this 
weakness  of  the  fyrd,  by  introducing  a  system  of  reliefs.  Only  a 
third  of  the  people  were  to  be  called  into  active  service  in  the  field 
at  any  one  time;  another  third  were  to  do  garrison  duty;  while 
the  remaining  third  tilled  the  fields  and  cared  for  the  families  of 
those  who  were  facing  tlie  enemy.  The  period  of  service,  more- 
over, was  definitely  fixed,  and  the  men  of  each  division  knew  just 
when  they  were  to  be  relieved. 

With  the  same  wise  policy  of  adapting  old  institutions  to  the 
new  needs  of  the  nation,  Alfred  addressed  himself  to  a  reform  of 

existing  laws.  From  the  codes  of  Ethel bert,  Ine,  and 
tiw^aws"^     Offa,    supplemented    by    provisions    taken    from    the 

ancient  Levitical  Law,  he  compiled  a  new  code  for  the 
common  kingdom.  The  only  originality  which  he  claimed  for 
himself  was  that  of  selection:  **I  gathered  these  laws  together 
and  commanded  many  of  those  to  be  written  which,  our  fore- 
fathers held,  those  which  to  me  seemed  good ;  and  many  of  those 
which  to  me  seemed  not  good,  I  rejected."*  In  these  laws,  how- 
ever, there  is  a  marked  advance  in  this:  whereas  the  general  prin- 
ciple of  the  commutation  of  crime  for  money  is  still  recognized, 
we  have  now  a  distinct  law  against  treason,  for  which  the  death 
penalty  is  assigned.     **If  any  one  plot  against  the  king's  life,  of 

^  Preamble  to  Alfred's  Laws.     Stubbs,  S.  C,  p.  62. 


72  THE   DANISH   WARS  [alfhed 

himself,  or  by  harboring  of  exiles,  or  of  his  men,  let  him  be  liable 
in  his  life  and  in  all  that  he  has."  The  king,  however,  is  not  the 
only  member  of  the  community  whose  life  is  protected  by  the 
death  penalty.  "He  who  plots  against  his  lord's  life,  let  him  be 
liable  in  his  life  to  him,  and  in  all  that  he  has."  In  these  laws 
we  see  the  strength  with  which  the  importance  of  the  kingly 
authority  is  taking  hold  of  the  popular  mind;  we  also  see  the 
growing  influence  of  the  great  landowning  aristocracy.  Com- 
pared with  one  of  these  great  lords  of  the  soil,  the  life  of  the 
landless  freeman  was  of  little  importance. 

No  statesman  ever  appreciated  more  than  Alfred  the  value  of 
education   in  elevating  a  people,  or  in  creating  a  true  national 

spirit.  His  own  education  had  been  neglected  in  his 
fduc^ion^     early  years ;   for  what  reason  is  not  known.     He  had 

been  left  to  gather  what  he  could  in  a  desultory  way ; 
at  twelve  he  had  not  yet  learned  his  letters ;  nor  in  his  later  years 
was  he  ever  able  to  atone  for  the  lack  of  early  training,  always  to 
him  a  source  of  deep  regret.  Yet  possibly  this  early  neglect  was 
not  without  its  compensations.  For  during  these  years  when 
Latin,  the  literary  language  of  the  ninth  century,  was  to  him  a 
sealed  tongue,  his  fresh-  young  mind  must  have  drunk  deep  and 
long  from  the  homely  fountains  of  his  own  English,  the  language 
which  was  yet  virtually  without  a  literature,  and  learned  to  value 
the  priceless  traditions  of  a  past  which  was  rapidly  fading.  It  is 
not  likely  that  he  knew  much  of  Bede  in  those  days,  for  Bede 
had  written  in  Latin;  but  he  must  have  heard  the  gleemen  sing 
their  half -pagan  songs  in  his  father's  hall;  he  must  have  listened 
to  tales  of  brave  deeds  of  old,  of  * 'sword  play,"  and  ''shield  wall," 
and  "arrow  flight,"  until  the  generous  heart  of  the  lad  had 
thrilled  with  patriotic  emotion.  Nor,  in  after  years,  when  his  turn 
came  to  take  up  the  burdens  of  a  king,  could  he  forget  these 
lessons,  or  fail  to  appreciate  the  value  of  such  traditions  in  in- 
spiring the  English  with  pride  in  their  past,  or  confidence  in  their 
future.  Thus  Alfred,  first  among  English  kings,  grasped  the 
importance  of  national  history  as  an  instrument  of  education,  and 
sought  to  leave  to  the  people,  in  a  language  which  the  simplest  of 
them  could  understand,  a  record  of  their  kings  and  of  their  own 


THE    NINTH    CENTURY    RENAISSANCE  73 

achievements.     This  record,  compiled  under   Alfred's  direction, 

partly  from  current  traditions  and  partly  from  the  Ecclesiastical 

History  of  Bade,  was  the  beginning  of  the  famous  Cliron- 

The  Anglo-        .    ,         f ,   ,  \        -       ^         ^  . 

Saxon  icie,  which  was  destined  to  be  continued  for  three  hun- 

Chronicle.  -.  ,        .  -       nr.    -   -,  ., 

dred  years,  forming  a  sort  of  semi  -  official  national 
diary  of  the  greatest  value  in  recovering  the  later  history  of 
Old  English  kings.  For  the  benefit  of  his  unlearned  country- 
men also  Alfred  caused  to  be  put  in  an  English  dress  such  works, 
standard  in  his  day,  as  Bede's  history  and  the  general  history  of 
the  world  of  Orosius.  The  king's  interest  in  literature,  however, 
was  by  no  means  confined  to  history.  He  caused  translations  to 
be  made  of  standard  philosophical  and  theological  works  as  well, 
of  which  the  most  important  were  the  Cojisolations  of  Philosophy 
of  the  unfortunate  Boethins,  and  the  Pastoral  Care  of  Pope 
Gregory  I.  lie  also  made  a  collection  of  the  ancient  epic  songs  of 
the  English.      But  of    these,  with  the  exception  of  the  epic  of 

Beowulf^  only  a  few  fragments  have  survived.     In  Beo- 

tvulf^  however,  we  have  a  priceless  treasure.  It  is  not 
only  the  earliest  of  English  poems,  antedating  the  era  of  migra- 
tion;^ it  is  also  a  striking  picture  of  life  and  manners,  fur  more 
than  the  dry  annals  of  the  Chronicle,  revealing  the  temper  of  the 
ancient  English  folk.* 

The  compilation  of  the  Chronicle,  the  translation  of  standard 
works,  and  the  collection  of  English  war  songs,   formed  only  a 

part  of  Alfred's  plans  for  furthering  the  education  of 
century  his  people.     Like  Charles  the  Great,  he  ransacked  his 

renaissance.      ,        .    .  .  .  _ 

dominions   for  men   who   were   apt  to  teach.      From 

Mercia,  he  drew  out  Plegmund,  who  in  890  became  archbishop 
of  Canterbury.  From  Wales,  he  brought  the  man  who  was  after- 
ward to  become  his  biographer,  the  learned  Asser.  Even  foreign 
countries  also  were  invited  to  contribute  of  their  wealth  to  enrich 
his  schools.  Saxony  gave  him  John  the  "Old  Saxon"  and  St. 
Bertin  gave  him  Grimbald.  Under  the  inspiration  of  such  men, 
there  began  a  genuine  renaissance.     The  long  struggle  with  the 

^  Its  present  form  is  probably  the  work  of  a  Christian  monk  of  the 
eightli  century. 

2 See  Green,  H.  E.  P.,  I.,  pp.  17-20. 


74  THE    DANISH    WARS  [alfrkd 

Danes  had  dealt  severely  with  the  English  kingdoms;  the  old 
schools  had  been  destroyed,  their  teachers  and  pupils  scattered,  and 
the  people  had  lapsed  into  barbaric  ignorance.  When  Alfred 
began  his  reign  it  was  said  that  there  was  not  a  man  in  "Wessex 
who  could  read  understandingly.  When  Alfred  closed  his  reign, 
English  prose  had  been  born,  and  the  English  mind  had  received 
an  inspiration  which  it  was  not  to  lose,  until  it  emerged  into  the 
full  day  of  the  modern  era. 

The  same  order  which  Alfred  introduced  into  the  administra- 
tion of  his  ffingdom,  he  introduced  also  into  his  own  private  life. 
ThevaJucof  ^^  ^^^^  ^^  clock  to  warn  him  of  the  flight  of  the  hours; 
mluiodicai  ^"^'  ^^  burning  a  series  of  tapers,  he  contrived  to  divide 
We.  his  day  with  some  accuracy.     When  he  noticed  that  the 

draughts  caused  his  candles  to  burn  unevenly  at  times,  he  pro- 
tected them  with  a  lantern  made  with  sides  of  horn.  The  well- 
ordered  household,  the  value  put  upon  education,  the  sobriety  and 
patient  industry  of  the  king,  and  the  quiet  seriousness  with  which 
he  took  the  duties  of  his  high  office,  created  an  influence  which 
affected  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him,  and  from  the  court  ex- 
tended outward  and  downward  to  the  people. 

While  Alfred  was  thus  laying  broad  foundations  for  the  future 
greatness  of  his  people,  the  Danes  of  Britain  were  qnietly  set- 
The  Danes  ^^^^^S  dowu  to  a  peaceful  life,  learning  much  from  the 
^'Ufred' slater  English  who  dwclt  among  them,  and  forgetting  much 
reign.  ^f  their  old  hostility.     Occasionally  a  new  band  from 

the  continent  harried  Alfred's  coasts.  But  Alfred,  in  reorganiz- 
ing the  land  fyrd,  had  not  forgotten  the  sJiip  fyrd.  In  the  year 
882  his  seamen  sank  thirteen  Danish  ships  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Stour,  one  of  the  earliest  recorded  achievements  of  the  English 
navy.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  the  sea  had  become  a 
strange  element  to  the  English ;  the  children  had  forgotten  the 
ways  of  their  fathers,  and  Alfred  could  man  his  ships  only  by 
enlisting  foreigners.  It  is  to  be  noted,  also,  that  the  long 
exemption  of  Britain  from  such  attacks  was  due  quite  as  much  to 
the  extreme  feebleness  of  the  Frankish  Empire  during  this  period 
and  the  richer  booty  promised  by  the  monasteries  and  cities  of  the 
south,  as  to  the  prestige  of  Alfred.     Upon  the  first  manifestation 


891-895J  RENEWAL   OF   DANISH   INROADS  75 

of  returning  vigor  in  the  Frankish  defense,  the  Danes  once  more 
began  to  appear  on  the  English  coast.  From  891  to  895,  Alfred's 
hands  were  full.  One  horde  under  Bjorn  Jaernsides  descended  on 
the  southern  coast  of  Kent,  and  creeping  up  into  the  Limen,  estab- 
lished themselves  at  Appledore.  After  laying  waste  the  surround- 
ing shires  of  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Surrey,  they  were  at  last  beaten 
by  Alfred's  son  Edward  at  Farnham  in  893,  and  driven  down  the 
Thames  where  they  found  shelter  among  the  swamps  of  Thorny 
Island,  the  present  Westminster.  Then  Ethelred,  Alfred's  son- 
in-law,  the  ealdorman  of  Mercia,  fell  upon  them  from  the  Mercian 
side,  and  forced  them  to  make  terms  and  retire  to  Mersea  on  the 
coast  x)t  Essex.  Alfred  himself,  in  the  meanwhile,  was  occupied 
with  another  horde  under  the  famous  Hasting,  who  had  entered 
the  Thames  and  taken  up  their  station  at  Milton,  whence  they 
ravaged  western  Kent  and  threatened  London.  Alfred  succeeded 
in  driving  them  from  Kent,  only  to  see  them  settle  again  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Thames  at  Benfleet  still  nearer  London.  Before 
he  could  come  at  them  again  he  was  recalled  to  the  west  to  save 
Devonshire  and  Exeter  from  a  horde  of  Northumbrian  Danes.  In 
the  meanwhile,  the  Danes  of  East  Anglia  and  Essex  had  teen 
aroused  by  the  rout  of  war  which  had  entered  their  borders,  and 
many  of  them  flocked  to  the  banners  of  Hasting,  so  that  he  was 
emboldened  to  dash  by  London  and  start  "on  a  wild  raid  up  the 
valley  of  the  Thames."  The  whole  west  country,  however,  rose 
before  him,  and  by  the  time  he  reached  the  Severn,  he  found 

himself  confronted  by  the  ealdorman,  Ethelred,  with 
mMington,     the  fyrds  of  the  Mercians,  the  Sumorsaetas,  and  the 

Wilsaetas.  Even  the  North  Welsh  sent  their  contingents 
to  help  against  the  common  foe.  At  Buttington,  Hasting  was 
brought  to  bay,  and  the  English  prepared  to  starve  him  to  terms, 
quite  after  the  manner  of  Edington  and  Chippenham.  But  when 
his  horses  had  been  eaten,  apparently  not  such  an  extreme  hardship 
for  the  Danes,  Hasting  attempted  to  cut  his  way  through  the 
beleaguering  ranks.  A  great  battle  was  fought,  and  many  of 
Alfred's  thanes  fell,  but  Hasting  got  away  to  Chester,  where  he 
wintered  among  the  ruins  of  the  old  Roman  city.  Hither  Ethelred 
followed  him  and  kept  him  closely  beleaguered  until  the  spring  of 


76  THE    DANISH    WARS  [alfred 

895,  when  Hasting  agaia  escaped,  and  finally,  after  an  attempt 
upon  North  Wales,  retired  into  Northumbria.  Benfleet,  in  the 
meantime,  had  also  been  cleared  of  the  Danes,  whom  Hasting  had 
left  behind,  but  Mersea  still  continued  to  be  the  Danish  base  on 
the  East  Saxon  coast.  Hither  Hasting  made  his  way  from  North- 
umbria with  the  remnant  of  his  army,  and,  joining  his  fleet  again, 
brought  his  ships  by  way  of  the  Thames  up  into  the  Lea,  and  estab- 
lished himself  within  twenty  miles  of  London.  He  was,  strictly, 
still  upon  Danish  territory,  but  Alfred  could  not  allow  this  new 
camp  to  remain  just  over  his  borders  to  menace  the  peace  of  Mercia. 

The  Londoners  began  the  siege  in  the  summer  and  in 

harvest  time  Alfred  arrived  and  took  charge  of  the 
operations.  He  threw  a  dam  across  the  river  below  the  camp, 
and  by  cutting  off  the  escape  of  the  Danes  to  the  sea  forced  the 
horde  to  disperse,  but  could  not  prevent  individual  bands  from  slip- 
ping away  into  Essex  and  East  Anglia.  One  company  succeeded 
in  breaking  into  Mercia,  and  repeating  the  career  of  Hasting  of 
the  year  before,  reached  the  Welsh  border,  and  wintered  near 
Bridgenorth.  The  next  summer  they  retired  into  Northumbria. 
*In  the  summer  of  89 G  there  were  '' desultory  landings"  on  the 
southern  coast,  but  the  danger  was  passed.     The  losses  of  the  four 

years  had  been  very  severe.  A  great  number  of  Alfred's 
AUred*^^^    people  had  fallen;  among  them  two  bishops,  three  eal- 

dormen,  and  many  of  the  minor  thanes.  Vast  areas  of 
country  had  also  been  laid  waste.  But  Alfred's  system  had  suc- 
cessfully stood  the  strain,  and  Englishmen  had  learned  the  value 
of  an  efficient  government,  loyally  sustained. 

Five  years  later,  Alfred,  the  greatest  of  early  English  kings, 
laid  down  the  burdens  which  he  had  carried  so  well.     He  had 

reiffned  twenty-nine  years  and  six  months.     He  was 

Death  and  °.     .         ^,      "f,  .    ^^  .       ^,  •    ix      i  tt 

character  of  preeminently  the  right  man  in  the  right  place.  He 
imparted  his  own  energy  and  courage  to  the  English 
people  in  the  most  critical  period  of  the  national  history.  But  he 
did  more  than  this.  He  founded  the  England  which  we  know. 
By  an  unerring  instinct,  the  traditions  of  a  thousand  years  trace 
back  to  him  the  beginnings  of  almost  all  that  is  great  and  good  in 
English  life  and  character.      He  has  been  called  'Hhe  model  man  of 


CHARACTER   OF   ALFRED  ?7 

the  English  race."*  He  was  "the  noblest,  as  he  was  the  most 
complete  embodiment  of  all  that  is  great,  all  that  is  lovable,  in  the 
English  temper.  He  combined,  as  no  other  man  has  ever  combined, 
its  practical  energy,  its  patient  and  enduring  force,  its  profound 
sense  of  duty,  the  reserve  and  self-control,  that  steadies  in  it  a 
wide  outlook  and  a  restless  daring,  its  temperance  and  fairness,  its 
frank  geniality,  its  sensitiveness  to  affection,  its  poetic  tenderness, 
its  deep  and  passionate  religion."^  Like  all  great  men,  Alfred 
was.  many-sided.  Among  the  scholars  who  gathered  about  him, 
he  was  one  of  tlio  first,  leading  them  in  the  arduous  work  of  trans- 
lation. ''The  singers  of  the  court  found  in  him  a  brother  singer.'* 
He  could  plan  buildings  with  his  craftsmen;  he  could  superintend 
the  workmen;  he  could  instruct  even  his  ''falconers  and  dogkeep- 
ers."  Deeply  religious,  frail  in  health,  and  seldom  free  from  pain, 
he  was  no  ascetic,  but  a  thoroughgoing  man  of  affairs,  laborious, 
metliodical,  and  careful  of  details.  He  was  a  leader  whom  men 
trusted  with  implicit  confidence,  because  they  felt  that  he  was 
directed  and  controlled  by  sterling  good  sense,  and  was  able  to 
"bring  things  to  pass";  he  is  "one  of  the  most  pleasing,  and  per- 
haps the  most  perfect,  character  in  history";^  the  king  who,  "as 
no  other  man  on  record,  has  so  thoroughly  united  all  the  virtues, 
both  of  the  ruler  and  of  the  private  man."* 

'  Goldvvin  Smith,  The  United  Kingdom,  I,  p.  18. 

2 Green,  H.  E.  R,  I,  75. 

3  Ramsay,  I,  247. 

*  Freeman.  N.  C,  1.61. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    RECONQUEST    OF    THE    DANELAGH    AND    THE    EXPANSION    OF 

THE    ENGLISH    KINGDOM    UNDER   THE    GREAT   KINGS    OF 

THE    HOUSE    OF    ALFRED 

Edward,  distingnislied  by  later  historians  as  *'the  Elder,"  suc- 
ceeded to  the  crowii  by  Alfred's  death.     His  coronation,  however, 
did  not  take  place  until  the  following  sprins^.     The 

I^UCCCSS'iOTt  of  <^        ±  <D 

Fjdward  delay,  it  is  thought,  was  due  to  an  attempt  of  his  cousin 
Ethel  wold,  the  son  of  Ethelred,  the  brother  of  Alfred, 
to  regain  his  father's  crown.  But  the  people  could  not  so  soon 
forget  the  services  of  Alfred,  and  nobly  responded  to  the  call  of 
his  son  to  defend  the  crown  against  his  rival.  Edward,  moreover, 
had  already  been  elected  by  the  witan  during  his  father's  lifetime, 
and  this  choice  more  than  offset  in  the  public  mind  any  claim 
which  Ethel  wold  might  advance,  based  upon  the  right  of  primogeni- 
ture. Before  the  determined  front  of  the  nation,  Ethelwold's 
courage  forsook  him,  and  he  fled  to  Northumbria,  to  return  after 
two  years  at  the  head  of  a  Danish  army.  But  a  shrewd  counter 
raid  of  the  king  into  the  enemy's  country  compelled  the  Danes  to 
turn  home  again,  and  with  the  death  of  Ethelwold  which  shortly 
followed,  peace  was  once  more  restored,  and  all  resistance  to  the 
succession  of  Edward  ceased. 

Edward  could  now  feel  himself  free  to  continue  the  great  work 
which  his  father  had  begun.  Recent  events  had  taught  him  the 
insecurity  of  peace,  as  long  as  the  Danes  retained  their. 
of  Edward  independence.  The  Danelagh  must  be  conquered  and 
made  a  part  of  the  West  Saxon  kingdom.  But  Edward 
had  been  trained  in  too  good  a  school  to  rush  blindly  into  a  strug- 
gle for  which  he  had  not  first  prepared  himself  and  his  people.  To 
this  end  in  the  year  907,  by  the  restoration  of  Chester  which  had 

78 


907-914]  RECONQUEST   OF   DANELAGH    BEGUN  79 

remained  in  ruins  since  the  time  of  Ethelfrid  the  Devastator,  he 
began  a  series  of  fortifications  which  extended  along  his  whole  bor- 
der and  took  ten  years  to  complete.  For  the  most  part  these  for- 
tifications consisted  of  a  combination  of  the  earthen  rampart  and 
mound  of  the  Danes  and  the  old  English  hurg  or  surrounding 
fence  of  palisades,  faced  by  the  inevitable  ditch.  Sometimes, 
however,  an  ancient  Ivoman  camp  was  restored.  If  stone  walls 
were  used  in  fortifying  cities,  it  was  only  in  rare  cases,  for  the  era 
of  stone  fortresses  had  not  yet  come.  The  Danes  had  taught  the 
English  tiie  value  of  such  works;  for  it  was  neither  superior 
generalship  nor  superior  courage  which  had  made  the  Danes 
formerly  so  difficult  to  dislodge  when  once  they  had  established 
themselves,  but  their  fortified  camps.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
English  heretofore  had  had  no  fortified  towns,  nor  known  aught 
of  the  science  of  fortification.  When  once  beaten  in  the  field,  the 
whole  country  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  enemy. 

In   912    Ethelred,   the    ealdorman  of  Mercia,   died.      It  was 

Alfred's  wish  apparently  that  Mercia  should  be  the  portion  of  his 

daughter,   Ethelfleda,   *Hhe    Lady  of   the   Mercians." 

The  Lady  of    Edward,  tlierefore,  refused  to  appoint  another  ealdor- 

tJie  Mercians.  ii-i         -,     -    •  ■  0  ^r        •• 

man,  and  left  the  administration  of  Mercia  in  the  hands 
of  his  widowed  sister;  but  he  detached  all  the  lower  Thames  basin, 
including  Oxford  and  London,  and  probably  on  account  of  its 
importance,  added  it  to  Wessex.  Ethelfleda,  however,  possessed 
all  the  genius  of  her  house  for  war  and  administration,  and  upper 
Mercia  suffered  nothing  in  her  hands. 

The  Danes  were  not  unmindful  of  the  intent  of  Edward's  fort- 
building,  and  from  the  restoration  of  Chester,  each  new  essay  on 

the  part  of  the  English  was  followed  by  a  raid  of  Danes 
im^asionof  ^^^^  English  territory.  Edward,  however,  steadily 
m  Danelagh,  pushed  forward  the  fortification  of  the  border,  and  in 

914  the  work  was  far  enough  along  for  him  to  under- 
take the  formal  invasion  of  Essex.  The  method  of  advance  which 
Edward  adopted  at  this  time  was  generally  followed  in  the  subse- 
quent wars,  and  goes  far  to  explain  the  unvarying  success  of 
his  operations,  and  the  steadiness  with  which  the  English  line  was 
pushed  out,  until  in  ten  years  it  reached  the  Humber.     He  first 


80 


HECOKQUEST   OF    DANELAGH  [euward  thk  elder 


led  a  large  force,  into  the  enemy's  country  and  established  a  power- 
ful camp ;  then  under  cover  of  the  camp  he  built  a  permanent  for- 
tress and  garrisoned  it  with  his  own  people.  Thus  while  he  lay 
encamped  at  Maldon  in  914,  he  erected  a  fort  at  Witham,  which 
made   him  master  of  all  southern  Essex,  and  thrust  the  Danes 

back  upon  the 
Colne. 

Yet  the 
task  was  by 
no  means  as 
simple  as  the 
ease  with 
which  these 
first  successes 
were  won 
might  seem 
to  imply.  The 
Danes  were 
weak,  because 
they  had  nev- 
er been  organ- 
ized into  a 
compact  king- 
dom ,  but  it 
was  possible 
for  them,  at 
any  time,  to 
unite  their 
forces  and 
offer  a  serious 
resistance.  Moreover,  there  was  always  a  chance  of  interference 
on  the  part  of  the  powerful  bands  of  their  kinsmen  who  were 
still  roaming  at  large  upon  the  continent.  This  happened  soon 
after  the  erection  of  Witham,  when  some  fragments  of  the 
hordes  which  had  recently  settled  with  Kolf  on  the  lower  Seine, 
the  later  Normandy,  descended  upon  the  Bristol  coast.  But 
Edward  was  not  to  be  deterred  from  his  greater  work,  and,  when 


915-921]        PERMANENT   UNION   OF  MERCIA    AND   WESSEX  81 

he  had  driven  the  newcomers  off  to  Ireland,  returned  again  to  his 
systematic  encroachment  on  the  Danelagh,  cautiously  seizing  and 
fortifying  station  after  station,  and  formally  annexing  the  sur- 
rounding country  to  Mercia  or  Wessex.  In  the  year  915  he  seized 
advanced  stations  on  the  Ouse.  The  next  year  he  fortified  Bed- 
ford and  in  917  he  took  permanent  possession  of  Maldon.  The 
year  918  saw  a  still  more  marked  advance  in  middle  England. 
The  Danes  of  Northampton,  Leicester,  and  Huntingdon  combined 
to  sweep  the  English  back  from  the  line  of  Watling  Street.  They 
built  a  counter  work  at  Tempsford,  and  attacked  Edward's 
recently  erected  forts  at  Towcester  and  Bedford.  Edward  replied 
by  a  vigorous  advance  along  his  whole  line.  He  himself  took 
Tempsford;  while  the  Lady  of  the  Mercians  attacked  Derby 
and  carried  it  by  storm.  Other  operations  also  were  undertaken 
by  the  king  in  Essex,  in  which  Colchester  was  taken,  Huntingdon 
occupied,  and  a  fort  erected  at  Passenham.  When  the  year  918 
ended,  Cambridge  had  submitted,  and  the  English  line  had  been 
pushed  to  the  Welland. 

The  next  year  Ethelfleda  took  possession  of  Leicester  and  the 
great  part  of  the  neighboring  country  submitted  without  a  strug- 
gle. This  was  her  last  success.  She  died  at  Tamworth 
of^Mnria  ^^  midsummcr  after  a  brilliant  reign  of  eight  years. 
andWoisex,.  Ethelfleda  stands  alone  among  the  women  of  the  old 
English  era.  Many  women  have  become  great  rulers,  but 
few  have  combined  with  rare  administrative  ability,  equal  talent 
in  marshalling  armies  and  leading  men  in  battle.  Ethelfleda  left  a 
daughter,  but  inasmuch  as  she  was  a  mere  child,  Edward  assumed 
the  administration  of  Mercian  affairs  himself.  Thus  the  separate 
government  of  Mercia  came  to  an  end. 

Edward  could  now  see  his  goal.     The  submission  of  the  Five 

Boroughs  and  the  Fen  country  was  followed  by  the  submission  of 

East  Anfflia.     The  year  after  Ethelfleda's  death  the 

Completion       _      ..  .     °  '^  ^      ^  ,        ,,  t 

of  Edward's  English  outposts  were  pushed  across  the  Mersey  and 
established  at  Manchester,  and  the  year  following,  921, 
Edward  fortified  Bakewell  in  the  Ppakland.  The  whole  south 
Humber  country  was  now  in  his  hands,  and  English  colonists  were 
beginning  to  pour  into  the  conquered  territories.     Then  followed 


82  RECOKQUEST    OF    DANELAGH  [ Edward  the  Eldeb 

a  noteworthy  event,  which  shows  how  the  fame  of  Edward  had  gone 
before  him  and  overawed  the  whole  north;  for  here  at  Bakewell 
came  Welsh  and  Scots,  Danes  and  English,  to  accept  Edward's 
authority  and  take  him  to  "father  and  lord.  "^  Thus  ended  the 
work  of  conquest  for  that  generation.  The  northern  states, 
crippled  by  dissension  and  awed  by  the  irresistible  advance  of  the 
English  lines,  had  no  desire  to  press  the  question  of  supremacy 
farther.  "  Edward  had  secured  the  Humber  as  the  northern  border 
of  his  actual  kingdom;  he  had  also  secured  the  recognition  of  his 
overlordship  in  the  regions  north  of  the  Humber.  He  rested  con- 
tent ;  his  work  was  done. 

Edward  survived  his  triumph  at  Bakewell  barely  four  years. 

His  reign  is  marked  by  the  solidity  of  its  successes,  due  as  much  to 

the  sterling  worth  of  the  man  as  to  his  farsighted  wis- 

Edward,         dom.     He  and  his  noble  sister  are  in  themselves  the 

925. 

best  testimonies  of  the  greatness  and  goodness  of 
Alfred.  Only  a  good  home,  where  all  that  is  lovable  and  true  and 
strong  in  child  character  is  strengthened  and  encouraged,  could 
produce  such  children.  Eor  Alfred,  with  true  insight,  had  realized 
how  much  the  strength  or  weakness  of  his  children  might  mean 
to  his  people,  and  had  taken  as  much  pains  in  their  education  and 
training  as  in  any  of  the  many  public  institutions  which  he 
founded.  In  some  respects  possibly,  Edward  even  surpassed 
Alfred.  He  is  undoubtedly  the  greatest  military  leader  of  the  old 
English  period ;  his  unvarying  success  is  as  remarkable  as  the  sub- 
stantial nature  of  his  conquests.  He  comprehended  fully  the  spirit 
of  his  father's  great  work  of  reorganization,  and  made  his  con- 
quests the  means  of  strengthening  and  extending  it,  forming  of  the 
England  which  he  had  won  a  compact  national  state. 

Edward  had  all  his  father's  love  of  justice,  and  realized  fully 
the  importance  of  ''Just  dooms"  to  a  contented  and  happy  people. 

He  constrained  his  witan  to  support  him  in  the  main- 
mwafd         tenance  of  peace,  and  made  them  responsible  for  the 

denial  or  delay  of  justice.     Each  gerefa  was  required  to 

^  For  the  question  of  the  su*bmission  of  Constantine,  King  of  Scots,  in 
921,  see  Freeman,  N.  C,  I,  57, 118,  565;  and  also  Wyckoff,  Feudal  Relations 
of  the  Crowns  of  England  and  Scotland,  pp.  1-31. 


925]  DACRE  83 

hold  his  court  *' always  once  in  four  weeks,*'  plainly  the  hundred 
court,  and  "every  suit  was  to  have  an  end,  and  a  term  in  which  it 
must  bo  brought  forward. "  The  relations  of  English  and  Danes 
were  carefully  regulated  by  a  graded  wergeld.  A  system  was  also 
established  by  which  legal  bargains  could  be  made  only  within  a 
walled  town  and  in  the  presence  of  the  reeve.  The  law  was 
afterward  softened  somewhat  by  Athelstan,  but  the  principle 
which  required  public  recognition  of  commercial  transactions 
must  have  been  very  useful  among  a  semi-barbarous  people, 
and  often  saved  them  from  the  occasion  of  litigation.  In  Edward's 
laws,  also,  we  have  the  first  notice  of  the  ordeal,  not  a  new 
method  of  trial  by  any  means,  but  from  this  time  conspicuous 
among  the  strange  old  laws  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  curious 
mingling  of  Christianity  and  barbarism.  All  in  all,  Eng- 
lish society  had  not  advanced  far,  when  peace  breaking  and 
perjury,  robbery  and  murder,  were  still  incidents  of  daily  life 
against  which  king  and  witan  waged  a  long  and  weary,  but  not 
hopeless  warfare. 

When  Edward  died,  his  eldest  son,  Athelstan,  was  about  thirty 
years  of  age.     In  his  infancy  Alfred  had  acknowledged  him  as  his 

successor,  and  had  ''invested  him  with  the  insignia  of  a 
^5^^^'      warrior  and  an  etheling;    namely,  a  purple  mantle,  a 

jeweled  belt,  and  the  national  Saxon  sword  in  a  golden 
scabbard."  For  the  moment  it  seemed  that  Athelstan's  succes- 
sion also  would  be  disputed  in  the  interests  of  an  heir  of  Ethelred, 
and  that  Mercia,  which  had  declared  for  Athelstan,  would  again  be 
separated  from  Wessex.  But  the  proposal  of  the  West  Saxon  witan 
to  set  up  a  separate  king  came  to  nothing,  and  Athelstan  the  third 
in  line  of  the  great  West  Saxon  kings,  took  up  the  work  of  father 
and  grandfather. 

The  first  year  of  the  reign  was  marked  by  an  important  meeting 
of  northern  lords  at  Dacre,  where  the  Welsh  kings,  Howel  Dha 

of  Dyfed  and  Owen  of  Gwent,  Constantino  king  of 
atha^e!^    Scots,  and  Eldred  of  Bamborough,  came  to  acknowledge 

the  lordship  of  the  new  king.  That  Athelstan  took  the 
homage  seriously,  as  a  recognition  of  his  supremacy  over  the  north, 
is  shown  by  the  style  which  he  now  assumes.     He  is  no  longer  like 


84  KECONQUEST   OF   DANELAGH  [athelstan 

Alfred,  ''King   of  the   West  Saxons,"  or  like  his  father,  ''King 
of  the  Anglo-Saxons";  he  is  "Monarch  of  all  Britain." 

The  homage  of  Dacre,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have  proved  a 
very  secure  basis  for  a  lasting  peace.     The  attempt  of  Athelstan  to 

seize  York,  and  possibly  Bernicia,  and  incorporate  them 
Bf-unan-        in  his  southern  kingdom,  led  to  complications  with  the 

king  of  Scots,  and  the  formation  of  a  great  northern 
coalition.  A  raid  of  Athelstan  upon  the  east  coast  of  Scotland  in 
934  led  to  a  counter  raid  into  England  in  937.  With  a  vast 
horde  of  Scots,  Picts,  Welsh,  and  Danes,  Constantine  entered  the 
Humber,  and,  leaving  his  ships,  marched  into  Lincolnshire. 
Athelstan  and  his  brother  Edmund  met  him  on  the  field  of 
Brunanburh.  All  day  long  the  battle  raged.  All  day  long  the 
English  continued  to  hurl  themselves  upon  the  earthworks  and 
palisades  behind  which  the  northerns  had  taken  their  stand. 

Here  gat  King  Aethelstan, 
And  eke  his  brother 
Eadmund  Aetheling 
Life-long  glory 
At  sword's  edge, 
Round  Brunanburh ; 
Board- wall  they  cleft 
War-lindens  hewed, 
Sithen  sun  up 
At  morning-tide, 
God's  noble  candle, 
Glid  o'er  the  lands, 
Till  the  bright  being 
Sank  to  his  settle.^ 

Such  terrible  war-work  cost  the  English  dear;  but  the  north- 
ern horde  was  beaten,  and  Constantine  with  the  wreck  of  his 
army  was  glad  to  retire  to  his  ships  leaving  behind  him  upon  the 
earthworks  of  Brunanburh  five  "young  kings,"  among  them  his 
own  son. 

*  For  the  site  of  Brunanburh  see  Ramsay,  I,  p.  285.  For  the  famous 
war  song,  see  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  with  translation  by  Thorpe  in  "Rolls 
Series."    a.  d.  937. 


RESULTS  OF   ATHELSTAN'S   REIGN  85 

From  Brunanburh  Athelstan  returned  home  to  rule  iu 
peace,  the  sole  king  of  the  English  from  the  Channel  to  the  Tjne, 
and  the  undisputed  overlord  of  Britain.  The  degree  of 
Atheistan'8  authority  which  he  exercised  over  Scot  and  Cumbrian 
will  probably  always  remain  a  question  of  dispute  among 
scholars ;  the  Welsh  recognized  his  overlordship  to  the  extent  of  a 
substantial  tribute;  their  kings  also  appeared  among  the  witan  as 
regular  attendants  at  the  English  court. 

The  reputation  of  Athelstan  soon  passed  beyond  the  borders  of 

his  island  kingdom.     Ilarold  of  Norway  sent  his  son  Hakon  to  be 

educated  at   his   court.      Henry   the    Fowler    sought 

anceHof         Athelstan's  sister,  the  gentle  Edith,  as  a  wife  for  his 

AtheUstan.  ^^^         ^.  .^  .       .    .  / 

son  Otto,  then  a  prince  of  eighteen,  afterward  to 
become  emperor  and  second  founder  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
Still  another  sister  was  married  to  Hugh  the  Great,  Count  of 
Paris  and  Duke  of  France,  whose  son  was  the  famous  Hugh 
Capet,*  founder  of  the  modern  French  monarchy.  A  third  sister, 
Edgiva,  had  been  married  in  Edward's  lifetime  to  Charles  the 
Simple,  the  only  surviving  representative  of  the  old  Carlovingian 
dynasty.  Her  son  was  the  unfortunate  Louis  D'Outre-Mer,  who 
spent  fourteen  years  of  enforced  exile  at  the  English  court,  and 
succeeded  at  last  to  his  father's  throne  only  by  the  influence  of 
his  powerful  uncles. 

Athelstan's  death  came  suddenly,  just  at  the  moment  when  he 

was  beginning  to  reap  the  full  results  of  the  wisdom  of  father  and 

grandfather.    He  had  reigned  for  fifteen  years,  and  both 

Athelstan,      on   the   field   and   in   the   council  chamber  had  given 

940. 

Resxdtsofhu  ample  proof  of  the  possession  of  all  the  abilities  of  his 
house.  .  Compared  with  the  glories  of  Brunanburh  or 
the  exaltation  of  Dacre,  the  utmost  achievements  of  Alfred  or 
Edward  appear  almost  trifling.  And  yet,  these  brilliant  triumphs 
of  Athelstan  bore  no  such  solid  results  as  the  faithful  organizing 
of  Alfred,  or  the  patient  building  of  Edward,  and  much  of  his 
work  had  to  be  done  over  again. 


^  Hugh  Capet  was  the  son  of  a  second  wife,  Hedwig,  a  sister  of  Otto, 
the  Great. 


86  RECONQUEST   OF   DANELAGH  [edmund 

Upon  the  death  of  Athelstan,  his  brother  Edmund  passed  at 
once  to  the  throne.  Edmund  was  a  mere  lad  of  eighteen.  He  had 
fought  by  his  royal  brother's  side  at  Brunanburh ;  but 
Edmmid,  \^q  ji^d  had  no  experience  in  administration,  and  the 
northern  earls^  looked  upon  his  election  as  an  experi- 
ment. They  withheld  their  allegiance,  and  invited  the  Danisli 
king,  Olaf  of  Dublin,  to  come  over  and  assume  the  royal  authority 
at  York.  The  Mercian  Danes  also  were  restless  and  ready  to  join 
with  the  Northumhrians.  Edmund  promptly  took  the  field.  Olaf 
marched  into  the  south  Humber  country  and  advanced  as  far  as 
Northampton.  Here  his  advance  was  checked,  and  he  was  com- 
pelled to  fall  back,  first  upon  Tamworth,  and  then  toward  Chester. 
Edmund  followed  hard  upon  the  track  of  Olaf,  and  a  pitched  bat- 
tle appeared  inevitable,  when  the  two  Archbishops,  Odo  of  Canter- 
bury and  Wulfstan  of  York,  interfered  and  a  peace  was  patched 
upj  which,  strange  to  say,  virtually  ceded  not  only  what  Athelstan 
had  won,  but  Edward's  conquests  as  well.  The  English  hold 
upon  the  old  Danelagh,  however,  was  too  strong  to  be  renounced 
in  a  day,  and,  shortly  after  the  disgraceful  peace  of  Chester, 
Edmund  appears  once  more  in  full  possession  of  the  Five  Bor- 
oughs; and  by  945  Olaf  had  been  driven  out  of  the  northern 
counties  as  well,  and  all  Northumbria  was  again  under  Edmund's 
authority.  The  same  year  also  saw  Edmund  in  Cumberlaad, 
harrying  the  countryside,  and  compelling  its  king,  Donald,  to 
renew  the  homage  which  he  had  given  to  Athelstan.^ 

The  next  year  the  young  king,  whose  reign  had  opened  so 
auspiciously,  came  to  an  untimely  end  in  a  way  that  well  illus- 
trates the  wild  turbulence  of  the  time.  The  king  was  keeping  the 
Eeast  of  St.  Augustine  at  Pucklechurch  in  Gloucestershire,  when 
a  notorious  freebooter,  Leofa,  who  had  been  recently  banished  by 


^  Earl  is  an  English  spelling  of  the  Danish  jarl,  e  before  a  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  having  the  sound  of  the  Danish  j.  After  the  Danisli  wars  Earl  is 
generally  substituted  for  ealdorman. 

2  "The  allegation  of  a. cession  of  Cumbria  or  Strathclyde  to  Scotland 
must  be  dismissed  as  an  idle  boast  of  our  chroniclers,  but  one  quite  in 
accordance  with  the  turgid  pretensions  of  the  royal  charters  of  the 
period."— Ramsay,  I,  p.  297. 


i#' 


945955]  EDRED  87 

the  king's  order,  entered  the  hall  and  insisted  upon  taking  his 
seat  at  the  king's  board.  The  king,  indignant  at  the  insult, 
ordered  his  steward  to  expel  the  man.  The  ruffian  resisted,  and 
the  king  himself  joined  in  the  struggle.  A  knife  flashed,  and 
Edmund  sank  to  the  floor.  The  thanes  dispatched  the  outlaw; 
but  the  king  was  dead. 

Edmund's  eldest  son,  Edwy,  was  still  a  child;  and  the  witan, 

as  at  the  death  of  Ethelred,  turned  again  from  the  direct  line  to 

elect  a  younger  brother  of  the  late  king,  in  this  case 

Edred,  Edred.     Edred  was  four  years  older  than  Edmund  when 

946-955.  •' 

Edmund  assumed  the  crown,  but  since  childhood 
Edred  had  been  a  confirmed  invalid.  He  was  surrounded,  how- 
ever, by  the  veteran  counselors  of  his  brothers  and  his  father,  and 
during  his  reign  of  nine  years  the  administration  revealed  no  fall- 
ing off  in  energy  or  efficiency.  There  was  the  usual  hesitation  of 
the  northern  people  in  accepting  the  new  king,  but  the  prompt 
action  of  the  Welsh  and  the  English,  and  the  ready  energy  of  the 
king's  ministers,  not  only  forestalled  the  growth  of  any  widely- 
extended  revolt,  but  enabled  Edred  to  add  Northumbria  per- 
manently to  England.  The  Northumbrians  themselves,  more- 
over, were  weary  of  Danish  rule,  and  apparently  conspired 
with  the  English  to  expel  the  last  representatives  of  the  race  of 
Healfdene  and  Ivar  the  Boneless.  Edred,  however,  did  not 
organize  the  newly  acquired  territory  as  a  part  of  the  English  king- 
dom of  the  south,  but  united  Deira  and  Bernicia  into  one  vast 
ealdormanry,  or  earldom,  which  he  bestowed  upon  Osulf,  the**  High 
Reeve  of  Bamborough,"  who  had  recently  been  of  great  service  in 
expelling  the  Danish  kings. 

Edred  did  not  long  survive  the  establishment  of  an  English 
ealdorman  over  Northumbria.     His  name  hardly  belongs  to  the  list 

of  great  kiners  of  the  House    of   Alfred;   yet  he   was 

Character  ^  ,      ,  •  .  .   .^  .,,  ,  f     u     x  -ii    j 

ofEdred's  not  lacking  in  spirit,  neither  was  he  a  man  to  be  trined 
His  death,      with.     The  aiTcst  and  imprisonment  of  the  treacherous 

955.  

Wulfstan,  Archbishop  of  York,  had  quite  the  ring  of 
the  old  metal.  The  reign,  moreover,  on  the  whole  was  suc- 
cessful, nor  did  the  prestige  of  the  royal  house  suffer.  Yet  the  poor 
young  king,  weighted  with   a   sickly   body,    with  scarcely  blood 


88  RECONQUEST   OP   DANELAGH  [edrbd 

enough  in  his  veins  to  keep  them  open,  must  have  had  a  weary- 
struggle;  after  nine  years  he  gave  up  the  contest,  and  was  laid 
by  the  side  of  his  brother  Edmund  at  Glastonbury. 

The  recovery  of  the  Danelagh  was  now  completed.  The  ques- 
tion of  supremacy  was  permanently  settled,  not  only  between  Danes 
Teutjnnic  ^^^  English,  but  also  between  North  Britain  and  South 
hecmnZ  Britain.  Henceforth,  southern  Britain  was  to  direct 
England.  j^}^q  ** destinies  of  the  island,"  give  it  its  royal  family, 
and  rule  it  from  its  southern  capital.  But  more  important  still, 
Teutonic  Britain  had  become  England;  in  the  furnace  fire  of  for- 
eign war,  local  differences  and  tribal  antagonisms  had  disappeared, 
and  the  once  rival  tribes  had  been  fused  into  one  people.  The 
tribal  king  of  the  West  Saxons  had  become  the  national  king  of  the 
English. 

In  the  presence  of  such  changes  it  was  not  possible  for  the  old 
simple  political  and  social  constitution  to  remain  as  it  had  been  in 
the  past.  The  erasure  of  ancient  tribal  lines  and  the 
EmHsh^^  concentration  of  all  royal  authority  in  the  family  of 
^^mnizaticm  ^^ssex,  vastly  increasing  the  personal  authority  and 
prestige  of  the  king,  were  sufficient  to  change  the  pro- 
portions of  the  old  constitution.  But  other  changes  fully  as  impor- 
tant, and  even  more  radical,  had  extended  through  the  entire  social 
structure.  The  old  free  ceorls  had  sunk  into  a  condition  of  semi- 
servitude.  The  laws  of  the  time,  designed  no  doubt  to  protect 
society  against  the  vagrant,  compelled  every  man  to  put  himself 
uuder  the  protection  of  some  lord,  who  thus  became  a  sort  of  per- 
petual bail,  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  his  man,  and  in  case  of 
crime  bound  to  produce  him  in  court  or  make  good  the  loss  which 
his  ill-doing  had  caused  the  community.  A  man  of  good  character 
would  find  little  difficulty  in  securing  a  lord,  but  the  man  who  had 
once  lost  his  reputation  was  in  a  sad  plight,  for  the  lordless  man 
had  no  standing  before  the  law.  The  principle  was  feudal,  and 
indicates,  all  too  plainly,  that  English  society  was  changing  rapidly 
from  a  community  of  independent  freemen  to  an  oligarchy  of  rich 
landowners,  where  wealth  was  the  only  badge  of  independence.  It 
indicates,  moreover,  that  the  poor  freeman  could  no  longer  be  trusted ; 
the  loss  of  personal  independence,  as  always,  had  been  attended 


THE    GILDS  89 

by  a  corresponding  loss  of  self-respect  and  sense  of  responsibility. 
Freemen  had  become  servile  in  nature,  and,  therefore,  servile  in 
condition. 

With  the  decline  of  the  free  poor,  there  is  also  a  marked  advance 
in  the  severity  of  the  laws  in  dealing  with  petty  offenders,  who 

naturally  came  from  this  class,  or  the  scarcely  lower 
r^^idatims     ^^^^^  ^^^  represented  the  old  villainage.     No  thief  of 

twelve  years  of  age  or  over  who  stole  to  the  amount  of 
twelve  pence  was  to  be  spared.  He  was  to  be  slain,  if  found  guilty, 
and  all  that  he  had  was  to  be  taken.  The  manifest  thief  was  to 
be  pursued  by  hue  and  cry,  and  the  first  man  who  felled  him  to  the 
earth  was  to  receive  a  fee   of   twelve  pence.      The  population 

also  wore  invited  to  enroll  themselves  into  gilds,  each 

under  its  own  head  or  ealder.  Ten  gilds,  again,  were 
to  be  associated  together  into  a  larger  association  known  as  the 
hundred}  The  gild  was  to  serve  as  a  sort  of  home  protection 
association,  designed  to  insure  its  members  against  loss  by  theft. 
Their  duty  was  to  lead  the  hue  and  cry  against  the  thief,  and  see 
that  the  stolen  property  or  its  value  was  restored  to  the  owner. 
The  value  of  the  stolen  property  was  first  to  be  taken  from  the 
goods  of  the  thief;  what  was  left  was  then  divided  into  two  parts, 
one  of  which  was  given  to  the  wife  of  the  thief,  if  she  had  had  no  part 
in  the  crime;  the  second  part  was  divided  equally  between  the  king 
and  the  gild  brethren.  The  gild,  in  dealing  with  the  thief,  was 
not  required  to  appeal  to  legal  authority,  but  might  proceed  at  once 
to  extreme  measures.  In  other  words  "lynch  law"  was  legalized, 
and  its  violence  justified  The  sheriff  was  to  be  called  upon  only 
when  the  offender  was  too  strong  for  the  gilds  to  deal  with,  or 
when  he  sought  refuge  in  another  shire.  Then  the  pursuit  of  the 
criminal  was  handed  over  to  the  neighboring  sheriff,  who  was 
bound  either  to  produce  the  thief  or  hunt  him  out  of  his  shire. 

This  particular  scheme  originated  first  among  the  bishops  and 
reeves  of  London,  but  it  seems  to  have  been  added  as  a  supplement 
to  the  public  acts  of  Athelstan's  reign,  and  was  to  be  applied  to 
the  whole  kingdom.     The  king  urges  its  adoption  upon  his  bishops, 

^  Not  to  be  confused  with  the  territorial  institution  of  that  name. 


90  RECOJ^QUEST    OF    DAKELAGH  [edbed 

ealdormen,  and  sheriffs,  that  the  people  may  be  relieved  of  the 
annoyance  of  thieving. 

In  the  laws  of  Athelstan,  the  shire  court  and  the  whole  system 
of  procedure  emerges  with  more  and  more  distinctness  from  the 
,,  „   ,  obscurity  of    the  earlier  period.      General  attendance 

Method  of  i        i  • 

trial.  upon  the  shire  court  was  enforced  by  fines.     The  sheriff 

The  ovddCil 

was  also  more  definitely  recognized  as  the  king's  repre- 
sentative officer.  An  accused  man,  if  not  taken  in  the  act,  was 
allowed  to  clear  himself  by  the  oath  of  his  lord  or  his  friends.  Fail- 
ing of  this,  he  was  put  to  his  trial,  which  was  simply  an  appeal  to  God 
to  work  a  miracle  in  his  behalf  and  save  him  from  punishment,  if  he 
were  innocent ;  another  instance  which  shows  how  overwhelmingly 
the  laws  favored  the  property  holder.  The  accuser  might  select 
the  kind  of  test  to  be  applied,  but  the  law  prescribed  in  each  case 
whether  the  ordeal  should  be  single  or  double  or  triple.  "In  the 
case  of  the  ordeal  by  hot  iron,  a  fire  was  kindled  in  the  church,  and 
a  bar  of  iron  weighing  one,  two,  or  three  pounds^  placed  upon  it  in 
the  presence  of  an  equal  number  of  witnesses  from  each  side.  The 
iron  was  kept  upon  the  fire  while  a  certain  service  was  performed. 
At  the  end  of  Hhe  last  collect,'  the  iron  was  placed  upon  trestles, 
the  man's  hand  was  sprinkled  with  holy  water,  and  then,  at  a  sig- 
nal from  the  priest,  he  took  up  the  iron  and  carried  it  a  measured 
distance  of  nine  of  his  own  feet ;  then,  dropping  it,  he  rushed  to 
the  altar,  where  his  hand  was  bound  up  with  a  sealed  cloth,  to  be 
removed  at  the  end  of  three  days,  when  his  guilt  or  innocence 
would  be  declared,  according  to  the  state  of  his  hand.  In  the 
ordeal  by  hot  water,  the  accused  had  to  take  up  a  stone  immersed 
in  boiling  water  to  the  depth  of  his  wrist  or  elbow,  as  the  case 
might  be.  In  the  ordeal  by  cold  water,  he  was  let  down  into  a 
pool  of  water  by  a  rope  an  ell  and  a  half  long.  If  he  sank,  he  was 
innocent.     If  he  floated,  he  was  guilty. "  ^ 

It  may  be  wondered  how  any  one  could  escape  at  such  a  trial, 
save  by  the  connivance  or  trickery  of  those  who  officiated.  But 
by  comparing  with  the  later  laws  of  the  N"orman  and  Angevin 
period,  it  appears  that  the  ordeal  was  more  of  the  nature  of  a  penalty 

1  As  the  ordeal  was  to  be  single,  double,  or  triple. 

2  Ramsay,  I,  p.  293. 


INSTITUTIONS    LOSE    POPULAR   CHARACTER  91 

than  a  trial,  and  was  imposed  only  in  the  case  of  a  notorious  per- 
son, who  could  not  get  the  requisite  number  of  qualified  guar- 
antors to  swear  to  his  good  character.  Moreover,  if  the  accused 
succeeded  in  passing  the  test,  though  his  life  was  spared,  he  was 
compelled  to  leave  the  country. 

With  the  change  in  the  standing  of  freemen,  the  government 
correspondingly  lost  its  old  popular  character.  The  ancient  folk- 
moot  never  got  beyond  the  shire  court.  In  the  consoli- 
larcMracter  dated  kingdom  the  witenagemot  exercised  all  the 
*  functions  of  the  popular  assembly.  By  its  counsel  and 
consent  charters  were  granted,  laws  were  formulated,  kings,  ealdor- 
men,  and  bishops  were  chosen ;  by  it  high  offenders  were  tried.  It 
represented  not  the  people,  but  the  great  landholding  aristocracy, 
centered  in  the  king  and  the  royal  family.  To  this  fact  was 
undoubtedly  due  the  growing  severity  of  the  laws  which  fell  most 
heavily  upon  the  lower  classes.  At  times  the  landholders  appear 
calling  for  laws  so  severe  that  the  king  refuses  to  grant  them;  as 
when  the  witan  proposed  to  Athelstan  that  a  free  woman  who 
turned  thief  be  drowned,  or  that  a  male  slave  be  stoned  to  death 
and  a  female  slave  be  burnt  alive. 

Another  change  which  belongs  to  this  era  is  significant  of  the 
drift  of  the  national  institutions.  We  have  seen  the  old  ealdormen 
acting  as  the  simple  chiefs  of  the  fyrd  in  the  shire, 
the  ureal  something  like  the  modern  lords  lieutenant  of  the 
counties;  but  by  the  time  of  Edmund  and  Edred  the 
ealdormen  begin  to  appear  as  provincial  governors,  almost  as  sub- 
kings,  each  in  his  own  group  of  shires.  Under  Edred,  whose 
feeble  health  possibly  made  the  extension  of  such  a  system  a  neces- 
sity, in  order  to  relieve  him  of  the  burdens  of  directly  administer- 
ing the  enlarged  kingdom,  there  are  seven  such  provincial 
governors  or  viceroys  south  of  the  Humber,  to  whom  the  reorgani- 
zation of  Northumbria  added  still  an  eighth.  This  important 
office,  to  which  the  Danish  term  earl  ^  was  soon  to  be  commonly 
applied,  was  not  yet  hereditary,  but  its  semi-regal  nature  was 
recognized  in  that  it  was  generally  reserved  for  members  of  the 
royal  family,  the  ethelings,  and  could  be  conferred  only  by  the 
*  See  note  on  p.  86. 


92  RECONQUEST   OF   DAKELAGH  [edeed 

consent  of  the  witan.  The  ealdorman,  or  earl,  supported  his  own 
court,  was  protected  by  a  wergeld  equal  to  that  of  the  bishop,  and 
surrounded  himself  with  his  own  thanes.  Under  a  strong  king, 
these  powerful  viceroys  might  be  of  real  service  in  simplifying  the 
task  of  governing  so  large  a  territory.  But  under  weak  kings  and 
minors,  such  as  now  began  to  succeed  to  the  throne  of  Alfred,  the 
institution  was  allowed  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  ambitious  and 
unscrupulous  men,  and  by  undermining  the  royal  authority 
became  a  source  of  immeasurable  mischief. 


,     CHAPTER   VI 

THE   DATS   OF   DUN8TAN  ;   THE   EARLY   ENGLISH   KINGDOM   PASSES 

MERIDIAN 

As  the  last  years  of  the  ninth  century  are  associated  with  the 
great  name  of  Alfred,  the  last  years  of  the  tenth  century  are  asso- 
ciated with  the  great  name  of  Dunstan.  This  remark- 
ofDunSlan^  able  man  was  not  a  king,  but  an  ecclesiastic  and  a  monk, 
the  first  of  a  long  line  of  churchly  statesmen,  of  whom 
are  Lanfranc,  Anselm,  Becket,  Langton,  and  Wolsey,  who  have 
directed  English  history,  and  at  times  exerted  a  greater  influence 
upon  the  life  of  the  nation  than  its  kings. 

Dunstan  was  born  a  short  time  before  the  death  of  Edward  the 
Elder.*  His  family,  of  good  old  West  Saxon  stock,  lived  in  Glaston- 
bury and  had  its  representatives  high  in  influence  in  the  church. 
His  education  began  in  the  monastery  school  of  his  native  town. 
The  lad  was  precocious,  deeply  sensitive,  and  somewhat  stormy 
in  disposition.  He  had,  moreover,  a  most  unpleasant  wa/  of 
seeing  visions  and  bringing  forth  fof  the  beneflt  of  his  godless  com- 
panions, messages  fresh  hot  from  the  other  world.  He  was  not  pop- 
ular. What  dreamer  has  been  from  Joseph  down?  So  Dunstan 
also  was  vigorously  hated  for  his  pains,  and  finally  driven  from 
Glastonbury  by  open  violence. 

Elfege,  the  bishop  of  Winchester,  was  a  kinsman  of  Dunstan, 
and  to  him  the  young  scholar,  smarting  under  the  indignities 
which  had  been  heaped  upon  him  by  his  fellow  pupils  at 
DumUin^  Glastonbury,  fled  for  refuge  and  consolation.  At  this 
time  a  new  religious  awakening,  which  had  begun  in  the 
old  monastery  of  Cluny,  was  arousing  the  Benedictine  societies  of 
the  continent,  and  though  England  had  not  yet  responded  to  the 
movement,  here  and  there  were  pious  souls  who  were  earnestly 

*  The  year  924,  commonly  given,  is  evidently  an  error. 


94  DAYS    OF    DUNSTAI^  [edmund 

longing  for  a  better  day.  Of  this  number  was  Elfege,  who 
found  in  the  ascetic  nature  of  his  young  kinsman  a  fruitful  soil  for 
the  germination  of  his  own  peculiar  ideas.  Dunstan,  however,  did 
not  yield  himself  to  the  monastic  life  without  a  struggle.  A  vision 
of  another  kind  had  filled  his  heart  of  late,  which  his  monastic 
guides  taught  him  was  of  the  devil.  But  tit  last  the  battle  was 
won.  The  fresh  young  girlish  face,  for  such  was  the  vision,  was 
banished,  and  the  student  assumed  the  vows  which  committed  him 
to  a  life  of  celibacy.  Upon  his  return  to  his  old  home,  his  narrow 
cell  and  his  rather  ostentatious  asceticism  soon  won  for  him  a 
reputation  for  great  sanctity.  Strange  stories  adorned  with  the 
ready  embellishments  of  the  credulous,  were  eagerly  received  and 
repeated  far  and  wide.  Crowds  came  to  gaze  at  the  young  monk, 
who  was  said  to  have  miraculous  trances  in  his  cell  and  see  portents 
in  which  the  death  of  kings  was  foreshadowed.  He  was  also  said  to 
hold  personal  altercations  with  the  evil  one.  Had  not  the  saint  once 
seized  the  hooked  nose  with  a  pair  of  hot  tongs  and  held  it  fast,  until 
the  whole  neighborhood  had  been  aroused  by  the  Satanic  bellowing? 
Before  such  irrefragable  evidence  Dunstan's  reputation  for  saintli- 
ness  grew  fast,  until  even  the  scoffers  were  convinced.  But  a  fear- 
less saint  in  those  days  of  general  laxness  and  indifference  to  the 
laws  of  the  church,  was  not  a  comfortable  neighbor ;  and  it  was 
not  long  before  the  plain  speech  of  Dunstan  had  made  him  many 
bitter  enemies.  Among  these  enemies  was  King  Edmund  himself; 
for  Glastonbury  had  now  for  a  long  time  been  a  royal  residence 
city,  and  here  the  king  often  resorted  with  his  court.  At  last 
Edmund  drove  the  faithful  monk  away.  But  the  young  king  by 
no  means  rested  easy  after  he  had  thus  silenced  his  John  the  Bap- 
tist:  and  while   his  conscience  still  rankled  with  its 

946. 

wound,  a  moment  of  great  personal  danger  converted 
him  into  a  thoroughgoing  a'dvocate  of  Dunstan's  views.  He  sent 
after  the  exile,  and  with  his  own  hands,  it  is  said,  placed  him  in 
the  abbot's  chair  of  the  old  monastery  of  Glastonbury. 

Glastonbury  was  at  that  time  a  fair  representative  of  the 
few  English  monasteries  that  had  survived  the  ninth  century. 
Iffe  buildings  were  in  ruins;  its  livings  were  in  the  hands  of 
mere  clerks  or  parish  priests,  married  men   apparently   for  the 


946]  DUNSTAN   AND   EDRED  95 

most  part,  distinguished  as  *' seculars  "from  the  ^'regular  clergy"; 
that  is,  from  those  who  lived  according   to  the  stricter   rule  of 

Benedict.  Dunstan,  as  abbot,  was  free  to  introduce 
Reffn-ma  at     reforms  to  his  heart's  content;  but  he  had  evidently 

learned  much  from  his  early  misfortunes  and  did  not 
attempt  to  apply  the  old  Benedictine  rule  at  once.  He  began  his 
reforms  rather  upon  the  material  side  first;  the  recovery  of  lost 
lands,  and  the  repair  of  buildings.  No  one  could  object  to  this. 
Then  he  gathered  around  him  a  company  of  young  men,  whom  he 
carefully  trained  in  the  well-nigh  forgotten  rules  of  the  monastic 
life.     Thus  he  laid  a  broad  foundation  for  the  future. 

In  the  meanwhile  Edred  had    been  advanced  to  the  throne 
made  vacant  by  the  dagger  thrust  of  Leofa.     lie  was  not  only  in 

full  sympathy  with  the  aims  of  Dunstan,  finding  posi- 
^J.^^""'"^  tions  for  his  pupils,  as  Ethelwold  who  was  appointed 

to  the  Abbey  of  Abingdon;  but  he  also  supported  Odo, 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  a  far  more  radical  movement,  and 
encouraged  the  sending  of  English  priests  to  the  continent,  where 
they  came  directly  under  the  influence  of  such  great  centers  of  the 
new  monastic  reform  as  Fleury,  and  whence  they  returned  to 
spread  the  sacred  contagion  at  home.  Dunstan,  however,  was  no 
narrow  recluse;  he  knew  men,  especially  the  unsanctified  and 
worldly  sort  who  surrounded  the  court  of  the  king;  and  Edred 
soon  found  in  him  a  most  competent  assistant  in  the  administra- 
tion of  his  kingdom.  He  made  him  virtually  his  treasurer.  The 
abbey  became  a  royal  depository.  Hero  were  placed  the  royal 
hoard  and  tlie  charters  or  *Hitle  deeds"  to  the  estates  which  the 
king  held  by  book-right. 

At    this   time    Dunstan    appears   without   any   of   the   stern 
angularities  of  the  ascetic.     If  in  his  earlier  days  he  had  made 

some  parade  of  the  hair  shirt  and  leathern  girdle  and 

Themature  ,,    ,       .  •  ..  .  -. 

characUrof  narrow  Cell,  he  IS  now  a  man  of  ^^ensasins  manners  and 
refined  tastes."  Instead  of  shunning  the  society  of  the 
ladies  of  the  court,  he  has  learned  the  art  of  making  himself  both 
agreeable  and  useful.  He  can  draw  patterns  of  rare  beauty  for 
'  their  needle  work.  He  is  a  performer  on  the  harp  of  such  won- 
drous skill,  that  the  ravishing  tones  which  thrill  from  his  fingers 


96  DAYS    OF   DUNSTAK  [edrkd 

seem  to  come  from  the  touch  of  holy  inspiration.  He  is  still  a  great 
dreamer  but  his  dreams  are  no  longer  the  vagaries  of  **the  som- 
nambulist." He  is  a  poet,  an  artist,  a  statesman.  His  imagina- 
tion is  as  vivid  as  ever  but  it  no  longer  betrays  him  into  '* seeing 
things  at  night."  He  is  practical,  self -controlled,  and  dominated 
by  moderation  and  good  sense. 

Apparently  he  had  no  taste  for  speculation  or  literary  compo- 
sition. If  he  ever  committed  himself  to  parchment,  nothing,  not 
even  a  title,  remains.  Yet  he  was  a  dexterous  penman 
mentsof  and  in  accordance  with  the  fashion  of  the  times,  could 
ornament  a  manuscript  with  the  most  expert.  Some 
of  Edred's  charters  are  believed  to  be  his  work,  besides  a  drawing 
of  Christ  with  the  artist  prostrate  at  his  feet.  He  possessed  also  a 
special  skill  in  metal  work.  His  cell  at  Glastonbury,  it  is  said, 
was  equipped  with  forge  and  anvil,  where  he  was  accustomed  to 
toil  at  his  favorite  art  far  into  the  night.  To  the  early  medieval 
mind  there  was  always  something  uncanny  associated  with  the 
mysteries  of  the  craft ; — witness  the  choice  old  legend  of  Wieland 
the  Smith, — possibly  connected  with  the  fitful  glare  of  the  forge, 
the  glowing  iron  on  the  anvil,  the  sounding  blows,  the  showering 
sparks ;  and  it  was  perhaps  to  this  wizard-like  accomplishment  of 
the  young  monk  that  the  legend  of  his  visit  from  the  evil  one  is 
due.  The  organ  of  Malmesbury  and  the  chime  of  bells  of  Canter- 
bury long  remained,  by  no  means  silent  testimonies  of  his  achieve- 
ments. He  also  knew  how  to  model  in  wax  and  carve  in  wood  and 
bone. 

It  was  as  a  statesman  that  Dunstan  brought  his  practical  mind 
to  bear  directly  upon  the  problems  of  the  age.  Here  his  modera- 
ihinstunas  ^^^^  ^^  ^^  conspicuous  as  that  sanctified  worldliness 
statesman,  which  makes  him  the  model  ecclesiastical  statesman 
of  all  times.  He  was  in  full  sympathy  with  the  ascetic  revival 
of  his  age ;  yet  he  never  went  to  the  extremes  of  some  of  his 
contemporaries,  but  recognized  the  strength  of  the  ties  which 
bound  the  married  clergy  to  their  families,  and  even  after 
he  had  become  archbishop  of  Canterbury  with  all  the  power  of 
Edgar  to  support  him,  he  attempted  no  ruthless  warfare  against' 
those  who  had  already  entered  the  married  state.     He  sought, 


955]  CHOICE    OF    EDWY  97 

rather,  to  bring  up  a  generation  of  younger  men,  to  take  the  place 
of  their  eiders  as  they  fell  at  their  posts,  better  trained,  and  thus 
saved  from  their  errors. 

When  Edmund  was  struck  down  by  the  outlaw  he  left  two 
sons,  Edwy  and  Edgar.  But  they  were  too  young  then  to  be 
entrusted  with  the  royal  authority,  and  the  witan  had. 
Edwy^^^  wisely  passed  them  by  in  favor  of  their  uncle  Edred. 
Now,  however,  Edred  was  dead  and  there  was  no  fourth 
son  of  the  noble  Edward  to  raise  to  the  throne;  and  the  witan  were 
forced  to  turn  again  to  Edwy,  the  eldest  son  of  Edmund,  then 
possibly  in  his  sixteenth  year. 

The  choice  was  not  happy.     The  conscience  of  Europe  s^sls 

everywhere  turning  from  the  license  tolerated  by  a  more  barbarous 

age  to  a  stricter  life.     Not  only  was  celibacy  enjoined 

The  choice  ^,,  .,,,,.,,,  ,  .      "* 

of  Edwy        as  the  most  holy  state  for  the  clergy,  but  princes  and 

unfurttuuite.  .  .  •     i  .  i  i  .  ,  .   i       i     .  , 

nobles  were  forbidden  unions  which  their  fathers  had 
regarded  with  no  disfavor.  The  great  Athelstan  himself  had  been 
the  child  of  such  a  union,  and  no  one  had  hesitated  to  do 
him  homage  on  that  account.  But  the  revival  had  now  reached 
England  and,  passing  beyond  the  monasteries,  was  rapidly  win- 
ning the  approval  of  the  public  conscience.  It  was  exceedingly 
unfortunate,  therefore,  at  such  a  time  when  the  trumpet  had 
been  put  to  lips  that  were  iron  bound,  and  the  drowsy  con- 
science of  the  nation  was  at  last  awaking,  that  the  most  available 
candidate  for  the  throne  should  be  Edwy,  a  mere  lad  of  fifteen, 
willful  and  headstrong  and,  withal,  directly  under  the  influence  of 
Ethelgiva,  a  woman  of  evil  reputation,  who  was  solely  bent  upon 
marrying  the  king  to  her  daughter  Elgiva.  During  the  reigns  of 
Edmund  and  Edred  the  influence  of  Edward's  widow, ^  Edgiva, 
had  been  all  powerful,  nor  was  she  inclined  now  to  yield  her 
supremacy  to  the  intriguing  Ethelgiva,  but  brought  all  her  influ- 
ence to  bear  in  preventing  the  proposed  marriage.  She  found 
powerful  allies  in  Dunstan  and  Archbishop  Odo  and  other  leaders 
of  the  ecclesiastical  reform.  For,  as  an  additional  objection  to 
the  marriage,  Edwy  and  Elgiva  were  related  and  thus  came  within 
the  degree  of  consanguinity  forbidden  by  the  church. 

*  It  is  too  early  to  speak  of  an  English  queen,  or  a  queen  mother. 


98  DAYS    OF    DUNSTAN  [edwy 

The  quarrel  came  to  an  open  rupture  at  the  coronation  feast  at 

Kingston,  when  the  witan  had  gathered  at  the  king's  board  to  do 

him  honor.     Wine  was  flowing  freely:    the  boisterous 

Expulsion  of  ,  t         ^       ,^  ,  T  «  T  T  1     « 

Dunstan,        revelrv  shook  the  old  roof,  and  reechoed  from  distant 

955. 

halls.  But  the  young  king  grew  weary  of  the  cheer, 
and  slipped  away  from  the  royal  company  of  his  thanes  to  the 
apartments  of  Ethelgiva  and  her  daughter.  When  the  noisy 
guests  noted  the  absence  of  their  king,  and  learned  whither  he  had 
gone,  they  bade  Dunstan  fetch  him.  The  abbot  found  the  truant 
and,  after  some  high  words,  took  him  by  the  hand  and  drew  him 
back  to  the  banqueting  hall  to  meet  his  angry  thanes.  The  boy 
kij^g  could  not  forget  the  humiliation  of  his  coronation  night,  and 
at  the  instigation  of  Ethelgiva,  soon  began  a  deliberate  attack 
upon  Dunstan  and  Edgiva.  Dunstan  was  the  greatest  man  of^  the 
kingdom,  and,  with  the  exception  of  Odo,  possibly  the  most  influ- 
ential. It  was  inevitable  that  such  a  man  should  have  many 
malignant  and  unscrupulous  enemies,  who  would  be  only  too 
glad  to  join  in  the  rout  when  once  the  hue  and  cry  was  raised. 
The  temporary  triumph  of  Edwy  and  Ethelgiva  was  the  signal 
for  all  these  dark  spirits  to  pronounce  themselves.  Dunstan  was 
charged  with  malversation  in  the  care  of  the  late  king's  treasury. 
By  English  custom  he  should  be  tried  before  the  witenagemot, 
but  Ethelgiva  had  too  many  friends  among  the  witan  for  him  to 
expect  a  fair  trial  at  their  hands,  and  he  accordingly  withdrew  to 
Flanders  to  wait  for  the  storm  to  blow  over.  Edgiva  also  was 
driven  from  the  court. 

Ethelgiva  was  now  virtually  the  ruler  of  England,  and  her  first 

act  v^as  to  secure  her  influence  by  the  marriage  of  her  daughter  to 

the  kinsr.     She  sousrht  also  to  win  a  church  party  of 

Triumphof      .  ^,  ^  x-ii.  ^ 

the  church  her  own  by  numerous  grants  to  churches  and  monas- 
teries. But  no  government  could  long  survive  which 
had  been  founded  upon  the  open  violation  of  what  the  reform 
spirit  of  the  age  was  coming  to  regard  as  the  sacred  law  of  Chris- 
tendom. In  957  the  great  lords  of  Mercia  and  Northumbria 
broke  into  open  revolt  and  set  up  Edgar,  the  younger  brother  of 
Edwy,  as  their  king.  In  Wessex  also  the  church  party  carried  on 
a  relentless  war  against  Ethelgiva,  and  next  year  Odo  succeeded 


959-962]  ELEVATION   OF   DUNSTAK  99 

in  divorcing  King  Edwy  and  in  banishing  the  hated  mother-in- 
law.  We  may  not  believe  the  stories  of  the  brutal  treatment  of 
the  poor  little  bride;*  but  the  defection  of  the  northern  earls 
was  quite  enough  to  frighten  the  boy  king,  especially  with 
Archbishop  Odo  thundering  terrible  things  in  his  ears;  even  a 
stouter  heart  and  an  older  head  might  have  hesitated.  In  959 
after  four  years,  most  unhappy  years  we  may  believe,  the  wretched 
young  king  died,  and  Wessex  quietly  passed  to  his  brother  Edgar, 
who  since  957  had  been  king  over  all  England  north  of  the 
Thames. 

Edgar  had  already  recalled  Dunstan  and  made  him  bishop  of 
Worcester.  In  959  the  see  of  London  was  also  added  to  his  care. 
And  when,  in  the  same  year,  the  death  of  both  Odo  and 
D^mt^'''^  Edwy  left  Edgar  free  to  name  his  candidate  for  the 
archiepiscopal  throne,  there  was  in  all  the  kingdom  but 
one  man  to  be  considered,  and  Dunstan  was  named  as  Odo's  suc- 
cessor. Dunstan  now  stood  next  to  the  king  in  honor  and  influ- 
ence, and  the  long  era  of  peace  and  prosperity  which  attended  the 
sixteen  years  of  Edgar's  reign  was  due  in  no  small  degree  to  the 
primate's  sage  counsel,  and  the  consistent  and  statesmaidike  policy 
to  which  he  committed  the  king. 

Under  Edgar  the  religious  revival  was  not  allowed  to  slacken. 
He  had  hardly  become  seated,  when  the  monastic  drift  of  the 
nation  was  greatly  deepened  and  strengthened  by  the 
Pmccfui.  appearance  of  a  pestilence,  the  ''sudden  death,"  which, 
the  church  starting  in  the  centers  of  population,  swept  the  king- 
dom far  and  wide.  In  902  London  also  was  ravaged  by 
a  serious  conflagration.  Monastic  thought  was  in  the  air,  and  the 
people  readily  saw  in  these  afllictions  a  punishment  for  their  dis- 
obedience in  not  conforming  to  the  laws  of  the  church.  The  king, 
who  had  been  from  his  youth  under  the  influence  of  Dunstan,  was 
thoroughly  possessed  with  this  idea,  and  everywhere  enforced  the 
demands  of  the  reformers.  In  this  he  was  ably  seconded  by 
Oswald,  the  nephew  of  Odo,  who  had  been  trained  at  Fleury,  and 
in  961  had  succeeded  Dunstan  at  Worcester;  and  also  by  Ethel- 
wold,  the  abbot  of  Abingdon,  the  former  pupil  of  Dunstan.  As  a 
^  They  belong  to  a  period  long  subsequent  to  Odo's  death. 


100  DAYS   OF   DUNSTAN  [ 


Edgar  the  1'eaceful 


result  of  the  powerful  influence  brought  to  bear  by  such  leaders, 
supported  by  the  king  and  upheld  by  the  sentiment  of  the  people, 
the  married  clergy  were  compelled  to  put  away  their  wives  and 
conform  to  the  ecclesiastical  law.  Training  schools  or  semi- 
naries for  monks,  with  regular  courses  of  study  extending  over  two 
or  three  years,  were  also  established,  and  from  them  young  men, 
imbued  with  the  new  idea  of  the  monastic  life,  were  regularly  sent 
out  upon  missions  into  other  fields.  New  abbeys  were  founded, 
according  to  tradition  to  the  number  of  forty,  and  old  foundations 
restored.  Thus  arose  Ramsey  in  Huntingdon,  associated  with  the 
name  of  Oswald ;  Ely  and  Medehamstede,  the  latter  soon  to  be 
known  as  Peterborough,  both  associated  with  the  name  of  Ethel  wold. 
Edgar  and  Dunstan,  however,  had  other  work  to  do  besides 
that  of  reforming  monks  and  building  monasteries.     The  Danish 

inroads  had  ceased,  but  the  unruly  lords  of  the  isles  had 
^^^i\wer    ^^  ^^  ^®P^  ^^  subjection.     According  to  a  respectable 

but  hardly  credible  tradition,  Edgar  maintained  a  fleet 
of  3,600  sail,  with  which  he  patroled  his  coasts  each  year.  It  is 
probable  that  the  famous  review  at  Chester  of  973,^  in  which,  it  is 
said,  Edgar  was  borne  along  in  a  barge  rowed  by  six  vassal  kings, 
was  a  part  of  one  of  these  annual  manceuvers. 

As  with  his  predecessors,  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  particular 
institutions  which  date  from  Edgar's  reign,  and  yet  the  era  was 

one  in  which  the  growth  of  English  institutions  was 
^^^^^^wtjonai  markedly  deepened  and  strengthened.  The  West  Saxon 
Edgar's         shire  systcm  was  unquestionably  extended  to  the  Hum- 

ber.  The  hundred  or,  as  it  was  called  north  of  Watling 
Street,  the  wapentaJce,  appears  in  the  laws  for  the  first  time  by 
name,  and  its  functions,  the  times  of  holding  the  court,  and  the 
duties  of  its  officers  are  fixed  by  ordinance.  The  system  which 
Athelstanhad  enjoined,  of  organizing  each  community  into  gilds 
for  better  protection  against  thieving,  also  appears  merged  in  the 
hundred ;  the  subdivision  or  group  of  ten  being  represented 
in  the  tithing.  The  system  by  which  each  man  was  compelled 
to  find  a  perpetual  surety,  who  should  be  responsible  for 
him  before  the  local  court  was  also  extended  and  strengthened. 
^Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  973. 


975]  *  REGULATION    OP   TRADE  IPI 

The  times  of  meeting  of  the  higher  courts  were  fixed.  The 
*' Ordinance  of  the  Hundred"  prescribed  that  the  hundred 
court  should  meet  '^always  in  four  weeks,"  but  the  hurh-gemot 
should  be  held  *Hhrice  in  the  year,"  and  the  shire-gemot  twice. 
That  Edgar  and  his  advisers  understood  the  nature  of  the  national 
institutions  was  attested  by  a  law  designed  to  protect  the  rights 
of  the  local  courts  and  prevent  an  unnecessary  appeal  to  the  king, 
which  prescribed  that  such  appeals  should  be  received  only  when 
the  local  court  had  refused  to  recognize  the  plea  of  the  plaintiff,  or 
when  the  *'law  was  too  heavy,"  so  that  a  mitigation  might  in 
justice  bo  sought. 

The  king  also  turned  his  attention  to  commerce  and  trade.     He 

sought  to  give  confidence  and  security  to  all  honest  transactions  by 

establishing    in  each  borough  or  hundred  a  body  of  notaries  or 

qualified  witnesses,  to  attest  all  bargains,  and  so  protect 

Attempts  t'J       /,       ,     ,  ,  -  ,     ,  , ,  ,  .    .         ,  ,  . 

regulate  the  holder  of  goods  from  the  charge  of  fraud  or  thiev- 
ing. This  regulation  was  evidently  only  the  extension 
and  more  practical  application  of  the  principle  which  Athelstan 
had  sought  to  embody  in  his  laws,  by  which  all  transactions  must 
be  held  within  a  city.  Another  law  prescribed  the  use  of  only  one 
kind  of  money  in  the  kingdom,  and  one  standard  of  weights  and 
measures,  that  of  London  and  Winchester.  These  laws  were 
undoubtedly  salutary,  and  reveal  the  rapid  development  of  true 
ideas  of  the  function  of  government  as  represented  in  the  kingship 
of  the  tenth  century.  Some  of  the  laws,  however,  were  not  so 
wise;  as  when  the  king  by  enactment  attempted  to  keep  up  the 
price  of  wool,  a  law  like  many  of  the  laws  of  the  era  framed  not  in 
the  interest  of  the  people,  but  in  the  interest  of  the  great  land- 
owners. The  law  is  further  noteworthy,  since  it  shows  that  even 
at  this  period  wool-growing  had  become  an  important  English 
industry.^ 

Edgar  died  on  the  8th  of  July,  975.     Although  he  had  but  just 

passed  his  thirty-second  birthday,  he  had  been  a  king  for  eighteen 

years;  sixteen  of  which  he  had  ruled  as  sole  king  over 

E^arf^s.     the  English.     His  policy  was  one  of  peace.     He  left  to 

his  earls  the  administration,  each  of  his  own  earldom, 

» For  laws  of  Edgar,  see  Stubbs,  S.  C,  68-72. 


102  DAYS  OF  DUKST AlSr  [edward  thk  Martyr 

while  he  contented  himself  with  securing  the  peace  and  quiet  of 
the  realm.     He  maintained  terms  of  friendly  intercourse  with  the 

Celtic  kings  of  the  north ;  he  went  so  far  in  his  efforts 
o?reSn^^       to  conciliate   the    Danes,  that  his    own   people    found 

fault  with  his  favoritism  for  ''outlandish  men."  Dun- 
stan's  hand,  perhaps,  may  be  seen  in  this,  as  well  as  in  the 
dramatic  f^tes  and  pageants  by  which  he  sought  to  secure  for  his 
king  that  outward  grandeur  which  belonged  to  him  as  a  king  over 
kings.  The  glories  of  the  great  coronation  fete  at  Bath  and  the 
famous  boat  procession  at  Chester,  long  lingered  in  the  traditions 
of  the  age.  But  the  shadow  was  already  mounting  on  the  dial. 
Edgar  "  the  Peaceful"  is  the  last  of  the  great  kings  of  the  House 
of  Alfred.  The  old  West  Saxon  kingship  was  not  equal  to  the  task 
to  which  it  had  been  summoned.  The  extension  of  the  shire  sys- 
tem of  Wessex  was  a  step  in  the  right  direction;  but  the  inspira- 
tion by  which  this  vast  body  of  shires,  with  their  hundred  courts 
and  borough  courts,  should  be  kept  to  their  duties  must  come 
from  the  king.  The  king,  however,  could  not  be  everywhere. 
The  machinery  needed  constant  supervision  and  watchfulness  that 
justice  might  be  done,  or  the  power  of  officials  not  be  used  to 
oppress  the  people.  This  could  be  accomplished  only  by  extending 
the  system  of  great  earldoms  which  we  have  already  seen  in  opera- 
tion under  Edred.  Under  Edgar  and  his  great  minister  this 
scheme  no  doubt  worked  well.  "Twice  every  year  the  king  rode 
through  every  shire,  inquiring  into  the  law-dooms  of  the  men  in 
authority,  and  showing  himself  a  powerful  avenger  in  the  name  of 
justice."  But  under  weaker  men  the  results  were  very  different. 
The  earls  became  too  powerful  for  subjects,  too  independent  for 
ministers,  and  in  the  face  of  a  victorious  foe,  were  only  too  ready 
to  betray  tlieir  sovereign  in  order  to  make  advantageous  terms  for 
themselves. 

After  the  death  of  Edgar,  England  was  compelled  once  more 
to  endure  the  reign  of  a  minor.      Edgar  had  left  two  sons, — 

Edward  and  Ethelred.  Dunstan  and  the  other  min- 
Martyr,         isters  of  the  late  king  favored  the  succession  of  Edward; 

but  Elfrida,  the  second  wife  of  Edgar  and  mother  of 
Ethelred,  an  ambitious  and  unscrupulous  woman,  was  not  willing 


975J  ANTI-MONASTIC    REACTION  103 

to  see  her  son  and  herself  also,  the  partner  of  Edgar's  greatness, 
set  down  to  a  second  place.  The  influence  of  Dunstan  with  the 
witan,  however,  prevailed  and  Edward  was  duly  crowned.  But 
his  reign  was  a  short  one.  The  breach  had  apparently  been  healed, 
but  Elfrida  only  bided  her  time.  On  the  18th  of  March,  978, 
the  young  king  who  had  been  hunting,  stopped  at  his  stepmother's 
castle  for  refreshment.  As  he  was  about  to  ride  away,  the  parting 
cup  which  the  laws  of  hospitality  of  the  ago  prescribed  was  pre- 
sented to  him,  but,  as  he  took  it,  he  was  stabbed  in  the  back  by 
one  of  Elfrida's  servants.  Edward's  youth  and  the  circum- 
stances of  his  death  appealed  powerfully  to  the  people,  and  they 
saw  in  him  a  martyr  sacrificed  to  the  deep  animosity  of  the  old 
anti-monastic  party. 

A  powerful  reaction  had,  in  fact,  set  in  against  the  ecclesiastical 
policy  of  the  late  king,  and  Elfher,  the  Ealdorman  of  Mercia,  had 

driven  out  the  monks  of  Edgar  by  force,  and  reinstated 
nuytuiHtic        the  married  clergy.     The  earls  of  East  Anglia  and  Essex 

had  taken  the  other  side.  Ramsey  Abbey  had  been 
garrisoned,  and  the  fyrd  called  into  the  field  to  defend  the  **regu- 
lars."  Turbulent  synods  were  held,  in  which  the  attempt  had 
been  made  to  solve  the  difficulties  of  the  hour  by  a  noisy  war  of 
words,  and  with  the  usual  results.  In  one  of  these  synods,  held  at 
Calne,  while  Dunstan  was  speaking,  the  floor  of  the  overcrowded 
room  had  suddenly  given  way,  and  the  audience  been  precipi- 
tated to  the  room  below.  AVhilemany  were  injured,  some  seriously, 
Dunstan  had  managed  to  save  himself  by  seizing  hold  of  a  cross 
beam.  To  the  wrought-up  imagination  of  his  friends  the  deliver- 
ance appeared  to  be  a  miracle.  To  his  enemies  the  whole  sad 
affair  appeared  to  be  the  result  of  the  treachery  or  the  evil  power 
of  the  great  archbishop,  whom  they  affected  to  regard  as  a  wizard. 
What  part  the  boy  king  Edward,  who  was  only  thirteen  or  four- 
teen at  most  when  he  began  to  reign,  had  had  in  all  this  strife  docs 

not  appear;  save  that  he  had  been  the  avowed  candidate 

Part  of  I  r         7 

Edwardin      of  Dunstan,  Oswald,  and  Ethelwold,  the  leaders  of  the 

the  strife.  . 

monastic  party.  Yet  Elfher,  the  Earl  of  Mercia,  whom 
we  have  seen  in  the  field  against  the  monks,  seems  to  have  been 
the  only  subject  to  care  enough  about  the  * 'martyr  king"  to  give 


104  DAYS    OF    DUNSTAN  [ethklbee 

him  a  royal  burial,  while  Dunstan  and  Oswald  within  a  month 

after  the  assassination  appear  at  Kingston,  performing  their  parts 

in  the  hallowing  of  Elfrida's  son  Ethelred.     To  Dun- 

Ethelred  °  .     . 

king,  April     stan  s  honor,  however,  it  is  to  be  said  that  he  could  not 

14  978. 

act  with  Elfrida  and  those  whose  hands  were  stained 
with  the  blood  of  assassination.  From  this  time  he  disappears 
from  political  life. 

In  the  meantime  England  was  sinking  rapidly  under  the  mis- 
fortunes which  from  the  first  had  attended  the  unlucky  reign  of 

Ethelred, — misfortunes  which  the  age  regarded  as  a  just 
Danish  ludffment,  considering  the  way  in  which  the  throne  had 

inroads,  980.     ^.       ^  n         *      .  <.  .  ,       , 

been  secured.  As  if  it  were  not  enough  that  the  king- 
dom be  riven  by  the  strife  of  the  secular  clergy  and  the  regular 
clergy,  or  that  men  like  Elfric,  the  son  of  Elfher  of  Mercia,  whom 
the  people  regarded  as  responsible  for  the  murder  of  Edward, 
appear  among  the  earls,  the  Danish  inroads  which  had  practically 
ceased  since  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Elder,  must  also  begin 
afresh.  England,  under  the  rule  of  a  boy  and  a  woman,  a  boy  of 
thirteen,  and  a  woman  who  was  hated  for  her  great  crime,  was  as 
helpless  as  in  the  days  of  Ethel wulf.  A  beggarly  band  of  Danes, 
three  hundred  men  all  told,  were  allowed  to  sack  Southampton 
and  slaughter  the  most  of  the  inhabitants.  From  Southampton 
they  went  to  Thanet,  which  they  ravaged  in  the  same  cruel  fash- 
ion. In  the  same  year  another  force  overran  the  county  of  Ches- 
ter. In  981  there  were  similar  ravages  in  Devonshire  and 
Cornwall.  The  next  year  the  coasts  of  Dorset  lay  paralyzed  and 
panic-stricken,  at  the  mercy  of  a  small  band  who  came  in  three 
ships  and  were  probably  not  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
strong.  Another  force  plundered  South  Wales.  Then  the  new 
invasion  seems  to  have  spent  itself,  and  for  a  few  years  the  land 
was  again  at  peace. 

Within  the  kingdom  matters  were  going  from  bad  to  worse. 
Ethelred 's  advisers  quarreled  with  Elfric  of  Mercia,  and  succeeded 

in  driving  him   out  of   the  country.     It   was   a  fatal 

New  troubles.  ^  .  .       »        -r^,«  .  •      n    x       -r^  i  -.    •   •       n 

triumph,  for  Elfric  repaired   to   Denmark  and  joined 

himself  with  the  bitterest  enemies  of  his  country.     But  Ethelred 

seemed  doomed  from  the  first  to  scatter  such  stumbling-blocks  in 


986]  LAST   DAYS   OF   DUNSTAN  105 

his  own  path.  In  986  he  quarreled  with  Elfstan,  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  and  to  settle  the  difficulty  called  out  the  fyrd  and 
besieged  the  bishop  in  his  episcopal  city.  Dunstan  was  doubly 
interested  and  came  forth  from  his  seclusion  to  save  the  bishop. 
He  is  the  same  Dunstan  as  of  old.  We  catch  the  gleam  of  the  old 
fire  in  the  threat  of  excommunication  by  which  he  strove  to  awe 
the  willful  king.  But  when  this  failed,  instead  of  carrying  out 
the  spiritual  menace,  he,  the  same  shrewd  man  of  the  world, 
offered  to  buy  off  the  king  for  £100.  The  king  took  the  money 
and  sent  home  his  people.  Thus  Ethelred,  who  at  this  time  had 
readied  his  twenty-tliird  year,  was  already  giving  abundant  evi- 
dence of  the  character  which  he  has  left  to  history,  curious  com- 
pound of  "violence,  weakness,  and  meanness."  The  era  was  at 
hand  when  early  England  needed  another  Alfred  or  another 
Edward  the  Elder,  her  greatest  and  best,  but  instead  the  irony 
of  fate  had  given  her  an  Ethelred  **the  Redeless"  her  meanest. 
Then,  too,  the  great  men  of  the  past  generation  were  slipping 
away.  In  984  England  lost  Ethelwold,  **Father  of  the  Monks," 
the  old  abbot  of  Abingdon,  who  since  963   had   been  bishop  of 

Winchester.  Dunstan  survived  his  great  pupil  hardly 
Suwjton  ')S6    ^^^  years,  dying  as  he  had  lived,  with  the  harness  on, 

in  good  works,  active  to  the  last.  He  was  then  up- 
wards of  sixty-five  or  possibly  seventy  years  of  age  and  had  retained 
his  vigor  to  the  end.  A  grateful  people  long  remembered  him, 
*'his  delight  to  make  peace  between  man  and  man,"  his  modera- 
tion, his  genial  hospitality,  his  strict  justice,  his  integrity,  his 
sage  wisdom,  lie  "was  canonized  in  popular  regard  almost  from 
the  day  he  died,"  and  soon  became  the  favorite  saint  of  the  old 
English  Church,  and  held  his  place  until  his  fame  was  eclipsed  by 
the  later  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury.  After  Alfred  he  is  the 
greatest  man  of  early  England. 


CHAPTER    YII 


THE    DECLINE    OF   THE    EARLY    ENGLISH    KINGDOM;    THE     ERA     OF 

DANISH   KINGS 


RIVAL  ENGLISH  AND  DANISH  ROYAL  FAMILIES 
Edgar,  959-975 
1  Ethelfleda  =  2  Elfrida 


Edward  the 
Martyr,  975-978 

Ethelred  the 
Redeless,  978-1016 

=  2  Emma 

=  1  Elgiva 

1 

Canute, 

1016-1035 

=  2  Emma 

,       1 

=  1  Elfleda 

Sweyn, 
King  of 
Norway 

Harold 
Harefoot 
1036-1039 

Hard  lean  ute 

j 

1 

1039-1042 

Edmund  Ironside, 
1016 

1 

Alfred 

the 

Etheling 

Edward 

the 

Confessor, 

1012-1066 

Outlaw 

Edmund 

Edward  the 

1 

Edgar 

the 
Etheling 


?*Iargaret  = 
Maicom  Canmore, 
King  of  Scots 


Christina 


Matilda  =  Henry  I. 


Sweyn  Forkbeard 
1013,  1014 


It  can  not  be  said  that  Ethelred  was  the  most  wicked  and  con- 
temptible of  English  kings,  for  he  must  share  this  doubtful  honor 
with  the  Anffevin  John.     But,  if  John  was  wicked,  he 

Ethelred  and  °         -r^  ,     i       -,  ,       i         •    i      -, 

John  was  not  weak;    Ethelred  was  both  wicked  and  weak. 

Lackland.  -r   i  i 

John  almost  commands  respect  as  he  rouses  himself 
with  all  the  old  vigor  of  his  race  to  battle  with  his  enemies. 
There  is  something  heroic  in  the  very  desperation  of  his  struggle 
against  insuperable  odds.  But  Ethelred  never  elicits  any  other 
feeling  than  one  of  contempt.  He  is  unable  to  form  plans  of  his 
own ;  he  is  unwilling  to  carry  out  those  of  others.  He  is  head- 
strong, rash,  and  incapable;  always  in  trouble,  yet  never  learning 
anything  from  his  blunders.  He  is  vicious,  treacherous,  and  cruel ; 
and,  withal,  in  an  age  when  battle  courage  was  the  commonest  of 
virtues,  he  is  a  miserable  coward.  Like  John  he  owed  his  throne 
to  the  intriguing  of  an  unscrupulous  mother;  an  intrigue  also  which 
ended  in  murder.  Like  John  his  baseness  stifled  all  loyalty  in  his 
court,  and  drove  from  his  side  the  trusted  counsellors  of  father  and 
elder   brother.       Like  John  his  tyrannies  brought  on  a  foreign 

106 


980]  DECLINE    OF   ENGLISH    KINGDOM  107 

invasion  and  drove  his  people  to  disown  him  for  a  foreign  prince. 
Here,  however,  the  comparison  ends.  John  died  just  in  the  nick 
of  time,  and  saved  England  from  foreign  conquest ;  but  Ethelred 
lived  on  to  witness  the  full  results  of  his  evil  life,  and  died  when  it 
was  too  late  to  undo  the  mischief.  Unlike  John,  moreover,  Ethel- 
red  was  hardly  responsible  for  all  the  misfortunes  of  his  reign;  yet, 
had  he  been  a  better  man  and  wiser  king,  he  might  have  risen  above 
his  troubles  and  left  a  name  as  glorious  as  that  of  any  king  of  his 
race.  But,  as  it  was,  by  blunders  without  number,  through  base- 
ness indescribable,  he  contrived  in  a  reign  of  thirty-seven  years  to 
plunge  England  from  the  height  to  which  she  had  been  raised  by 
the  great  kings  of  the  House  of  Wessex,  into  an  abyss  in  which 
she  was  saved  from  complete  disintegi'ation  only  by  the  iron  hand 
of  the  conqueror. 

Since  the  days  of  Alfred  Denmark  and  Norway  had  been  pass- 
ing through  a  series  of  transformations  quite  as  significant  as  those 

which  had  attended  the  recent  development  of  England. 
Character  The  era  of  **creek  men"  and  **sea  kings''  was  receding; 
Danish  wars,  the  petty  tribal  states  had  been  destroyed,  and  the  era 

of  the  national  kingdom  had  begun.  When,  therefore, 
at  the  close  of  the  tenth  century  an  English  king  found  himself 
with  another  Danish  war  on  his  hands,  he  was  confronted  with  a 
problem  very  different  from  that  which  had  so  taxed  the  resources 
of  the  English  kingdoms  in  the  ninth  century.  He  was  now  com- 
pelled to  meet  powerful  national  kings,  leading  not  bands  of  petty 
adventurers  but  disciplined  and  regularly  organized  armies,  who 
came  not  for  plunder  and  rapine  merely,  but  with  the  definite  pur- 
pose of  conquest  and  annexation.  It  was  against  such  an  enemy 
that  Ethelred  was  now  called  upon  to  defend  his  kingdom. 

The  successive  stages  of  the  new  Danish  war,  or  rather  series 
of    Danish  wars,   are    easily  distinguished.      There   had   already 

begun  during  the  last  days  of  Dunstan  a  series  of 
DavLh^^'^^^'  ^lesultory  raids  quite  like  those  of  the  early  ninth  cen- 
JSf-Sr^"^'  tury.     These  raids  had  exposed  the  weakness  of  the  new 

administration,  and  encouraged  the  return  of  more 
formidable  bands.  They  did  not  become  serious,  however,  until 
the  thirteenth  year  of  Ethelred's  reign,  when  a  considerable  horde 


108  DECLINE   OF    ENGLISH    KINGDOM  [ethelred 

landed  npon  the  coast  of  East  Anglia,  plundered  Ipswich,  and  a 
few  days  later  defeated  Byrhtnoth,  the  aged  earl  of  the  East 
Saxons,  at  Maldon. 

The  king,  instead  of  attempting  to  punish  the  pirates,  offered 
them  a  bribe  of  £10,000  to  go  and  leave  him  in  peace, — "the  first 

fatal  precedent  of  Danegeld."  The  Danes  took  the 
menu  of  bribe  but  did  not  depart;  and  in  a  few  months  other 
'  bands,  scenting  the  booty  from  afar,  descended  upon 
England  and  made  a  second  truce  and  a  second  payment  of  Dane- 
geld necessary.  This  time  the  price  of  peace  was  raised  to  £22,000. 
The  effects  of  the  encouragement  which  Ethelred  had  given  to 
the  freebooting  trade  were  even  more  alarmingly  apparent  in  994, 

when  the  two  royal  buccaneers,  Olaf  of  Norway  and 
The  raid  of  Sweyn  "Forkbcard"  of  Denmark  appeared  in  the  Thames 
Sweyn,  994.     and  fell  upon  the  southeastern  shires.     Their  object  at 

this  time  was  to  levy  blackmail  pure  and  simple.  By 
a  fury  of  "burnings  and  harryings  and  manslaughter,"  they  sought 
to  compel  Ethelred  to  buy  them  off  as  he  had  bought  off  the 
others.  But  the  country  was  impoverished  by  the  recent  levies, 
and  the  witan  hesitated  to  authorize  a  new  tax.  Sweyn  and  Olaf, 
however,  were  not  to  be  put  off  and  kept  up  their  depredations, 
cruelly  wasting  Essex,  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Hampshire,  until  the  witan 
consented  to  their  demands  and  paid  over  a  Danegeld  of  £16,000. 
These  sums,  in  consequence  of  the  enormous  purchasing  power  of 
money  in  the  tenth  century,  represented  a  real  value  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  the  present  nominal  value  of  like  sums.  Moreover  they 
were  probably  levied  by  a  direct  tax  upon  the  arable  land  of  the 
kingdom,  apportioned  to  the  several  earldoms  with  some  view  to 
their  wealth.  But  under  the  crude  methods  of  the  time,  in  the 
absence  of  any  accurate  knowledge  of  the  actual  wealth  of  the 
various  districts,  and  under  the  management  of  a  king  notoriously 
unjust  and  of  a  court  notoriously  corrupt,  a  fair  adjustment  or  an 
economical  levy  was  out  of  the  question.  The  sums  actually  paid 
to  the  Danes,  in  all  probability,  represented  only  a  small  part  of 
the  money  which  was  taken  from  the  people.  Discontent, 
bribery  of  officials,  and  at  last  open  resistance,  were  sure  to 
attend  such  levies  if  repeated  too  often. 


995-1002]  THE    NOKMAN    MARRIAGE  109 

After  the  payment  of  the    Danegeld   Olaf  and  Sweyn  sailed 
away ;  Olaf  back  to  Norway  and  Sweyn  into  the  Irish  Sea,  where 

he  appears  in  the  next  season  ravaging  the  Isle  of  Man. 
Eightyears  'j'he  ensaing  eight  years  were  by  no  means  years  of 
T^^^995ioot  P^^c®   ^^   ^^^^    ^^^   English   king   or    country.       The 

inroads,  however,  were  not  as  frequent  nor  were  they 
as  formidable  or  as  widely  extended.  But,  were  the  enemy  many 
or  few,  the  incompetency  of  the  government  remained  the  same. 
*' Often  was  the  fyrd  gathered  against  the  foe;  but,  so  soon  as  they 
should  have  met  them,  through  some  cause,  was  flight  ever  resolved 
upon,  and  so  the  enemy  ever  had  the  victory."  The  Isle  of  Wight, 
apparently,  remained  in  their  hands.  There  were  ravages  on  the 
Kentisli  coast  and  in  AViltshire;  there  were  battles  in  Sussex  and 
Devonshire.  Kochester  and  Exeter  were  besieged;  Waltham  and 
other  places  were  burned.  The  king  gathered  his  ships,  but  *'when 
they  were  ready  ho  delayed  from  day  to  day,  distressing  the  poor 
folk  that  were  in  them ;  and  when  things  should  have  been  for- 
warder, so  were  they  ever  backwarder;  and  ever  he  let  the  foe's 
army  increase,  and  ever  he  drew  back  from  the  sea,  and  ever  the 
enemy  went  after  him;  and  so,  in  the  end,  it  served  for  nothing 
but  the  folks'  distress  and  wasting  of  money  and  emboldening  the 
foe,"  The  most  that  Ethelred  seems  to  have  accomplished  was 
the  recovery  of  the  Isle  of  Man  and  the  taking  into  his  service  of  a 
pirate  chief.  Earl  Pallig,  the  brother-in-law  of  Sweyn. 

So  at   last   the    fatal    year  1002  drew  on.      It  opened  with 
another  disgraceful  truce  and  the  payment  of  a  Danegeld  of  £24,- 

000.  The  price  of  such  truces  was  advancing.  In  the 
The  fatal  preceding  year  an  ill-advised  expedition  had  been 
The  Norman  g^^t  to  Normaiiclv  to  puuish  Duke  Richard  because  he 

marriage.  "  ^ 

had  allowed  the  harbors  of  the  Seine  to  shelter  the 
Danish  pirates ;  but,  instead  of  bringing  back  the  Norman  duke  in 
chains  as  Ethelred  had  instructed  his  lieutenants,  they  brought 
back  the  Lady  Emma,  the  duke's  sister,  to  be  the  bride  of  Ethel- 
red. She  came  in  the  early  spring  and  brought  with  her  a  horde 
of  Norman  flunkies  and  hangers-on, — the  first  Norman  invasion  of 
England, — wliose  insolent  ways  and  outlandish  manners  boded  no 
good  for  a  court  already  divided  and  torn  by  the  bitter  rivalries  of 


110  DECLINE    OP   THE    KINGDOM  [ethelred 

jealous  factions.  Emma,  moreover,  was  a  woman  of  spirit,  beau- 
tiful and  cold-hearted  as  she  was  selfish.  Ethelred  already  had  a 
grown-up  family  about  him,  headed  by  the  noble  etheling 
Edmund.  Here  then  was  opportunity  enough  for  clashing  of 
interests,  intrigue,  open  schism,  and  final  treason;  in  the  end, 
outweighing  any  temporary  advantage  which  Ethelred  might  secure 
by  an  alliance  with  his  powerful  Norman  neighbor. 

The  Norman  marriage  was  not  the  only  nor  the  most  serious 

blunder  which  Ethelred  made  in  this  fatal  year.     It  seems  that  as 

a  result  of  so  many  truces,  as  well  as  of  a. recent  policy 

St.  BHce^s  J  7  '  r         J 

Day,  Novem-  adopted  by  Ethelred  of  enlisting  Danes  in  the  English 
service,  there  had  been  introduced  into  Mercia  and 
Wessex  a  considerable  Danish  population.  These  new  Danes  had 
not  yet  had  time  to  assimilate  to  the  English  stock,  as  the  old 
Danes  of  the  Danelagh ;  but  remained  still  a  separate  population, 
the  detestation  of  the  English,  who  feared  them,  but  durst  not 
attack  them,  and  of  importance  enough  to  excite  the  suspicion  of 
the  government.  Soon  after  his  marriage  intelligence  was  brought  to 
the  king,  that  this  floating  Danish  population  had  formed  a  plot 
to  destroy  him  and  the  witan  and  seize  the  government.  Ethelred, 
whose  craven  spirit  made  him  an  easy  prey  to  all  rumors  of  this  kind, 
was  thrown  into  a  paroxysm  of  terror.  He  determined  to  strike 
first,  and  made  his  plans  for  the  extermination  of  the  unsuspecting 
Danes  on  the  approaching  St.  Brice's  Day.  For  once  the  plans 
of  Ethelred  were  carried  out,  and  with  fatal  completeness; 
neither  degree,  nor  age,  nor  sex  was  spared.  The  entire  Danish 
population  of  Mercia  and  Wessex  was  swept  away. 

This  deed  was  the  most  stupid  of  all  the  stupid  blunders  of 
this  blundering  king.  The  Danes  were  not  only  protected  by 
recent  truces,  but  many  of  them  also  were  hostages. 
of%memi'  Ethelred,  therefore,  had  violated  laws  which  even  pagan 
barbarians  held  sacred.  The  memory  of  his  crime  long 
rankled  in  the  mind  of  Europe;  sixty  years  afterward,  it  helped 
Duke  William  to  justify  the  Korman  invasion  of  England.  But 
of  more  immediate  import  was  the  fact  that  among  the  victims 
were  Gunhild,  the  sister  of  Sweyn,  her  husband  Earl  Pallig,  and 
their  infant  son.    When  the  news  reached  Sweyn  his  wrath  was  ter- 


1003-1009]  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   THE   WAR  111 

rible  to  see.  He  swore  to  be  avenged  on  the  assassin ;  he  would  go  to 
England,  destroy  Ethelred,  and  add  England  to  his  Danish  kingdom. 
Sweyn  was  as  good  as  his  word,  and  in  the  spring  of  1003 
began  the  series  of  operations  which  ended  ten  years  later  in  the 
establishment  of  a  Danish  king  in  England.  He  struck 
Sweyn^H  war  fi^-gt  at  Wessex,  the  heart  of  Ethelred 's  power.     Exeter 

of  revenge.  '  ^ 

verUKiof        ^^^  carried  by  assault,   and  its  walls    thrown    down. 
ms^woT^^'  ^^^^  Exeter  Sweyn  moved  eastward,  plundering  and 

burning  with  ungovernable  fury  until  he  reached  South- 
ampton. Ethelred  brought  out  the  fyrd,  but  his  earls  upon  one 
pretext  or  another  refused  to  fight.  The  next  year  Sweyn 
descended  upon  the  east  coast,  and  Norwich  suffered  the  fate  of 
Exeter.  Ulfcytel,  one  of  the  few  true  men  who  attended  the 
king,  called  out  the  local  levies  and  threw  himself  in  the  path  of 
the  foe.  The  task,  however,  was  far  too  great  for  his  strength; 
although  he  gave  the  Danes  ** worse  hand-play"  than  they  had  yet 
met  on  English  soil. 

In  1005  for  reasons  unknown,  Sweyn  did  not  return.     The 
English,  however,  had  little  respite;   for  now  a  *'hunger-need" 

fell  upon  the  doomed  land,  * 'grimmer  than  any  man 
Danegeidof    had  mind  of,"  the  result  of  so  much  burnine:  of  fields 

looa 

and  slaughter  of  cattle  and  **fyrding  of  men."  In 
1006  soon  after  midsummer  the  Danes  returned  and  ravaged  the 
coasts  of  Kent  and  Sussex,  until  the  November  gales  drove  them 
into  the  Isle  of  AVight  for  shelter.  Ethelred  as  usual  did  noth- 
ing, and  with  the  return  home  of  the  fyrd  after  harvest  time, 
even  the  pretense  of  keeping  the  field  was  abandoned ;  and  when 
in  January  the  Danes,  crossing  from  the  Isle  of  Wight,  started 
upon  a  raid  up  through  Hampshire  and  Berkshire,  **kindling 
their  war  beacons  as  they  went,"  Ethelred  fell  back  upon  his  old 
witless  policy  and  secured  a  truce  by  a  bribe  of  £3G,000. 

Sweyn  was  not  with  the  host  this  year,  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  think  that  he  was  a  party  to  the  truce.     He  was  waging  war, 

not  for  booty,  but  for  conquest.  The  witan  felt  their 
ship  fyrd       insecurity,  and  determined  to  call  upon  the  nation  for  a 

ship  fyrd  which  would  enable  them  to  overthrow  Sweyn 
upon  his  own  element,  and  thus  for  all  time  deliver  England  from 


112  DECLINE    OF    THE    KINGDOM  [ethelred 

its  foes.  It  was  determined  to  call  upon  every  three  hundred  and 
ten  hides  throughout  England  to  furnish  a  ship  of  war,  built  and 
equipped,  and  upon  every  eight  hides  for  a  helmet  and  coat  of  mail. 
But  when  the  great  fleet  was  brought  together,  such  a  fleet  as  neither 
Athelstan  nor  Edgar  had  possessed,  Ethelred's  ill  luck  did  not  for- 
sake him.  His  leaders  plotted  against  each  other;  one  division  of 
the  fleet  turned  upon  the  king's  people;  another  division  was 
broken  up  by  a  storm  and  wrecked  upon  the  coast  of  Sussex. 
Then  the  king  brought  the  remnant  of  his  ships  around  to  Lon- 
don, and  there  laid  them  up  to  rot  in  the  Thames.  Thus  the 
splendid  fleet,  which  represented  so  much  self-denial,  such  heroic 
sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  people,  and  from  wliich  so  much  had 
been  expected,  had  turned  out  to  be  only  one  more  miserable 
fiasco;  another  signal  illustration  of  the  incompetency  of  Ethelred. 
No  wonder  that  men,  that  even  Ethelred  himself,  began  to  asso- 
ciate this  long  series  of  ever  darkening  calamities  with  the  crime 
that  had  made  him  a  king,  or  that  Ethelred  now  accepted  each 
new  failure  with  the  dull  apathy  of  a  doomed  man. 

General  despondency,  the  result  of  the  growing  conviction  of 

utter  helplessness,  followed  the  collapse  of   the   ship   fyrd,   and 

when    in    the    following  Auo^ust    a  new  fleet  of    the 

Descent  of  on 

Thurkiii,  enemy  under  Thurkill,  more  powerful  than  any  which 
Sweyn  had  yet  sent  out,  appeared  off  Sandwich,  men 
felt  that  the  end  could  not  long  delay.  Canterbury  and  eastern 
Kent  made  their  own  terms.  The  southern  coast  was  ravaged  as 
far  as  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  back  again.  Then  the  enemy  estab- 
lished themselves  near  London  for  the  winter;  keeping  the  city  in 
constant  alarm,  and  more  than  once  threatening  it  with  storm  and 
sack.  Marauding  bands,  in  the  meanwhile,  swept  the  lower 
Thames  valley,  continually  extending  their  operations  in  huge 
concentric  circles,  until  at  last,  as  the  spring  advanced,  they 
passed  the  Chilterns  and  burned  Oxford.  Then  they  entered  East 
Anglia,  and  spent  three  months  in  the  same  businesslike  plunder 
of  the  eastern  shires,  burning  Ipswich,  and  defeating  the  local 
levies  under  Ulfcytel ;  the  same  Ulf cytel  who  six  years  before  had 
given  Sweyn  such  vigorous  ''hand-play."  From  East  Anglia 
Thurkill  returned  to  the  Thames  again,  and  renewed  tlie  plunder- 


1009-1013]  THIRD   PERIOD   OF    WAR  113 

ing  of  the  middle  counties.  The  fyrd  took  the  field,  but  the 
people  had  lost  heart.  The  king  dragged  them  up  and  down  in 
the  wake  of  the  Danes,  but  seemed  "never  able  to  bring  them  to 
the  right  place  in  the  right  time.''  The  king  summoned  his 
witan,  but  the  spirit  of  the  nation  was  broken;  sixteen  counties, 
one-third  the  area  of  England,  had  been  laid  waste;  "no  man 
would  lead,  no  man  would  follow,  no  shire  would  help  other." 
The  disintegration  was  beyond  recovery;  there  was  no  hope  save  in 
a  new  levy  of  Danegeld.  The  Danes  demanded  £48,000,  an  enor- 
mous sum  even  for  more  prosperous  times,  but  in  its  despair,  the 
government  had  no  other  choice.  The  enormous  ransom,  how- 
ever, could  not  be  paid  at  once,  and  the  plundering  went  on. 
Canterbury  was  sacked,  and  its  entire  population  driven  away  to 
the  ships.  The  Archbishop  Alfheah  (St.  Alphege)  was  held  for  a 
special  ransom,  and  when  he  nobly  refused  to  allow  the  poor  of 
his  church  to  be  further  robbed  for  his  sake,  a  mob  of  drunken 
barbarians  set  upon  him,  nor  satisfied  their  fury  until  they  had 
done  him  to  death. 

As  Easter  drew  on  the  witan  returned  to  the  king,  ealdormen 

and  bishops  bringing  each  his  share  of  the  tax  and  each  feeling 

that  it  must  be  the  last.     Then  the  money  was  paid; 

Third  period  and  the  Danish  host  broke  up.     A  part  with  Thurkill, 

of  tear.  ^ 

swevn  entered  the  service  of  Ethelred,  but  the  greater  num- 

becontcH  1  TA  1 

hinn,  1013.  her  returned  to  Denmark.  Sweyn,  however,  was  not 
satisfied.  The  strength  of  Wessex  and  East  Anglia  had 
been  shattered ;  Mercia  and  Northumbria  were  drained  of  their 
resources.  All  England  was  broken  in  spirit  and  disheartened; 
her  earls  had  proved  false,  and  her  king  worthless.  It  was  the 
time,  therefore,  not  for  Sweyn  to  stay  his  hand,  but  to  complete 
the  conquest  which  he  had  sworn  to  accomplish  six  years  before. 
Accordingly,  only  a  few  months  after  the  breaking  up  of  Thur- 
kilPs  horde,  Sweyn  appeared  ofi"  Sandwich,  and  passing  on  up  the 
eastern  coast  entered  the  Ilumber  and  pushed  his  way  by  the 
Trent  into  old  Danish  Mercia  as  far  as  Gainsborough.  Appar- 
ently, everything  had  been  arranged  with  the  people  of  eastern 
Mercia  beforehand.  On  Sweyn's  part,  there  were  no  plunderings 
of  homes,  no  aimless  burnings  of  farms  or  cities ;   on  the  part  of 


114  DECLIKE   OF  THE   KINGDOM  [ethklred 

the  people,  there  was  a  general  flocking  from  all  sides  to  forswear 
Ethelred  and  accept  Sweyn.  In  a  short  time  all  north  and  east 
of  Watling  Street  had  gone  over  to  the  new  king.  Then  with 
food  and  horses  freely  supplied  by  his  new  subjects  and  his  army 
swelled  by  new  recruits,  Sweyn  crossed  Watling  Street  and  entered 
what  of  England  still  remained  to  Ethelred.  The  ravaging  was 
resumed,  but  the  country  could  make  no  resistance.  Behind  the 
defenses  of  London,  Ethelred  waited  while  his  kingdom  fell  away 
from  him ;  and  hither,  at  last,  came  Sweyn  to  test  the  loyalty  of  the 
Londoners  to  their  native  king.  Twice  the  Danes  attempted  to 
enter  the  city,  and  twice  they  were  driven  back  with  great 
slaughter,  but  Ethelred  was  already  virtually  deposed.  At  Bath 
the  western  thanes  submitted  to  Sweyn,  and  with  all  England  at 
last  holding  him  for  "full  king"  naught  was  left  for  the  men  of 
London  but  to  make  their  own  terms  with  the  conqueror. 

For  a  while  Ethelred,  abandoned  by  all  save  the  faithful 
Thurkill,  lingered  at  Greenwich,  and  then  withdrew  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight.  Here  upon  the  last  English  ground  which  he  could  call 
his  own,  he  kept  a  sad  Christmas  feast,  and  then  retired  to  Nor- 
mandy to  join  Emma  and  her  children.  So  ended  the  year  1013; 
a  more  gloomy  year  had  never  fallen  upon  England ;  the  land  was 
wasted  and  desolate,  the  king  an  exile,  and  the  people  weary  of 
their  sufferings  and  without  heart  for  the  future. 

The  war,  however,  was  not  yet  ended,  nor  were  the  people  to 
have  rest.  Sweyn  survived  the  flight  of  Ethelred  barely  a  month. 
He  had  shown  no  disposition  to  reorganize  the  govern- 
Sweyn,  Feb-  ment,  but  had  spent  his  time  in  collecting  Danegeld  on 
his  own  account.  The  single  month  of  Danish  rule  had 
satisfied  the  English;  and  although  the  host  at  once  declared  for 
Canute,  Sweyn's  son,  the  English  turned  to  their  exiled  lord. 
There  is  a  forlorn  pathos  in  their  words  of  greeting:  **No  lord  was 
dearer  than  their  own  born  lord  could  be,  if  he  would  rule  them 
rightlier  than  he  did  before."  Equally  pathetic  is  the  response: 
''He  would  be  their  true  lord,  and  right  what  they  misliked,  and 
forgive  all  that  had  been  said  against  him.'*  So  Ethelred,  the 
abandoned  king  came  back,  and  his  witan  received  him. 

Canute,  in  the  meanwhile,  with  his  eyes  upon  the  more  sub- 


1015,  1016]  LAST    STAGES   OF   THE    WAR  115 

stantial  Danish  throne,  staid  not  to  brave  the  awakening  nation, 
but  stole  away  in  his  ships  and  returned  home.  In  Denmark, 
however,  he  received  little  encouragement ;  the  people  had  already 
chosen  Harold,  another  son  of  Sweyn,  and  he  sternly  refused  to 
share  his  crown  with  Canute. 

Ethelred's   days   were    now   fast   ebbing.      His   strength   was 
broken,    and   his   health   declining;   yet   his   energy  in   mischief 

making  was  apparently  as  active  as  ever.  The  hope 
o/  the  ivar,     of   the   nation  centered   in  his  eldest  son,  the   ethel- 

ing  Edmund;  but  the  king,  instead  of  rejoicing  in  his 
son's  popularity,  chose  to  regard  him  as  a  rival,  and  lent  a  willing 
ear  to  the  malicious  tales  of  one  Edric  the  Grasper,  Earl  of  Mercia, 
Edmund's  bitter  enemy.  While  the  court  was  thus  torn  by  the 
disgraceful  quarreling  of  father  and  son,  news  came  of  the  reap- 
pearance of  Canute  off  Sandwich.  His  first  point  qf  attack,  how- 
ever, was  Dorsetshire.  Edmund  and  Edric  called  out  the  fyrd,  but 
the  bitter  enmity  of  the  two  men  made  any  cooperation  impossible. 
The  fyrd  broke  up  in  quite  the  old  way  without  accomplishing  any- 
thing, and  Canute  was  left  to  overrun  the  western  counties.  Then 
Edric,  believing  no  doubt  that  Ethelred's  days  were  numbered, 
went  over  to  Canute  and  persuaded  the  thanes  of  Wessex  to  fol- 
low his  example;  satisfying  thereby  his  hatred  of  Edmund,  and 
hoping  no  doubt  to  do  him  a  grievous  injury.  Edmund  bravely 
struggled  on  alone  in  the  losing  fight.  A  few  months  later 
Uhtred,  Earl  of  Northumbria,  also  abandoned  him  for  Canute. 
Then  Edmund  fell  back  upon  London,  whither  frieuds  had  already 

brought  the  dying  Ethelred,  a  source  of  weakness  and 

Deathof  ..  .         J.     J>       ^     J.        TT  J.  ij 

Ethelred.        dissension  to  the  last.     He  was  not  an  old  man,  pos- 
sibly not  much   past   fifty,  but  he  had  lived  far  too 
long  for  the  good  of  England;  he  died  April  23,  1016. 

London   was   the   only   stronghold  which   held   out   for   Ed- 
mund ;  but  he  had   no  thought  of  waiting  idly  behind  its  walls 
until  Canute  should  gather  and  organize  the  strength  of 

Therallyof     ^      ,      ^    .  ,        ^       .    •        .-         \        tt  ^    x 

Edmund,        England  in  order  to  drive  him  out.     He  proposed  to 

show  what  Englishmen  could  do  when  led  again  by  a 

brave  and  competent  leader.     And  no  doubt  with  the  example  of 

his  great  ancestor  before  him,  he  retired  to  Selwood  Forest,  and 


116  DECLIJSTE    OF   THE    KINGDOM  [edmund  Ieonsidk 

under  its  shadows  gathered  the  descendants  of  the  men  who  had 
fought  at  Edington.  With  a  small  but  determined  band,  steadily 
increasing  as  he  advanced,  he  fought  his  way  back  to  London, 
defeating  the  Danes  at  Penselwood,  again  at  Sherston,  and  finally 
raising  the  siege  of  London  and  winning  a  third  victory  at 
Brentford.  The  eyes  of  all  loyal  Englishmen  now  turned  to 
Edmund.  At  last,  here  was  a  king  who  knew  how  to  lead  his 
people  and  win  battles.  Even  the  traitor  Edric  began  to  despair 
of  the  fortunes  of  Canute  and  in  an  evil  hour  was  allowed  to 
make  his  peace  with  Edmund. 

After  Brentford,  Edmund  followed  Canute  to  the  south  bank 
of  the  Thames,  and  overtaking  him  at  Otford  in  Kent,  forced 
him  to  retire  across  the  estuary  into  Essex.  Then 
Ashingdim.  D^^king  a  detour  by  land,  Edmund  again  came  up 
with  the  Danes  near  the  modern  Ashingdon.  The 
English,  confident  in  the  skill  and  good  fortune  of  their  king,  were 
eagerly  looking  forward  to  the  struggle,  which  each  side  felt  must 
settle  the  issue  of  the  war,  when  occurred  the  fell  treason,  which 
in  a  trice  undid  all  the  victories  of  the  past  year.  At  the  very 
moment  when  the  English  wej*e  entering  the  battle  Edric  the 
Grasper  halted  his  Mercians  and  refused  to  fight.  Edmund 
gallantly  led  forward  the  loyal  men  of  Wessex,  but,  against 
the  odds  which  now  confronted  him,  victory  was  impossible. 
Yet  from  three  o'clock  until  the  gathering  darkness  of  the 
short  October  day  made  it  no  longer  possible  for  foe  to  see  foe, 
the  men  of  Wessex  fought  on.  Then  they  withdrew  and  under 
cover  of  the  night  the  fyrd  broke  up.  But  the  Danes  were  in  no 
mood  to  follow ;  the  roads  were  unknown,  and  the  country  hostile. 
They  too  had  suffered  in  the  royal  "hand-play"  of  ''rank  thrust- 
ing at  rank  with  sword  and  spear."  They  were,  moreover,  "weary 
of  fighting  and  marching  and  working  of  ships,"  and  thought  no 
longer  of  conquest,  but  only  of  truce.  In  a  few  days  Edmund 
would  return  with  another  army,  and  then  certain  expulsion,  if 
not  extermination,  awaited  them. 

But  Edric's  treason  was  not  yet  complete;  he  now  exerted  his 
influence  among  the  witan  to  persuade  them  to  demand  a  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities.     Edmund  protested;  but  his  protest  was  over- 


1016]  POLICY    OF    CANUTE  117 

Thetnu:e       rilled,  and  at  Alney  near  Gloucester  he  was  compelled 
'^^^*        to  accept  Canute  as  under-king,  and  cede  to  him  all 
England,  saving  only  Wessex  and  East  Anglia. 

Edmund  survived  this  'disgraceful  treaty  only  a  few  weeks. 
Later  accounts  ascribe  his  death  to  Edric,  secretly  encouraged  by 
Canute.  But  it  is  more  than  likely  that  the  events 
Edmund,  of  the  seven  months  past,  the  incessant  campaign- 
ing, the  five  pitched  battles,  the  cruel  disappoint- 
ment in  the  moment  of  success,  were  too  great  a  strain  even  for 
his  vigorous  constitution.  His  d^ath  was  a  national  calamity.  Ilis 
brilliant  triumphs  are  "the  best  commentary  on  the  imbecility  of 
Ethelred,  and  show  that  it  was  not  so  much  the  degeneracy  of 
Englishmen  as  the  incompetence  of  the  government  that  had  been 
responsible  for  the  disasters  of  his  reign." 

The  death  of  Edmund  left  Canute  undisputed  lord  of  England. 
He  was  then  a  young  man,  probably  not  far  from  his  twenty-first 
year.      Yet    with  remarkable    clearness  of  vision  and 
^oiekf  soundness  of  judgment  he  grasped  the  conditions  which 

confronted  him.  He  saw  that  what  the  English  needed 
most  was  peace;  but  that  a  stable  and  lasting  peace  could  be 
established  only  by  first  securing  his  power  against  the  machinations 
of  possible  reactionary  plotters.  Accordingly,  almost  his  first  act 
was  to  seize  the  archtraitor  Edric  and  put  him  to  death.  Other 
executions  also  followed,  by  no  means  as  justifiable.  The  infant 
sons  of  Edmund,  whom  probably  he  did  not  dare  to  destroy,  he 
sent  off  to  Norway  for  safe  keeping;  but  Edwy,  a  brother  of 
Edmund  Ironsides,  was  outlawed  and  afterward  slain. 

When  Canute  had  removed  the  men  whose  presence  he  regarded 
as  a  menace  to  the  peace  which  he  would  make,  he  stayed  his  hand, 
and  addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  winning  the  confi- 
Camue^  dence  and  support  of  the  English.  Though  no  English- 
man, he  understood  the  English  nature  far  better  than 
their  "own  born  lord."  He  connected  his  reign  with  the  past  by 
proclaiming  the  laws  of  Edgar;  he  assured  his  people  of  fair  treat- 
ment by  placing  Englishmen  and  Danes  upon  the  same  footing 
before  the  law;  and  to  fortify  his  position  in  the  only  direction 
from  which  he  might  expect  a  challenge  to  his  right  to  the  throne, 


118 


DECLINE    OF   THE    KIl!^GDOM 


t 


he  sought  and  won  the  hand  of  the  Lady  Emma,  the  widow  of 
Ethelred.  He  sought  also  to  strengthen  the  conservative  elements 
of  English  society  by  favoring  the  clergy  and  increasing  the  power 
of  the  local  landlords.  He  also  strengthened  the  great  earldoms, 
bestowing    a    power   upon    the   earls    of    Mercia,    Northumbria, 

and  East  Anglia 
coordinate  with 
the  power  which 
he  himself  exer- 
cised  directly 
over  Wessex.  If 
he  put  the  loy- 
alty of  his  new- 
subjects  to  the 
test  by  the  levy 
of  an  enormous 
Danegeld,  the 
end  surely 
would  find  fa- 
vor in  their 
sight.  For  by 
this  tax  he  was 
enabled  to  pay 
off  his  army  and 
send  the  greater 
part  of  it  home. 
Henceforth  his 
throne  must 
rest  upon  the 
loyalty  of  the 
English  people. 
In  1019  Canute  was  recalled  to  Denmark  by  the  death  of  his 
brother  Harold.  Three  years  of  Canute's  rule  had  made  England 
The  Charter  a  united  and  peaceful  country,  and  he  left  it  without 
1020.  '  fear  to  the  charge  of  Thurkill,  whom  he  had  made  Earl 
of  East  Anglia.  He  returned,  however,  the  next  year  in  time  to 
take  part  in  the  Easter  feast.     The  so-called  charter  of  Canute 


1020-1026]  THE   CHARTER   OF   CANUTE  119 

is  commonly  assigned  to  this  year.  The  opening  paragraph  is  a 
greeting  to  his  people  after  his  safe  return.  He  then  recounts 
the  measures  which  he  has  taken  for  the  peace  of  the  realm,  and 
calls  upon  all  good  people  to  *' thank  God  Almighty  for  the  mercy 
that  he  has  done  for  our  help."  He  commands  his  earls  to  "help 
the  hishops  to  God's  right  and  to  my  royal  authority  and  to  the 
behoof  of  all  the  people."  Edgar's  law  is  reaffirmed  as  the  law  of 
the  kingdom;  all  unrighteousness  is  to  be  eschewed;  Sunday's 
festival  is  to  be  kept  "from  Saturday's  noon  to  Monday's  dawn- 
ing"; and  no  man  may  either  go  to  market  or  seek  any  court  "on 
that  Holy  Day. "  ^ 

In  1023  occurred  an  event  which  shows  with  what  pains  Canute 

sought  to  take  advantage  of  the  susceptibilities  of  the  English. 

St.  Dunstan's  Day  had  already  been  added  to  the  caleri- 

Thetransla-      ,        .      ^^^^        ^         ,  .  , 

tionof  dar  in  1018.     Canute  now,  with  great  ceremony,  took 

Alfheah(St.  ,,      ,     -,        .  ,,  ,-..,.,,  -.   ,  . 

AipJiege),  up  the  body  of  the  murdered  Alfheah,  and  bore  it  ten- 
derly from  St.  Paul's  to  Southwark,  and  thence  by  regu- 
lar stages  in  solemn  procession,  through  Rochester  to  Canterbury. 
The  proceedings,  which  took  eleven  days,  appealed  powerfully  to  the 
national  sentiment  of  the  English,  nor  could  the  nation  fail  to 
regard  the  honor  done  to  their  martyred  primate  as  the  peace  offer- 
ing of  their  foreign  king.  Tlio  retirement,  possibly  outlawry  of 
Thurkill,  whom  popular  opinion,  rightly  or  wrongly,  made  respon- 
sible for  the  murder  of  Alfheah,  we  may  also  associate  with  the 
translation  of  the  Saint's  bones  to  their  last  resting  place. 

In  1025  Canute  again  returned  to  Denmark.     It  was  during 

this  second  absence  that  he  made  his  memorable  visit  to  Rome, 

which  he  so  timed  as  to  be  present  at  the  Imperial 

iSw*jo27       coronation  of  Conrad  II.     The  compliment  which  he 

thus  paid  to  the  new  emperor  was  amply  rewarded  by  a 

grant  of  privileges  of  prime  importance  to  Canute  and  his  people; 

not  least  of  which  was  the  abolition  of  the  heavy  tolls  which  it  was 

customary  to  exact  of  English  pilgrims  as  they  passed  through 

Burgundy  or  Switzerland  on  the  way  to  Italy.     They  were  moreover 

to  be  protected  by  more  equitable  laws  while  passing  through  the 

other  dominions  of  the  Emperor.     The  pope  also  agreed  not  to 

iStubbs,  S.  C,  p.  75. 


120  DECLINE    OF    THE    KINGDOM  [canutb 

demand  the  ruinous  sums  which  it  had  been  customary  to  exact  of 
the  English  archbishops  in  return  for  the  pall. 

The  next  year  Canute  took  advantage  of  a  quarrel  of  his  old 
friend  Olaf  the  Holy  of  Norway  with  his  people,  and  landed  with  a 
Canute  adds  ^^^^^-  ^^  ^^^J  sWps,  and  drove  Olaf  out  of  the  country. 
hS^domin^  Canute  then  added  Norway  to  his  cluster  of  kingdoms. 
wm,io28.  Two  years  later  Olaf  attempted  to  regain  his  crown, 
but  was  defeated  at  Stiklestad  and  perished,  probably  in  the 
battle. 

After  the  overthrow  of  Olaf  Canute  returned  to  England,  the 
undisputed  lord  of  the  north.  In  the  days  of  England's  weakness, 
the  Scots  had  steadily  encroached  on  the  Northumbrian 
iMhian^^  border,  and  in  the  second  year  of  Canute's  reign  the 
Scottish  king  Malcolm  had  defeated  the  northern  earl  at 
Carham  and  taken  possession  of  the  country  between  Forth  and 
Tweed.  Canute  did  not  seek  to  regain  this  region,  but  prepared 
to  compel  Malcolm  to  recognize  the  overlordship  of  the  king  of 
England,  a  custom  which  had  been  abandoned  since  the  days  of 
Edgar.  Malcolm  promptly  yielded ;  and  the  country  north  of  the 
Tweed,  Lothian,  passed  permanently  into  Scottish  hands  and  soon 
became  the  dominant  influence  in  the  northern  kingdom.  The 
later  kings  made  Edinburgh  their  capital,  and  here,  surrounded 
by  an  English  population,  they,  who  heretofore  had  been  lords  only 
of  rude  Celtic  tribes,  soon  became  more  English  in  speech  and 
thought  than  the  kings  of  strange  blood  who  ruled  England. 

In  1035  the  long  and  peaceful  reign  of  Canute  came  to  an  end. 
He  was  not  a  great  conqueror;  it  can  not  be  said  that  he  proved 
himself  a  master  of  the  art  of  war.  Yet,  as  a  states- 
coMute's  man,  as  a  master  in  building  up  empires  by  the  arts  of 
reign.  peace,  he  has  had  few  equals.     English  towns  hitherto 

have  played  only  a  subordinate  part  in  English  history.  They 
have  been  conspicuous  at  all  only  as  fortresses.  But  with  Canute's 
reign  the  English  town  enters  upon  a  new  era.  The  union  of 
England,  Denmark,  and  Norway,  the  end  of  the  viking  era,  and 
the  new  peace  and  security  which  settled  on  the  northern  seas, 
greatly  stimulated  mercantile  adventure.  The  pure  English  stock 
were  not  quick  to  see  the  new  opportunity  which  opened  before 


1018]  CHARACTER   OF   CANUTE  121 

them,  but  the  Danish  population,  with  that  readiness  of  the  Danes 
of  adapting  themselves  to  novel  surroundings  so  characteristic  of 
the  race,  entered  at  once  into  a  new  commercial  activity.  York 
rose  rapidly  into  a  mart  of  considerable  importance,  and  began  to 
be  a  very  respectable  competitor  of  London  for  the  northern 
trade.  Oxford,  Chester,  and  Bristol  also  became  centers  of 
prominence. 

Canute  was  a  man  of  no  vices  and  few  weaknesses.  He  had 
an  ungovernable  temper  which  when  aroused  rushed  him  head- 
long into  deeds  of  violence,  only  to  leave  him  in  tears 
^mSf^^^^  of  real  penitence  when  the  storm  had  subsided;  yet  too 
often  the  repentance  came  over  late  to  make  amends  to 
the  victim  of  his  wrath.  Ilis  father,  Sweyn,  in  one  of  his 
earlier  wanderings,  seems  to  have  embraced  Christianity,  but  his 
faith  was  that  of  a  barbarian;  he  thought  that  in  adopting  the 
cross  he  was  securing  the  favor  of  some  extra  wonder-working 
charm  to  help  him  in  his  piracies.  Canute's  training  therefore 
could  hardly  be  called  Christian;  yet  as  soon  as  he  came  under 
the  direct  influence  of  English  teachers  he  readily  yielded  to 
their  guidance  and  displayed  a  most  commendable  desire  to  profit 
by  the  new  precepts  so  strange  to  his  own  people.  The  letter 
which  he  sent  home  from  Rome  reveals  **the  noble  conception" 
of  his  kingly  duties  which  had  been  born  of  these  new  influences 
and  goes  far  to  explain  the  devotion  of  his  later  life  so  marked  in 
contrast  with  the  brutalities  of  the  earlier  period.  He  wrote:  *'I 
have  vowed  to  God  to  lead  a  right  life  in  all  things;  to  rule 
justly  and  piously  my  realms  and  subjects,  and  to  administer  just 
judgment  to  all.  If  heretofore  I  have  done  aught  beyond  what 
was  just,  through  headiness  or  negligence  of  youth,  I  am  ready 
with  God's  help  to  amend  it  utterly."  He  warns  his  officers 
against  oppressing  his  people  in  his  name:  *'I  have  no  need  that 
money  be  heaped  together  for  me  by  unjust'demands."  **Never,-" 
he  concludes,  "have  I  spared,  nor  will  I  spare,  to  spend  myself 
and  my  toil  in  what  is  needful  and  good  for  my  people." 

It  was  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  this  letter  that  Canute  had 
dismissed  the  army  of  invasion  in  1018,  and  filled  the  prominent 
places  of  trust  and  power  about  him  with  Englishmen.     And  yet 


122  DECLINE    OF   THE    KINGDOM  [canute 

he  dared  not  trust  the  old  fyrd  altogether,  not  perhaps  because  the 
men  who  composed  it  were  English,  but  because  it  was  a  fyrd, 
slow  to  action,  unwieldy,  and  uncertain.  With  his 
house-carls  P^^^tical  seuse,  therefore,  he  retained  at  immediate  call 
a  small  standing  army,  composed  of  picked  troops, 
well  paid  and  well  armed,  the  famous  house-carls — in  number 
not  exceeding  six  thousand  men,  possibly  not  even  three  thousand. 
These  troops  were  maintained  by  a  yearly  levy  of  Danegeld.  The 
institution  survived  the  death  of  Canute,  to  be  finally  swept 
away  in  the  rout  of  Hastings.  The  Norman  and  Angevin  kings 
did  not  replace  the  house-carls,  although  mercenaries  were  used  at 
various  times.  The  idea  of  a  standing  army  has  never  been  popu- 
lar with  the  English;  it  has  been  tolerated  at  all  only  since  the 
expanding  colonial  possessions  of  England  have  made  it  a 
necessity. 

The  laws  of  Canute  added  nothing  to  existing  English  institu- 
tions.    The  *'shire-gemot"  was  to  be  held  regularly  twice  a  year, 
and   the    *'burh-gemot"    thrice   a    year.      The    lower 
CaniUe^^^     courts  Were  protected  in  their  rights.     Appeals  were  to 
be  recognized  only  in  default  of  justice.     Every  freeman 
must  ''be  brought  into  a  hundred  and  into  a  tithing,"  institutions 
which  had   now  absorbed   the   gild   in  the  completed   territorial 
organization  of  the  kingdom.     The  king's  stewards  were  not  to 
oppress  the  king's  tenants,  or  take  from  them  their  goods  unjustly. 
The  heriot,  the  custom  by  which  the  lord  was  allowed  to  seize  the 
chattels  of  a  deceased  tenant,  was  fixed  by  rule ;  henceforth  only 
a  certain  value  could  be  taken,  prescribed  in  accordance  with  the 
rank  of  the  tenant  from  the  earl  down.     Canute  favored  the  land- 
lords by  greatly  increasing  the  number  of  private  juris- 
Saeand         dictions,    sac   and    soc,    which   had    become   only   too 
common  in  the  unsettled  days  of  Ethelred;  a  dangerous 
precedent,  and  yet  one  which  was  entirely  in  keeping  with  Canute's 
policy  of  enlisting  the  conservative  elements  of  English  society  in 
the  service  of  the  state. 

Canute's  ''elaborate  humility  toward  all  things  connected  with 
the  church  and  clergy"  is  not  in  accordance  with  modern  ideas; 
yet  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  church  was  the  one  power- 


1035-1040]  HAROLD   HAREFOOT  123 

fully  organized  social  influence  of  the  times,  the  hearty  coopera- 
tion of  which  was  absolutely  necessary  in  maintaining  the  peace 
Canute  and  ^hich  the  king  so  dearly  loved.  It  was  the  church 
the  church,  ^q^  as  Alfred  regarded  it^  the  instrument  of  education, 
the  disseminator  of  knowledge,  but  the  church,  the  instrument  of 
law  and  order. 

Upon  the  death  of  Canute  his  three  kingdoms  drifted  apart. 
Emma  had  borne  him  one  son,  Ilardicanute.  But  he  left  also  two 
other  sons,  the  children  of  an  English  woman,  Elgiva, 
Harold  borne  to  him  in  that  loose  union  always  too  common 

among  sovereigns  of  Teutonic  blood.  Of  these  Sweyn, 
the  elder  son,  retained  Norway,  but  was  soon  after  dispossessed  by 
Magnus,  the  son  of  Olaf  the  Holy.  Canute  apparently  designed 
England  for  Ilardicanute,  but  at  the  time  of  his  death  Hardi- 
canute  was  in  Denmark,  and  Harold,  known  on  account  of  his 
physical  activity  as  Harefoot,  the  second  son  of  Elgiva,  attempted 
to  seize  the  kingdom.  But  Godwin,  the  Earl  of  the  West  Saxons, 
refused  to  acknowledge  Harold  and  held  Wessex  for  Hardicanute. 

So  matters  stood  in  England  when  Alfred,  the  eldest  of  Emma's 
sons  by  her  first  marriage,  in  an  ill-advised  moment  landed  in 
Kent  in  the  hope  of  rallying  the  English  to  his  support.  But 
Ethelred's  name  roused  no  enthusiasm  among  the  people,  and 
possibly  by  the  knavery  of  Godwin,  Alfred  was  seized  and  turned 
over  to  Harold,  who  straightway  put  out  the  lad's  eyes  and  sent 
him  to  Ely  to  die  of  his  wounds.  By  this  treachery  Godwin 
seems  to  have  made  his  peace. with  Harold. 

Harold  was  not  a  strong  character  like  Canute ;  yet  he  was  not 
a  bad  prince.  The  murder  of  Alfred  was,  according  to  the  ideas 
of  the  times,  no  worse  than  several  similar  crimes  laid  to  his 
father.  The  worst  that  is  told  against  him  is  that  he  neglected 
Christian  rites  and  would  go  hunting  on  Sundays. 

Harold  died  at  Oxford  after  a  reign  of  five  years.     His  death 

pf-obably  saved  England  from  civil  war ;  for  Ilardicanute,  having 

come  to  an  understandinsr  with  Magnus,  was  already 

Death  of  ,      .  ,  ^  -r^       ,       -,         *  *  i 

Haroia,  contemplating  a  descent  upon  England.     A  powerful 

party,  moreover,  with  Godwin  at  their  head,  had  never 

given  up  the  idea  of  securing  the  crown  for  Emma's  Danish  son. 


124  DECLINE    OF   THE    KINGDOM  [hardicanuie 

When  therefore  it  was  known  that  Harold  was  dead,  the  witan 
at  once  sent  an  invitation  to  Hardi Canute  to  come  and  take  the 
crown. 

The  first  act  of  the  new  king  betrayed  how  little  of  his  father's 
wisdom  or  greatness  of  soul  he  had  inherited.     He  ordered  his 

brother's  body  to  be  thrown  out  into  the  marshes  of  the 
iiarmSuu   'i'^^^es.     His  next   step  was  to  levy  a  Danegeld   in 

order  to  pay  the  men  whom  he  had  brought  with  him 
from  Denmark.  The  winter  of  1040  was  a  severe  one,  and  the 
people  paid  the  tax  with  great  difficulty.  Other  levies  followed, 
and  then  the  people  refused  to  pay  altogether.  The  earls  and 
sheriffs  could  do  nothing.  Hardicanute  committed  the  collection 
of  the  tax  to  his  house-carls.  Eiots  followed.  Blood  was  shed 
at  Worcester.  Hardicanute  called  out  the  fyrd  against  the  con- 
tumacious city,  and  the  great  earls,  Godwin  of  Wessex,  Si  ward  of 
Northumbria,  and  Leofric  of  Mercia,^  gathered  their  men  at  his 
bidding,  and  for  four  days  harried  the  shire  and  finally  destroyed 
the  town. 

At  last  after  two   years  of  such  a  reign  as  only  such  a  man 
could  give,  Hardicanute  died  "as  he  stood  at  his  drink."     He  had 

proved  himself  from  the  first  a  despicable  tyrant.  The 
^^^'  English  hailed  his  death  as  a  fortunate  relief  from  a  bad 

bargain,  and  turned  with  no  feigned  joy  to  greet  as  king  the  mild 
and  pacific  Edward,  the  surviving  son  of  Emma  and  Ethelred.  - 

iThe  wife  of  this  Leofric  was  Godgifu,  the  "Lady  Godiva"  famous 
in  the  legends  of  Coventry. 


PART  II— FEUDAL  ENGLAND 
THE    ERA    OF    NATIONAL    ORGANIZATION 

FROM  1042  TO  1297 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  NORMAN 

EDWARD  THE  COSFESSOR,  10421066 
HAROLD.  1066,  JAN.  6-OCT.  14 

THE  DUKES  OF  NORMA  M»V      EARLY  CONNECTION  WITH  THE 
i:N(il.ISlI  LINE 

Rolf  the  Walker,  912-927 

William  Longsword,  927-943 

Richard  I.  the  Fearless,  943-996  * 

\ 

Richard  II.  the  Good,  996-1006  Emma  =  |  \  ^aSSte^ 

Richard  IIL,  1026-1028  Robert  the  Devil,  1028-1035 

William  the  Conqueror, 

from  1035  Duke  of  Normandy,  from 

1066  Kitii;  of  England.    Died  1087 

The  reign  of  Edward    the  Confessor  may  be  regarded  as  a 

preparation  for  the  Norman  Conquest.     The  establishment  of  a 

powerful  Scandinavian  state  on  the  southern  shore  of 

^^'<^^  the  Channel  must  have  exerted  a  direct  influence  upon 

shadow  upon  ^ 

Edward's  England  sooner  or  later.  For  a  time,  however,  the 
troubled  sea  of  Neustrian  politics,  the  opportunities 
of  expansion  south  and  west,  fully  occupied  the  attention  of 
the  pirate  chieftains  or  dukes  who  succeeded  Rolf,  the  founder 
of  the  Norman  Duchy.  But  the  marriage  of  Duke  Richard  II. 's 
sister  to  two  kings  of  England  in  succession,  the  migration 
of  many  of  her  people  thither,  the  long  residence  of  Ethelred's 
exiled  sons  at  the  Norman  court,  and  the  numerous  and  lasting 
friendships  made  by  Edward  among  his  mother's  Norman  friends, 
quickened  the  interest  of  duke  and  people  in  the  neighboring  king- 

125 


126  THE    SHADOW  OF  THE    NOEMAN  [edward  the  Confessor 

dom.  The  spirit  of  intermeddling  and  mischief-making,  more- 
over, was  as  strong  as  ever  at  the  court  of  these  be-Frenched 
descendants  of  the  old  sea-kings,  and  it  required  only  some  fancied 
grievance,  some  opportunity  of  disputing  the  English  succession, 
to  bring  a  new  viking  expedition  from  Normandy,  more  formidable 
than  any  which  had  ever  sailed  from  Norway  or  Denmark.  This 
is  the  shadow  which,  during  the  twenty-four  years  of  Edward's 
reign,  is  ever  deepening,  ever  creeping  upon  England  from  the 
south. 

Edward  was  peculiarly  unfitted  for  the  task   which  he  was 
called  upon  to  perform.     He  was  born  of  an  English  father,  whose 
personality  could  never  have  been  to  him  more  than  one 
Edward/^     of    the    shadowy   traditions    of    childhood.      He    was 
^^     ^'  brought  up  in  the  home  of  his  Norman  mother,  where 

his  father's  speech  was  heard  only  as  a  foreign  tongue ;  where  he 
was  tutored  by  French  priests,  and  where  all  his  thought  was 
shaped  by  men  who  despised  and  disparaged  his  father's  people  as 
a  nation  of  half -civilized  boors  and  rustics.  At  forty  he  was 
called  home  to  rule  over  this  impossible  people.  What  wonder 
that  he  could  never  understand  them ;  that  his  native  land  was  to 
him  always  a  weary  land  of  exile  and  that  he  clung  with  pathetic 
tenacity  to  the  Norman  friends  of  his  youth.  Edward,  more- 
over, was  the  kind  of  man  to  spend  his  life  in  leading  strings. 
Although  capable  of  a  certain  kind  of  fitful  energy,  he  possessed 
no  power  of  independent  action,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  pulled 
about  by  the  rival  elements  ever  at  quarrel'in  his  court.  In  all 
this  turmoil,  the  poor  king,  long  remembered  for  his  thin  figure, 
'*his  delicate  complexion,"  his  slender  womanly  hands,  and  his 
deep  devotional  nature,  was  unable  to  gather  to  himself  any  per- 
sonal following  in  the  nation,  or  to  exert  any  direct  influence  upon 
its  thought  or  its  ideals.  Yet  no  king  ever  took  his  kingly  ofiice 
more  seriously,  or  tried  harder  to  rule  as  a  king  should.  But 
Edward's  delicate  hands  were  unfitted  for  such  rough  work,  and 
at  last,  weary  in  body  and  sick  of  soul,  he  threw  down  the  tangled 
skein,  and  left  it  for  stronger  hands  to  unravel.  History  presents 
no  sadder  tragedy  than  this,  when  for  the  mere  accident  of  birth, 
it  thrusts  such  a  man  as  Edward  the  Confessor  or  Henry,  sixth 


1042]  EAKL   GODWIN  127 

of  the  name,  into  a  position  where  his  very  goodness  defeats 
him.  Meekness  was  the  one  quality  for  which  the  medieval  king 
had  little  need. 

When  Edward  assumed  the  crown,  the  one  great  man  of  the 
kingdom  was  Godwin,  Earl  of  Wessex.     Leofric  of  Mercia,  or 

Si  ward  of  Northiimbria,  might  rival  him  in  rank; 
Earfo/'  but  in  actual  influence  and  solid  ability,  Godwin  was 
Messei.  vvithout  a  peer.  His  eldest  son,  Sweyn  was  already 
earl  of  the  western  shires  of  Wessex.  In  1045  his  second  son, 
Harold,  was  raised  to  the  earldom  of  East  Anglia,  to  which  were 
also  added  Huntingdon,  Cambridge,  and  Essex;  and  the  same 
year  his  daughter  Edith  became  the  wife  of  Edward. 

The  advance  of  this  powerful  family,  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
things,  must  have  caused  much  jealousy  and  suspicion  on  the  part 

of  Edward's  other  English  subjects.  But  the  Norman 
gJSJi'J''  '*  sympathies  of  the  king  had  been  from  the  first  so  pro- 
popuiaruy.  j^Qunced,  his  favoritism  for  one  man  in  particular, 
Robert  of  Jumieges,  so  conspicuous,  that  the  English  apparently 
looked  with  complacence  upon  these  evidences  of  the  growing 
strength  of  the  Earl  of  Wessex,  seeing  in  him  a  possible  foil  to  the 
Norman  influence  which  surrounded  the  king.  The  confidence  of 
the  people,  however,  received  a  severe  shock  when  a  few  months 

after  the  marriage  of  Edith,  Earl  Sweyn  carried  off  the 
Earfswcyn    ^^bess  of  Leominster  and  proposed  to  make  her  his 

wife.  The  crime  was  a  very  serious  one  in  the  eyes  of 
a  churchly  age ;  yet  Godwin  with  cool  indifference  to  public  sen- 
timent, attempted  to  use  his  influence  to  shelter  his  wayward  son. 
Nevertheless,  the  young  man  was  outlawed  and  forced  for  two 
years  to  seek  exile  in  the  courts  of  Flanders  and  Denmark.  The 
father's  influence,  however,  finally  prevailed  over  the  sensitive 
conscience  of  Edward,  and  Sweyn  was  recalled ;  but  only  to  add 
another  to  his  list  of  crimes  by  treacherously  murdering  his 
cousin  Beorn,  who  had  been  given  a  part  of  Sweyn's  earldom  dur- 
ing his  exile.  The  new  crime  raised  a  storm  of  indignation,  and 
Sweyn  was  compelled  a  second  time  to  flee  for  his  life.  The  king 
publicly  proclaimed  him  **nithing" — "the  deepest  term  of  oppro- 
brium known  to  English  law."    But  Godwin  still  clung  to  his  first- 


128  THE  SHADOW  OF   THE    KORMAK    [edwaku  the  Confessor 

born,  and  not  only  secured  a  second  inlawing,  bnt  persuaded  the 
gentle  king  to  restore  again  the  forfeited  earldom,  which  had 
remained  vacant  since  the  death  of  Beorn. 

The  persistent  fidelity  of  Godwin  to  Sweyn  had  not  only  shaken 
the  confidence  of  the  English  in  Godwin  as  a  leader,  but  had  also 
Growth  of  compelled  him  to  make  serious  sacrifices  to  the  Norman 
iMtunmi^^  or  court  party  in  order  to  purchase  their  support  in 
party.  ^ho    witenagemot.     The   earldom  of    Hereford    which 

had  been  recently  added  to  Harold's  possessions,  was  given  to 
Ealph,  the  king's  Norman  nephew;  the  vacant  see  of  Dorchester 
was  given  to  one  of  the  king's  Norman  priests,  Ulf,  who  *'did 
naught  bishoplike,"  and  of  whom  none  had  anght  good  to  say; 
and  most  important  of  all,  upon  the  death  of  Arch- 
bishop Edsige,  llobert  of  Jumieges,  who  held  the 
approaches  of  the  king's  ear  as  no  other  man  in  the  kingdom,  was 
advanced  to  the  important  see  of  Canterbury.  But  reaction  had 
already  set  in,  and  Godwin  was  in  a  position  to  protest  against 
this  last  act  of  favoritism.  The  king  however  insisted,  and  Eob- 
ert  departed  for  Rome  to  secure  the  pall.  Yet  something  was 
gained,  for  the  king  consented  to  the  appointment  to  the  see  of 
London  of  Spearhafoc,  an  Englishman;  but  when  Robert  returned, 
he  refused  to  consecrate*  Spearhafoc  and  appointed  William,  one 
of  the  king's  Norman  chaplains,  in  his  stead.  Kynsige,  an  Eng- 
lishman, but  also  of  the  royal  chapel,  had  been  recently  made 
primate  of  York. 

The  English  or  national  party  was  now  thoroughly  awakened, 
and  their  disapproval  of  the  king's  partiality  for  his  Norman 
The  affair  of  fne^ds  was  becoming  every  day  more  outspokeu.  This 
mmufarifat  unfortunate  moment,  Eustace  of  Boulogne,  who  had 
Dover,  io5i.  married  a  sister  of  the  king,  seized  for  a  visit  to  the 
English  court.  Eustace,  who  was  by  nature  a  firebrand  and  as 
void  of  tact  and  judgment  as  of  self-control,  was  not  the  man  to 
increase  the  popularity  of  foreigners  among  the  English.  The 
crisis  came  when  on  his  way  home  he  managed  to  get  into  a  brawl 
with  the  people  of  Dover,  in  which  Eustace  was  beaten  off  after  a 
pitched  battle  and  several  of  his  men  slain.  Eustace  rode  straight 
to  the  king  and  made  his  complaint,  and  Edward  without  further 


1051  ]  GODWIN    AN    OUTLAW  129 

inquiry  ordered  Godwin,  as  Earl  of  Wessex,  to  destroy  the  city 
which  had  treated  his  guest  so  shabbily. 

Godwin  was  too  good  a  politican  not  to  see  his  opportunity  and 
seize  it.  He  flatly  refused  to  march  against  his  own  people  at  the 
complaint  of  a  foreigner.  The  king,  vexed  and  angry, 
between^  determined  to  appeal  to  the  witan,  who  had  been  sum- 
ioSn""^  moned  to  meet  at  Gloucester  on  September  1.  God- 
win, putting  himself  squarely  on  the  issue,  whether 
England  should  be  governed  by  foreigners  or  Englishmen,  appealed 
to  his  people,  and  with  Sweyn  and  Harold  to  support  him 
marched  to  Gloucester  under  arms.  The  northern  earls,  Leofric 
and  Siward,  with  Ralph  of  Hereford,  also  gathered  their  followers 
and  advanced  to  Gloucester. 

The  realm  trembled  on  the  brink  of  civil  war;  a  taunt,  a  blow, 

the  spilling  of  blood,  never  so  little,  and  no  man  could  tell  what,  or 

where  the  end  would  be.     Edward  was  saved  from  the 

Godwin  and    crisis  bv  the  judicious  advice  of  Leofric,  who  proposed 

his  aims.  .  •,.-,.  iit-i  i^ii^* 

that  the  witan  adjourn  to  meet  at  London  and  that  in 
the  interim  both  parties  disband  their  forces.  When  the  time  for 
the  meeting  came,  however,  Godwin  and  the  king  were  as  far  apart 
as  ever;  but  Godwin's  supporters,  yielding  to  soberer  second 
thought,  were  by  no  means  as  ready  for  war  as  they  had  been  at 
Gloucester.  When,  therefore,  the  king  refused  to  guarantee  the 
safety  of  Godwin  and  his  sons,  should  they  present  themselves  at 
the  witenagemot,  Godwin  saw  that  he  was  beaten  and  that  noth- 
ing was  left  for  him  but  flight.  The  sentence  of  outlawry  was 
immediately  passed  as  a  matter  of  course.  Even  the  Lady  Edith 
was  not  beyond  the  malice  of  the  court  party  and  Archbishop 
Robert  proposed  that  Edward  complete  the  overthrow  of  Godwin 
by  securing  a  divorce  against  the  daughter.  To  the  honor  of 
Edward  be  it  said,  he  refused  to  comply  with  the  suggestion,  and 
contented  himself  with  sending  Edith  to  a  convent  at  Wilton, 
where  she  had  been  educated  and  where  she  was  among  friends. 

The  foreign  party  were  for  the  time  supreme  in  the  councils  of 
the  king,  and  it  was  doubtless  with  a  direct  view  of  perpetuating  their 
power,  that  they  began  to  turn  the  attention  of  Edward  to  his 
kinsman,   Duke  William   of  Normandy,   as  a  possible  successor. 


130  THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  NOKMAK    [edward  the  Confessoe 

This  man  whose  shadow  now  for  the  first  time  falls  across  the 
path  of  English  history,  deserves  more  than  a  passing  notice.  His 
father  was  Duke  Robert,  younger  son  to  that  Duke  Eich- 
N^momdy  ^^^  ^^^  Good,  who  sent  his  sister  Emma  as  a  peace 
offering  to  Ethelred.  For  some  reason  or  other,  he  had 
won  the  ugly  sobriquet  of  Robert  the  Devil.  But  the  devil  in  Robert 
seems  to  have  been  a  harmless,  good-natured  sort  of  devil. 
Though  wild,  impetuous,  and  inconstant,  and  although  doing 
many  things  in  his  later  years  that  made  churchmen  stare,  to  his 
people  he  was  always  ^'courteous,  joyous,  debonaire,  and  benign." 
He  abounded  in  noble  deeds  and  loved  to  startle  his  miserly  con- 
temporaries by  the  reckless  magnificence  of  his  charities. 

The  mother  of  William  was  Arlette,  the  daughter  of  a  tanner 
of  Falaise,  the  sight  of  whose  fair  feet  had  captured  the  impetuous 
Th  misf<yr'  I^^^^^^^'s  heart,  as  she  stood  in  the  brook  which  ran 
TP^nv^  ,  under  her  father's  tannery  and  washed  the  family  linen; 
birth.  Robert,  however,  had  never  honored  Arlette  by  making 

her  his  wife,  and  the  neglect  all  but  cost  the  son  his  duchy.     The 
proud  nobles  of  Normandy  were  not  such  sticklers  for  the  canon 
law,  but  they  could  not  forget  the  stench  of  the  tanner's  hides, 
nor  forgive  Robert  for  linking  their  proud  ducal  line  with  the  most 
detested  of  medieval  trades.     Even  while  Robert  lived,  there  were 
fierce  mutterings  against  the  tanner's    grandson,  and  when  the 
report  was  brought  back  of  Robert's  death  on  his  fan- 
tastical pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land,  the  storm  broke 
against  the  harmless  little  lad  of   ten.      For  ten   years  the  life 
of  the  boy  duke  was  preserved  only  by  the  constant  watchfulness 
of  his  guardians,  who  kept  him  behind  stone  walls  like  a  prisoner. 
In  1037  his  asylum,  the  powerful  castle  of  Vaudreuil,  was  surprised, 
and  Osborn,  his  kinsman,  stabbed  as  he  lay  in  bed  by  the  boy's  side. 
It  was  in  such  turmoil  as  this,  with  the  terrors  of  that  awful 
night  at  Vaudreuil  indelibly  stamped  upon  his  young  mind,  with 
the  misfortune  of  his  birth  constantly  flung  in  his  teeth, 

f^Ti/i  vet  ofPK* 

and  training    that  the  character  of  the  young  prince  was  formed. 

From  his  mother   he  inherited  the  sturdy  limbs  and 

physical  strength  of   the  peasant;   from  his  father,  the  restless 

energy,  the  latent  fire  of  the  viking  race.     When  he  reached  man's 


105l]  WILLIAM    OF   NORMANDY  131 

estate,  his  towering  form,  just  short  of  the  gigantic,  surmounted 
by  mighty  shoulders,  made  him  conspicuous  among  men  famous 
for  their  commanding  presence.  No  man  in  his  army,  it  was  said, 
could  bend  William's  bow  save  William  himself.  Enormous 
physical  strength,  ever  under  conscious  control,  was  naturally 
accompanied  by  great  personal  courage;  *Hhere  was  never  beast 
nor  man"  whom  he  feared.  Surrounded  from  childhood  by 
appalling  dangers,  compelled  to  face  difficulties  which  would  have 
crushed  other  men,  the  powerful  mind  matured  rapidly  with  the 
powerful  body.  As  a  boy,  he  was  marked  for  discretion  and 
sagacity  far  beyond  his  years.  As  a  man,  he  became  taciturn  and 
self-reliant,  but  quick  to  accept  the  good  counsel,  of  others.  A 
thorough  master  of  himself  in  an  age  of  lawlessness  and  license, 
he  knew  the  secret  of  controlling  others.  A  born  ruler  of  men 
was  this  William,  a  drillmaster  by  endowment  and  by  training. 
A  child  of  ten,  he  had  been  left  with  a  tainted  name  and  defied  by 
the  most  turbulent  baronage  of  Europe,  whose  castles,  in  contempt 
of  law,  dotted  every  hillside,  a  constant  menace  to  duke  or  peasant. 
Yet,  at  twenty,  this  boy  duke  had  crushed  his  enemies,  recon- 
quered and  reorganized  his  duchy,  extended  its  boundaries,  and 
secured  again  its  old  commanding  place  among  the  states  of  the 
Capetian  confederation.  But  in  the  long  and  bitter  struggle, 
William  had  hardened  to  the  sufferings  of  others;  Caligula  could 
not  be  more  cruel,  nor  Attila  more  violent,  when  the  wrath  of 
him  was  once  aroused.  He  was  as  pitiless  as  a  thunderbolt; 
where  he  struck,  he  blasted ;  nor  did  the  humbleness  of  the  victim 
appeal  to  his  mercy.  He  was  "the  great  and  terrible  duke";  in 
his  presence  strong  men  trembled  and  women  fainted. 

This  was  the  man  to  whom  the  Norman  party  in  England  now 
looked  for  the  permanent  establishment  of  their  power;   and  as 

the  first  step  to  that  end,  arranged  for  a  visit  by  the 
wiUiam  U)  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^®  English  court.  The  object  of  the  mission 
Enflftorid,        ^^s  kept  a  profound  secret  at  the  time,  but  in  the  light 

of  passing  events,  it  can  Hardly  be  doubted  that  Wil- 
liam was  invited  over  by  Archbishop  Robert  and  other  leaders  of 
the  Norman  party,  with  the  express  purpose  of  securing  from 
Edward  some  recognition  of  William  as  his  heir;   and  that,  if 


132  THE    SHADOW    OP   THE    XORMAN  [kdward  the  confessor 

Edward  did  not  commit  himself  then,  he  did  soon  after  William's 
return  to  Normandy,  and  sent  Eobert  to  the  court  of  Rouen  to 
announce  the  decision  to  William. 

If  this  were  the  plan  of  the  Norman  party,  they  had  evidently 

overreached  themselves.     A  powerful  reaction  set  in  once  more 

aojainst  the  Norman  policy  of  the  court,  and  when  tlie 

Triumph  of        °    ^  n^-  ^i-  \  .       .        .      . 

Godwin,  ncxt  year,  bodwin  and  his  sons  returned  at  the  head  of 
a. fleet,  the  king  conscious  of  the  disaffection  of  his 
people,  was  compelled  to  allow  the  Norman  favorites  whom  he 
could  no  longer  protect,  to  seek  safety  in  flight,  and  himself  sub- 
mit to  the  restoration  of  Godwin  and  his  family.  The  triumph  of 
Godwin  was  as  complete  as  the  use  which  he  sought  to  make  of  his 
victory  was  wise  and  moderate.  "Good  laws"  were  pledged,  and 
the  sentence  of  outlawry  turned  upon  Robert  and  Ulf  and  all 
"who  had  brought  evil  counsels  into  the  land."  Stigand,  the 
English  bishop  of  Winchester,  was  advanced  to  Robert's  see  of 
Canterbury,  and  Wulfwi,  another  supporter  of  Godwin,  was 
appointed  to  Dorchester.  But  William  of  London,  who  was  a  very 
different  man  from  either  Robert  or  Ulf,  was  allowed  to  return  to 
his  bishopric,  and  since  Sweyn  was  now  dead,  Ralph,  the  king's 
nephew,  was  also  left  in  possession  of  his  earldom. 

After  the  return  of  Godwin,  Edward  yielded  himself  to  the 
control  of  the  English  party.  The  old  earl,  however,  did  not  long 
survive  to  enjoy  his  triumph.  He  had  come  up  to  Winchester  to 
keep  the  Easter  feast  with  the  king,  and  on  Monday  while  they 
sat  at  meat  together,  the  earl  suddenly  sank  down. 
Death  of  probably  in  an  apoplectic  fit ;  he  was  borne  from  the 
April  15, 1053.  room  speechless  and  helpless,  and  "laid  in  the  king's 
bower,"  where  he  expired  three  days  later.  Godwin 
was  altogether  a  remarkable  character.  He  had  risen  like  Dun- 
stan,  if  not  from  humble  life,  at  least  from  the  obscurity  of  the 
lower  ranks  of  the  nobility,  and  had  maintained  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  witan  through  three  successive  reigns.  His  patriotism 
is  not  above  suspicion  of  self-seeking ;  but  what  statesman  of  the 
age,  or  churchman  either,  is  not  open  to  the  same  charge? 
Politically  the  support  of  Sweyn  was  a  serious  blunder ;  but  even 
Simon  de  Montfort  committed  a  similar  error,  and  paid  a  far  more 


1053-1057]  THE   SONS   OF   GODWIN  133 

serious  penalty.  Oii  the  other  hand,  Godwin  seems  to  have 
comprehended  the  full  import  of  the  growing  influence  of  Nor- 
mandy upon  English  affairs,  and  sought  to  offset  it  by  an  alliance 
with  Germany  and  Flanders,  the  earliest  hint  of  the  later  estab- 
lished policy  of  English  statesmen.  His  connection  with  the 
murder  of  Alfred  the  Etheling/  is  a  dark  shadow  upon  his  life 
which  the  modern  historian  with  all  his  ingenuity  can  with 
difficulty  dispel.  In  opposing  Edward  when  in  a  moment 
of  anger  the  king  called  for  the  destruction  of  Dover,  Godwin 
was  certainly  right,  and  in  his  final  triumph  he  appears  as  the 
forerunner  of  those  English  statesmen  of  a  later  day  who  know 
how  to  overawe  kings  and  protect  the  people  from  their 
tyranny. 

The  English  party  suffered  no  diminution  of  power  in  conse- 
quence of  the  death  of  Godwin.     Harold,  his  second  son,  whose 

gracious  ways  and  forgiving  temper  had  already  won 
ii^enuth\?f  ^^®  affectious  of  the  people,  succeeded  to  the  earldom  of 
^^artu^^'^'*^''     Wessex  and  to  all  the  old  earl's  influence  among  the 

witan.  Gyrth,  the  fourth  son,  was  advanced  to  Harold's 
earldom  of  East  Anglia,  while  Essex  and  the  adjoining  counties 
were  given  to  Leofwin,  a  fifth  son.  In  1055  Siward  of  North- 
umbria  died  and  his  son,  Waltheof,  who  was  a  more  lad,  was  set 
aside  to  make  room  for  Tostig,  the  third  son  of  Godwin.  With 
the  members  of  this  powerful  family  thus  entrenched  in  the  great 
earldoms,  and  with  such  Englishmen  as  Stigand  holding  the  high 
places  of  the  church,  the  English  party  had  little  to  fear  save 
from  the  event  of  a  disputed  succession.  Here,  however,  was  a 
real  and  serious  danger.  It  was  now  generally  accepted  that 
Edward  would  remain  childless,  and  in  consequence  of  the  numer- 
ous recent  violations  of  the  right  of  hereditary  succession,  no  man 
knew  what  claims  might  be  advanced  to  the  vacant  throne.     It 

was  therefore  determined  by  the  witan  to  send  for 
death  of  Edward,  the  surviving  son  of  Edmund  Ironside,  who 
Etheiiiig,        had  growu  to  man's  estate  in  exile  in  Hungary,  whither 

he  had  been  sent  by  the  king  of  Sweden,  and  where  he 

*  For  the  legend  which  connects  his  death  with  the  murder  of  Alfred, 
see  Ramsey,  I.  p.  468. 


134  THE    SHADOW   OF   THE   KORMAK  [haboli> 

had  married  a  kinswoman  of  Henry  II.  of  Germany.  With  his 
three  children,  Edgar,  Margaret,  and  Christina,  the  Etheling 
now  returned  to  England  as  the  recognized  heir  of  Edward  the 
Confessor.  But  the  unfortunate  prince  had  hardly  reached 
England  when  he  suddenly  sickened  and  died,  leaving  the 
little  lad  Edgar  as  the  sole  male  representative  of  the  line  of 
Alfred. 

If  therefore  Edward  the  Confessor  had  ever  seriously  enter- 
tained the  plan  of  a  Norman  succession,  he  had  evidently  aban- 
doned it;  but  not  so  the  man  who  was  to  have  been  the 
?am^io64  chief  agent  in  carrying  it  out.  In  1064  Harold  was 
shipwrecked  on  the  Norman  coast  and  ultimately  fell 
into  William's  power.  The  duke  was  quick  to  take  advantage  of 
his  good  fortune,  and  virtually  forced  his  unwilling  guest  to  take 
an  oath  to  support  his  candidacy  for  the  English  throne;  William 
on  his  part,  pledging  one  of  his  daughters  to  the  captive  earl  in 
marriage.  This  oath  of  Harold  was  to  have  the  gravest  political 
consequences,  since  the  subsequent  violation  of  it,  secured  as 
it  was  by  the  most  solemn  sanctions  which  were  known  to  the 
eleventh  century,  necessarily  embroiled  Harold  with  the  church 
and  roused  a  public  sentiment  in  Europe  in  William's  favor. 

Upon  his  return,  however,  Harold  did  not  for  one  moment 
conduct  himself  as  though  he  regarded  the  oath  of  any  importance. 
Even  Edward  seemed  to  have  forgotten  William,  and 
into  the  after    the    death    of    Edward    Etheling,    turned    his 

thoughts  for  a  moment  upon  the  lad  Edgar.  But 
Edgar  was  poor,  a  child  in  years  and  experience,  and  without  any 
definite  following.  If  Harold  and  the  great  house  of  Godwin 
should  support  him,  his  claim  might  be  made  good;  but  Harold 
now  had  ambitions  of  his  own.  He  was,  moreover,  completely  in 
the  king's  confidence,  and  was  quietly  drifting  into  the  place  of 
Harold  greatest  power.     Those  who  were  in  Harold's  counsels, 

^amuarue  therefore,  were  not  surprised  when  it  was  reported  that 
1066.  the  good  king  with   his   last  breath   had   named  the 

powerful  earl  as  his  successor.  Edward  died  on  the  5th  of  Jan- 
uary, 10G6,  and  the  next  day,  the  6th,  the  witan  who  were 
present  in  London,  met  quietly,  and  elected  and  crowned  Harold. 


1066]  WILLIAM'S    APPEAL   TO    EUROPE  135 

Strange  to  say,  however,  William  did  not  seem  to  know  what 
had  been  doing  at  Westminster.     The  oath  of  1064  had  thoroughly 

deceived  him,  and  when  he  received  the  report  of 
prepares  for    Harold's  coronation,  he  acted  like  one  unnerved  by  news 

of  sudden  calamity.  His  first  act  was  to  dispatch  a 
messenger  to  Harold  to  protest  against  his  perfidy  and  demand  the 
fulfillment  of  the  oath.     At  Lillebonne  he  assembled  his  Norman 

nobles,  the  heads  of  the  great  houses  of  Beaumont, 
council  of       Montgomery,  Fitz-Osbern,  and  Mortimer,  names  then 

strange  to  English  ears,  and  by  appealing  to  the  old 
viking  love  of  plunder  which  was  by  no  means  dead  in  the  race, 
persuaded  the  assembly  to  support  him  in  an  armed  protest  against 
the  alleged  usurpation  of  Harold. 

To  Europe  William  submitted  his  case  against  Harold 
The  appeal     under  the  following  counts: 

m  Eurupe.  ® 

1.  The  alleged  bequest  of  his  cousin  Edward  from 
which  Harold  had  defrauded  him. 

2.  The  perjury  of  Harold,  which  was  a  crime  against  the 
church. 

3.  The  expulsion  of  the  Normans  from  England  in  1052  at 
the  instigation  of  Godwin  and  his  sons. 

4.  The  massacre  of  the  Danes  by  Ethelred  on  St.  Brice's  Day, 
1002. 

That  William  should  take  such  pains  to  secure  the  moral  sup- 
port of  Europe  shows  that  public  sentiment  was  already  a  recog- 
nized element  in  international  politics. 

In  winning  the  pope,  Alexander  II.,  William  found  no  diffi- 
culty. The  outlawry  of  Robert  of  Jumieges  and  the  election  of 
Stigand  had  already  brought  the  English  witan  into 
of  P(yi)e  open  conflict  with  the  Roman  Curia,  which  had  refused 

'  to  recognize  their  right  to  depose  an  archbishop.  And 
when  Stigand  sought  to  secure  from  the  anti-pope,  Benedict  IX., 
the  recognition  which  the  canonical  popes  denied  him,  he  had 
made  the  breach  irreparable.  When  therefore  William  laid  his 
case  before  the  pope,  the  papal  tribunal  was  already  prejudiced  in 
his  favor  and  not  only  declared  Harold  guilty  of  perjury  and 
justified  William  in  taking  up  arms,  but  went  farther  and  gave  the 


136  THE    SHADOW    OF   THE    NORMAN  [harold 

expedition  almost  a  semi-religious  character  by  sending  to  the  duke 
the  consecrated  banner  of  St.  Peter,  together  with  a  sacred  relic 
of  the  Apostle  himself,  to  lead  the  invading  host. 

To  win  the  pope  was  also  to  win  the  council  that  at  that  time 

controlled  the  boy  emperor,  Henry  IV. ;    and  although  Germany 

had  been  the  ally  of  Godwin,  the  vassals  of  the  empire 

the  Imperial    were  encouraged  to  enlist  under  the   banner  of  JNor- 

coitvt 

mandy.  A  pledge  was  further  given  to  William  to  protect 
his  duchy  from  attack  during  hi^  absence;  so  fatal  and  far-reach- 
ing was  the  hostility  of  the  church  to  the  party  who  had  outlawed 
Robert,  elected  Stigand,  and  supported  the  perjury  of  Harold. 

At  the  court  of  the  French  king,  Philip  I.,  William  met  with 
some  opposition.  It  required  no  deep  political  insight  to  discern 
a  menace  to  the  future  interests  of  the  French  crown  in 
the  French  the  proposal  of  the  Duke  of  Normandy,  already  over- 
powerful  for  a  vassal,  to  add  to  his  Norman  posses- 
sions the  kingdom  of  England.  Yet  William  was  not  without 
powerful  friends  at  the  French  court.  Philip,  like  Henry  IV., 
was  a  minor,  and  at  the  head  of  the  regency  was  the  Count  of 
Flanders,  William's  father-in-law.  While,  therefore,  the  regency 
openly  commanded  William  to  abandon  his  enterprise,  secretly  the 
Count  of  Flanders  favored  it  and  encouraged  his  own  vassals 
to  join  William.  Anjou  also,  the  hereditary  foe  of  Normandy, 
strange  to  say,  was  for  the  time  arrayed  on  the  side  of  William. 
Another  ancient  foe,  Conan  of  Brittany,  was  removed  by  death, 
just  at  the  moment  when  he  was  meditating  mischief,  and  his  suc- 
cessor, Hoel,  at  once  sent  five  thousand  Bretons  under  his  own  son 
to  fight  for  William. 

But  if  fortune  thus  smiled  strangely  upon  William,  it  as  con- 
spicuously frowned  upon  Harold.  First  he  had  to  face  the  defec- 
tion of  his  brother  Tostig,  who  in  the  later  days  of 
^renegade  Edward  had  been  driven  out  of  Northumbria  by  his 
own  people;  but  holding  Harold  responsible  for  his 
troubles  he  had  retired  to  the  home  of  his  wife's  father,  the  old 
Count  of  Flanders,  the  father-in-law  of  William,  where  he  nursed 
his  resentment  and  waited  for  the  moment  of  revenge.  When 
tidings  of   the  events  of  January  reached  him,   he    hastened  to 


1066]  THE    WATCH    BY   THE    CHANNEL  137 

Rouen,  to  offer  his  sword  to  his  brother-in-law  against  his  brother. 
His  impatience,  however,  would  not  allow  him  to  await  the  slow 
gathering  of  the  greater  armament,  and  the  early  spring  saw  him 
at  the  head  of  a  band  of  Norman  and  Flemish  mercenaries,  harry- 
ing the  coasts  of  Sussex  and  Kent.  Harold  attempted  to  intercept 
Tostig  and  his  pirates,  but  Tostig  eluded  him  and  entering  the 
North  Sea  passed  up  the  English  coast  to  the  Humber,  where  he 
fell  foul  of  the  northern  earls  and  was  driven  out  to  sea  again. 
His  further  movements  during  this  eventful  summer  are  traced 
with  difficulty.  Apparently,  after  various  unsuccessful  efforts  to 
rouse  first  Malcolm  of  Scotland  and  then  Sweyn  of  Denmark  to  sup- 
port William,  he  finally  repaired  to  the  court  of  Harold  Hardrada 
of  Norway,  and  induced  him  to  enter  the  lists  upon  his  own  account 
as  a  third  applicant  for  the  English  crown.  As  the  price  of  his 
support,  Tostig  was  to  be  restored  to  his  northern  earldom. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  English  Harold,  knowing  nothing  appar- 
ently of  this  new  storm  which  was  gathering  in  Norway,  was 
directing  all  his  attention  to  the  south,  where  he  collected  his  ships, 
and  massed  his  troops,  and  waited  for  William  to  strike.  On  the 
opposite  coast,  sheltered  in  the  mouth  of  the  Dives,  there  gathered 
at  the  call  of  William  all  the  martial  strength  of  northern  Europe. 
The  expedition  had  become  widely  popular  with  the  young  nobility, 
and  from  all  the  northern  feudatories  of  France  and  from  many 
of  the  southern  as  well,  the  wild  adventurous  spirits  of  the  day 
** flocked  together  for  the  war  over  the  sea," — "an  innumerable 
host  of  horsemen,  slingers,  archers,  and  foot  soldiers."*  For  a 
full  month  after  all  was  ready,  contrary  winds  kept  the  impatient 
host  waiting  in  the  Dives.  But  in  the  end  this  proved  not  a 
little  to  the  advantage  of  William,  though  a  grievous  vexation  at 
the  time.     Harold  was  compelled  to  keep  his  fleet  in  the  roads 

during  the  whole  summer.     The  men  of  the  southern 
f^^f^^^****'   counties   lay  out    **fyrding,"    waiting    while    months 

dragged  by  and  the  foe  did  not  come.     The  enthusiasm 
of  the   first  muster  ebbed,  and  when  early  in   September,   pro- 

^  Upon  the  number  of  William's  armament,  ships,  and  men,  see  Oman's 
History  of  the  Art  of  War  in  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  156. 


138  THE    SHADOW    OF   THE   NORMAN  [hakold 

visions  began  to  fail,  Harold  was  compelled  to  dismiss  the  fyrd. 
A  week  later  the  fleet  also  was  disbanded. 

The  same  wind,  moreover,  which  was  keeping  William  and  his 
host  fretting  in  the  harbors  of  Normandy,  was  now  in  the  end  of 

September  bringing  the  other  Harold  with  Earl  Tostig 
Tosiia^and  ^^^  ^^^  their  following.  Tostig  with  sixty  ships  was 
H^rdrada      ^^®  ^^^^  ^^  reach  the  Humber  but  was  again  driven 

out  to  sea  by  the  northern  earls,  and  retired  to  Scot- 
land where  he  was  joined  by  Harold  Hardrada.  The  allies  then 
returned,  harrying  the  coast  as  they  advanced.  At  Riocal  on 
the  Humber  they  disembarked  and  leaving  a  strong  reserve  with 
their   ships,    marched  upon    York.      Edwin   of    Mercia,  and  his 

brother,  Morcar,  to  whom  the  witan  had  given  Tostig's 
s^te^^b    20  Northumbrian  earldom,  attempted  to  make  a  stand  at 

Fulford,  but  their  hasty  levies  were  easily  beaten  and 
compelled  to  retire  behind  the  walls  of  the  northern  capital,  leav- 
ing all  the  country  north  of  the  Humber  at  the  mercy  of  Tostig 
and  his  allies. 

Harold  had  been  speedily  apprised  of  the  serious  nature  of  the 
storm  which  had  burst  upon  the  north,  and  at  once  abandoning 

his  watch  by  the  Channel,  by  one  of  the  most  remark- 
marfh'^  able  forced  marches  on  record,  was  already  hastening  to 
BHd^T^^^^    meet  Tostig  and  the  other  Harold.     He  must  crush 

them  before  the  arrival  of  William,  or  all  would  be  lost. 
On  Sunday,  September  24,  York  capitulated.  On  the  same  even- 
ing, Harold  and  his  men  were  at  Tadcaster,  hurrying  along  the  old 
Roman  road,  only  a  day's  march  away.  The  approach  of  such  a 
large  body  of  men  along  the  dusty  September  roads  was  probably 
not  unknown  to  the  Norwegians  at  Riccal,  whose  bands  after  the 
usual  custom  were  scouring  the  surrounding  country  for  forage. 
Instead  of  holding  York,  therefore,  the  leaders  ordered  up  their 
reserves,  and  attempted  to  retire  beyond  the  Derwent.  But 
Harold,  marching  his  men  all  night  and  pressing  on  through 
York  without  stopping,  overtook  them  at  Stamford  Bridge  some- 
time in  the  forenoon  of  Monday  the  25th.  The  Norwegians 
apparently  were  in  light  marching  order;  many  of  them,  en- 
tirely unarmed.     A  part  had  already  passed  to  the  east  bank  of 


1066]  STAMFORD   BRIDGE  139 

the  Derwent;  others  were  in  the  act  of  filing  across  the  long 
wooden  bridge ;  still  others  in  motley  groups  were  sitting  or  lying 
about  the  grass,  waiting  for  their  turn  to  advance  to  the  crossing. 
The  English  under  cover  of  the  low  sloping  hill  which  shuts 
out  the  plain  of  York  from  the  basin  of  the  Derwent,  had  stolen  up 
swiftly  and  noiselessly.  The  dust  stirred  by  thousands 
Stamford       of  rapidly  moving  feet  first  betrayed  their  approach  to 

Bridge,  Sep-     ^.       ^r  -  -      j.x.  n  a  ^  iT^-i  i. 

tember25,  the  Norwegians  in  the  valley.  A  party  was  hastily  sent 
to  the  summit  to  reconnoiter;  and  there  they  beheld 
the  advancing  host,  coming  swiftly  on,  prepared  for  immediate 
battle,  ''their  shields  and  arms  glistening  like  ice  in  the  morning 
sun."  There  was  a  cry;  the  galloping  of  horses;  the  blare  of  a 
bull's-horn.  Then  arose  the  clamor  of  men,  as  the  loiterers  sprang 
to  their  arms  and  the  leaders  attempted  to  form  the  shield  wall. 
Those  who  had  already  passed  the  stream  turned  about  and  began 
to  crowd  back  again  across  the  bridge.  But  the  gleaming  helmets 
and  stately  forms  of  the  house-carls  of  Harold  were  already  ris- 
ing above  the  brow  of  tlie  hill.  A  shout,  a  wild  plunge  forward, 
and  the  battle  was  on.  From  the  first  clash  of  arms,  Tostig  and 
Harold  Hardrada  had  no  chance  of  victory,  little  of  flight.  Yet 
they  fought  like  heroes.  First  Harold  fell  and  then  Tostig.  Then 
the  half-formed  shield  wall  was  carried  by  the  English  with  a  rush, 
and  the  battle  surged  up  to  the  bridge  head.  Here  for  full  thirty 
minutes  a  gigantic  Norwegian,  ax  in  hand,  held  back  the  whole 
English  army, — a  deed  worthy  of  one  of  Homer's  heroes.  Then 
another  mighty  surge  forward  of  the  crowd  before  the  bridge,  and 
it  was  won.  For  a  moment,  the  Norwegians  made  a  stand  on  the 
further  side  of  the  bridge,  but  only  for  a  moment ;  then  the  host, 
taken  at  the  first  unawares,  with  all  the  advantage  of  position 
against  tliem,  kingless  and  leaderless,  broke  and  fled.  A  wild  panic 
followed,  and  the  rout  soon  passed  into  an  indiscriminate  massacre. 

The  remnant  of  the  smitten  army  rallied  at  Riccal ;   for  the 

reserve  had  not  come  up  in  time  for  the  battle.     With  the  sea  open 

before    them,  they  would   be  able  even  yet    to  make 

bS^^^^^^  Harold  much  trouble,  should  he  draw  off  his  forces  to 

the  south ;  but  with  the  other  war  cloud  still  hanging 

over  the  southern  coast,  Harold  could  not  wait;   his  return  was 


140  THE   SHADOW   OF   THE   KORMAN  [habold 

urgent.  Instead,  therefore,  of  pushing  the  remnant  of  the  smit- 
ten army  to  extremities,  he  offered  the  leaders  generous  terms,  and 
soon  saw  them  sail  away  to  their  homes.  So  ended  the  famous 
northern  campaign  of  Harold.  The  superhuman  endurance  of 
the  long  march,  the  furious  energy  of  the  pursuit,  and  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  victory,  proved  that  Englishmen  had  not  forgot- 
ten how  to  fight  or  their  leaders  how  to  lead. 

The  battle  of  Stamford  Bridge  was  fought  on  the  25th  of  Sep- 
tember. Two  days  later  the  moment  came  for  which  William 
and  his  barons  had  been  so  long  waiting.  As  the  sun 
Jlwiiiiam  ^^^^  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^'^^^'  ^^^  great 'flagship,  the  gift  of 
s^^iemherlr  ^^^  ^^^^^  Matilda,  with  its  crimson  sails  spread  to  the 
freshening  breeze,  steered  out  into  the  channel.  In 
the  morning  the  fleet  with  only  two  ships  missing,  which  had  been 
sunk  probably  in  some  nocturnal  combat  with  the  scouts  of  the 
enemy,  came  to  anchor  off  the  Pevensey  coast,  and  by  nine  o'clock 
the  disembarkation  had  begun. 

William  now  found  himself  safely  landed,  but  face  to  face  with 
a  hostile  country.     He  knew  Harold  well ;    knew  his  energy  and 
his  skill.     He  knew  also  that  Harold  would  not  yield 
Wiiiiam's  '    without   a  battle.     But  when  and  where?     A  speedy 
victory,   a  great  crushing   blow  which    would  shatter 
Harold's  power  must  be   delivered  at  once.     With  his  army  to 
maintain  in  a  hostile  country,  delay  would  be  as  serious  as  defeat. 
The  28th  was  spent  by  the  Normans  in  the  disembarkation ; 
then  in  true  viking  style,  they  drew  their  ships  up  on  the  beach, 
and   leaving  them  under  a  sufficient  guard,  the  main 
fo^HM'^T   ^^^y  moved  along  the  shore  to  Hastings.     William  evi- 
dently had  not  heard  of  the  landing  of    Tostig  and 
Harold  Hardrada;   nor  of  the  absence  of  King  Harold.     Instead 
therefore  of  marching  directly  upon  London,  he  began  carefully 
to  fortify  Hastings,  digging   a  trench  and  constructing   a  mound 
and  wooden  fort.      He  then  undertook  a  systematic  wasting  of 
the  country,  with  the  evident  purpose  of  compelling  Harold  to 
come  forward  and  fight  him  in  this  strong  position.     So  thor- 
oughly was  this  work  done,  that  when  twenty  years  later,  the 
great  Domesday  Survey  was  made,  traces  of  the  havoc  of  Wil- 


1066J  RETURN    OF   HAROLD  141 

liam's  men  might  still  be  seen.  Woeful  days  were  these  for  the 
people  of  Sussex.  Village  and  cottage,  hayrick  and  granary,  the 
harvests  of  the  summer  just  ended,  went  up  in  flame  and  smoke. 
Only  the  churches  and  the  churchyards  were  spared. 

It  is  not  so  easy  to  follow  the  movements  of  Harold  during 
these  two  weeks.  That  he  could  not  return  at  once  to  London  is 
evident.  If  the  forced  march  and  tlie  hard  fighting  of 
HoroS'^'^  Monday  had  not  thoroughly  exhausted  his  men,  the  vic- 
tory certainly  must  have  disorganized  his  army  for  the 
time.  In  medieval  warfare  the  one  conspicuous  lack  of  an  army, 
first  and  last,  was  discipline.  A  victory  was  almost  as  disastrous 
as  a  defeat.  Harold  therefore  was  still  in  the  north  when  news 
was  brought  him  of  the  landing  of  William;*  nor  could  he  reach 
London  much  before  October  5,  and  even  then  he  must  have  pre- 
ceded his  army,  which  was  made  up  mostly  of  infantry.  William 
on  the  other  hand,  apparently  at  the  same  moment  heard  of 
the  landing  of  the  Norwegians,  the  overthrow  at  Stamford 
Bridge,  the  arrival  of  Harold  in  London,  and  the  swift  approach 
of  the  victorious  army  which  was  following  him  from  the  north. 
William's  first  news,  therefore,  could  not  have  been  assuring,  and 
prudence  bade  him  still  linger  behind  his  trenches  at  Hastings. 

Harold  in  the  meanwhile  was  gathering  the  southern  levies  and 

preparing  a  second   time  to  hurl   himself   upon  his   foes.      His 

counsellors, headed  by  his  brother  Gyrth,  advised  delay. 

The  advance     ..„  -,  ,  ,  ,  ,,r. 

tothehaiof  1  hoy  proposed  to  devastate  the  country  about  uiUiam 
so  that  neither  man  nor  beast  could  live,  and  thus  com- 
pel him  either  to  surrender  or  retire.  It  was  the  counsel  of  a  gen- 
eral. The  reply  of  Harold  was  the  reply  of  a  king.  He  would  not 
burn  a  single  English  village  nor  harm  a  single  English  home;  he 
had  been  set  to  protect  his  people,  not  to  destroy  them.*  Within 
a  week  Harold  was  ready,  and  by  October  12  at  the  latest  he 
marched  out  of  London  and  took  the  great  southern  road  which 
led  away  to  Hastings.  On  Friday  the  13th,  probably  toward  the 
end  of  the  afternoon,  he  reached  the  fatal  hill  which  has  since  been 

*  Probably  about  October  1.     According    to  Freeman's  estimate  it 
would  take  a  horseman  three  days  to  reach  York  from  the  southern  coast. 
2  Freeman,  N.  C,  pp  437-439. 


142  THE    SHADOW    OF   THE    NORMAl^  [habou) 

given  the  French  name  of  Senlac — the  name  with  which  recent 
historians  have  succeeded  in  dubbing  the  battle,  in  spite  of  the 
custom  of  eight  centuries. 

Up  to  this  point  William  had  intended  to  force  Harold  to  attack 

him  on  his  own  ground  at  Hastings.     But  the  natural  strength  of 

the  site  which  Harold  had  chosen  for  his  camp,  his  evi- 

The  change       _,  -<.,•!..  ,i     >    ,i  ,, 

in  William's  dent  purpose  of  fortifying,  a  rumor  that  the  northern 
levies  under  Edwin  and  Morcar  were  approaching,  and 
that  an  English  fleet  was  coming  around  by  the  Channel,  left  Wil- 
liam no  choice  but  immediate  action.  Harold,  if  once  he  were 
securely  fortified  in  his  hill  camp  with  all  England  at  his  back  to 
supply  him  with  men  and  provisions,  could  not  be  dislodged. 

The  night  was  spent  in  the  Norman  camp  in  the  impressive 
religious  ceremonies  appointed  by  the  medieval  church  for  those 
about  to  brave  death. ^  With  sun-up  the  Normans  were 
'thtbatiic  amove;  long  before  the  third  hour  they  had  passed 
over  the  eight  miles  intervening  and  from  the  heights 
of  Telham  faced  the  line  of  Harold  upon  the  opposite  slope.  The 
plan  of  Harold  was  simple.  He  had  only  to  hold  his  ground  and 
wear  out  the  enemy  as  they  dashed  themselves  against  his  lines,  and 
thus  compel  William  to  retire  again  to  his  defenses  at  Hastings. 
Accordingly  Harold's  heavy  armed  infantry,  the  house-carls, 
selected  each  man  for  size  and  strength,  clad  in  helmets  and  long 
coats  of  mail,  armed  with  javelins  for  hurling  and  the  terrible  two- 
handed  Danish  ax  for  close  counter,  than  whom  there  were  no  finer 
troops  in  Europe,  were  extended  along  the  whole  front,  arranged  in 
close  order  with  their  shields  overlapping  and  forming  the  famous 
shield-wall.^  Back  of  this  living  rampart  thronged  dense  masses  of 
half -armed  yeomanry,  ready  to  confront  the  advancing  foe  with  a 
continuous  shower  of  darts,  arrows,  and  stones.  On  the  very 
crown  of  the  hill,  at  the  point  where  the  ground  begins  to  slope  to 

^  For  the  original  account  of  the  way  in  which  the  English  passed  the 
night,  see  William  of  Malmsbury,  a.d.  1066.  Cf.  Freeman's  criticism  and 
explanation,  N.  C.  Ill,  453  and  454.  In  all  probability  the  English  were 
not  expecting  to  fight  so  soon. 

^  For  criticism  of  Freeman's  "palisades,"  see  Round,  Feudal  England, 
pp.  340  and  following. 


1066]  HASTINGS  143 

the  southeast,  the  spot  marked  to  after  ages  by  the  high  altar 
of  William's  Abbey  Church  of  Battle,  were  planted  the  two-fold 
ensigns  of  England,  the  dragon  of  Wessex  and  the  armed  warrior 
advancing  to  battle,  the  latter  the  personal  ensign  of  the  king.* 
Here  stood  Harold  and  the  men  of  his  house  surrounded  each  by 
his  personal  following. 

William  saw  that  it  would  be  useless  to  attempt  to  force  his 
knights,  the  strength  of  his  army,  upon  the  living  shield-wall  with 
the  broken  ground  and  the  rising  hill  against  them.  He 
'^an^flbattie  ^^^^^^  ^^^^  ^J  ordering  forward  his  infantry,  the  light- 
armed  archers  and  cross-bowmen,  tempt  the  English  to 
break  their  formation  and  then  by  hurling  forward  his  cavalry, 
seek  to  pierce  Harold's  line.  As  Napoleon  many  centuries  later  at 
Waterloo,  William  proposed  to  alternate  incessant  charges  of  a 
powerful  cavalry  with  a  destructive  fire  of  missiles.  ** Nothing 
can  be  more  maddening  than  such  an  ordeal  to  the  infantry  soldier 
rooted  to  the  spot  by  the  necessities  of  his  formation."* 

This  in  a  word  explains  the  conduct  of  the  battle.  From  nine 
o'clock  until  twelve  the  English  withstood  the  alternating  attacks 
of  infanti7  and  horse.  Then  William,  who  from  his 
thehatae^^^  post  across  the  valley  had  been  watching  the  slow  prog- 
ress of  the  battle,  bade  the  archers  elevate  their  shafts 
that  they  might  drop  upon  the  English  from  above.  The 
increased  execution  was  apparent  at  once.  The  English,  standing 
in  dense  masses  behind  the  shield-line,  but  no  longer  protected  by 
the  tall  shields  of  the  house-carls  and  unable  to  ward  off  the  bolts 
which  dropped  upon  them  out  of  the  eye  of  the  October  sun,  were 
stung  to  madness,  and  breaking  through  the  line  of  heavy  infantry 
surged  forward,  bearing  the  Norman  bowmen  and  slingers  before 
them.  In  vain  William  sent  forward  his  knights;  they  plunged 
into  the  struggling  throng,  but  only  to  add  to  the  confusion.  The 
English  hardly  felt  the  shock  of  the  cavalry,  but  swept  on  madly 
carrying  all  before  them,  infantry  and  horse,  down  the  slope  and 
across  the  valley  and  up  the  southern  hill  to  the  very  spot  where 
the  duke  sat  upon  his  horse.     Then  the  battle  roared  around  him ; 

» Freeman,  N.  C,  p.  474. 

^  Oman,  Art  of  War  in  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  161. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE   CONQUEST   OF   ENGLAND 

EDOAR,  OCT.-DEC,  lOeR 
WILLIAM  /.,  l<m-l(/70 

The  night  of  the  14th  of  October  William  and  his  weary  troops 
lay  amid  the  sickening  horrors  of  the  spent  battle.     The  next  day, 

the  Christian  Sabbath,  he  tarried  to  bury  his  dead, 
withdraws  to  and  then  withdrew  to  Hastings  to  rally  the  exhausted 

energies  of  his  men  and  prepare  for  his  next  move. 
The  caution  of  William  at  this  time  is  easily  explained.  An  unknown 
country  lay  before  him;  he  was  without  maps;  he  was  ignorant 
of  distances  and  locations.  Edwin  and  Morcar  were  not  far 
off  with  a  second  army,  supposed  to  outnumber  the  one  which  he 
had  just  overthrown.*  It  is  known  also  that  William  was  expect- 
ing reinforcements,  which  actually  reached  him  shortly  after  the 
battle  and  enabled  him  to  fill  up  his  broken  ranks.  Here  certainly 
was  reason  enough  for  delay.  William  incurred  no  risk.  lie  was 
as  safe  behind  his  earthen  ramparts  at  Hastings  as  ever.  It  is 
possible,  moreover,  that  William  thought  also  that  now  Harold 
was  dead  the  English  would  come  to  him  of  their  own  accord  and 
offer  their  allegiance.* 

If,  however,  William  entertained  the  hope  that  the  English 
would  bring  the  crown  to  him  he  soon  found  that  he  was  seriously 

mistaken.*  We  have  it  upon  the  authority  of  his  chap- 
demanda       lain  that  not  a  single  Englishman  came  to  Hastings  to 

do  him  homage.     England  was  kingless;  but  the  people 

^  Edwin  and  Morcar  must  have  passed  through  London,  not  many 
hours  after  the  departure  of  Harold ;  they  were  so  near  the  fatal  field  on 
the  14th  that  the  chroniclers  did  not  hesitate  to  make  their  slow  going 
responsible  for  Harold's  defeat.  In  the  next  century  they  are  accused  of 
actually  abandoning  the  field. 

2  The  sole  motive  assigned  for  William's  delay  in  the  Chronicle 
H,  p.  168  (i^.  S.), 

145 


146  THE    CONQUEST    OF   ENGLAND  [edgab 

had  no  thought  of  submission.  Edwin  and  Morcar  with  the 
northern  levies  had  fallen  back  upon  London,  and  their  presence 
put  fresh  heart  into  the  citizens.  From  the  more  distant  shires 
also  the  reserves  had  continued  to  press  into  the  city  and  swell  the 
ranks  of  the  patriot  army.  Then  came  the  fugitives  from  Hast- 
ings, the  wreckage  of  Harold's  army,  and  the  people  for  the  first 
time  learned  with  what  glory  their  king  had  died  with  the  ''corpse- 
ring"  about  him.  Their  ardor  broke  forth  in  wild  exultation,  and 
they  began  to  call  loudly  for  a  new  king  to  lead  them  against  the 
foreigner. 

The    witan  hastily   gathered  to   do  what  could   be    done   to 
save  the  state.    All  saw  that  they  must  accept  William,  or  at  once 
elect  another  king  to  take  Harold's  place.     But  upon 
Edi/ar  whom  should  their  choice  fall?     The  Norman  church- 

men, of  whom  there  were  still  many  in  the  kingdom, 
favored  William.  The  Mercian  and  Northumbrian  influence 
favored  Edwin,  who  commanded  the  only  army  in  the  field;  but 
the  men  of  the  southern  shires  and  the  men  of  the  fleet  vigorously 
opposed  both,  until  at  last  in  sheer  desperation  the  witan  fixed 
their  choice  upon  the  little  lad  Edgar,  the  grandson  of  Edmund 
Ironside.  The  people,  however,  were  greatly  pleased ;  the  bards 
sang  of  the  boy  king  as  ''England's  darling";  men  talked  wildly 
of  Athelney  and  Edington  and  affected  to  believe  that  like  Alfred 
Edgar  would  overthrow  the  invader  and  win  again  the  land. 

In  the  meanwhile  William  lay  quietly  at  Hastings  gathering 
his  strength  for  the  renewal  of  the  struggle.  On  the  20th  of 
October,  six  days  after  the  battle,  he  led  his  troops  out 
pawn  in  of  the  city  and  took  up  his  march  toward  Eomney. 
For  instead  of  moving  directly  upon  London  he  pro- 
posed first  to  secure  the  great  fortress  which  Harold  had  recently 
erected  at  Dover.  Romney  apparently  attempted  to  resist  him, 
and  was  burned.  Dover  castle  surrendered  on  his  approach;  but 
the  city  suffered  the  fate  of  Romney,  although  William  wished  to 
spare  it.  William  now  held  the  keys  of  England;  Dover  and 
Hastings  were  in  his  hands,. and  his  communications  with  Nor- 
mandy were  secure.  The  moral  effect  of  the  burning  of  Romney 
and  Dover  had  also  gone  before  him ;   other  cities,  conspicuously 


1066]  BERKHAMPSTEAD  147 

Canterbury,  hastened  to  get  what  terms  they  could,  and  in  a  few 
weeks  the  whole  country  south  of  the  Thames  and  as  far  west  as 
Winchester  had  formally  submitted. 

William  spent  a  month  before  Canterbury  in  occupying  and 
organizing  these  regions;  but  by  December  1  he  was  again  in  the 
saddle  and  moving  along  the  old  Roman  road  through 
ofthe^^^  Rochester  toward  London.  Southwark,  the  southern 
suburb  of  London,  was  taken  and  burned;  but  with  the 
English  fleet  commanding  the  Thames  it  was  impossible  to  cross  the 
river  at  that  point.  Instead,  therefore,  of  wasting  his  strength  in 
futile  attempts  to  throw  his  army  into  the  city  from  the  South- 
wark side  William  moved  up  to  the  bridge  of  Wallingford,  the  old 
causeway  between  Mercia  and  Wessex,  and  turning  the  river  coun- 
termarched to  the  east,  and  again  drew  near  to  London  by  way  of 
Berkhampstead. 

'i'he  slow  but  irresistible  advance  of  William  had  long  since 
begun  to  affect  the  spirits  of  the  motley  throng  gathered  in  Lon- 
don. The  first  enthusiasm  of  the  people  over  their 
sum'atBcrH-  child  king  had  given  way  to  universal  depression,  and 
ampsc  .  ^gpj.gggjQj^  ^^g  f^g^  passing  into  panic.  The  leaders, 
who  from  the  beginning  had  no  confidence  in  each  other  and  little 
hope  in  the  final  issue,  were  thinking  only  of  securing  the  best 
terms  possible  from  the  victor,  each  man  for  himself.  Some,  as 
Archbishop  Stigand,  had  already  met  William  at  Wallingford  and 
submitted  to  him  there.  Others,  as  Edwin  and  Morcar,  had  with- 
drawn to  their  own  lands,  hoping  no  doubt  to  be  able  to  make 
better  terms  with  William  from  a  distance.  Even  stout-hearted 
old  Anscar,  the  sheriff  of  Middlesex,  who  had  dragged  himself 
home  from  Hastings  sore  wounded,  to  direct  the  defense  of  Lon- 
don, saw  the  hopelessness  of  attempting  to  hold  the  city,  and  bowed 
before  the  grim  necessity  of  the  hour.  Messengers,  moreover,  were 
at  hand  with  gracious  words  from  William:  he  had  come  not  as  a 
foreign  conqueror  but  as  a  king  to  claim  his  own ;  it  was  his  inter- 
est to  deal  kindly  with  his  kingdom;  his  quarrel  had  been  with 
Harold  and  not  with  the  people;  Harold  had  appealed  to  the 
sword,  and  Heaven  had  decided  which  man  had  the  juster  cause; 
all  that  William  asked  of  the  people  was  that  they  submit  to  the 


148  THE    CONQUEST  [wiluam  l. 

arbitration  of  battle  and  accept  him  as  a  lawful  candidate  for  the 
vacant  crown.  The  message  had  the  desired  effect,  and  when 
William  reached  Berkhampstead  he  found  waiting  to  receive  him 
a  group  of  English  nobles,  including  with  Edgar  virtually  all  who 
were  left  in  the  city.  William  knew  how  to  be  gracious  when 
policy  demanded  it.  The  little  lad  Edgar,  the  ''uncrowned  king," 
he  received  with  a  kiss  and  pledged  his  word  that  he  ^vould  be  to 
him  a  faithful  lord.  The  leaders  also.  Bishop  Eldred  of  York  and 
others,  he  spoke  fair ;  and  they  either  then  or  soon  after  requested 
him  to  assume  the  crown. 

The  request  was  not  mere  servile  flattery.  England  was  in  dire 
need.  For  two  months  the  land  had  been  virtually  without  a  king. 
The  presence  of  an  invading  army  had  also  added  to  the  confusion. 
Trade  and  commerce  had  come  to  a  standstill.  Men  ceased  their 
ordinary  pursuits.  Every  one  waited  for  the  issue.  Even  a  for- 
eign king  were  better  than  the  continuance  of  the  present  suspense. 

William  accepted  the  trust,  and  fixed  upon  the  approaching 
Christmas  feast  for  the  coronation.  He,  however,  hesitated  to 
trust  himself  to  the  men  of  London,  and  sent  forward  a 
fi^^^^^  ^^^  detachment  of  his  own  soldiers  to  prepare  such  a  for- 
tress as  he  had  already  erected  at  Hastings,  in  order  to 
overawe  the  city  and  provide  a  rallying  point  for  his  people  in  case 
of  tumult  or  reaction.^  When  these  preparations  were  completed 
William  entered  the  city. 

At  last  the  holy  morning  came.     All  London  was  early  astir 

and  poured  out  toward  Edward's  stately  cathedral  at  Westminster. 

A  guard  of  Norman  troopers  lined  the  approaches  com- 

wm  ^Vwa      "landing  the  neighboring  squares.     "Within  the  church 

oi^^^/;'^^-    all  was  in  readiness;  a  new  crown,  rich  with  gems,  was 

25,  1066. 

ready  for  the  ceremony;  a  crowd  of  spectators  of  both 
nations  filled  the  minster.  The  great  procession  then  swept  on. 
A  crowd  of  clergy  bearing  crosses  marched  first ;  then  followed  the 
bishops;  lastly,  surrounded  by  the  chief  men  of  his  own  land  and 
of  his  new  kingdom,  came  the  renowned  duke  himself  with  Ealdred 

1  Tradition  has  erroneously  associated  this  fort  with  the  famous 
Tower  which  was  not  begun  until  1078. 


1066]  CORONATION   OF   WILLIAM  149 

and  Stigand  on  either  side  of  him.  Amid  the  shouts  of  the 
people  William  the  Conqueror  passed  on  to  the  royal  seat  before 
the  high  altar,  there  to  go  through  the  same  solemn  rites,  which 
had  so  lately  been  gone  through  in  the  same  spot  by  his  fallen 
rival.  The  Te  Deum  which  had  been  sung  over  Harold  was  now 
again  sung  over  William,  and  now  again  in  ancient  form  the  crowd 
that  thronged  the  minster  was  asked  whether  they  would  that  the 
candidate  who  stood  before  them  should  be  crowned  king  over  the 
land.  .  .  .  Then  the  assent  of  both  nations  was  given  in  ancient 
form.  The  voices  which  in  the  Epiphany  had  shouted,  *Yea,  yea, 
King  Harold,'  shouted  at  Christmas  with  no  less  of  seeming  zeal, 
*Yea,  yea,  King  William.'  .  .  .  The  shout  rang  through  the  min- 
ster; it  reached  the  ears  of  the  Norman  horsemen  who  kept  watch 
round  the  building."* 

Then  there  came  a  change,  a  diversion  in  the  ceremony,  not 
found  in  the  ancient  ritual.  The  Normans  without,  at  best  but 
clumsy  participants  in  a  pageant  to  them  so  unwonted,  had  grown 
restless  and  uneasy  under  the  pressure  of  surging  crowds;  they  were 
irritated  by  jibes  and  taunts,  the  words  of  which  they  could  not 
interpret  but  the  spirit  of  which  they  understood  only  too  well; 
and  when  they  heard  the  shouting  within  the  church,  to  them  it 
was  the  beginning  of  a  tumult,  and  seeking  no  doubt  to  divert  the 
people  and  save  their  duke  they  began  to  fire  the  neighboring 
buildings.  The  glare  of  leaping  flames  ,smote  upon  the  walls  of  the 
old  minster  and  pierced  the  groined  windows;  fitful  gleams  darted 
across  the  crowded  aisles  and  reached  the  distant  chancel  where 
the  newly  chosen  king  knelt  before  the  altar.  The  vast  audience 
were  filled  with  nameless  dread;  then  panic  seized  the  people 
and  they  rushed  forth  to  swell  the  greater  confusion  without. 
Even  William  was  not  unmoved  and  for  the  moment  responded  to 
the  terror  that  had  taken  hold  upon  the  multitude.  Then  the 
officiating  clergy  crowded  about  him,  and  the  solemn  ceremony 
went  on  again.  In  ill-disguised  agitation  the  duke  took  the 
ancient  oath  of  the  English  king.  The  trembling  hand  of  Eldred 
of  York,  for  the  uncanonical  Stigand  had  been  denied  the  honor, 

*  Freeman,  N.  C. ,  HI,  SpT  and  f ollowi^|r 


150  THE    CONQUEST  .  [william  i. 

poured  the  holy  oil  upon  the  bowed  head,  placed  the  rod  and 
scepter  in  the  royal  hands,  and  set  the  diadem  upon  the  royal  head. 
Thus  at  last  everything  had  been  done  according  to  legal  form, 
and  William  was  king  of  the  English. 

The  moral  effect  of  the  coronation  was  apparent  at  once.  Wil- 
liam was  now  king;  it  was  worse  than  useless  to  resist  him 
further.  The  northern  earls  were  satisfied  that  William 
aSatimif  would  be  Content  with  nothing  short  of  the  England 
of'th^^m-  of  Edward.  They  had  little  to  fear  from  a  winter 
em  earls.  campaign,  but  the  early  spring  would  certainly  bring 
William  and  his  Norman  army  upon  them.  His  reputation  also 
was  now  well  established;  ''debonaire  to  those  who  submitted,  but 
stark  beyond  measure  to  those  who  withstood  him."  Those  who 
hesitated,  therefore,  felt  that  precious  days  of  grace  were  slipping 
away.  Only  by  immediate  submission  could  they  save  their  lands 
and  their  titles.  Accordingly  Edwin  and  Morcar,  with  a  con- 
course of  northern  thanes  and  prelates,  came  and  submitted  to 
William  at  Barking,  whither  he  had  retired  soon  after  the  corona- 
tion. The  king  displayed  the  same  gracious  spirit  which  had  won 
the  nobles  at  Berkhampstead.  Edwin  and  Morcar  were  received 
with  the  deference  which  became  their  station ;  they  were  allowed 
to  retain  their  earldoms  and  to  enjoy  their  former  semi-inde- 
pendence. No  castles  were  built  in  their  territories;  no  garrisons 
were  sent  into  their  cities.  William,  it  is  said,  even  had  a  fancy 
for  the  handsome  young  Mercian  earl  as  a  son-in-law. 

The  position  of  William  at  this  time  was  one  of  great  strength. 
England  had  submitted  to  him ;  her  nobles  and  prelates  had  given 

him  their  allegiance,  and  the  witan  had  regularly 
wuiiam        bcstowed  upon  him  the  crown.     Yet  he  was  surrounded 

by  many  conflicting  interests,  and  could  move  only  with 
the  utmost  caution.  He  sought  to  explain  his  relation  to  his  Eng- 
lish subjects  upon  the  gracious  theory  of  lawful  succession  to 
Edward  the  Confessor.  The  usurpation  of  Harold,  as  he  chose  to 
regard  it,  had  forced  upon  him  an  unpleasant  duty.  Now  that  the 
duty  had  been  performed  he  would  have  Englishmen  forget  his 
part  in  the  transaction.  He  came  not  as  a  foreign  conqueror  to 
set  aside  their  laws,  but  to  vindicate  them  and  establish  again  the 


1067]  POSITION   OF   WILLIAM  151 

reign  of  order.  But,  however  plausible  the  theory,  the  ugly  fact 
could  not  be  covered  up  that  William  was  really  a  conqueror  and 
that  he  held  his  conquest  not  by  the  loyal  affection  of  the  English 
but  by  the  support  of  an  army  of  foreign  mercenaries.  This  host 
moreover  one  and  all  from  the  king's  brother  down,  had  been 
encouraged  to  follow  him  by  promises  of  unlimited  plunder.  Now 
that  they  had  spent  their  resources  and  had  shed  their  blood,  they 
expected,  not  without  reason,  that  the  promise  of  William  would 
be  fulfilled. 

Here,  then,  was  the  serious  problem  which  confronted  William. 
How  was  he  to  fulfill  the  terms  of  the  coronation  oath  which  he  had 
made  in  the  presence  of  his  new  subjects  and  yet 
of  wmuxm  keep  the  other  promise  no  less  sacred,  as  men  regarded 
thcEnoiixh  pledges  in  those  days,  which  ho  had  given  to  those  who 
had  made  his  coronation  possible.  How  William  began, 
apparently  in  all  good  hiith,  to  tread  the  narrow  path  thus 
marked  out  for  him,  and  how  the  shortsightedness  of  the  English, 
their  unfortunate  attempts  at  revolt,  simplified  the  task  and 
enabled  the  king  while  keeping  the  letter  of  his  coronation  oath 
to  rob  them  of  their  lands  and  reward  his  followers,  and  thus  erect 
upon  the  very  laws  of  England  the  throne  of  the  conqueror,  com- 
pletes the  chapter  of  conquest. 

At  the  first,  however,   William  evidently  determined  to  give 
the  English  no  cause  to  complain.     While  he  was  at  Barking,  pos- 
sibly even  before  leaving  Westminster,  he  had  granted 
ProUctionof  ^q  London  its  famous  charter.     In  it  he  assured  the 

the  iLngmn. 

burghers  that  no  man  should  be  disturbed  in  any  right 
or  possession  which  had  been  his  before  the  Normans  came;  no 
child  should  be  defrauded  of  his  inheritance.  All  rights  were  to 
be  enjoyed  by  the  city  as  freely  as  in  the  days  of  Edward.^  Out- 
side of  the  city  also  William  soon  gave  the  people  to  understand 
that  they  had  naught  to  fear  as  long  as  they  obeyed  his  laws.  The 
regions  which  he  occupied  were  strictly  policed,  and  all  evil-doers 
were  severely  punished.  Special  solicitude  was  manifested  in  pro- 
tecting the  traveler  and  the  merchant  as  they  journeyed  on  the 

1  For  charter  see  Stubbs,  S.  C,  p.  83. 


162  CONFISCATIONS    OF    WILLIAM  [william  I. 

king's  highway.  Civil  officers  were  exhorted  not  to  bring  the 
king's  service  into  disrepute  by  unseemly  zeal.  Military  officials 
were  to  deal  with  the  conquered  people  with  patience  and  gentle- 
ness; subordinate  officers  and  common  soldiers  were  forbidden  to 
plunder;  license  and  even  drunkenness  were  declared  offences 
against  the  military  code.  Special  military  courts  also  were  estab- 
lished, where  complaints  might  be  lodged  and  where  punishment, 
without  regard  to  birth  or  nationality,  was  promptly  meted  out  to 
the  unfortunate  soldier  who  fell  into  evil  ways. 

So  much  William  did  for  his  conquered  subjects.  Yet  he  had 
not  forgotten  his  pledges  to  the  men  who  had  followed  him  over 

seas,  and  in  order  to  reward  them  he  confiscated  the 
caUomof       estates  of  all  who  had  gone  down  to  Hastings  with 

Harold.  In  some  counties,  as  Berkshire,  very  few  of 
Harold's  thanes  had  survived  the  battle;  but  the  broken  families, 
doubly  distraught  by  the  loss  of  husband  or  father,  found  no  mercy 
in  William's  eyes;  their  lands  were  taken  from  them  and  turned 
over  to  strange  lords.  So  thorough  was  the  work  that  when  the 
famous  survey  was  made  at  the  close  of  William's  reign, ^  there  were 
whole  counties^  in  which  not  a  single  landowner  of  English  birth 
was  to  be  found.  From  these  estates,  the  number  of  which  reached 
up  into  the  thousands,  reinforced  by  the  enormous  holdings  of 
Harold  and  his  brothers,  by  the  old  crown  lands,  and  by  the  per- 
sonal estates  of  the  Confessor,^  which  also  fell  to  the  spoil  of  war, 

^  See  p.  171.     2  Kent  and  Sussex. 

^The  old  theory  which  explained  folk-land  as  "public  land"  in  dis- 
tinction from  hook-land  or  private  land,  and  left  a  large  residuum  of  this 
unclaimed  land  to  be  confiscated  by  William  and  turned  into  King's- land, 
terra  regis  has  been  generally  abandoned.  Folk-land  was  land  held  by 
common  or  customary  law— folk-right — and  was  the  ordinary  form  under 
which  the  great  mass  of  landowners  held  their  estates.  Book-land  was 
land  held  under  special  privileges  granted  by  book  or  charter — hook-right 
— and  was  the  form  under  which  churches,  monasteries,  and  grandees  often 
held  lands,  although  they  might  also  hold  land  by  folk-right.  The  only 
public  lands  known  to  the  old  English  state  were  the  Crown  lands  or  official 
estates  of  the  king,  which  might  be  held  either  as  folk-land  or  book-land. 
For  distinction  between  folk-land  and  book-land  see  Vinogi-adoff  in  Eng- 
lish Hist.  Review,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  1-17,  and  Maitland,  Domesday  and  Beyond 
pp.  226-258. 


1067]  THE   CONQUEST   OF   ENGLAND  153 

William  was  enabled  not  only  to  reward  his  friends,  but  to  reward 
them  in  a  right  princely  way  and  still  retain  the  lion's  share  for 
himself. 

In  this  wholesale  plunder  of  his  English  subjects  in  order  to 
enrich  his  Norman  following,  technically  William  did  not  violate 
his  coronation  oath ;  for  in  accordance  with  his -theory 
of  the  of  rightful  succession  those  who  opposed  him  were  rebels, 

and  by  the  laws  of  medieval  warfare  had  forfeited  both 
their  lives  and  their  goods.  The  transfer  of  proprietorship  also 
was  not  effected  in  any  violent  or  arbitrary  manner,  but  by  the 
regular  action  of  the  courts  and  as  a  result  of  due  process  of  law. 
Later  William's  chaplain  could  say  that  no  land  which  was  bestowed 
upon  Frenchmen  had  been  taken  from  Englishmen  unlawfully. 
William,  moreover,  had  no  thought  of  molesting  tlie  great  body  of 
English  landholders ;  even  those  who  held  lands  of  lords  who  had 
been  condemned,  that  is,  the  minor  thanes  and  the  more  wealthy 
ceorls,  were  not  disturbed.  The  confiscation  and  regrant  gave  to 
the  new  landlord  no  rights  or  powers  which  the  old  landlord  did 
not  possess.  On  rent  day  the  new  lord  might  exact  the  tithe  fixed 
by  customary  law,  but  not  a  grain  more.  lie  had  simply  slipped 
into  the  place  of  the  old  lord,  with  all  his  rights  and  duties 
unchanged. 

Another  measure  which  also  dates  from  this  period  and  which 
has  been  variously  interpreted,  was  the  so-called  re-purchase  of 
titles,  imposed  upon  those  landholders  who  had  not  been 
o/i&ies^^^^  disturbed  by  the  confiscations.  William,  in  the  begin- 
ning at  least,  possibly  did  not  intend  the  measure  as  a 
means  of  extortion,  but  rather  to  hasten  the  return  of  quiet.  If  a 
man  felt  any  uncertainty  about  the  title  to  his  lands  he  had  simply 
to  present  himself  to  the  royal  commissioners,  name  his  lands  and 
lay  down  his  gift  or  fee,  when  he  received  the  lands  back  again  and 
with  them  a  title  which  no  man  could  question.  No  show  of  force 
was  necessary  on  William's  part.  The  people  were  evidently  as 
much  interested  as  the  king,  and  were  glad  to  get  an  opportunity 
to  secure  their  titles  and  take  up  again  the  old  peaceful  course  of 
their  lives.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  transaction  passed  off  with- 
out conflict  and  without  the  shedding  of  a  drop  of  blood. 


154  EARLY   POLICY   OP  WILLIAM  [wiluam  i. 

Affairs  were  thus  moving  smoothly  enough  when  William  unfor- 
tunately determined  to  leave  his  new  kingdom  in  the  hands  of  his 
brother,  Bishop  Odo,  and  his  old  friend,  William  Fitz- 
wmamio  ^sbern,  as  regents  and  return  to  Normandy.  With  the 
Nornuindy,  exception  of  Osulf  in  upper  Northumbria,  Northumber- 
land, the  northern  earls  had  accepted  William  as  overlord. 
In  the  southwest  Devonshire  and  Cornwall  still  held  aloof.  In 
Herefordshire  and  other  places  on  the  Welsh  border  there  still 
smoldered  a  lingering  spirit  of  defiance.  The  Welsh  princes  also 
had  refused  homage.  Yet  the  kingdom  had  been  won,  and  with  no 
rival  in  the  field  to  rally  these  broken  fragments  William  had 
nothing  to  fear,  especially  as  he  was  careful  to  take  with  him  to 
Normandy  as  his  guests  Edwin,  Morcar,  and  Waltheof ,  with  Edgar 
and  Stigand — hostages  undoubtedly  for  the  good  behavior  of 
the  nation  during  his  absence. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  William's  suspicions  at  this  time 
extended  further  than  this.  He  had  begun  forts  at  Hastings  and 
London,  and  had  garrisoned  Harold's  fortress  at  Dover. 
prstv<Mcu  to  -^^  ^^^  ^^^  begun  a  castle  at  Norwich  and  probably  at 
wwu^  Hereford.  He  had,  moreover,  made  Odo  earl  of  Kent 
and  Fitz-Osbern  earl  of  Hereford,  with  special  military 
powers  such  as  Harold  and  his  brothers  had  once  possessed  under 
Edward.  But  these  measures  had  been  prompted  either  by  the 
temporary  needs  of  the  late  campaign,  or  by  the  hostility  of  the 
Welsh  and  the  threat  of  a  new  Danish  invasion,  rather  than  by 
any  purpose  of  overawing  the  people.  After  the  insurrections  of 
the  next  two  years  had  taught  William  the  temper  of  the  people, 
castles  shot  up  over  the  kingdom  like  mushrooms,  and  their  pur- 
pose was  obvious  enough.  As  yet,  however,  it  was  in  accordance 
with  William's  policy  to  make  an  ostentatious  show  of  confidence 
in  his  English  subjects ;  and  although  he  refrained  from  appointing 
new  earls  to  take  the  places  of  Harold  and  his  brothers,  he  con- 
tinued to  leave  Edwin  and  Morcar  undisturbed,  and  apparently  had 
no  thought  of  making  further  changes  in  the  system  under  which 
Edward  the  Confessor  had  held  the  crown. 

The  spring  and  summer  William  spent  in  his  beloved  Normandy 
in   a  peaceful  but  somewhat  vainglorious  succession  of  fetes  in 


1067]  DISTURBANCES   OF   1067  155 

honor  of  his  recent  successes  and  the  safe  home-coming.  Affairs  in 
England,  however,  were  not  moving  so  smoothly.  William  had 
invested  one  Copsige,  an  Englishman  of  rank,  with  the 
Erwi^nd!'  ^arldom  of  Northumberland,  and  sent  him  to  unseat 
'^}t^^^         Osulf  and  hold  the  northern  earldom  in  his  name.     At 

<>jl0o7. 

first  Copsige  had  been  successful,  but  later  he  was 
surprised  and  slain  by  Osulf  and  his  supporters  scattered.  Here- 
fordshire also  was  the  scene  of  other  reverses,  where  in  spite  of  the 
efforts  of  William  Fitz-Osbern,  one  Edric  the  Wild,  an  English- 
man, had  continued  to  maintain  himself,  and  in  midsummer  sup- 
ported by  the  Welsh  princes,  Bledyn  and  Rhiwallon,  had  swept 
through  the  shire,  ravaging  the  country  and  treating  the  unhappy 
Englishry  as  his  enemies.  A  third  disturbance,  which  was  more 
of  the  nature  of  an  English  rising,  broke  out  at  Dover,  caused 
directly  by  the  stupid  oppression  of  Odo;  and  although  the  effort 
signally  failed  it  produced  an  uneasiness  and  suspicion*  among  the 
resident  Normans  which  in  turn  reacted  upon  the  English. 

Early  in  December  William  returned.  The  condition  of  the 
kingdom,  as  described  by  Ordericus,  was  on  the  whole  quite  satis- 
Theretumof  ^^ctory.  **A11  the  cities  and  provinces  which  he  had 
jJ^jf^j^JJy,  himself  visited  or  had  occupied  with  garrisons  obeyed 
1067.  his  will;   but  on  the  frontiers  of  the  kingdom,  in  the 

northern  and  western  districts,  the  same  wild  independence  pre- 
vailed which  formerly  made  the  people  insubordinate,  except  when 
they  pleased,  to  the  kings  of  England  in  the  times  of  Edward  and 
his  predecessors. "  *  In  accordance  with  the  custom  of  English  kings, 

William  called  together  his  witan  to  keep  the  Christmas 
0/ irSiT*  ^^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^  Westminster  and  inquire  into  the 
m7\  ^'^^'  ^^'    ^^^^®  ^^  ^^^  kingdom.     Here  we  see  him  at  his  best,  as 

with  that  gracious  affability  which  so  well  became  him 
when  he  chose  to  assume  it,  he  received  the  bishops  and  nobles ; 
*'when  they  made  any  request  it  was  graciously  granted,  and  he 
listened  favorably  to  what  they  reported  or  advised  .  .  .  some- 
times he  gave  instructions  to  the  Normans  with  equal  care  and 
address ;  at  others  he  privately  warned  the  English  to  be  continu- 

>  Ordericus  Vitalis,  Bk.  IV,  11. 


156  THE    CONQUEST   OF   ENGLAND  [ William  I. 

ally  on  their  guard  in  all  quarters  against  the  crafty  designs  of  their 
enemies."^ 

Two  matters  of  prime  importance  are  connected  with  this  mid- 
winter assembly  of  1067.     One  was  the  trial  of  Eustace  of  Bou- 
logne, who  had  encouraged  the  men  of  Dover  in  their 

The  Dane-  ^      [  ix      xi  -r^      ^  i        i      -. 

ueid  revived,  recent  revolt — the  same  Eustace  who  had  made  so 
much  trouble  for  Edward  the  Confessor  seventeen  years 
before.^  Another  incident  generally  associated  with  this  council 
was  the  setting  of  "a  heavy  tax  on  the  poor  people."  Here  with- 
out question  is  the  Danegeld  again,  the  only  tax  known  to  English 
kings.  Moreover  there  was  pretext  enough  for  such  a  levy  at  this 
time,  for  Canute's  nephew,  Sweyn  of  Denmark,  encouraged  by 
English  refugees,  was  seriously  contemplating  the  setting  up  of  a 
rival  claim  to  the  English  throne.  It  was  probably  also  at  this 
witenagemot  that  William  filled  the  vacant  see  of  Dorchester  by 
the  appointment  of  Kemigius  of  Fecamp,  the  first  Norman  bishop 
appointed  to  an  English  see  after  the  Conquest. 

Upon  the  breaking  up  of  the  witenagemot  William  turned  his 

attention  to  the  reduction  of  the  parts  of  his  kingdom  which  still 

refused  to  do  him  homage.     How  far  the  shires  which 

The  rising  in  lay  bevond  Winchester  had  submitted  we  do  not  know. 

the  south- 

west,  1068.  The  bishops  of  Hereford  and  Glastonbury  had  yielded, 
but  the  people  of  these  western  shires  were  by  no  means 
reconciled  to  the  new  rule.  A  feud  at  home  had  withdrawn  the 
Welsh  princes  from  the  invasion  of  Hereford,  but  at  Exeter,  the 
great  city  of  the  west,  the  discontent  was  assuming  every  day  a 
more  formidable  aspect.  William  learned,  moreover,  that  the 
citizens  were  sending  out  messengers  through  the  neighboring 
shires  and  actively  preparing  to  take  the  field  in  the  spring.  He 
determined,  therefore,  to  surprise  his  foes  by  a  winter  campaign 
and  by  striking  at  Exeter  prevent  the  intended  rising.  Bridport, 
Wareham,  Dorchester,  and  Shaftsbury  were  burned.  Twenty  years 
later,  when  the  survey  was  made,  the  shire  had  not  recovered;  at 
Bridport   not   a  house  was  able  to  pay  taxes.^     As  William  drew 

1  Ordericus  Vitalis,  Bk.  IV,  11. 

2  For  jurisdiction  of  William  over  Eustace  see  Freeman,  N.  C,  p.  129. 

3  Freeman,  N.  C,  IV,  p.  151. 


1068]  RISING   OF   1068  157 

near  Exeter  a  body  of  leading  citizens  met  him  and  abjectly  sub- 
mitted. But  the  people  rose  in  fury  and  refused  to  acknowledge 
the  act  of  capitulation.  In  vain  William  insisted  on  the  binding 
authority  of  the  submission  of  the  leaders;  he  brought  before 
the  city  one  of  the  unfortunate  hostages,  and  in  view  of  the  citi- 
zens put  out  his  eyes.  The  inhuman  sight  only  roused  the  people 
to  greater  fury.  Then  for  eighteen  days  William  sat  down  before 
the  city  and  took  it  at  last  only  by  reason  of  the  Norman's  superior 
knowledge  of  siege  warfare.  The  townsmen  prayed  for  mercy,  and 
William,  still  the  debonaire  king  to  those  who  submitted,  granted 
the  prayer.  The  founding  of  the  inevitable  castle  followed ;  the 
fosse,  the  mound  and  the  massive  fort  surmounting  all,  forms  with 
which  Englishmen  were  fast  becoming  only  too  familiar.  A  con- 
fiscation of  lands  also  followed  as  a  matter  of  course,  but  as  in  the 
case  of  those  in  the  east  the  humbler  landholders  were  left  undis- 
turbed. The  lands  which  belonged  to  the  Godwin  family,  which 
were  very  extensive  in  the  western  counties,  were  seized,  but  God- 
win's daughter,  Edward's  widow,  was  not  molested.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  William's  army  in  the  campaign  against  Exeter  was 
composed  largely  of  Englishmen.  The  foreigners  who  had  won 
Hastings  for  him  had  now  either  been  dismissed  or  distributed 
through  the  country  in  permanent  garrisons. 

The  western  rising,  unlike  the  attempt  at  Dover,  seems  to  have 

been  something  more  than  a  local  outbreak.      The  presence  of 

Harold's  mother  and  sons  within  the  walls  of  Exeter, 

Nature  of  .  i       , ,  -  i      ,        •  i  •       .  t 

the  rmng  of  evidently  no  mere  accident,  gives  some  dignity  to  the 
stand  of  the  people  of  the  west,  and  makes  it  appear 
as  a  sort  of  forlorn  hope  of  the  family  of  Godwin.  Was  it  more 
than  this?  Was  there  any  expectation  of  a  concerted  rising  of  the 
northern  earldoms  as  well,  any  widely  extended  plot  by  which  all 
the  disaffected  elements  of  the  nation  were  to  combine  for  one  last 
heroic  stand  against  the  Conqueror?  If  so  the  unexpected  winter 
campaign  of  William  had  effectually  prevented  the  north  from  act- 
ing, and  the  men  of  Exeter  were  left  to  brave  William's  wrath 
alone. 

So  quick  and  sharp  had  been  the  work  of  the  campaign  that 
by  the  end  of  March  William  was  able  to  hold  the  Easter  assem- 


158  THE    CONQUEST    OF    ENGLAND  [ William  I. 

bly  at  Winchester.  Six  weeks  later  he  was  again  at  Westminster 
where  he  kept  the  Pentecost,  the  third  assembly  of  the  winter. 
This  gathering  was  made  eventful  by  the  introduction  of  a 
new  feature  in  the  court  history  of  English  kings,  no  less 
than  the  public  recognition  of  William's  wife  Matilda 

Matilda,  the     ^  ^   .  ^  .  ,  .  .  -r^       ,  •   ,    ,  . 

first  English    by  a  coronation.     Ever  since  the  wives  of  English  kinars 

have  shared  with  their  consorts  ''all  the  honorary  dig- 
nities and  privileges  of  royalty."^ 

In  the  summer  the  belated  movement  in  the  north  at  last  broke 
forth.     Edwin  and  Morcar  fled  the  court  to  put  themselves  at 

the  head  of  the  rising.  The  real  leaders,  however, 
oUhe^wlrUi  ^^^^  ^^^  bravc  Gospatrick,  whom  William  himself  had 
W68^^^'        recently  sent  into  the  north  to  take  up  the  work  of 

Copsige,  and  Maerlesweyn,  Harold's  sheriff  of  Lincoln, 
who  had  brought  with  him  out  of  London  Edgar  Etheling  and  his 
sisters.  Malcolm  of  Scotland  had  also  pledged  his  support  and  was 
expected  to  invade  England  in  force.  But  from  the  first  Edwin 
and  Morcar  had  little  heart  in  the  undertaking,  and  when  William 
began  a  slow  but  masterful  march  northward  through  Mercia, 
building  and  fortifying  as  he  advanced,  their  courage  ebbed  and 
they  were  glad  to  be  received  back  again  into  their  old  dependent 
relation.  The  two  earls  had  brought  little  to  the  patriot  cause; 
but  they  took  much  when  they  abandoned  it.  Their  submission 
disheartened  and  discouraged  those  who  ought  never  to  have 
depended  upon  them.  Malcolm's  army  of  Scots  failed  to  material- 
ize, and  finally  Maerlesweyn  with  Edgar  and  his  sisters  retired  into 
Scotland  to  find  a  safe  exile  at  the  court  of  the  Scottish  king. 

By  the  time  William  reached  Nottingham  the  rising  had  already 
subsided.     York,  the  second  city  of  the  kingdom,  quietly  allowed 

him  to  take  possession  and  rear  a  Norman  castle  on  the 
tixmofthe       high  ground  within  the  southern  quarter.     Here  he  left 

in  command  three  of  his  most  trusted  captains,  Robert 
Fitz-Ri chard,  Gilbert  of  Ghent,  and  William  Malet,  an  English- 
man, and  after  making  peace  with  Malcolm  began  the  homeward 
march,  retiring  by  way  of  Lincoln,  Cambridge,  and  Huntingdon, 

1  Freeman,  N.  C,  IV,  p.  179. 


1068]  DISCONTENT   OF   ENGLISH  159 

in  each  city  building  a  castle  and  establishing  a  permanent  gar- 
rison. 

When  William  neared  London  disquieting  news  again  reached 

him  from  the  west,  where  the  sons  of  Harold,  who  had  escaped 

from  Exeter  to  Ireland,  had  returned  to  the  Bristol 

Harold's  'in 

sominthe      coast  With  a  fleet  of  fifty  ships,  manned  by  Irish  Danes. 

They  first  attempted  to  enter  Bristol,  but  the  people 
gave  them  little  encouragement.  They  then  descended  upon 
Somerset,  but  the  English  levies,  apparently  without  any  Norman 
help  at  all,  rallied  and  drove  them  off. 

William  must  have  taken  deep  satisfaction  in  the  results  of  the 
summer's  work.     The  northern  earls  had  proved  themselves  devoid 

of  spirit,  and  what  had  promised  to  be  a  serious  rising: 
cnnirnt  nf       liad  collapscd  almost  at  the  first  rumor  of   William's 

tilt  Knijli.sh. 

northward  march.  In  the  west  the  sons  of  Harold  had 
failed  to  awaken  anything  but  hostile  sentiment  among  their  coun- 
trymen, and  had  been  ignobly  beaten  off  by  the  English  them- 
selves, like  any  common  pirates.  Yet  William  could  hardly  bo 
blind  to  the  fact  that  the  countiy  was  seething  with  discontent, 
and  that  the  English  were  everywhere  dissatisfied  and  disloyal. 
They  had  generally  yielded  obedience  to  the  new  government,  but 
their  obedience  was  sullen,  without  heart  and  inspired  only  by  fear. 
In  reorganizing  and  restoring  the  government  William  had 
found  his  greatest  difliculty  at  the  point  where  the  administration 
__    ^  came   into   contact   with   the  local   institutions  which 

Difficulty  '>/       T  T    1     •  1     •         /v»    . 

xeeitrirm  m-  depended  for  their  eflBciency  upon  the  support  of  the 
people.  He  first  tried  the  experiment  of  ruling  English- 
men by  Englishmen;  but  he  could  not  find  Englishmen  of  stand- 
ing who  were  willing  to  bear  the  opprobrium  of  entering  into  the 
foreign  king's  hire,  and  he  was  shrewd  enough  to  see  that  it  was 
worse  than  useless  to  attempt  to  enforce  laws  by  means  of  agents 
for  whom  the  community  had  no  respect.  Yet  the  laws  must  be 
observed ;  the  authority  of  the  courts  must  be  maintained.  The 
king  had  no  recourse,  therefore,  save  to  turn  to  his  own  people. 
At  first  he  had  confined  the  Normans  to  the  strictly  military  duty 
of  castle  guarding,  but  little  by  little  he  now  began  to  introduce 
them  into  such  civil  offices  as  those  of  sheriff  and  portreeve — 


160  the'  conquest  of  England  [william  i. 

the  one  the  chief  magistracy  in  the  shire,  the  other  the  chief 
magistracy  in  the  great  merchant  town.  Here,  however,  he  was 
confronted  by  a  new  problem.  The  English  rapidly  developed  a 
hatred  for  the  Norman  sheriffs  and  portreeves,  only  one  degree  less 
bitter  than  their  hatred  for  the  turncoat  Englishmen  who  had  been 
willing  to  soil  their  hands  with  the  king's  money.  With  every 
day,  therefore,  the  difficulty  of  punishing  crime  or  enforcing  law 
was  increasing.  Even  good  men  did  not  hesitate  to  protect  out- 
laws or  baffle  the  king's  officers  in  the  pursuit  of  a  criminal.  The 
Norman  official,  moreover,  understood  the  English  tongue  indiffer- 
ently ;  he  knew  less  about  English  customary  law,  and  was  inclined 
to  treat  the  rights  of  the  people  with  contempt,  often  giving  his 
decisions  in  an  arbitrary,  off-hand  way  in  defiance  of  all  precedents 
known  to  the  people. 

It  was  perhaps  at  this  time,  when  William  was  struggling  with 
the  question  of  local  order,  that  there  grew  up  the  custom  of  requir- 
ing Presentment  of  Englishry}  The  English,  in  despair 
o/E7^^iuh?  ^^  securing  justice,  especially  when  the  legal  adversary 
happened  to  be  a  Norman  often  took  the  law  into  their 
own  hands ;  secret  murders  increased  at  an  alarming  rate,  and  as 
conviction  was  impossible,  William,  in  order  to  protect  his  foreign- 
born  subjects,  empowered  the  sheriff,  in  case  the  victim  proved  to 
be  a  Frenchman  and  the  hundred  did  not  produce  the  murderer 
within  a  week,  to  levy  a  penalty  of  forty-six  marks  upon  the  hun- 
dred itself.  The  response  of  the  English  was  to  strip  the  body 
and  mutilate  it  beyond  recognition.  The  law  officers  then 
assumed  that  a  body  found  thus  disfigured  must  be  the  body  of  a 
Frenchman,  and  laid  the  burden  upon  the  hundred  of  proving  by 
the  process  of  Presentment  of  Englishry  that  the  victim  was  not 
French. 

Thus  the  feeling  was  rapidly  gaining  ground  among  the 
English  that  under  the  Norman  there  was  no  redress.  William 
sought  to  allay  the  discontent  by  sending  home  more  of  his  Nor- 

^  This  custom  which  was  generally  established  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
I.,  was  formerly  supposed  to  date  from  the  laws  of  Canute,  but  it  is  now 
assigned  to  the  early  Norman  period  and  undoubtedly  grew  out  of  the 
efforts  of  William  to  protect  his  own  people. 


1069]  MASSACRE   AT   DURHAM  161 

mans  and  Flemings.  But  this  only  weakened  him,  while  it  did  not 
materially  diminish  the  ill-will  of  his  new  subjects.  He  could  not 
enforce  the  laws ;  he  could  not  prevent  Englishmen  and  Normans 
from  preying  upon  each  other. 

When  William  assembled  the  midwinter  witenagemot  of  1068 

nothing  of  all  this   was  yet  apparent  on  the  surface.     The  land 

was   everywhere   quiet,  save  in  the  distant  earldom  of 

The  mm-  .  -^  -,  ,  . 

xan-eatDur-  GospatricK,  and  to  this  extreme  northern  earldom 
William  now  turned  his  attention.  For  the  third  time 
in  two  years  he  selected  an  earl  for  the  troublesome  province.  The 
new  earl  was  one  Robert  of  Comines,  probably  a  Flemish  adventurer, 
of  whom  nothing  is  known,  save  his  fatal  errand  in  quest  of  the  dan- 
gerous prize  which  he  had  drawn  in  the  court  lottery.  He  entered 
Durham  without  opposition;  the  adventurers  who  attended  him 
spread  over  the  town  and  began  to  treat  it  as  a  captured  city.  But 
the  fyrd  of  Northumberland  had  quietly  approached  the  city  under 
cover  of  the  night,  and  in  the  morning,  breaking  down  the  gates, 
entered  the  streets  and  began  a  massacre  of  Robert's  men.  Quarter 
was  neither  asked  nor  given,  and  in  a  few  hours  Robert  and  all 
his  knights  save  one  had  been  destroyed. 

The  affair  at  Durham  was  the  beginning  of  the  grave  troubles 
of  William's  reign.  The  massacre  of  a  paper  earl  and  a  few  hun- 
dred adventurers  was  perhaps  not  a  serious  matter,  but  the  wild 
spirit  of  the  north  was  at  last  abroad.  A  series  of  revolts  suc- 
ceeded each  other,  each  more  desperate  and  bloody,  as  the  utter 
hopelessness  of  the  struggle  became  more  apparent ;  William  on 
his  part  very  perceptibly  hardened  under  the  repeated  irritation, 
and  finally  abandoned  his  policy  of  conciliation  altogether  for  a 
policy  of  brutal  coercion. 

York  imitated  the  example  of  Durham.  William  Malet,  who 
was  now  in  sole  command,  was  compelled  to  retire  into  the  castle 
and  stand  a  regular  siege.  The  rising  was  by  no  means 
Ym-k^iri^^  a  merely  though tless  local  tumult.  The  reappearance 
wS*^^  of  Edgar  and  Maerlesweyn,  of  Gospatrick  and  the  most 

of  the  northern  leaders  gave  it  a  fairly  representative 
character.  William  fully  realized  the  importance  of  prompt  and 
energetic  action,   and  roused  himself  to  unusual  exertion.      He 


162  THE   CONQUEST   OF   ENGLAND  [william  i. 

reached  York  by  a  forced  march,  sweeping  down  upon  the  city  as 
swiftly  and  mercilessly  as  a  bird  of  prey  upon  its  quarry.  For 
eight  days  he  remained,  and  then  retired  to  Winchester  to  hold 
the  Easter  feast,  leaving  Fitz-Osbern  in  command.  York  had 
yielded  but  the  country  was  by  no  means  reduced.  A  second 
castle  was  reared  within  the  city.  An  expedition  was  also  sent 
to  Durham  to  punish  its  people  but  accomplished  nothing.  A 
rally  of  the  fyrd  of  Yorkshire,  however,  was  beaten  by  Fitz-Osbern 
not  far  from  York,  and  for  the  moment  the  danger  had  passed. 
Edgar  retired  to  Scotland,  and  the  leaders  went  into  hiding. 
The  sons  of  Harold,  who  were  again  troubling  the  western  coast, 
were  beaten  in  Devonshire  by  the  local  levies,  and  after  the  loss 
of  seventeen  hundred  men  were  glad  to  escape  to  their  ships.  It 
was  their  last  attempt ;  they  disappear  soon  afterwards  in  the  petty 
brawls  of  the  Irish  court,  in  which  their  friend  and  patron.  King 
Dermid,  lost  his  life. 

In  spite  of  these  reverses,  however,  when  in  the  autumn  the  long- 
expected  fleet  of  Sweyn  of  Denmark,  after  various  unsuccessful 
attempts  at  landing  in  the  south,  appeared  in  the 
oPtheSm  Humber,  the  Northumbrian  shires  rose  as  one  man  to 
Autumnof  greet  the  Dane.  A  second  fleet  from  Scotland  also 
brought  back  the  exiles,  Edgar,  Gospatrick,  and  Maerle- 
sweyn.  But  greater  in  prestige  than  all,  Waltheof,  in  whose 
veins  flowed  the  blood  of  Siward,  Edward's  earl  of  Northumbria, 
and  who  had  been  made  earl  of  Northampton  and  Huntingdon, 
possibly  in  the  brief  reign  of  Harold,  withdrew  from  the  court  of 
William  and  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  patriot  cause. 

In  the  northern  capital  misfortunes  followed  each  other  in 
quick  succession.      The  Danes  landed  September  8.     On  Satur- 
day, the  19th,  the  sorrowing  people  of  York  laid  away 
tlTDanes^     in  the  tomb  the  remains  of  Eldred,  "the  last  primate  of 
Sept.  «,  the  old  northern  stock."     His  death  at  such  a  moment 

was  a  national  calamity;  he  could  not  have  averted 
the  approaching  storm;  he  might  have  tempered  the  wrath  of 
William.  The  very  day  of  Eldred's  funeral  the  Norman  garrison 
fired  some  of  the  houses  which  stood  near  the  foss  before 
the  castle,  on  the  plea  that  these  buildings  might  serve  as  a  cover 


1069]  MASSACRE    AT   YORK  163 

for  an  attacking  enemy.  But  the  flames  soon  got  beyond  .the  con- 
trol of  the  incendiaries,  and  from  the  foot  of  the  castle  mound 
swept  across  the  city  to  the  northwest,  even  reaching  the  distant 
minster.  The  people  spent  a  wild  Sunday  in  the  midst  of  tumult 
and  the  heartrending  scenes  which  accompany  the  burning  of  a 
populous  city.  They  thought  only  of  saving  themselves  and  such 
movable  property  as  they  could  bear  away  on  their  shoulders. 
When  the  motley  army  of  Danes  and  English  appeared  before  the 
city  on  Monday  morning  the  fires  were  still  raging. 

The  garrison  attempted  a  sally,  but  were  driven  back  into  the 

city  with  great  slaughter.     Three  thousand  Normans  fell,  dying 

among  the  flames  which  their  own  hands  had  kindled. 

^T ft^scicvc  iff 

th<  unrrison    Waltlicof  was  the  hero  of  the  fight.      The  northern 

i)f  York.  ° 

scalds  long  continued  to  sing  of  his  mighty  deeds  on 
that  day:  *'How  the  son  of  Siward  gave  the  corpses  of  the 
Frenchmen  as  a  choice  banquet  for  the  wolves  of  Northumber- 
land." ^  The  garrison  was  exterminated  ;  but  the  besiegers,  instead 
of  preparing  to  make  the  most  of  their  victory,  acted  like  a  lot  of 
children — thoughtless  barbarians  rather — for  when  no  garrison 
remained  longer  to  resist  them  Ihey  spent  their  fury  upon  the  two 
castles,  to  them  the  emblems  of  all  that  they  had  lost  and  suffered. 
The  rumor  of  the  rising  of  York,  the  coming  of  the  Danes,  and 
the  destruction  of  the  Norman  garrison  spread  like  wildfire.     The 

men  of  Shropshire,  of  Somerset,  and  even  distant 
fhcra-idl       Dorsetshire,  thrilled  at  the  great  news  from  the  north 

which  lost  nothing  by  the  distance  over  which  it 
traveled.  They  too  had  garrisons  to  fight  and  castles  to  raze. 
Edric  the  Wild,  with  his  Herefordshire  men  who  had  never  yet 
bowed  the  knee  to  the  Norman,  the  men  of  Chester  also,  who  had 
given  refuge  to  Harold's  widow,  and  Bledyn,  sole  king  of  Gynedd 
and  Powys,  with  his  untamed  Welshmen,  all  gathered  for  one  last 
heroic  effort  to  drive  the  Norman  from  the  land. 

The  people,  however,  were  reckoning  without  William,  nor  had 
they  yet  fathomed  the  depth  of  cruelty  of  which  his  fierce  nature 
was  capable  when  once  the  lion  in  him  was  thoroughly  aroused. 

1  Freeman,  N.  C,  IV,  p.  267. 


164  THE    CONQUEST    OF    ENGLAND  [william  i. 

He  hastened    from  the   wood  of  Deams,  where  he  was  hunting 
when  the   fell  news  came,  to   gather   his    men   and  strike  such 

blows  as  only  William  could  strike.  Bishop  Geoffrey 
inthew^^      of   Coutances   was    dispatched   against   Somerset    and 

Dorset  with  the  men  of  London,  Winchester,  and 
Salisbury;  Englishmen  against  Englishmen,  the  hopeless  feature  of 
the  struggle  to  the  men  who  believed  themselves  fighting  for  the 
liberation  of  England.  Those  who  were  taken  in  arms  were  muti- 
lated, and  then  dismissed  with  maimed  and  broken  bodies  to  drag 
out  useless  lives.  Exeter  not  only  refused  to  join  the  insurrection, 
but  at  the  head  of  its  garrison  charged  upon  the  rebels.  On  the 
Welsh  border  a  combined  force  of  English  and  Welsh  under  Edric 
succeeded  in  burning  Shrewsbury,  but  then  dispersed.  The  move- 
ment against  Stratford  was  more  serious,  and  required  the  presence 
of  William  before  the  last  embers  were  stamped  out. 

While  William's  lieutenants  were  thus  putting  down  with  a 
stern  hand  tlie  risings  in  the  west,  William  himself  with  a  force  of 

picked  cavalry   was  hastening  into  the  north.     York 

The  third  re-    ^  ^         i-    ,  i      ,  -,        •  i  •  ^i         j      ^  i 

auction  of  was  a  waste  of  blackened  ruins;  his  castles  destroyed 
and  his  garrisons  massacred.  But  when  he  reached  the 
seat  of  the  war  he  found  that  the  great  northern  army  had  dis- 
persed of  its  own  accord;  the  Danes  to  their  ships  and  the  English 
to  their  homes.  Nothing  was  left  for  him  but  to  hunt  out  the 
stragglers  and  destroy  them  as  he  could  find  them.  He  spent 
Christmas  in  his  northern  capital,  and  then  with  grim  determina- 
Thedevas-  tiou  gave  his  attention  to  the  work  of  rendering  the 
N(^um-  northern  shires  incapable  of  another  revolt.  For  a 
terofiovo.  hundred  miles  the  country  was  systematically  laid  waste. 
Houses  were  burned;  crops,  stores,  ploughs,  and  carts  were 
destroyed;  all  cattle  were  slaughtered.  The  people  were  left  in 
the  dead  of  the  northern  winter  to  die  of  cold  and  hunger.  Even 
the  Norman  Ordericus  could  not  recount  the  awful  work  without 
a  shudder.  William  is  no  longer  the  king,  the  father  of  a  way- 
ward people;  he  is  henceforth  the  grim  impersonation  of  conquest, 
and  conquest  too  as  it  was  understood  in  the  eleventh  century. 
When  seventeen  years  later  the  Domesday  Survey  was  made  up, 
only  one  mournful  word,  but  often  repeated,  was  needed  to  describe 


1070]  THE   FALL   OF   CHESTER  165 

the  condition  of  these  northern  lands,  once  so  fertile  and  so  popu- 
lous: "Waste!"  **Waste!"  *'Waste!" 

The  work  of  conquest  was  now  almost  completed.  Chester, 
secure  behind  its  mountains  and  protected  by  an  unusually  severe 
The  fall  of  winter,  still  remained  defiant.  But  this  fancied  secur- 
thechmtue-  ity  ouly  rendered  the  conquest  more  easy.  At  the  head 
weUt/^  ^^  of  a  determined  band  William  made  his  way  over  all  but 
impassable  mountain  roads,  facing  blinding  storms  of  sleet  and 
rain,  floundering  through  swollen  torrents,  suffering  incredible 
hardships,  and  suddenly  appeared  before  the  walls  of  Chester. 
'J'he  last  fortress  in  England  to  hold  out  against  him  was  taken 
apparently  without  resistance,  and  destroyed,  and  upon  the  ruins 
rose  the  Norman  castle.  The  surrounding  lands  of  Cheshire, 
Shropshire,  Derbyshire,  and  Staffordshire  were  then,  harried  and 
the  population  left  to  starve  as  in  Yorkshire.  Streams  of  gaunt 
fugitives,  starving  men,  women,  and  children,  found  their  way 
southward  begging  for  food.  The  streets  and  churchyard  of 
Evesham,  far  away  on  the  borders  of  distant  Warwick,  were 
crowded  with  these  pitiful  victims  of  William's  wrath.  Many  had 
perished  by  the  way,  and  those  who  reached  Evesham  were  so 
nearly  famished  that  they  were  unable  to  swallow  the  food  which 
the  good  abbot  Ethel wy  gave  them.  The  heartbreaking  scenes 
which  were  taking  place  in  the  streets  of  Evesham  were  to  be  seen 
in  the  streets  of  every  town  and  hamlet  that  lay  within  two  or 
three  days'  march  of  the  stricken  district. 

Thus  William  girdled  his  kingdom  with  a  wilderness.  Of  the 
sum  total  of  the  fatalities  of  this  dreadful  winter  we  can  only  guess. 
In  a  cold-blooded  determination  to  destroy  regardless  of  the  suffer- 
ing caused,  it  is  doubtful  if  anything  in  the  fifth  century  can 
compare  with  the  wickedness  of  William's  vengeance.  Surely 
nothing  surpasses  it  before  the  era  of  Spanish  domination  in 
Europe  and  America. 

The  great  work  to  which  William  had  set  his  hand  was  now 
accomplished.  At  Hastings  he  had  won  the  right  to  present  him- 
Eiiaiaiui  ^^^^  ^^  ^  candidate  for  the  crown  of  Edward  the  Con- 
coruruered.  fessor.  At  Berkhampstead,  London,  and  Barking,  the 
nation,  through  its  leaders,  had  accepted   him  as  king.     But  it 


166 


THE   COKQUEST   OP   EKGLAND 


FWILLIAM  I. 


was  not  until  the  north  and  west  had  been  crushed  that  the  land 
was  his.  There  were  still  occasional  revolts.  For  more  than  a 
year  the  outlaw  Hereward  held  out  in  the  marshes 
of  Ely.  The  treacherous  brothers,  Edwin  and  Morcar, 
the  heroic  Waltheof,  played  their  last  part  in  these  insurrections. 
Even  the  king's  brother  Odo  and  many  others  of  his  Norman 
following  turned  against  him,  but  the  throne  which  they  had  helped 
to  erect  was  not  to  be  shaken.     England  was  conquered. 


CONTEMPOKARIES  OF  EDWARD  THE  CONFESSOR  AND  WILLIAM  I. 


KINGS  OF  FRANCE 

Henry  I.,  d.  1060 
Philip  I.,  1060— 


EMPERORS 

Henry  III.,  d.  10o6 
Henry  IV.,  1056— 


1042-1087 


COUNTS    OF 
FLANDERS 

Baldwin  V.,  father- 
in-law  of  William, 
d  1067 

Baldwin  VL,  1067— 


POPES 
Leo  IX.,  1048-1054 
Victor  II.,  1054-1057 
Stephen  IX.,  1057-1058 
Benedict    X.,     anti- 
pope,  1058-1059 
Nicolas  IL,  1059-1061 
Alexander  IL,  10GM073 
Gregory  VII.,  1073-1085 
Victor  III.,  1085-1087 


KINGS  OF  SCOTS 

Duncan  I.,  assas- 
sinated, 1040  (?) 

Macbeth 

The  Usurper, 
1040(?)-1054. 

Malcolm  III. 

Canmore,  1054— 


Duncan  and 
Macbeth  are  the 
well  known  char- 
acters of  Shak- 
spere's  play 


CHAPTER  III 


THE    KORMAN    REORGANIZATION     OF     THE     KINGDOM 
INTRODUCTION    OF    FEUDALISM 


AND     THE 


WILLIAM  L,  WO-1087 


Robert 

Duke  of 

Normandy 

d.  1134 

I 

William  Clito 


THE  FAMILY  OF  THE  CONQUEROR 

William  I.  =  Matilda 

k.  10G6-1087  I      dauKhter  of  the  Count  of  Flanders 


William  II. 
k.  1087-1100 


Henry  I.  : 
k.  1100-1135 


Matilda  of  Scotland 

frand  d.  of  Edmund 
ronside 


Adela 


William,  d.  1120 


Count  of  Flanders,  rf.  1128 


Matilda  -   i  *•  Henry  V.  Emp. 
Mauiaa  --   ^  g.  Geoffrey  Plantagenet 
Count  of  Anjou 
Henry  IL,k.  11&4-1189 


Stephen 
Count  of 
Blois 


Theobald  IV.  Stephen  =  Matilda, 

Count  of  Hlois  k.  of  Knj?.  I       daunhter  of  Flustace  III. 

1 1 85- 1 1 54         Count  of  Boulogne 


I 

Henry 

BLshop  of 

Winchester 


Eusi 


tace,  d. 


1152 


Wi 


lliam. 


Count  of  Boulogne,  d.  1159 


The  Norman  Conquest  affected  the  development  of  England  in 
every  possible   way ;  architecture,   law,  finance,    trade,   industry, 

military  science,  administration,  in  short,  every  phase 
iffccu  of  the    of  national  activity,  felt  the  touch  of  new  thought  and 

quickened  into  forms  heretofore  unknown  to  the  pro- 
vincial and  isolated  Anglo-Saxon.  But  most  marked  was  the 
influence  of  the  Conquest  upon  the  further  development  of  English 
political  and  social  institutions.  Politically  England  had  passed 
far  on  in  the  course  of  decline  since  the  days  of  Athelstan;  the 
royal  authority  had  been  undermined;  the  crown  had  been  shorn 
of  its  dignity;  its  eminence  had  faded  before  the  waxing  power 
of  the  great  earls.  The  Norman  king  at  once  restored  to  the 
monarchy  its  old  prestige ;  arrested  the  further  independent  devel- 
opment of  the  landholding  class,  and  in  spite  of  most  bitter  and 

167 


168  NORMAN    REORGANIZATION  [william  i. 

persistent  opposition  succeeded  in  laying  again  the  foundations  of 
the  throne  in  the  supremacy  of  law  and  the  restoration  of  the  royal 
authority. 

The  attitude  of  William  toward  the  old  English  system  was 

not  that  of  a  revolutionist;  he  was  not  consciously  an  innovator; 

he  accepted  the  crown  with  the  rights  and  limitations 

William  and  .,     n    ,        ,i  .  ,  ,  ^ 

the  old  Eng-    prescribed  by  the  ancient   customary  law  of  England 

lish  system.       ^      .  _      *^_^   ,   ,       .         .    .  ,         ."l  .        . 

unchanged.  Yet  by  inspiring  the  old  institutions  with 
his  own  mighty  personality  he  imparted  to  them  new  life  and  new 
significance.  Hundred -moot  and  shire-moot  went  on  as  before; 
but  their  findings  received  a  new  importance.  The  sheriff,  the 
executive  officer  of  the  shire,  no  longer  stood  in  awe  of  the  local 
magnate;  the  king  had  appointed  him;  the  king  was  behind  him,  < 
and  to  the  king  alone  was  he  responsible.  The  ancient  police 
system,  once  represented  in  the  gild  and  later  in  the  tithing,  which 
made  the  local  community  responsible  for  the  production  of  the 
criminal,  reappeared  in  the  frankpledge,^  but  to  be  enforced  with 
vigor  and  thoroughness  unknown  to  the  old  English  courts. 
The  earldom  of  semi-regal  powers  survived  in  the  counties 
palatine^^  but  the  vast  agglomerations  of  estates,  lordships,  and 
shires,  the  giant  earldoms  of  the  houses  of  Godwin,  Leofric,  and 
Siward,  which  had  menaced  the  crown  in  the  days  of  Edward  the 
Confessor,  were  broken  up,  their  privileges  assumed  by  the  crown, 
and  their  lands  distributed. 

The  national  council,  the  ancient  witenagemot,  survived  in  the 
great  council,  magnum  coyicilium;  but  the  occasional  and  spasmodic 
gatherings,  the  occurrence  of  which  like  the  meetings 
mncUium  ^^  ^^®  later  States-General  of  France  commonly  betok- 
ened impending  calamity,  now  passed  into  the  impressive 
and  regular  courts,  which  William  held  thrice  each  year  whenever 
he  was  in  England.  Here,  amid  great  pomp  and  ceremony,  he  wore 
his  crown,  *'at  Easter  at  Winchester,  at  Whitsuntide  at  Westmin- 
ster,  at  Midwinter  at  Gloucester";   and   here  he  met  his  gran- 

^  For  nature,  extent  and  date  of  introduction  of  frankpledge,  see 
Pollock  andMaitland,  History  of  English  Lmv,  2d  Ed.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  568-571. 

2 Two  counties  palatine  survived  the  reign  of  William;  Chester  and 
Durham. 


CURIA   EEGI8  169 

dees  in  solemn  assembly,  **all  the  rich  men  over  all  England, 
archbishops  and  suffragan  bishops,  abbots  and  earls,  thanes  and 
knights."^ 

The  great  council  was  further  known  as  the  king's  court,  curia 
regis;  but  only  for  a  short  time,  however,  for  it  was  soon  called  upon 

to  share  its  functions  with  another  body,  also  a  curia 
^rin  regis.     The  origin  of  this  body  is  obscure.     It  seems 

to  have  been  developed  partly  out  of  the  administrative 
functions  of  the  group  of  officials  who  constituted  the  king's  house- 
hold, partly  out  of  the  appellate  powers  of  the  witenagemot,  and 
partly  out  of  powers  assumed  in  direct  imitation  of  the  ducal 
court  of  William  in  Normandy.  It  was  composed  of  the  great 
administrative  officers  of  the  crown  and  certain  of  the  more  promi- 
nent members  of  the  baronage.  At  its  head  was  the  chief  justiciar, 
a  new  officer  instituted  by  William,  who  presided  at  the  sessions  of 
the  court  in  the  absence  of  the  king  and  who  further  acted  as 
regent  whenever  the  monarcli  left  the  kingdom.  With  the  chief 
justiciar  there  were  associated  certain  other  high  officials  beside  a 
group  of  inferior  justices,  also  known  as  justiciars.  Of  the  great 
officials,  of  prime  importance  were  the  chancellor,  an  officer  who 
dates  from  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  who  was  the  king's 
chief  secretary  and  had  charge  of  the  royal  seal;  the  chamberlain, 
who  was  the  king's  chief  auditor  or  accountant,  and  during  the 
Norman  period  rather  outranked  the  chancellor  in  dignity  **in  the 
judicial  work  of  the  country,"  being  only  less  important  than  the 
chief  justiciar;  the  treasurer  also,  who  was  the  keeper  of  the  royal 
hoard  which  was  safeguarded  at  Winchester,  and  who  sat  at  the 
famous  exchequer  table  at  Westminster  to  receive  the  accounts  of 
the  sheriffs.  Other  officers  of  the  household  were  the  steward,  the 
butler,  the  constable  and  the  marshal.  These  latter  offices  were  very 
ancient,  and  under  various  names  were  common  to  all  the  Teutonic 
kingdoms,  not  only  in  England  but  also  on  the  Continent.  The 
steward,  who  corresponded  to  the  major  domo  or  mayor  of  the 
palace  of  the  Prankish  kings,  was  the  chief  officer  of  the  royal 
palace;  the  butler,  the  Anglo-Saxon  discthegn^  was  the  caterer  of 
the  palace;  the  constable  and  the  marshal,  the  exact  division  of 

^  Ang.  Sax.  Chronicle,  a.  d.  1087. 


170  NOKMAN    REORGANIZATION  [ William  L 

whose  duties  is  obscure,  superintended  the  ordering  of  the  feudal 
array  and  the  fyrd.  Under  the  Norman  kings  and  their  successors 
these  more  ancient  offices  soon  became  overshadowed  by  the  four 
great  officers  of  state,  the  chief  justiciar,  the  chamberlain,  the 
chancellor,  and  the  treasurer,  and  sank  into  mere  honorary  titles 
or  hereditary  decorations,  the  ancient  duties  of  the  offices  being 
performed  by  others.^ 

These  officers  were  in  constant  attendance  on  the  king.     They 
might  be  called  together  to  give  him  advice  as  a  special  council  of 

state.  As  an  administrative  body  they  managed  the 
Curki  Regis    assessment  and  collection  of  the  crown  revenues.     They 

were  also  a  high  judicial  body,  and  could  summon  before 
them  any  cause  from  the  ordinary  shire  courts,  exercising  all  the 
supreme  judicial  functions  of  the  ancient  witenagemot  or  the 
contemporary  great  council.  And  inasmuch  as  such  judicial 
business  constituted  necessarily  a  large  and  conspicuous  part  of 
their  activities  the  body  soon  came  to  be  known  distinctively  as 
the  Ctcria  Eegis,^  while  the  larger  body  remained  simply  the  great 
council. 

William  was  not  more  generous  in  conceding  rights  of  taxation 
than   he   was   in  renouncing   other  powers  of  government.     The 

English  were  not  used  to  taxation;  the  obligations  of 

Taxation  ^-    ^,  _  .      xi         i  j  .    •       7 

under  the  freemen  were  summed  up  m  the  old  trinoda  neces- 

sitas,  war  service,  castle  service,  and  road  service ;  so  that 
the  crown  legally  had  no  right  to  revenues  other  than  those 
derived  from  the  royal  estates,  dues  from  markets  and  ports,  and 
the  findings  of  the  courts.  The  successors  of  Ethelred  upon  one 
pretext  or  another  had  continued  to  levy  the  Danegeld,  but  it  had 
always  been  regarded  by  the  people  as  irregular  and  tyrannical,  and 
Edward  the  Confessor,  who  once  imagined  that  he  saw  the  devil  in 
the  treasury  sitting  on  the  money  bags,  abolished  the  tax  alto- 
gether. William,  however,  was  too  good  a  business  man  to  allow 
himself  to  be  troubled  by  any  such  visions  as  had  disturbed  the 
peace  of  the  sensitive  Edward,  and  began  again  to  levy  the  Dane- 

*  For  the  development  of  the  several  offices  of  the  king's  household  see 
Stubbs,  C.  H.,  I,  pp.  372-385. 
2  In  the  reign  of  Henry  I. 


1085,  1086]  THE    DOMESDAY    SURVEY  171 

geld.  The  old  haphazard  method  of  rating  which  had  been  in 
vogue  since  Ethelred's  day  was  abandoned,  and  by  a  careful  survey 
of  the  kingdom  a  businesslike  attempt  was  made  to  get  at  the 
actual  wealth  and  resources  of  each  region.  This  important  work, 
the  famous  Domesday  Survey,  was  begun  in  1085.  Com- 
day  Survey,  missioners  were  sent  forth  into  every  shire  of  the  king- 
dom to  collect  information  on  oath  as  to  the  number  of 
manors  or  townships,  the  whole  number  of  hides,  the  names  of 
those  who  held  the  lands,  their  value,  the  population  free  and 
unfree,  and  the  number  of  cattle,  sheep,  and  swine  upon  each 
estate.  Englishmen  cried  out  against  the  unheard-of  inquest. 
**It  was  a  shame,"  they  said,  ''to  pry  into  each  man's  matters." 
It  does  not  appear  that  William  levied  the  Danogeld  directly  upon 
his  feudal  tenants,  but  the  various  aids,  tallages,  and  other  inci- 
dents ^  of  feudal  tenure  which  he  might  claim  as  lord,  were  quite 
sufficient  to  put  the  property  of  his  barons  also  within  his  power 
to  tax  as  he  willed.  "Stark  man  he  was  and  great  awe  men  had 
of  him  .  .  .  in  his  time  men  had  mickle  suffering  and  many 
hardships."  "Many  marks  of  gold  and  many  pounds  of  silver  he 
took  from  his  people,  some  by  right  and  some  by  mickle  might  for 
very  little  need. "  As  a  result  of  William's  methods  it  has  been 
estimated  that  during  his  reign  the  royal  income  reached  the  sum 
of  £40,000,^  an  income  which  was  enormous  for  the  time  and  of 
which  no  other  prince  of  Europe  could  boast. 

For  the  most  of  William's  harsh  measures,  for  his  exactions 
and  even  his  cruelties,  he  might  plead  the  necessities  of  state. 
There  was  one  measure,  however,  peculiarly  Norman, 
ari^the^  which  could  havB  no  motive  save  the  king's  personal 
f>re,s  s  pleasure.  His  nature  was  temperate  in  most  things, 
but  his  love  of  hunting  amounted  to  a  passion;  "he  loved  the 
tall  deer  as  if  he  were  their  father."  On  the  continent  kings  had 
monopolized  hunting  as  their  own  special  sport,  but  in  England  it 
had  been  the  right  of  any  man  to  slay  wild  beasts  on  his  own  lands. 
William  claimed  this  exclusive  privilege  for  himself  and  those  to 

» See  p.  177. 

2Stubbs,  C.  JT.,  I,  p.  303.     Later  calculations  throw  doubt  upon  this 
estimate. 


172  NORMAN    REOIIGANIZATION  [williami. 

whom  he  gave  a  special  license  and  "forbade  the  harts  and  also  the 
boars  to  be  killed."  Moreover,  the  existing  forests  according  to 
his  ideas  were  not  sufficient;  and  in  order  to  make  "mickle  deer- 
frith"  he  set  aside  vast  tracts  as  forest  the  inhabitants  of  which 
were  placed  under  special  courts,  the  forest  courts^  and  denied  the 
protection  of  the  common  law.  Of  these  forests  the  famous  New 
Forest  of  Hampshire  contained  17,000  acres.  The  forest  laws 
were  very  severe ;  the  penalty  for  killing  a  hart  or  hind  was  blinding. 
For  his  forest  laws  William  was  censured  more  by  the  people  than 
for  the  wasting  of  the  north  and  west. 

It  does  not  appear  that  William  attempted  directly  to  intro- 
duce into  England  the  Norman  system  of  landholding,  or  the  care- 
fully graded  hierarchy  of  the  Norman  feudal  society. 
offmdamn  ^^^  ^^®  theories  and  forms  of  English  holdings  in  the 
eleventh  century  were  not  so  widely  different  from  the 
Norman  that  the  Norman  lawyers  found  any  difficulty  in  explain- 
ing the  relations  of  landlord  and  tenant  upon  the  principles  of 
Norman  feudal  law.  English  forms  of  landholding  therefore,  with- 
out any  specific  act  of  the  crown,  easily  and  rapidly  assimilated  to 
the  theories  and  customs  with  which  the  Normans  were  familiar. 

For  two  hundred  years  in  fact  England  had  been  preparing  for 
this  transition.  The  ancient  free  democracy  had  long  since  given 
way  to  a  landed  aristocracy  who  controlled  the  govern- 
for  ment  and  made  laws  in  their  own  interests.     In  many 

parts  of  England  the  old  free  township  with  its  town 
meeting  and  elective  reeve  still  survived;  but  the  town  was 
steadily  giving  way  to  another  system  of  lordship,  which  so  closely 
resembled  the  Norman  manorial  system  that  the  name  manor  may 
be  applied  to  the  English  institution  without  impropriety,  just  as 
the  Norman  term  county  is  often  applied  to  the  old  English  shire. ^ 

The  city  as  yet  was  hardly  felt  as  a  factor  in  English  social  life. 

At  the  time  of  the  Conquest  the  whole  number  of  cities  did  not 

exceed  seventy,  and  most  of  these  were  small  and  poor 

The  city  . 

without  and  altogether  insignificant,  even  if  compared  with  con- 

temporary  continental    cities.     Commerce  was  corre- 
spondingly feeble  and  limited.    Agriculture  and  the  pursuits  more 
»Stubbs,  C.  H.,  I,  pp.  96,  296  and  following. 


THE    MANORIAL    SYSTEM  173 

or  less  directly  connected  with  the  tilling  of  the  soil  were  not  sim- 
ply the  only  source  of  wealth;  they  were  virtually  the  only  source 
of  livelihood.  The  great  mass  of  the  population,  therefore,  were 
of  necessity  engaged  in  agriculture,  but  agricultural  society  had 
come  to  know  virtually  only  one  form  of  organization,  the  form 
which  lent  itself  most  readily  to  the  development  of  feudalism — 
the  manor. 

By  the  manorial  system  the  title  to  the  land  of  the  village, 

waste  as  well  as  cultivated,  rested  not  in  the  free  community  but 

in  a  single  lord,  and  conferred  upon  him  civil  and  crim- 

'^^^  inal   iurisdiction   with  right  to  service  from  all    who 

manor.  J  ^ 

dwelt  within  his  boundaries.  The  members  of  the 
manorial  community,  therefore,  were  not  landlords  but  tenants. 
Their  lands,  moreover,  did  not  lie  in  compact  pieces  as  in  the 
American  farm,  but  in  small  strips  scattered  widely  among  similar 
strips  belonging  to  fellow  tenants  and  distinguished  only  by  a 
narrow  ridge  of  turf  or  by  the  furrow  left  by  the  plow.  Cooper- 
ative cultivation,  therefore,  was  not  only  advantageous  but 
necessary. 

The  tenant  if  free  enjoyed  the  produce  of  his  lands  by  what 

was  known  in  feudal  language  as  socage  tenure^  paying  his  lord  a 

regular  rent  in  money  or  in  kind,  or  by  performing 

Socage  some  labor  service.     These  dues  were  fixed  by  imme- 

morial  custom  and  the  obligation  to  pay  them  descended 

with  the  land  from  father  to  son. 

Beside  the  free  tenants  there  was  also  to  be  found  upon  the 
English  manor  another  class  of  tenants  of  various  grades,  the  mem- 
bers  of   which  were   known   to   the   feudal  lawyers  as 
^/'^  .  villains.     In  general  they  held  their  lands  under  more 

burdensome  terms  than  the  free  tenants.  These  bur- 
dens might  consist  of  labor  on  land  which  the  proprietor  of  the 
manor  had  reserved  for  his  own  use,  the  demesne;  or  of  dues  in 
kind,  or  of  dues  in  money.  The  villain,  moreover,  could  not  leave 
the  bounds  of  the  manor  without  his  lord's  permission.  He  must 
get  permission  also  to  marry  son  or  daughter ;  to  sell  sheep  or  ox, 
or  cut  timber.  His  tenure,  however,  was  fixed ;  his  dues  could 
not  be  increased  at  the  will  of  the  lord;  his  marriage  was  recog- 


174  KORMAN    REORGANIZATION  [ William  I. 

nized  by  law;  he  could  not  be  torn  from  his  family  and  sold  like  a 
chattel  slave.  He  could  also  own  horses  and  cattle;  he  could 
pasture  his  stock  on  the  common  and  could  cut  firewood  in  the 
forest.  The  church  insisted  that  he  should  have  the  full  enjoyment 
of  its  holidays;  it  offered  his  son  the  advantages  of  a  free  educa- 
tion if  he  were  worthy  of  it,  and  opened  to  him  its  highest  posi- 
tions. As  abbot  or  bishop  or  archbishop  he  might  become  the 
companion   and  adviser  of  kings. 

In  addition  to  the  tenants  who  were  directly  engaged  in  the  tilling 
of  the  soil  there  were  others,  both  free  and  unfree,  who  held  merely 
their  houses  with  the  surrounding  plot  of  ground,  with 
Uimnts  privileges  in  the  common  and  the  waste.     Of  such  were 

the  weaver,  if  the  village  were  large ;  and  the  miller, 
who  rented  his  mill  of  the  lord  and  shared  with  him  its  profits. 
There  were  craftsmen  besides,  as  the  smith,  who  kept  the  village 
forge;  the  rope-maker,  who  kept  the  village  rope-walk;  and  the 
armorer,  who  repaired  his  lord's  armor.  The  parson  also  was  a 
conspicuous  figure  in  all  phases  of  village  life;  likewise  the  clerk, 
who  found  a  field  of  manifold  activity  in  a  community  where, 
from  the  lord  down,  writing  was  an  unknown  art.  Not  least 
important  was  the  reeve,  a  villain  generally,  who  kept  the  accounts 
of  the  lord  with  the  manor  and  saw  to  it  that  he  received  his  ilues 
from  his  tenants. 

Thus  the  English  social  system  had  already  been  established 
upon  the  principle  of  tenure  by  service.  The  old  system  of 
allodial  tenures  had  passed  away  in  England  quite  as 
Iff  military  completely  as  ou  the  continent.  It  was  not  a  difficult 
matter,  therefore,  to  add  to  the  English  system  the 
Norman  tenure  by  military  service,  the  characteristic  feature  of 
feudalism;  and  here  also  the  way  had  been  directly  prepared  by 
the  special  military  obligations  which  Alfred  and  Edward  the 
Elder  had  imposed  upon  the  thane  class,  by  which,  if  not  the 
amount,  at  least  the  kind  of  service  due  from  the  freeman  to  the 
king  had  been  graded  to  the  wealth  of  the  subject  in  land.^  It 
was  therefore  not  widely  at  variance  with  precedents  long  since 
established  by  English  kings  that  William  should  require  of  his 

iStubbs,  C.  H.,  I,  pp.  210-213. 


THE  knight's  fee  175 

great  beneficiaries  a  quota  of  men-at-arms,  knights^  bearing  some 
proportion  to   the  importance  and  value  of  the  lands  which  he 
conferred.*     Those  who  thus  held  land  directly  of  the  king  were 
known  as  tenants  in  cliief  or  tenants  in  capite.     The  tenant  in 
chief  was  left  to  provide  for  his  military  family  as  he  thought  best. 
He  might  keep  his  quota  of  men-at-arms  in  his  hall  and  feed  them 
at  his  table,  or  he  might  settle  each  man-at-arms  upon  a  small 
estate  set  off  for  him  out  of  the  domain  lands  and  sufficient  for  his 
support.     Such  a  grant  was  known  as  the  hnigliVs  fee; 
KnighVit        the  grautor  was  the  lord;  the  tenant  was  his  vassal. 
During  the  Norman  period  the  amount  of  land  neces- 
sary to  constitute  a  knight's  fee  was  not  fixed;  it  generally  varied 
from  ten  to  twenty  librates.^    The  receiver  of  the  knight's  fee  was 
to  hold  himself  in  readiness  to  come  at  his  lord's  summons,  and 
thus  enable  him  in  turn  to  fulfill  his  obligations  to  the  king.    This 
subgranting  of  lands  in  military  tenure  was  knows  as  suljinf emula- 
tion.    Compared  with  the  otlier  custom  of  keeping  the 
suUnfeuda-    meu-at-arms    in   a  body  in  the  lord's  hall,   it  would 
readily   commend  itself   to  the  man  who  loved  peace 
and  quiet ;  it  also  offered  a  better  guarantee  to  the  lord  of  the 
faithfulness  of  his  military  dependents.     It  became   quite  com- 
mon  during  the   last   years   of   William.     It   must  not  be  con- 
founded with  commendation^   by  which  a    free   land- 
£w"^^^     holder,  in  return  for  a  promise  of  protection,  surren- 
dered his  lands  to  some  powerful  landlord  and  received 
them  again  on  condition  of  rendering  feudal  service.     Commenda- 
tion became  very  common  in  the  twelfth  century  in  the  troubled 
times  of  Stephen's  reign  and  greatly  reinforced  the  numbers  of 
the  military  tenantry. 

In  granting  a  fief  it  was  very  natural  for  a  lord  of  Norman 
birth  and  training  to  seek  to  protect  himself  and  secure  the  ful- 

^  Round,  F.  E.,  pp.  289-293.  The  whole  number  of  knights  thus 
exacted  was  far  less  than  coinnionly  represented.  In  the  time  of 
Henry  II.  the  number  did  not  exceed  5,000,  or  6,000  at  the  most.  During 
William's  reign,  it  was  undoubtedly  mucli  less. 

2  A  librate  was  an  estate  which  rendered  an  income  of  one  pound  a 
year. 


176  NORMAN    REORGANIZATION  [williamI. 

fillment  of  the  tenant's  pledges  by  using  the  forms  and  sanctions 
with  which  the  feudalism  of  the  continent  had  long  made  him 

familiar.  In  accordance  with  these  customs  the  tenant 
SSi^>?  was  required  to  kneel  before  his  lord  and  placing  his 

EweSire      ^^^^^   between   his    lord's    hands,    swear    to   be    his 

'*man" — liomage.  The  lord  then  girded  him  with  the 
sword,  and  in  symbol  conferred  upon  him  the  estates — investiture. 
The  obligations  thus  created  were  personal  and  hereditary,  but  their 
characteristic  feature  was    always  the  military   service.      If  the 

vassal  should  ever  refuse  to  arm  and  come  at  his  lord's 

bidding,  or  if  he  ever  fought  against  his  lord  the  oath 
was  violated  and  the  right  to  the  fief  was  forfeited— /or/e/^wre. 

With  the  military  service  the  vassal  was  also  bound  to  attend 
his  lord's  court,  submit  to  its  jurisdiction,  support  its  authority, 

and  assist  in  its  deliberations.  On  the  continent  the 
<^(^urt  baron's  men  were  exempt  from  the  iurisdiction  of  the 

service.  ^  •> 

king's  court,  and  even  from  the  duty  of  attendance.  In 
England  the  old  popular  courts  had  been  steadily  undermined  by 
the  growth  of  the  landed  aristocracy,  and  by  the  wide  extension  of 
the  dangerous  custom  of  granting  to  thanes  a  private  jurisdiction 
over  their  tenants  under  the  terms  sac  and  soc;  a  grant  which 

made  the  hall  court  of  the  manor,  the  court-baron, 
Sflwarwi         coordinate  with  the  hundred  court.     Nevertheless  the 

principle  had  survived  that  the  shire  courts,  as  king's 
courts,  were  entitled  to  a  supreme  jurisdiction  over  all  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  shire;  and  the  Norman  kings  were  not  inclined  to 
sacrifice  a  principle  so  important  to  the  royal  treasury,  or  so  useful  in 
maintaining  the  royal  authority.     It  is  true  that  William  granted  a 

number  of  great  baronies  with  full  jurisdiction,  known 
^i^il^^      as  honors  or  liberties,^  and  also  freed  the  men  of  these 

barons  from  all  attendance  at  the  popular  courts;  yet 
such  grants  could  hardly  have  affected  the  great  body  of  manorial 
lords,  whose  men  remained  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  shire 
and  whose  courts-baron  held  jurisdiction  only  in  feudal  cases, 
that  is,  in  disputes  between  tenants  about  land.  And  even  in 
feudal  cases,  when  a  dispute  arose  between  vassals  of  different 
'Stubbs,  C.  H.,  I,  p.  431. 


FEUDAL   INCIDENTS  177 

lords,  the  case  could  be  tried  only  in  the  shire  court.  It  is  to  be 
remembered  also  that  while  the  great  baronies  enjoyed  an  exemption 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  shire  court,  and  were  in  fact  pieces 
cut  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  shire,  like  the  shire  courts  they 
were  subordinate  to  the  Curia  Regis,  and  when  Henry  II.  began  to 
send  out  the  justices  of  the  Curia  to  sit  as  his  representatives  in 
the  shire  courts  these  officers  forced  their  way  also  into  the  courts 
of  the  great  barons. 

Beside  military  service  and  court  service  the  vassal  was  also 

liable  to  certain  occasional  exactions  known  as  incidents.     Thus 

when  heirs   failed   the  tenant  the  fief  returned  to  the 

incidents.        lord — escheat.      In   case   the  deceased   tenant  left   an 

heir,  when  the  heir  took  possession  he  was  expected  to 

pay  the  lord  for  the  renewal  of  the  grant  the  equivalent  of  a  year's 

income  from  the  estate — relief.     If,  however,  the  heir 

wardship       were   a   minor   the  lord  might  retain    possession   and 

appropriate  the  income  until  the  heir  became  of  age — 

wardship.     A  woman  might  ordinarily  inherit  a  fief  in  default  of 

male  heirs,  but  the  title  passed  to  her  husband,  who  regularly  did 

homage   for   the   fief  and   represented   his  wife   in   fulfilling  the 

feudal  obligations.     The  lord,  however,  was  entitled  to  select   the 

husband,  but  if  the  ward  objected  to  the  husband  of  her  lord's 

choosing  she  might  be  released  upon  the  payment  of  a  fine.     The 

same  principle  was  applied  in  the  case  of  a  widow  whose  husband 

had  died  without  other  heirs. 

There   were   certain   other    occasions    also   when,    under   the 
gracious  title  of  aids^  it  was  customary  for  the  lord  to  exact  further 
sums  from  his  tenants.     These  occasions  were  fixed  by 
Aids.  custom  and  were:  (1)  When  the  lord's  eldest  son  was 

knighted ;  (2)  when  his  eldest  daughter  was  married ; 
and  (3)  when  the  lord  was  captured  in  war  and  his  body  was  to  be 
ransomed — an  occurrence  not  infrequent  in  days  of  almost  constant 
warfare.  In  addition  to  these  ordinary  aids  the  king  might  solicit 
from  his  vassals  certain  dona  or  gifts.  The  Norman  kings  also  devel- 
oped a  similar  source  of  revenue  in  the  tallage^  a  com- 
pulsory aid  levied  at  irregular  intervals  upon  the 
demesne  lands  of  the  crown  and  upon  the  royal  towns. 


178  NORMAN   REORGANIZATION  [williahi. 

Thus  Norman  military  feudalism  easily  struck  its  roots  into  a 
soil  already  prepared,  and  in  a  few  years  shot  up  into  luxuriant 
growth.  The  Norman  king,  however,  remained  a  sov- 
vSmS  and  ^^'^^g^  after  the  national  and  not  after  the  feudal  type. 
notafeiMai  gy  English  law  whatever  the  rank  of  the  individual, 
whether  ordinary  freeman  or  thane,  he  remained  always 
a  subject  and  liable  to  all  the  duties  of  a  subject;  nor  had  William 
any  thought  of  releasing  his  earls  of  foreign  blood  from  these 
duties ;  or  of  allowing  them  to  gather  to  themselves  upon  English 
soil  such  power  as  he  himself  exercised  in  Normandy  as  a  vassal 
of  the  French  king.  In  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign  he 
sought  to  give  expression  to  this  fact  of  sovereignty  in  a  way 
which  no  man  might  fail  to  understand.  The  Domesday  Survey 
had  just  been  completed,  and  upon  the  basis  of  its  returns  he 
summoned  to  meet  him  in  the  great  plain  before  Salisbury  '*all  his 
witan  and  all  the  landowning  men  of  property  there 
Saiisbu^ "^  ^^^'^  ^^^^'  ^^^  England,  whosoever  men  they  were,  and 
required  all  to  bow  before  him  and  become  his  men  and 
swear  oaths  of  fealty  to  him  against  all  other  men."  Against 
this  universal  oath  of  allegiance  no  feudal  oath  was  to  be  binding ; 
no  feudal  contract  was  to  stand  which  imposed  upon  the  subject 
an  obligation  that  interfered  with  his  first  duty  to  his  king. 

Hardly  less  important  than  the  relations  which  William  estab- 
lished with  the  feudal  society  were  the  relations  which  he  estab- 
lished with  the  church.  In  the  middle  ages  church 
the^Srch^^  and  state  were  hardly  distinguished;  the  functions  of 
the  one  so  traversed  the  whole  line  of  the  activities  of 
the  other  that  at  times  the  medieval  state  appears  to  be  as  much 
of  a  theocracy  as  the  early  Hebrew  state.  The  state  was  the  body 
of  believers ;  the  head  of  the  state  was  God  or  Christ ;  the  king 
was  his  vicegerent  who  had  been  ushered  into  his  office  by  forms 
borrowed  from  the  church,  and  who  in  the  royal  style,  the  rex 
dei  gratia^  bore  a  reminder  of  the  source  and  limitations  of  his 
authority.  The  heads  of  the  church  hierarchy  sat  in  the  national 
council  and  exercised  a  controlling  influence  in  shaping  the 
policy  of  the  state ;  they  shared  in  the  election  or  deposition  of 
kings.     They  sat  in  the  national  courts  and  judged  the  highest 


1070-1088]  WILLIAM    AND   THE    CHURCH  179 

princes  of  the  realm.  The  maintenance  of  discipline  within  the 
church,  moreover,  bore  no  slight  relation  to  the  preservation  of 
order  within  the  state.  The  lapse  of  church  discipline  was  a  cer- 
tain symptom  of  political  or  social  anarchy.  Religious  forms, 
furthermore,  marked  all  the  stages  of  civil  procedure.  The  litany 
and  the  mass  were  important  features  of  the  court  room  as  well  as 
of  the  coronation  hall  of  the  king.  Thus  no  reforms  could  be 
more  important  or  far-reaching  than  those  by  which  William 
sought  to  bring  the  English  church  into  accord  with  the  ecclesias- 
tical system  of  the  continent. 

William  from  the  first  had  received  a  powerful  moral  support 
from  the  pope,  and  was  therefore  well  disposed  toward  the  papal 
system,  and  not  at  all  inclined  to  favor  the  continuance 
Smrf^I*^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  ''insular  and  barbaric  independence"  which  the 
m^wmthe  ^"glish  church  had  of  late  enjoyed.  The  deposition 
church  ^^^^  of  Stigand  had  in  all  probability  been  early  decided 
upon,  yet  William  had  found  it  useful  to  retain  him 
until  the  year  1070,  when  he  was  forced  to  make  way  for  the  king's 
old  friend  Lanf ranc,  the  Abbot  of  St.  Stephens  of  Caen.  About  the 
same  time  the  primacy  of  York,  recently  made  vacant  by  the  death 
of  Eld  red,  was  filled  by  the  appointment  of  Thomas  of  Bayeaux. 
Other  similar  appointments  followed  from  time  to  time,  until  by 
the  year  1088  Wulfstan  of  Worcester  remained  the  only  bishop 
of  English  birth  in  the  kingdom.  These  new  men  were  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  great  contemporary  reform  in  Europe  which 
had  culminated  in  the  election  of  Gregory  VII.,  and  soon  justified 
their  appointment  by  instituting  similar  reforms  in  the  English 
dioceses,  forbidding  simony  and  insisting  upon  the  celibacy  of  their 
clergy.  The  church  courts  were  made  independent  of  the  lay 
courts,  and  discipline  was  enforced  upon  the  laity  as  well  as  the 
clergy.  The  English  monasteries  were  also  compelled  to  conform 
to  the  stricter  rules  of  the  Norman  abbeys. 

Yet  if  William  thus  showed  hrmself  entirely  in  sympathy  with 
the  spiritual  aims  of  the  church,  he  was  careful  to  indicate  the 
lines  where  the  ecclesiastical  authority  ended.  If  he  established 
the  independence  of  the  church  courts  he  also  removed  the  bishop 
from  the  shire  court  where  he  had  long  been  a  conspicuous-  figure. 


180  NORMAN    REORGANIZATION  [william  I. 

Within  the  church,  moreover,  William  would  tolerate  no  authority 

rival  to  his  own.     No  decree  of  a  synod  should  be  binding  without 

his  confirmation;  barons  or  officers  of  the  crown  should 

The  church     not  be  subjected  to  the  finding  of  a  church  court  with- 

and  the  royal         ,     i  .  •     .  t       ^i  <•      •      i  ^ 

authority.       out   his   permission.     In   the   case  of   rival   popes   he 

proposed  to  decide  which  pope  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land should  recognize,  for  he  allowed  no  pope  to  be  obeyed  in 
England  or  papal  letter  to  be  received  without  his  consent.  The 
demand  of  Gregory  YII.,  who  at  the  time  was  vigorously  pushing 
his  ideas  of  papal  sovereignty  within  the  empire,  that  William 
should  likewise  recognize  liim  as  feudal  overlord,  he  met  with  a 
flat  refusal:  ''fealty  he  had  never  promised;  nor  had  his  prede- 
cessors ever  given  it."  Yet  he  recognized  fully  the  spiritual 
headship  of  the  pope  and  acknowledged  the  duty  of  the  English 
church  to  contribute  the  "Peter's  pence." 

The  ideas  of  William  were  nobly  carried  out.  The  church 
rapidly  attained  new  dignity  and  respect  and  began  to  exert  a  new 

influence  over  English  life  and  manners.  A  new 
Remits  of  cathedral  was  beguu  at  Canterbury;  the  old  cathedral 
church  policy,  of.  York  was  repaired.     The  other  bishops  also  imitated 

their  primates  in  the  magnificence  of  the  new  struc- 
tures which  they  began,  or  the  restorations  which  they  instituted. 
Old  episcopal  seats,  such  as  Lichfield  and  Sherborne,  were 
removed  from  the  country  to  the  neighboring  centers  of  population. 
After  the  year  1070  William  had  little  further  trouble  with  the 
English.     There   was   still   much   grumbling;    and   many   bitter 

words  continued  to  find  their  way  into  secluded  mon- 
si/mofthe  astery  records,  where  patriotic  monks  sought  to  cherish 
^  ^  '  the  memories  of  the  old  England  which  was  passing 
away;  but  the  disastrous  issue  of  the  recent  struggles,  the  flight 
or  death  or  apostasy  of  the  English  leaders  and  the  failure  of  the 
treacherous  Danes  to  afford  the  long-expected  help  had  signally 
demonstrated  the  utter  vanity  of  attempting  to  overturn  the 
throne  of  the  new  king  by  force. 

William,  moreover,  soon  began  to  commend  himself  to  the  sub- 
ject people  by  the  very  rigor  of  his  administration.  His  ways 
were  masterful  and  his  measures  severe,  but  the  results  were  bene- 


KEW    COKDITIONS   OF    ENGLISH    LIFE  181 

ficial.  He  was  a  hard  drillmaster;  but  England  needed  a  drilT- 
master,  and  the  English  were  the  first  to  recognize  it.  Life  and 
property  were  protected  as  they  had  never  been  pro- 
ff'^^  tected  under  the  native  English  kings.  Even  the 
wiiiiam'8  Chronicle  is  forced  to  recognize  the  "good  peace  that 
he  made  in  the  land,  so  that  a  man  might  go  over  the 
realm  alone  with  his  bosom  full  of  gold  unhurt.  Nor  durst  any 
man  slay  another,  how  great  soever  the  evil  he  had  done."  The 
English,  therefore,  began  quietly  to  accept  the  lot  which  they  now 
knew  they  could  not  avert,  and  in  a  short  time  settled  down  to 
make  the  most  of  their  new  conditions. 

These  conditions,   however,   could  not  have  been  very  attract- 
ive at  best.     At  the  time  of  the  Survey,  as  a  result  of  the  fre- 
quent revolts,  fully  three-fourths  of  the  estates  of  Eng- 

New  crnidi-        ^  *'  " 

turtwof  land  had  changed  hands,  and  in  many  cases  where  the 

English  thanes  had  been  allowed  to  retain  their 
lands  they  had  sunk  into  the  condition  of  ^'subtenants  of  a 
Norman  baron."  When  the  land  was  at  peace  and  plenty 
reigned  the  lot  of  the  ordinary  tenant  possibly  was  not  hard. 
But  unfortunately  the  land  was  often  at  war,  and  famine  and 
pestilence  were  frequent  visitors.  The  lord  lived  in  the  great 
house  on  the  demesne,  but  his  people  of  alien  blood,  who 
regarded  him  with  sullen  aversion  as  an  interloper  and 
usurper,  could  feel  for  him  and  his  nothing  of  that  touching  loy- 
alty which  so  often  lights  up  the  darkness  of  bondage.  If  the 
lord,  moved  by  sincere  regard  for  his  dependents,  honestly  sought 
to  improve  their  condition,  the  chances  were  that  he  would  be 
misunderstood  and  his  measures  misinterpreted.  The  absentee 
landlord  also  was  by  no  means  uncommon,  for  thousands  of  manors 
were  held  by  William  and  his  friends.  In  such  cases  the  lord's 
agent,  the  bailiffs  lived  in  the  great  house  on  the  demesne,  and 
saw  that  the  reeves  required  the  tenants  to  fulfill  their  obligations. 
The  bailiff  was  selected  for  his  thrift  rather  than  for  any  goodness 
of  heart,  and  knew  well  that  his  tenure  depended  upon  the  balance 
which  he  could  show  each  year  in  his  lord's  favor.  It  was  his 
interest  to  exact  the  last  penny,  and  the  lord  was  only  too  well 
pleased  to  see  his  returns  roll  up,  to  ask  questions,  or  inquire  into 


182  '  NORMAN    REORGANIZATION         "  [williamI. 

the  condition  of  distant  tenants.     It  was  here  that  the  Norman 
yoke  rested  most  heavily  upon  the  English  rural  population. 

If,  however,  the  English  were  coming  to  be  reconciled  to  the 
rule  of  William,  the  men  who  had  come  with  him  into  England, 

who  found  themselves  denied  the  privileges  which  they 
me^bar&m^  and  their  kind  were  enjoying  on  the  continent,  were 

by  no  means  inclined  to  accept  William's  system  with- 
out  a    protest.     In    1075    discontent   passed    into   open   revolt, 

when  Ralph  Guader,  Earl  of  Norfolk,  and  Roger  Bret- 
RMng  of        e^ii^  the  son  of  the  Conqueror's  old  friend  William  Fitz- 

Osbern,  Earl  of  Hereford,  openly  raised  the  standard 
against  the  king.  But,  although  they  had  been  secretly  plotting  for 
a  year  and  William  at  the  time  was  absent  in  Normandy,  the  revolt 
was  a  disastrous  failure.  The  ordinary  shire  levies  were  sufficient  to 
put  down  the  rising,  and  in  a  very  short  time  Roger  was  a  prisoner 
and  Ralph  in  exile.  England  was  well  rid  of  two  such  characters ; 
but  unfortunately  Waltheof,  who  after  the  great  rising  of  1069 
had  not  only  been  pardoned  and  received  again  into  royal  favor 
but  had  also  been  restored  to  his  father's  earldom  of  Northumbria, 
had  become  implicated  in  the  affair,  and  was  condemned  to  death 
by  the  witan.  His  death  appealed  powerfully  to  the  imagination 
of  the  English  writers,  and  the  people  long  veneratM  him  as  a 
martyr. 

The  rising  of  Ralph  and  Roger  would  really  be  of  little  impor- 
tance were  it  not  the  first  of  a  series  of  armed  protests  on  the  part 

of  the  Norman-English  barons  against  the  authority  of 
ofiherSi^^    the  Norman-Euglish kings,  which  did  not  cease  until  the 

reign  of  Henry  II. ,  when  the  old  baronage  was  at  last 
effectually  crushed  and  the  leaders  driven  to  the  continent.  In  these 
insurrections  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  strength  of  the  king  lay  in 
the  support  of  the  English  nation,  who  needed  no  schooling  to  teach 
them  that  the  tyranny  of  the  king  was  far  less  to  be  feared  than 
the  tyranny  of  the  barons,  and  who  thus  looked  upon  the  king  as 
their  natural  protector  against  feudal  lawlessness. 

The  relations  of  William  to  his  own  family  were  in  keeping 
with  his  relations  to  his  people.  Such  men  are  feared  but  never 
loved.     William  quarreled  with  his  eldest  son  Robert,  and  drove 


1078-1087]  DEATH    OF   THE    CONQUEROR  183 

him  from  the  kingdom.     In  Normandy  the  quarrel  was  renewed, 
and  father  and  son  met  in  deadly  personal  combat  under  the  walls 

of  Gerberoi.  On  the  return  of  William  from  Nor- 
PHnce  mandy   in    1082   he    quarreled   with    his  half-brother 

Odo,  who  had  abused  the  authority  which  the  king  had 
conferred  upon  him  in  his  absence  by  oppressing  the  poor  and  by 
indiscriminate  cruelty.     William  might  have  forgiven  this,  for  he 

certainly  knew  Odo  by  this  time,  and  from  earlier  ex- 
^dZm82^^^  periences  knew  what  kind  of  report  to  expect  from  his 

regency.  But  Odo,  who  possessed  all  the  ambition  of 
his  race,  had  been  carried  away  by  a  foolish  dream  of  securing  the 
papal  crown  by  force  of  arms,  and  to  this  end  had  taken  advantage 
of  William's  absence  to  enlist  men  in  England  for  his  harebrained 
scheme.  It  was  this  which  roused  the  wrath  of  William  and 
brought  him  home  from  Normandy.  And  when  none  dared  to  lay 
hands  on  the  sacred  person  of  the  bishop,  William  went  himself, 
seized  Odo,  and  packed  him  off  to  Normandy  to  be  kept  a  close 
prisoner  at  Ivouen  until  his  own  death. 

In  the  year  1087  William  entered  upon  the  last  of  his  many 
wars.     His   foe  was   Philip  I.    of   France,    who   had   encouraged 

Robert  in  rebellion  and  had  always  been  William's 
of  William,    enemy  either  secret  or  open.     At  the  taking  of  Mantes 

William's  horse  stumbled  among  the  embers  of  the 
burning  city,  and  the  king,  whose  body  had  grown  unwieldy  with 
advancing  age,  was  thrown  heavily  upon  the  iron  pommel  of  his 
saddle.  He  was  taken  to  Rouen  where  he  died  after  a  loathsome 
illness.  The  priests  and  nobles  who  had  eaten  his  bread  left  the 
body  to  the  tender  mercies  of  menials,  who  stripped  even  the  bed 
of  its  furnishings  and  left  the  dead  king  ''naked  and  lonely  on  the 
floor."  *' Death  itself  took  its  color  from  the  savage  solitude  of 
his  life." 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE   ORGANIZATION    OP  THE   KINGDOM   CONTINUED 
THE    ENGLISH    CONQUEST   OF    NORMANDY 

WILLIAM  IJ.    10S7-1100. 
HENRY  L  1100-1135. 

It  was  the  wish  of  the  Conqueror  that  Robert,  his  eldest  son, 

with  whom  he  had  been  reconciled  before  his  death,  should  succeed 

him  in  Normandy ;    and  that  William,  his  second  son, 

Accession  of 

William        familiarly  known  as  Rufus  or  the  Red,  should  succeed 

Rufus. 

him  in  England.  He  had  also  a  third  son,  Henry,  a  lad 
of  nineteen,  who  had  been  born  in  England  since  the  Conquest. 
Henry,  however,  he  put  off  with  a  legacy  of  £5,000  and  some 
lands  in  the  Cotentin.  Robert  was  not  satisfied  with  the  arrange- 
ment which  gave  England  to  the  younger  William,  and  proposed 
to  contest  his  candidacy  for  the  English  crown ;  he  was  supported 
by  the  greater  part  of  the  barons,  who  loved  Robert's  easy-going 
ways  and  saw  in  William  too  much  of  the  father's  imperious  nature 
for  their  liking.  The  very  elements  in  the  young  man's  character, 
however,  which  the  barons  regarded  as  a  menace  to  their  liberties, 
only  commended  him  the  more  to  Lanfranc  and  the  church,  and 
to  all  who  had  the  good  of  the  nation  at  heart.  A  war  of  succession 
followed  and  William,  largely  through  the  influence  of  Lanfranc 
and  by  the  support  of  the  English,  succeeded  in  driving  the  friends 
of  his  brother  out  of  the  kingdom ;  chief  of  whom  was  his  uncle,  the 
old  mischief-maker  Odo,  who  had  been  released  from  prison  after 
the  Conqueror's  death.  Four  years  later  William  in  his  turn 
carried  the  war  into  Robert's  dominions,  and  proposed  to  oust  his 
brother  from  the  duchy  and  secure  it  for  himself.  But  the  French 
king,  Philip  I.  interfered,  and  brought  about  an  agreement  by  which 
each  brother  renounced  his  claim  to  the  domain  of  the  other ;  in 
case  of  the  death  of  either,  the  survivor  was  to  succeed  to  both 

184 


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CHARACTER    OF   THE    RED    KIIfG  185 

dominions.  Philip  was  not  led  to  this  neighborly  act  by  any  love 
for  the  Conqueror's  sons,  but  simply  by  a  desire  to  prevent  Eng- 
land and  Normandy  from  again  falling  into  the  same  hands.  We 
shall  see  this  policy  guiding  the  conduct  of  the  French  kings  in  all 
their  dealings  with  the  descendants  of  the  Conqueror. 

In  figure  the  new  king  was  a  caricature  of  his  father.     He  was 
short,  thick-set,  powerful  in  body,  with  ruddy  face  and  restless 
eyes,  and  ever  liable  to  violent  outbreaks  of  merriment 
of  uie  or  anger.     He  had  much  of  the  ability  of  his  race. 

Yet  he  lacked  his  father's  greatness  of  character;  he 
had  nothing  of  his  self-control;  was  personally  lawless  and  ever  a 
riotous  liver.  He  moved  about  the  country  accompanied  by  a  rout 
of  swashbucklers  and  mistresses,  who  shocked  decent  folk  by  their 
roistering  revels,  and  who  pillaged  and  plundered  the  people;  **the 
poor  man  was  not  protected  by  his  poverty,  nor  the  rich  man  by 
his  abundance."  He  abounded  in  inconsistencies — this  uproarious 
king.  He  cared  not  a  penny  for  the  most  solemn  oath;  saints  and 
devils  were  to  him  so  many  bogies  by  which  designing  monks 
frightened  children  and  silly  women;  and  when  men  charged  him 
with  violating  his  coronation  oath  he  sneeringly  rejoined,  **Who  is 
there  who  can  fulfill  all  that  he  promises?"  Yet  he  had  his  code  of 
honor.  When  he  gave  his  word  as  a  knight,  he  kept  it  inviolate; 
prisoners  of  war  were  safe  in  his  hands,  and  when  he  granted  a  truce 
men  knew  that  it  would  not  be  broken.  He  mocked  at  all  things 
sacred ;  yet  he  was  not  without  some  latent  respect  for  the  powers 
of  the  next  world.  When  in  1093  he  fell  grievously  sick,  believing 
that  death  was  near  he  called  for  his  confessor  and  made  noble  prom- 
ises of  reform;  but  as  soon  as  his  strength  came  again  he  went  on 
in  the  old  way  as  graceless  as  ever. 

In  spite  of  his  personal  lawlessness  none  appreciated  better  than 
William  the  value  of  a  well  organized  administration.  While  Rob- 
ert allowed  Normandy  to  fall  into  a  condition  of  turbu- 
Fiamhard.  lent  anarchy  William  sought  to  strengthen  and  extend 
the  vigorous  administrative  system  of  his  father.  He 
found  an  able  instrument  in  Ralph  Flambard,  who  had  been 
originally  a  humble  clerk  in  his  father's  chapel.  The  man  was  as 
able  as  he  was  unscrupulous.     He  had  entered  the  church  from 


186  NORMAN    ORGANIZATION    CONTINUED  [william  ii. 

purely  worldly  motives,  and  by  making  himself  useful  to  the  king 
had  risen  rapidly ;  secured  the  bishopric  of  Durham  and  finally  was 
made  chief  Justiciar.  Here  as  head  of  the  financial  and  judicial 
administration  of  the  kingdom,  he  found  ample  scope  for  the  exer- 
cise of  all  his  powers.  He  grasped  the  possibilities  of  English 
feudalism  as  a  source  of  revenue,  and  pressed  to  the  utmost  the 
advantages  offered  the  crown  by  such  incidents  as  relief  and  ward- 
ship ;  nor  was  it  an  uncommon  thing  for  the  royal  stewards  so  to 
impoverish  a  ward's  estate  in  the  interests  of  the  treasury  that 
when  the  land  was  finally  turned  over  to  the  heir  it  was  exhausted 
and  all  but  worthless. 

The   application   of    feudal   exactions  to  lay  fiefs  was  simple 

enough;  but   there   was   another   large   class   of    fiefs   which   by 

reason  of  the  fact  that  they  were  held  by  churchmen, 

William  II.  „  ^  1       ,    .  1  .      . 

and  the  were  naturally  exempt  from  such  claims  as  those  mci- 

cliuvch. 

influenceof  dent  to  relief,  or  wardship  and  marriage.  But  accord- 
ing to  feudal  ideas  the  estates  of  a  bishop  or  abbot  were 
held  personally  of  the  king,  and  were  obligated  to  military 
service  just  as  lay  fiefs;  and  to  the  thrifty  justiciar  there 
appeared  no  reason  why  ecclesiastics  should  be  exempt  from  the 
other  occasional  but  really  more  burdensome  dues.  The  dead 
bishop  could  leave  no  heir,  but  the  king  might  claim  the  income 
of  the  estates  until  a  new  incumbent  was  appointed.  It  was,  more- 
over, a  very  simple  matter,  by  ways  well  known  to  the  crown  officer, 
to  delay  such  an  appointment  until  it  suited  the  royal  pleasure  to 
forego  the  profits  of  the  lands  in  question.  But  even  here  the 
clerkly  financier  showed  the  king  how  to  turn  still  another  profit, 
since  he  might  exact  from  the  new  incumbent  a  handsome  gift 
after  the  manner  of  a  relief.  And  as  the  Red  King  carried  out  the 
principle,  it  amounted  to  a  virtual  selling  of  the  offices  of  the 
church,  and  was  the  source  of  much  corruption. 

The  most  flagrant  instance  of  William's  violation  of  the  rights 
of  the  church  occurred  in  connection  with  the  vacancy  caused  by 
Vacancy  in  ^^®  death  of  Lanfranc  in  1089,  when  the  vast  estates  of 
caMerbunj  ^^®  ^^®  ^^  Canterbury  were  thrown  into  the  king's 
1089-1093.  hands.  For  four  years  William  refused  to  appoint 
Lanfranc 's  successor,  in  the   meanwhile   appropriating   the   rev- 


1093-1096]  ANSELM  '  187 

enues  of  this  important  see  to  his  own  wayward  uses.  In  vain 
the  great  council  protested;  it  mattered  little  to  the  king 
that  church  discipline  languished  and  that  the  whole  realm 
suffered;  nor  was  it  until  the  serious  illness  of  the  year  1093 
brought  William  to  his  senses  that  he  consented  to  allow  the 
revenues  of  the  see  of  Canterbury  to  be  applied  again  to  their 
legitimate  uses. 

The  man  chosen  was  Anselm,  abbot  of  Bee,  the  friend  and 
pupil  of  Lanf ranc ;  already  eminent  among  the  theologians  of  the 

continent,  and  well  known  and  loved  in  England.  The 
amrlriiHam  ^^^^  ^^^  abbot,  howcvcr,  hesitated  to  incur  the  responsi- 
io93-io97         bilities  of  such  an  office  under  such  a  king.     **IIe  was 

a  poor,  weak  sheep,"  he  said,  **to  be  yoked  with  the 
young  bull  of  England."  But  those  concerned  were  urgent  and 
would  take  no  refusal;  they  dragged  the  abbot  to  the  king's 
bedside,  and  after  literally  forcing  the  pastoral  staff  into  his 
reluctant  hands  hurried  him  away  to  the  cathedral  for  con- 
secration. Upon  his  recovery  William  found  that  he  had  yoked 
himself  not  with  a  poor  sheep  but  a  lion.  Between  two  snch 
men  there  could  bo  nothing  in  common,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  their  differences  passed  into  an  open  rupture.  ** Treat 
me  as  a  free  man,"  demanded  the  primate  in  words  that 
thrill  with  the  true  English  spirit,  **and  I  devote  myself  and 
all  I  have  to  your  service;  but  if  you  treat  me  as  a  wslave,  you 
shall  have  neither  me  nor  mine."  Such  a  man  could  not  keep 
silent  in  the  presence  of  the  orgies  which  disgraced  William's 
court;  still  less  could  he  stand  by  while  the  king  and  his  creatures 
plundered  the  church.  A  series  of  quarrels  followed,  until  at 
last  in  a  burst  of  fury  W^illiam  drove  the  faithful  primate  from 
the  kingdom. 

It    will    be    remembered   that  William   had   agreed   to   leave 
Normandy    to     Robert    on     condition     that     he    renounce    his 

claims  to  England.  But  in  109G  the  crusading  mad- 
Eimiandand  ness  scized  Robert  With  thousands  of  other  princes  of 

Normandy.  .    ,  . 

Europe.  In  William's  shrewd  and  unsentimental 
nature,  the  wild  enthusiasm  which  swept  the  continent  found  little 
sympathy;  yet  he  was  not  averse  to  helping  his  brother  off,  and 


188  NORMAK    ORGANIZATiON"    CONTINUED  [williamII. 

willingly  furnished  10,000  marks^  toward  his  equipment  in  return 
for  Normandy  in  pledge.  So  Robert  betook  himself  to  the  east, 
along  with  the  host  of  restless  and  adventurous  spirits  who  fol- 
lowed the  First  Crusade,  while  his  duchy  of  Normandy  was  added 
again  to  the  English  kingdom. 

William  had  now  reached  his  fortieth  year.     He  was  still  a 

young  man,  and  no  one  could  tell  what  would  be  the  end  of  his 

career.     In  England  he  was  all-powerful;  none  durst 

WilliamII.    defv  him.     He  had  compelled  the  Scottish  kine:  to  re- 

1100.  .J  X  o 

new  homage.  His  barons  had  seized  the  lowlands  of 
Wales  and  its  southern  coasts,  and  their  castles  crowned  the  hill- 
tops of  the  border.  He  was  meditating  the  conquest  of  Ireland. 
On  the  continent  also  his  power  and  influence  were  rapidly  extending ; 
when  suddenly  and  without  warning  all  these  great  plans  were  cut 
short  and  the  end  came.  With  a  company  of  jovial  companions  he 
had  risen  from  the  banqueting  table  at  Winchester  and  gone  to 
hunt  in  the  New  Forest.  In  the  pursuit  of  the  game  the  party 
had  scattered,  but  when  night  came  and  they  returned  to  the 
trysting  place,  William  was  not  among  them.  Then  came  a  peasant 
with  a  strange  story:  he  had  found  the  king  lying  in  a  glade  with 
an  arrow  piercing  his  heart ;  the  wide-open  sightless  eyes  staring 
up  into  the  heaven  which  he  had  mocked.  How  was  it  done?  Was 
it  the  work  of  a  clumsy  hunter,  whose  brain  had  been  fuddled  with 
drink;  or,  more  likely  perhaps,  was  it  the  work  of  an  assassin  who 
had  taken  vengeance  for  unrequited  wrong?  The  question  has 
never  been  answered.  The  pious  saw  in  the  mysterious  taking  off, 
the  judgment  of  God.  The  body  was  taken  to  Winchester  and 
there  buried  without  religious  ceremony  and  without  sign  of 
sorrow. 

At  the  time  of  William's  death  Robert  was  on  his  way  home 
from  the  Crusade.  The  success  of  the  enterprise,  in  which  Robert 
had  born  a  conspicuous  part,  the  popularity  which  had  been  given 
to  it  by  its  religious  character,   had  done  much  to  obscure  the 

1  The  mark  was  a  theoretical  denomination  of  money  on  account. 
Like  the  American  mill,  it  was  not  coined.  From  the  12th  century  it  was 
equal  to  13s  4d  current  money.  10,000  marks,  therefore,  were  equal  to 
£6,666  13s  4d. 


HENKY    I.  189 

unpleasant  memories  which  lingered  about  the  early  career  of  Rob- 
ert. He  was  more  popular  than  ever  with  the  barons,  and  by  con- 
trast with  the  brutal  tyrannies  of  William,  his  good- 
mcce8»km  matured  ways  appeared  like  positive  virtues.  He  had 
also  in  his  favor  the  advantage  of  his  early  agree- 
ment with  William.  There  was,  however,  a  new  element  in  the 
problem  which  neither  William  nor  Robert  had  considered  when 
they  made  their  compact,  and  that  was  the  national  sentiment  of 
the  English  people.  The  English  had  long  since  abandoned  the 
hope  of  ever  restoring  the  ancient  royal  line;  yet  the  soil  was  dear 
to  them,  and  the  fact  that  the  Conqueror's  youngest  son,  Henry, 
had  been  born  in  England,  brought  him  a  degree  nearer  than 
his  foreign -born  brothers.  When,  therefore,  Henry,  who  had 
been  of  the  fatal  hunting  party  in  the  New  Forest,  hastened  to 
Winchester  to  secure  the  royal  hoard,  as  the  first  step  in  making 
good  a  counter  claim  to  the  throne,  the  English  welcomed  him 
at  once  as  one  of  themselves,  and  their  cordial  support  gave  to 
his  elevation  the  appearance  of  a  national  choice. 

Henry  on  his  part  fully  realized  both  the  strength  and  the  weak- 
ness of  his  position.  He  saw  that  it  would  not  do  to  perpetuate  the 
abuses  of  the  Red  King's  reign,  and  that  only  by  a  wise 
mUcu^  policy  of  conciliation  could  he  win  the  lasting  support 
of  the  nation..  Among  his  first  acts,  therefore,  were 
the  arrest  of  Flambard  and  the  recall  of  Anselm.  But  the  event 
which  did  most  to  establish  the  confidence  of  the  people,  was  the 
marriage  of  the  king  with  Matilda,  the  daughter  of  Margaret  and 
Malcolm  of  Scotland,  and  the  lineal  representative  of  Edmund 
Ironside.  Thus  at  last  the  nation  could  look  forward  to  a  day 
when  the  sacred  blood  of  Alfred  should  again  be  represented  in  the 
kings  of  England. 

Of  even  more  direct  import,  was  a  charter  which  Henry 
issued  soon  after  his  coronation ;  the  first  formal  acknowledgment 
by  a  Norman  king  of  any  '^limitation  on  the  despotism 
opHennlr  established  by  the  Conqueror."  This  charter  was 
simply  an  amplification  of  the  coronation  oath ;  yet  it 
was  of  great  importance,  for  it  gave  to  the  nation  an  authoritative 
interpretation  of  the  terms  of  the  oath,  made  by  the  king  himself. 


190  NORMAN    ORGANIZATION    CONTINUED  [henry  i. 

In  the  charter  Henry  promised  not  to  make  profit  out  of  lands  of 
the  church,  either  by  taking  advantage  of  vacancies  or  by  selling 
its  offices ;  not  to  abuse  his  rights  over  feudal  tenants ;  that  reliefs 
should  be  just  and  lawful ;  that  heiresses  should  not  be  forced  to 
marry  against  their  will ;  and  that  fines  should  be  levied  according 
to  the  nature  of  an  offense.  To  the  nation  at  large  he  granted  the 
laws  of  Edward  the  Confessor  as  interpreted  or  amended  by  his 
father.  The  restriction  which  he  proposed  to  place  upon  his  deal- 
ings with  his  tenants,  they  in  turn  were  to  observe  in  dealing  with 
their  vassals.  The  coiners  of  false  money  also  were  to  be  pun- 
ished ;  but  the  forests  were  to  be  retained  as  his  father  had  held 
them.^ 

In  spite  of  the  unpopularity  of  this  last  provision,  the  people 
received  their  new  king  with  magnificent  enthusiasm;   and  when 

in  1101  Robert  landed  at  Portsmouth  in  order  to  con- 
Hupport  test  the  crown,  the  people  rallied  to  the  support  of  their 

king  as  they  had  once  rallied  to  the  support  of  Harold. 
The  barons,  however,  held  back,  for  they  feared  a  strong  admin- 
istration. The  pliant  Eobert,  whom  nobody  feared  and  who  could 
hardly  keep  the  clothes  on  his  back  from  the  thieving  favorites  who 
surrounded  him,^  would  be  a  king  much  more  to  the  liking  of  the 
barons.  Yet  before  the  solid  front  of  the  nation  Eobert  quailed, 
and  was  finally  glad  to  renounce  his  claims  upon  the  English 
crown  in  return  for  the  cession  of  Henry's  fief  in  the  Cotentin. 

The  retirement  of  Robert  left  Henry  free  to  deal  with  the 
barons  who  had  held  aloof  in  the  moment  of  threatened  invasion. 

Robert  de  Lacy,  Robert  Malet,  and  Ivo  of  Grantmesnil 
ofEiberPof  ^^^^  stripped  of  their  lands  and  driven  from  the  king- 
^eiesme,         dom.      But  greatest  among  Henry's  tenants  was  the 

terrible  Robert  of  Belesme,  who  held  the  important 
western  earldom  of  Shrewsbury,  and  who  had  used  his  power  to 
inaugurate  a  reign  of  terror  on  the  border.  Forty-five  charges  of 
treason  were  brought  against  Robert,  and  when  he  refused  to 
answer  the  king's   summons  to  appear  and   make  reply  to  the 

^Stubbs  S.  C,  pp.  99-102,  and  Lee  Source  Book,  pp.  125,  126. 
2  See  the  remarkable  illustration  of  the  results  of  Robert's  good  nature 
recorded  by  Will.  Malmes.  v.  g  394. 


1102-1106]  TENCHEBRAY  191 

charges,  Henry  straightway  marched  against  him ;  laid  siege  to  the 
great  castle  of  Bridgenorth  on  the  Welsh  border ;  and  after  three 
weeks  took  it.  The  fall  of  Arundel  and  Shrewsbury  followed 
Bridgenorth,  and  Eobert  was  forced  to  retire  to  his  continental 
domains.  Ilis  fall  was  hailed  by  the  nation  with  unrestrained 
delight.  ''Rejoice,  King  Henry,"  the  people  shouted,  "and  give 
thanks  to  God,  for  you  became  a  free  king  on  the  day  when  you 
conquered  Robert  of  Belesme  and  drove  him  from  the  land." 

It  would  have  been  better  for  both  England  and  Normandy  if 

the  quarrel  of  the  two  brothers  could  now  have  been  dropped,  and 

the  duchy  and  the  kingdom  gone  each  their  separate 

The  war  o  o  r 

carried  into    ways.     But  the  baroDS  of  Duke  Robert  were  not  satis- 
fied and  incited  him  to  new  intrigues  against  the  king. 
Henry  who  had  many  loyal  barons  who  held  lands  on  the  Norman 
side  of  the  Channel  and  were  thus  exposed  to  Robert's  tyrannies, 
believed  that  he  had  sufficient  cause  for  renewing  the  war.     For 
two  years  it  raged  without  material  advantage  on  either 
Terwhebray,    gjde .    but    in    1106  Henry  at  the  head  of  a    Norman- 
English   army  completely  routed  Robert's  knights  at 
Tenchebray.     The  battle  was  fought  on  the  28th  of  September, 
the  fortieth  anniversary  of  the  crossing  of  the  Channel   by  the 
Conqueror,  and  was  regarded  by  the  soldiers  of    Henry  as  a  re- 
quital for  the  defeat  of  Hastings.     Robert  was  taken  and  spent 
the  remaining  years  of  his  life  a  close  prisoner  at  Cardiff  Castle, 
where  he  died  in  1134. 

The  salve  to  English  feelings,  however,  could  hardly  atone  for 
the  new  burdens  which  were  imposed  upon  the  monarchy  as  a 
result  of  the  recovery  of  the  Norman  duchy.  The  con- 
Lou^vT^  temporary  French  king  was  the  wily  Louis  VI.,  who  with 
the  keen  insight  of  the  statesman  saw  that  the  welfare 
of  France  demanded  the  separation  of  England  and  Normandy. 
For  twenty-five  years  Henry  wasted  the  strength  of  his  English 
kingdom  in  maintaining  his  Norman  borders  against  the  hostility 
of  the  French,  or  in  crushing  the  insurrections  of  Norman  barons, 
stirred  up  by  French  intrigue.  Yet  Louis  was  no  match  for  Henry 
either  in  war  or  diplomacy.  He  was  both  outgeneraled  and  out- 
witted.    Henry  secured  the  favor  of  the  pope  on  the  one  hand  and 


192  NORMAN    ORGANIZATION    CONTINUED  [henry  1. 

of  the  Emperor,  Henry  V.,  on  the  other,  to  whom  he  married  his 
daughter  Matilda.  He  steadily  extended  his  Norman  domain  at 
the  expense  of  the  feudatories  of  France;  after  the  death  of 
Henry  V.  in  1125,  he  married  his  widowed  daughter  to  Geoffrey  of 
Anjou,  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  future  union  of  the  pos- 
sessions of  the  great  houses  of  Normandy  and  Anjou. 

At  home  Henry  found  himself  plunged  into  a  struggle  of 
another  kind,  but  no  less  important  in  its  ultimate  issues.  He 
had  early  given  an  indication  of  his  good  will  toward  the 
Ameim^^  church  by  the  recall  of  Ansel m.  But  the  persecutions 
to  which  Anselm  had  been  subjected  by  William  Euf  us, 
had  not  been  without  a  direct  influence  upon  his  character  as  well 
as  upon  his  theories  of  the  proper  relation  of  church  and  state. 
Moreover,  he  had  spent  the  years  of  his  exile  at  the  Roman  court  in 
the  very  midst  of  the  bitter  struggle  over  investiture.  The  best 
men  of  the  age  felt  that  the  time  had  come  when  the  church 
should  be  freed  from  the  control  of  the  civil  power.  Only  so 
could  it  keep  its  garments  unspotted  from  the  sin  of  simony  and 
the  other  corruptions  which  had  degraded  its  character  and  weak- 
ened its  influence.  Anselm  had  not  objected  to  investiture  at  the 
hands  of  the  Red  King;  but  coming  at  the  call  of  Henry,  fresh 
from  the  stirring  scenes  of  the  great  Lateran  Council  which  had 
formally  forbidden  lay  investiture,  he  could  not  do  homage 
to  Henry  or  consecrate  the  bishops  whom  he  had  appointed. 
It  was  a  grave  question ;  none  more  serious  had  ever  confronted 
king  or  bishop.  The  autocratic  spirit  of  the  king  revolted  against 
the  implied  denial  of  his  independence.  "What  have  I  to  do  with 
a  Roman  canon!"  he  cried.  "No  man  shall  remain  in  my  land 
who  will  not  do  me  homage." 

Yet  Henry  was  no  such  blustering  egoist  as  his  brother.     He 

fully  valued  the  support  of  the  church,  and  a  breach  with  Anselm 

was  farthest  from  his  thoughts.     Anselm  on  his  part 

St^^'^S^^'  was  no  contumacious  rebel,  but  was  fully  prepared  to 

TYll'SC^  11.07  •  •/      X         J. 

concede  to  the  king  all  rights  consistent  with  the 
spiritual  independence  of  the  church.  He  had  been  the  first  to 
respond  to  Henry's  call  for  troops  against  Robert,  and  his  example 
had  had  no  little  influence  in  strengthening  the  loyalty  of  others. 


ROGER    OF    SALISBURY  193 

The  controversy  therefore,  though  earnest,  was  carried  on  with 
becoming  dignity  on  both  sides,  and  was  finally  adjusted  by  a  com- 
promise: 'The  election  of  bishops  was  to  be  henceforth  in  the 
hands  of  the  cathedral  chapters,  but  was  to  be  held  at  the  king's 
court;  the  temporal  rights  of  the  crown  were  secured  by  the  act  of 
homage  to  the  king,  by  which  the  new  bishop  received  his  lands; 
the  spiritual  rights  of  tlie  church,  by  anointing  and  investiture 
with  ring  and  crozler  at  the  hands  of  the  archbishop;  papal  juris- 
diction was  not  excluded,  but  no  papal  legate  could  come  into 
England  without  the  royal  permission. '  ^  **Thus  the  church  retained 
its  independence  as  far  as  it  was  necessary  for  its  moral  influence; 
the  king  retained  a  supervision  as  far  as  it  was  necessary  for  the 
unity  of  the  state."  This  arrangement,  the  only  possible  adjust- 
ment of  the  dual  relation  of  church  and  state,  was  practically  the 
basis  upon  which  the  long  quarrel  between  church  and  empire 
was  finally  settled  by  the  Concordat  of  Worms  fifteen  years  later. 

Tenchebray  had  freed  Henry's  hands  to  take  up  again  the  work 
of  organization  and  administration  at  home,  a  work  that  pleased 
him  far  better  than  the  rough  and  uncertain  life  of  the 
SaSSbury  camp.  In  Normandy  he  had  picked  up  a  priest,  known 
as  Roger  the  Poor,  who  once  when  Henry  happened  to 
be  present  had  commended  himself  to  the  king  by  the  rapid,  busi- 
nesslike way  in  which  he  had  rushed  through  the  mass.  A  cool- 
headed,  cold-blooded  man  of  business  was  this  Roger,  as  void  of 
sentiment  as  the  columns  of  a  ledger.  Henry  advanced  him 
steadily;  made  him  bishop  of  Salisbury,  chancellor,  and  finally 
chief  justiciar. 

Roger  was  quick  to  see  the  weakness  of  the  system  which 
England  had  inherited  from  the  past;  but  also  quick  to  see  how 
it  could  be  adapted  to  the  new  conditions  which  confronted  the 
crown.  The  magnum  concilium,  the  old  witenagemot,  had  changed 
Change  in  insensibly  from  a  council  of  the  grandees  of  the  nation 
mZXm''^  to  a  council  of  the  tenants  in  chief  of  the  king.  It 
cnnciHum.  ^^s  no  longer  summoned  at  regular  intervals,  as  in  the 
time  of  William  I.,  and  had  long  since  become  too  unwieldy  to 
attend  to  the  details  of  ordinary  administration.     Theoretically  its 

*  Gee  and  Hardy,  pp.  08-GG. 


194  NORMAK    ORGANIZATTOK    CONTINUED  [hkney  I. 

functions  remained  unchanged,  but  practically  they  were  passing 
to  the  body  of  officials  who  composed  the  king's  household,  which 
from  Henry's  reign  is  to  be  known  distinctively  as  the  Curia  Regis, ^ 
and  which  under  Roger's  management  rapidly  developed  into  a 
court  of  all  work,  with  business  as  manifold  and  varied  as  the  rela- 
tions of  the  crown  to  the  people.     His  custom  was  to 

Development  _  ^    .  .  ,  ^.      ^       ■,.-,„,       . 

r^  Curia         coufine  Certain  sessions  to  particular  kinds  of  business 

Thus  the  members  might  be  summoned  to  give  advice 
upon  state  matters,  the  O^^dinary  Cou7icil  of  the  king;  or  they 
might  be  summoned  as  a  simple  court  to  hear  an  appeal  from  a 
lower  court,  or  to  try  a  dispute  between  the  great  barons,  or  to 
hear  a  charge  of  the  king  against  a  baron.  Questions  pertaining 
to  the  royal  treasury  also  formed  no  small  part  of  the  business 
of  the  Curia,  and  when  summoned  for  the  consideration  of  such 
business  it  was  known  as  the  Court  of  Exchequer.  Later  these 
several  meetings  differentiate  into  separate  committees,  and  finally 
into  distinct  courts. 

The  local  courts  also  demanded  the  attention  of  Henry  and  his 
great  justiciar.     By  the  custom  of  granting  private  jurisdictions 

the  jurisdiction  of  the  old  courts  of  the  hundred  and  the 
Ujcai^urts     ^^^^®  ^^^^  heew  steadily  contracted.     Even  lords  who  did 

not  hold  their  lands  with  special  liberties,  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  take  advantage  of  the  natural  strength  of  their  position  in 
the  local  community  to  enforce  the  fullest  jurisdiction.  Flambard 
also  had  indirectly  contributed  to  the  decline  of  the  public  courts 
by  using  them  as  a  means  of  extortion,  and  the  people  had  begun 
to  abandon  them  for  the  private  courts  of  the  feudal  lords  as  more 
likely  to  do  them  justice. 

Accordingly,   soon   after    Tenchebray,   Henry  set  himself    to 
restore  the  public  courts,  and  issued  orders  for  the  holding  of  the 

courts  of  the  shire  and  the  hundred  ^'according  to  the 
rlttiyres  local  ^^shion  in  wliich  they  had  been  held  in  the  time  of  King 
no8^^'  ^^'^"^   Edward  and  not  otherwise. "     Yet  so  unpopular  had  the 

shire  courts  become,  so  suspicious  were  the  people  of 
the  king's  officers,  that  Henry  had  to  repeat  the  order  four  years 
later  and  support  it  by  fining  those  who  continued  to  disobey. 
1  See  p.  170. 


HENRY    AND   THE    COURTS  195 

Henry  also  sought  to  strengthen  the  local  courts  by  sending 
out  Justices  from  time  to  time  from  the  Curia  Regis  to  sit  in  the 

shire  courts,  thus  emphasizing  their  ancient  character 
circuit  as  king's  courts.     One  such  circuit,  that  of  1124,  was 

famous  for  the  hanging  of  forty-four  thieves,  which 
according  to  the  Chro7iicle  was  a  fair  breaking  of  the  record.  Such 
commissions  were  as  yet  occasional  and  always  special.  Yet  the 
way  was  indicated  by  which  the  ** superstructure  of  Norman  cen- 
tralization was  to  be  placed  over  the  groundwork  of  English  local 
government."  It  was  left  for  the  second  Henry  to  complete  the 
work  by  arranging  definite  circuits  and  fixing  the  periods  of  visita- 
tion. 

In  the  growing  power  of  the  king's  court  we  are  to  see  the 
growing  power  of  the  monarchy.     Nor  was  it  simply  that  the  king 

thereby  had  forged  an  effective  weapon  for  overawinsr 

The  courts  a«    ^,        ,  i     /^  i        i     j      i  -,        ,         i 

a  source  of      the  barons,   but  he   had  also  developed  a  new  source 

revenue.  .    .  ,  .  A  .     ii         i      • 

of   income;    always    a    primary   motive   at   the    basis 

of  the  judicial  system  of  the  Norman  kings. ^  The  fines  and  for- 
feitures decreed  by  the  courts,  gathered  from  the  whole  kingdom 
and  swelled  into  a  considerable  stream  by  the  time  they  reached 
the  royal  treasury,  formed  no  inconsiderable  part  of  its  revenues. 

The  increase  of  the  crown  revenues  through  the  courts  did  not 
save  the  people  from  the  burden  of  more  direct  taxation;  ** bitterly 
they  complained  of  the  manifold  taxes  which  never 
under  ceased. "     ''lie  who  had  any  property  was  bereaved  of 

it,  and  he  who  had  none  starved  with  hunger."  Bad 
harvests,  sickness,  or  other  misfortune,  might  not  be  pleaded  in 
excuse  for  non-payment;  the  taxes  were  none  the  less  regular, 
the  crown  officers  none  the  less  exacting.  In  1109,  when  the 
Princess  Matilda  was  betrothed  to  the  emperor,  an  aid  of  three 
shillings  per  hide  was  levied  not  only  on  the  baronage  but  on  the 
entire  population ;  the  first  instance  of  the  payment  of  a  distinctly 
feudal  aid  by  the  nation. 

Beside  Matilda,  Henry  had  one  other  lawful  child,  a  son,  who 
bore   the  family   name  of   William   and    who   by   reason  of   the 

^Stubbs,  a  H.,  I,  p.  425. 


196  NORMAls"    ORGANIZATION    CONTINUED  [henrt  I. 

strain  of    English  blood  which  he  had  inherited  from  hjs  mother, 
was  exceedingly  popular  with  the  English.     Yet  he  but  poorly  re- 
quited  their  affection.     He  was  thoroughly  Norman  in 

Princ6  tj     ♦/ 

wiiimm,        his    sympathies,   and  looked  with  contempt  upon  his 

mother's  people.  He  is  not  an  attractive  character,  this 
William,  with  all  the  vices  of  his  father's  family  and  with  nothing 
of  his  father's  tact  or  self-control.  In  1120  he  had  gone  with  his 
father  to  Normandy,  where  the  Norman  barons  had  formally 
accepted  him  as  Henry's  successor.  But  on  the  return  a  drunken 
crew  managed  to  run  the  ship,  the  *' White  Ship,"  upon  a  rock, 
where  it  sank  with  all  on  board.  It  has  been  the  fashion  of  Eng- 
lish writers  to  lament  the  accident  as  a  national  calamity.  It  is 
true  England  might  have  been  saved  from  the  civil  wars  of  the 
next  reign.     But  then,  some  things  are  worse  than  civil  war. 

The  question  of  succession  was  at  once  reopened.     William 
Clito,  the  son  of  Duke  Robert,  was  the  last  representative  of  the 

male  line  of  the  Conqueror.  He  was  a  young  man,  ap- 
cim,  death,    parently  of  real  ability,  and  withal  of  excellent  character. 

Yet  the  long  feud  which  he  had  waged  with  his  uncle 
on  the  ground  of  his  father's  wrongs,  made  it  impossible  for  Henry 
ever  to  accept  him  as  his  heir.  The  enmity  of  the  two  men  was 
still  further  embittered  by  a  new  quarrel  which  sprang  up  on  the 
death  of  Charles,  the  last  count  of  Flanders.  The  French  king 
supported  William  Clito  who  claimed  the  succession  by  right  of 
descent  from  Matilda,  queen  of  the  Conqueror.  Henry  interfered 
and  incited  the  Flemings  to  revolt,  but  was  unable  to  prevent 
the  succession.  William's  triumph,  however,  was  of  little  profit; 
he  died  soon  after  from  the  effect  of  a  slight  wound,  which  the 
rude  surgery  of  the  day  had  failed  to  treat  properly. 

Henry  in  the  meanwhile  had  set  his  heart  upon  securing  the 
succession  in  England  for  his  daughter  Matilda.   On  January  1, 1127 

the  great  council  formally  acknowledged  her  right  and 
Henry  fixes  swore  to  accept  her  as  their  future  sovereign.  She  had 
umm  m  his     j^^en  left  a  childless  widow  by  the  recent  death  of  the 

emperor,  and  Henry  pledged  his  barons  to  find  her  a 
husband  in  England.  But  in  1128,  without  consulting  the  barons, 
he  married  Matilda  to  Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  a  bright  handsome  lad,  Ma- 


THE    LIOX    OF   JUSTICE  197 

tilda's  junior  by  many  years.  The  English  lords  felt  that  the  king 
had  betrayed  them.  The  Norman  lords  hated  the  Angeviiis  with 
the  bitterness  born  of  a  century  of  border  warfare.  Yet  Henry 
persisted  and  compelled  the  barons  to  renew  their  oaths  to  Matilda; 
and  when  in  1133  prince  Henry  was  born,  the  name  of  the  grandson 
was  joined  in  the  oath  with  that  of  the  mother. 

Two  years  later  Henry  I.  suddenly  died  in  the  midst  of  his 
activities.  He  had  been  a  great  king.  He  had  his  faults,  the 
somber  side  of  his  nature;  yet  they  were  not  allowed  to 
ontiem^S^  affect  his  public  character.  He  was  an  indefatigable 
worker,  and  he  exacted  the  same  diligence  and  industry 
from  all  who  served  him.  He  reintroduced  the  lamp  as  an  adjunct 
to  the  public  service;  for  the  daylight  hours  were  all  too  few  for 
liis  tireless  energy.  Like  his  father,  he  was  cold  and  hard.  He 
asked  no  man  to  love  him;  yet  he  expected  his  people  to  respect 
him  and  obey  his  laws.  His  severity  won  for  him  the  title  of  the 
**Lion  of  Justice."  The  death  penalty,  which  had  been  confined 
to  the  Forest  Laws,  was  put  into  practice  against  thieves  and  rob- 
bers. *'Great  was  the  awe  of  him."  **No  man  durst  misdo 
against  another."  ''He  made  peace  for  man  and  beast.  Whoso 
bore  his  burden  of  gold  and  silver,  no  man  durst  say  aught  to  him 
but  good." 

Henry  saw  that  the  people  needed  security  from  the  oppression 

of  the  barons  and  rest  from  war  and  alarm,  and  to  this  end  he  bent 

all  his  splendid  energies.     His  hand  was  an  iron  hand, 

Henry's  .  -,     ■,  ^  > 

policy  but  it  gave  peace;  and  the  achievements  of  the  country 

during  his  reign,  its  material  and  intellectual  prosperity, 
fully  justified  his  policy.  The  Crusades  had  greatly  stimulated  all 
forms  of  commercial  and  industrial  activity;  vast  sums  of  money 
had  been  released  and  put  into  active  circulation.  The  close  con- 
nection of  England  with  the  continent,  the  result  of  the  union  with 
Normandy,  the  peace  which  reigned  in  the  Channel,  placed  the 
English  nation  in  a  position  to  secure  their  full  share  of  this  new 
life.  English  merchants  extended  their  operations  to  Flanders, 
Denmark,  Ireland,  and  Brittany,  and  even  sought  connections  with 
the  great  trading  and  banking  firms  of  southern  Europe.  The 
craftsmen  of  the  lands  south  of  the  Channel,  weavers  and  manu- 


198  NORMAN    ORGANIZATION    CONTINUED  [hknryI. 

facturers  of  various  kinds,  who  dwelt  where  barons  were  accus- 
tomed "to  go  a  riding"  as  their  lust  for  war  and  plunder  dictated, 
turned  to  the  land  of  the  peace-loving  king,  and  in  ever  increasing 
numbers  began  to  seek  its  shelter,  and  thus  added  not  a  little  to 
the  development  of  the  wealth  and  strength  of  the  middle  classes. 

Henry  was  not  unmindful  of  the  significance  of  this  industrial 
revival,  and  showed  himself  willing  to  encourage  it  by  granting 
Charters  of  Diany  charters  to  English  towns.  The  charters  of  Lon- 
towns.  (Jon  and  Beverley  are  still  preserved,  and  furnish  valuable 

examples  of  the  first  achievements  of  English  towns  in  securing  local 
privileges.* 

The  quickening  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  life  of  the  people 

also   kept  pace   with  the   political  and   industrial   revival.     This 

phase  of  the  new  life  naturally  found  expression  through 

Moral  and       ^  ^.    .  ^       ^.  /  ^,  ^  ,         ^ 

intellectual  monasticism ;  for  the  monastery  was  the  commonly  rec- 
ognized  agent  through  which  society  sought  to  realize  its 
better  aspirations.  It  was  the  most  important  of  civilizing  agencies ; 
it  was  not  only  hospital,  dispensary,  and  asylum;  it  was  university 
and  library  and  printing  press  as  well.  Here  in  bleak  cells  simple- 
hearted  scholars  toiled  through  weary  hours,  copying  with  infinite 
pains  the  writings  of  the  past.  The  abbey,  moreover,  was  the  inn 
or  .hostelry  of  the  period,  and  here  the  great  folk  of  the  age  in  their 
tireless  passings  to  and  fro  were  forced  often  to  spend  a  night,  and 
many  a  choice  bit  of  courtly  gossip  fell  upon  the  ears  of  the  alert 
monk,  to  find  its  way  ultimately  into  chronicle  or  more  pretentious 
history.  Men  seemed  to  realize  that  stirring  times  were  passing, 
that  England  was  moving  swiftly  into  a  new  era;  and  they  sought 
to  link  past  and  future  by  leaving  a  fuller  account  of  the  present 
as  they  saw  it.  About  the  year  1120  the  monks  of  Peterborough 
secured  a  copy  of  the  old  Worcester  chronicle,  that  had  come  down 
from  the  days  of  Alfred  the  Great,  and  for  thirty-four  years  longer 
continued  the  entries  of  this  famous  register.  Henry  of  Hunting- 
don and  William  of  Malmesbury,  contemporaries  of  Henry  I.  and 
Anselm,  also  began  their  histories;  such  works  show  how  seriously 
Englishmen  were  beginning  to  regard  the  actions  of  their  public 

men. 

iStubbs,  S.  a,  pp.  107-110. 


1117-1133]  EDUCATION  199 

Historical  writing  was  only  one  of  many  ways  in  which  the 
quickened  intellectual  life  of  the  age  sought  expression.     Henry 

himself  was  an  educated  man.     He  spoke  English  and 

French  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  could  use  Latin  like 
a  clerk.  He  saw  to  it  that  his  children  also  were  trained  in  the 
lore  of  the  age.  His  court  was  familiar  with  the  forms  and  faces 
of  famous  scholars.  His  son,  Robert  of  Gloucester,  was  the  par- 
ticular friend  and  patron  of  William  of  Malmesbury.  At  Beau- 
mont, on  the  northern  side  of  Oxford,  Henry  erected  a  palace,  and 
the  neighborhood  became  a  popular  place  for  the  gathering  of 
learned  men.  Here,  sometime  before  the  year  1117,  Thibaut 
d'Estampes  gathered  some  half  hundred  or  more  scholars  to  whom 
he  gave  instruction  in  letters.  In  1133  Robert  Pullin  lectured  on 
the  Scriptures,  and  was  soon  after  seconded  by  Vacarius,  who 
began  lectures  on  the  civil  law.*  Upon  the  informal  beginnings 
made  by  such  men  grew  up  in  time  the  noble  group  of  schools 
known  as  the  University  of  Oxford. 

In  other  ways  also  the  monastery  contributed  to  swell  the  tide 
of   new  influences    which   was  moving    England.      The   Clnniac 

reform  had  reached  its  height  during  the  reign  of  the 
The^ciunUic    ^^st  William,  and  his  policy  of  appointing  Normans  to 

rule  over  English  abbeys,  as  well  as  the  policy  of  intro- 
ducing into  England  new  colonies  of  Norman  monks,  had  done 
much  to  bring  English  monasticism  into  touch  with  the  monastic 
life  of  the  continent;  yet,  although  the  influence  of  these  foreign 
ecclesiastics  over  the  English  clergy  was  very  great,  although  their 
advent  had  inaugurated  a  new  church-building  era,  the  results 
of  which  in  the  vastness,  ornateness,  and  splendor  of  individual 
structures  surpassed    anything  which    England    had   yet    seen,^ 

^The  commonly  accepted  date,  1149,  is  doubtful. 

2  Of  these  structures  the  most  famous  was  old  St.  Paul's  of  London. 
A  building  had  been  begun  in  1083,  but  was  burned  in  the  great  fire  four 
years  later.  The  rebuilding  was  undertaken  by  Bishop  Maurice  and  took 
forty  years  to  finish.  The  dimensions  of  the  completed  edifice  were: 
length,  720  feet ;  breadth,  130  feet;  height  of  body  of  church,  130  feet ; 
while  the  steeple  rose  to  the  magnificent  height  of  520  feet.  According 
to  William  of  Malmesbury,  the  building  was  capable  of  containing  the 
"utmost  conceivable  number  of  worshipers."     The  structure  survived 


200  NORMAN    ORGANIZATION    CONTINUED  [hbnkyI. 

the  fact  that  the  new  ecclesiastics  were  of  foreign  birth  cut 
them  off  largely  from  the  sympathy  of  the  nation;  nor  was  it  until 
the  generation  of  the  Conquest  had  passed  to  the  grave  and  the 
reign  of  Henry  I.  was  drawing  to  its  close,  that  their  influence 
began  to  reach  beyond  the  walls  of  chapter  or  monastery  to  affect 
the  lives  of  the  people  in  more  direct  ways. 

In  the  year  1128  the  forerunners  of  the  Cistercian  revival  began 
to  reach  England,  This  new  order  was  an  offshoot  of  the  older 
Benedictine  brotherhood ;  it  had  been  founded  by  Rob- 
"cicmr&oivai  ^^^  ^^  Molesme  at  Citeaux  in  1098;  its  members  adopted 
the  rules  of  Clnny  and  applied  them  unsparingly  in  the 
regulation  of  food  and  dress.  The  older  monasteries  had  become 
very  wealthy.  Wealth  had  led  to  luxury,  if  not  to  riotous  living. 
The  monastery  was  lord  of  manors,  with  vassals  and  revenues ;  it 
furnished  its  quota  of  knights  at  the  king's  call.  The  abbot  vied 
with  bishops  in  dignity  and  power;  he  had  his  wine  cellars;  he 
kept  his  stables  and  kennels.  There  had  never  been  lacking,  how- 
ever, godly  men  who  felt  that  all  this  fine  living,  this  ostentation 
of  wealth,  was  not  in  keeping  with  the  ideals  of  the  monastic  life, 
and  to  such  elements  the  apostolic  simplicity  of  the  Cistercians, 
their  lives  of  voluntary  poverty,  and  their  deep  religions  zeal,  voiced 
in  the  stirring  appeals  of  men  like  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  the 
famous  preacher  of  the  second  Crusade,  came  with  peculiar  power. 

The  appearance  of  the  Cistercians  in  England  was  the  signal  for 
the  beginning  of  a  wide-reaching  religious  revival.  "Everywhere 
in  town  and  country  men  banded  themselves  together 
of^cM^rcimis  ^^^  Player ;  hermits  flocked  to  the  woods ;  .  .  .  a  new 
inEngiand,  gpjrit  of  devotion  woke  the  slumbers  of  the  religious 
houses,  and  penetrated  alike  to  the  home  of  the  noble 
and  the  trader. "  ^  Nor  did  the  revival  pass  away  in  mere  devo- 
tional excitement ;   it  left  a  deep  and  permanent  mark  upon  the 

many  vicissitudes  until  it  was  swept  away  in  the  great  fire  of  the  year 
1666.  Another  building  which  also  dates  from  this  period,  famous  in  later 
years  as  containing  the  tomb  of  Milton,  is  the  Church  of  St.  Giles  at  Crip- 
plegate,  the  order  for  the  destruction  of  which  has  recently  (Jan.,  1901) 
gone  forth. 

1  Green,  H.  E.  P.,  vol.  I,  p.  157. 


THE    CISTERCIANS  201 

nation  and  upon  the  age.  A  new  class  of  ecclesiastics  came  for- 
ward who  owed  their  positions  not  to  political  influence  but  to 
their  reputation  for  "holiness  of  life  and  unselfishness  of  aim;" 
who  sought  to  give  practical  expression  to  religious  devotion  in 
rearing  hospitals  and  founding  schools ;  who  did  not  hesitate  to 
confront  lawless  barons,  and  who  compelled  even  kings  to  listen  to 
the  pleadings  of  the  national  conscience. 

The  churches  of  the  Cluniac  monks  had  abounded  in  decora- 
tions, in  beautiful  windows  of  stained  glass;  their  services  were 
equally  ornate.  The  asceticism  of  the  Cistercians 
arcMUciure  ^^^ended  to  the  service  as  well  as  to  the  luxurious  lives 
of  the  religious  orders.  They  despised  ornament  both 
in  building  and  in  ritual.  Yet  in  the  very  simplicity  of  their 
buildings  they  attained  a  dignity  and  grandeur,  a  beauty  of  form, 
which  the  ostentatious  Cluniacs  missed  altogether.* 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  Cistercians  also  in  their  desire  to  avoid 
display  or  ostentation  to  search  for  sites  for  their  monastic  settle- 
ments in  some  abandoned  wilderness,  some  lonely  spot 

Cisterciam       .        ,,        ,         ,  ,  \       -,         ,  , 

as  wool-  in  the  forest,  some  waste  bottom-land,  where  they 
busied  themselves  in  the  homely  but  practical  service  of 
clearing  woodland  or  draining  fens.  It  was  due  to  them  that, 
beginning  with  the  twelfth  century,  pasture-farming  derives  a  new 
importance  in  the  history  of  English  industries.  Large  parts  of 
northern  England  had  been  practically  unoccupied  since  the  days 
of  the  Conqueror,  and  these  desolate  regions  afforded  most  favor- 
able conditions  for  the  breeding  of  sheep.  The  Cistercians  discov- 
ered that  this  form  of  industry  promised  most  abundant  rewards, 
and  turned  to  it  as  their  special  avocation,  becoming  par  excellence 
the  sheep-raisers  of  medieval  England,  greatly  encouraging  wool- 
growing  and  all  the  accompanying  industries. 

^  The  famous  Abbey  of  Fountains,  near  Ripon,  said  to  be  the  finest 
ecclesiastical  ruin  in  England,  is  an  illustration  of  the  Cistercian  style. 
It  was  built  in  the  fourteenth  century. 


y 


CHAPTER  V 


FEUDAL   REACTION    AND    THE    RECONSTITUTION    OF   THE    KINGDOM 


STEPHEN,    1135-1154 
HENRY  II.,  1154-1189 


FAMILIES  OF  BLOIS  AND  BOULOGNE 


BLOIS 

Stephen    =  Adela 

Ct.  of  Blois,  youngest  child 

Chartres,  and  of  the  Conqueror 

Champagne  m.  1086,  d.  1137 


Theobald  IV., 

the  Great, 
Ct.  of  Blois, 
Chartres,  and 
Champagne ; 
d.ll52 
I 


I 

Stephen 
Ct.  of  Mortain 
and  Boulogne, 
1125;  King  of 
England,  1135; 

d.  1154 


Henry 
('t.  of  Cham- 
pagne and 
Troyes 


Theobald  V. 

Ct.  of  Blois 

and  Chartres 


Henry 
Bishop  of 
Winches- 
ter; Pai)al 

legate 


Stephen 
Lord  of 
Sancerre 


BOULOGNE 

Eustace  11.    =    Godgifu,  d.  of 


Ct.  of  Boulogne 
d.  (about)  1093 


Ethelred,  the 
Eedeless 


Eustace  III. = Mary,  g.  d.   Godfrey 


Ct.  of  Bou- 
logne, d. 
1135 


Stephen 
King  of 
England 


of  Malcolm  of  Bouil- 
and  Mar-     Ion, Duke 


garet  of 
Scotland 


Matilda, 
d.  1152 


Baldwin 

King  of 

Edessa; 

after 

1100 

King  of 


of  Lower 

Lorraine, 

First 

Christian  Jerusa 

King  of     lem,  d 

Jerusa-      1118 

lem,  d. 

1100 


Eustace    William    Mary,  Abbess       Other 
d,  1153       Ct.  of  of  Romsey;       children 

Boulogne     1159  succeeded  of  minor 
1154-1159      to  Boulogne;      Impor- 
m.  Deitrich         tance 
of  Flanders 


When  the  masterful  Henry  was  no  more  it  was  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  the  barons  would  show  much  respect  for  the  disposi- 
tion which  he  had  made  of  the  succession.     The  barons 
sirniof  considered  themselves  specially  grieved  by  what  they 

regarded  as  the  late  king's  bad  faith,  and  felt  no  obliga- 
tion to  keep  the  oath  which  they  had  made  to  the  daughter  and 
the  grandson.  Matilda,  moreover,  had  spent  much  of  her  life 
abroad;  the  people  knew  little  of  her,  and  that  little  had  left  a 
most  unfavorable  impression.  When,  therefore,  Stephen,  the 
Count  of  Mortain  and  Boulogne,  the  son  of  the  Conqueror's 
daughter,  Adela,  presented  himself  as  the  rival  of  Matilda,  brave, 
generous,  debonaire,  and  already  well  known  and  popular  in  Eng- 

202 


1135]  UNFITNESS   OF   STEPHEN  203 

land,  all  classes  welcomed  him;  the  towns  greeted  him  with 
enthusiasm;  the  great  officers  of  Henry  I.  declared  for  him;  and 
the  clergy,  headed  by  Stephen's  younger  brother,  Henry,  bishop 
of  Winchester,  entered  upon  an  active  campaign  in  his  support. 
The  Norman  barons  hesitated,  not  because  of  any  lingering  loValty 
to  Matilda  but  because  they  preferred  Stephen's  elder  brother, 
Theobald  the  Great,  the  powerful  count  of  Blois,  Chartres,  and 
Champagne.  The  prompt  action  of  Stephen,  however,  forestalled 
any  movement  on  behalf  of  Theobald;  Theobald  himself  quietly 
acquiesced  in  what  appeared  to  be  the  choice  of  the  English 
nation,  and  the  barons  almost  to  a  man  went  over  to  Stephen. 
So  Stephen  was  crowned  and  not  Matilda;  in  all  England  and 
Normandy  Matilda  possessed  not  a  single  open  adherent. 

Stephen    had    hardly    entered    upon    his    first    year    before 
good    men    began  to    realize   that  a  serious  mistake  had    been 

made,  and  that  he  was  singularly  unfitted  for  the 
^tfum^^    task  which  he  had  assumed.     He  had  made  many  proni- 

ises:  he  would  not  use  the  church  lands  for  gain;  he 
would  abolish  the  wrongs  sprung  of  the  overfree  exercise  of  the 
authority  of  the  sheriff;  he  would  do  away  with  the  hated  Dane- 
geld;  he  would  surrender  the  forests  made  in  Henry's  reign;  he 
would  observe  'Hhe  good  laws  and  customs  of  Henry  and  Edward 
the  Confessor. "  *  *  These  thi  ngs  chiefly  and  others  he  vowed  to  God , 
but  he  kept  none  of  them."  He  was  as  lavish  with  his  gifts  as 
with  his  promises ;  but  he  bestowed  them  not  upon  those  who  had 
first  declared  for  him  but  upon  those  who  held  back  and  sought  to 
barter  allegiance  for  a  price.  Among  these  was  David  of  Scot- 
land, who  was  an  English  baron  by  reason  of  lands  which  he  held 
in  England.  He  made  a  show  of  declaring  for  Matilda,  invading 
England  and  seizing  the  northern  castles,  but  allowed  Stephen  to 
buy  him  off  by  adding  Carlisle  to  his  possessions  and  bestowing 
upon  his  son  Henry  the  earldom  of  Huntingdon.  Such  a  policy 
on  Stephen's  part  was  suicidal;  it  whetted  the  appetites  of  others 
who  saw  that  they  had  yielded  all  too  readily  to  the  new  king, 
for  subjects  had  nothing  to  fear  from  this  overgenerous  sovereign, 
who  in  rcAvarding  his  servants  recognized  treason  rather  than 
service. 


204  FEUDAL    REACTIOK  [stkphbn 

Stephen's  head  was  none  of  the  clearest,  and  yet  even  he  could 
see  that  things  were  going  wrong,  and  that  reaction  was  setting 

in  against  him.  But  he  only  added  blunder  to  blunder. 
ders  of  To  strengthen  himself  he  introduced  an  army  of  Flemish 

mercenaries ;  no  measure  could  have  been  more  fatal  to 
his  waning  popularity,  which  in  the  first  place  had  been  largely  based 
upon  his  supposed  opposition  to  foreign  influence.  But,  as  if  this 
blunder  were  not  serious  enough,  Stephen  allowed  the  barons  whom 
he  regarded  as  his  adherents  to  build  and  fortify  castles  of  their 
own,  where  they  gathered  private  bands  of  armed  retainers  and 
soon  began  to  exercise  over  the  people  of  the  surrounding  country 
all  the  brutal  tyrannies  which  had  made  the  baronage  of  France  so 
justly  feared  and  hated.  Yet  these  concessions,  while  they 
alienated  the  people,  failed  to  win  the  barons;  for  they  were  more 
than  offset  by  the  strange  fatuity  with  which  Stephen  insisted 
upon  raising  certain  base-born  favorites  to  the  high  grade  of  earl; 
a  policy  which  only  roused  the  scorn  of  the  older  baronage  and 
won  for  the  king  their  lasting  hatred  and  contempt. 

By  1136  Stephen's  hands  were  full  of  trouble.  The  perfidious 
David  had  again  taken  up  arms,  while  the  powerful  Robert,  Earl 

of  Gloucester,  the  half-brother  of  Matilda,  had  gathered 
Outbreak  of    the  barons  of  the  west  and  south  and  also  declared  for 

civil  war. 

Stephen's  rival.  Yet  Stephen's  cause  was  by  no 
means  desperate.  He  was  a  good  soldier,  and  soon  won  marked 
successes  in  the  west,  where  Hereford  and  Shrewsbury  were  taken, 
while  his  *'good  queen,"  Matilda,  daughter  and  heiress  of  the 
younger  Eustace  of  Boulogne,*  not  to  be  confounded  with  the 
other  Matilda,  captured  Dover.  In  1138  Earl  Robert 
Urn.  the  was  driven  from  the  country  and  some  of  his  garrisons 

standard,  were  hanged.  David  of  Scotland  also  was  beaten  at 
Northallerton  in  the  famous  Battle  of  the  Standard,  by 
an  army  of  barons  and  yeomanry,  whom  Thurstan,  the  aged 
primate  of  York,  had  called  together  and  dispatched  under  Walter 
Lespec  to  hold  the  road  into  Yorkshire. 

All  in  all,  the  first  years  of  the  war  had  gone  well  for  Stephen ; 
too  well,  in  fact,  for  his  head  had  been  completely  turned  by  his  suc- 

^  See  table  at  head  of  chapter. 


1139]  THE   BREAK   WITH   THE   CHURCH  205 

cesses,  and  he  seized  upon  this  moment  for  his  fatal  break  with  the 
church.      Henry's  justiciar,  Roger  bishop  of  Salisbury,  was  still 

the  great  man  of  the  kingdom,  and  controlled  all  its 
Fh^^i  "^'/f      administrative  machinery.    His  son,  a  second  Roger,  was 

chancellor;  his  nephew,  Nigel,  the  bishop  of  Ely,  wa^ 
treasurer;  still  another  nephew  was  bishop  of  Lincoln.  It  is  easy 
to  see  why  Stephen  should  become  jealous  of  this  powerful  family, 
who  now  for  a  full  generation  had  managed  the  '* judicial  and 
financial  business  of  the  kingdom."  It  is  not  so  easy  to  under- 
stand the  strange  blindness  which  permitted  him  to  break  with 
them.  Roger  had  many  bitter  enemies  among  the  barons,  but  he 
had  made  them  his  enemies  in  the  king's  service.  He  and  his 
nephews  had  built  strong  castles  and  were  accustomed  to  go  up  to 
court  attended  by  a  magnificent  array  of  retainers.  This  was  all 
contrary  to  law,  but  everywhere  the  barons,  the  very  vassals  of 
Roger  and  his  kinsmen,  were  building  castles  and  arming  their 
retainers.  With  vast  revenues  at  command,  therefore,  and  the 
dignity  of  the  state  to  uphold,  Roger  could  hardly  do  less.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  in  June  1131)  Stephen  suddenly  arrested  the  justiciar 
and  the  chancellor,  the  two  Rogers,  and  also  the  bishop  of  Lin- 
coln, and  forced  them  to  surrender  their  castles.  The  move  was  a 
double  blunder.  In  the  first  place  the  *' whole  mechanism  of  the 
state  at  once  came  to  a  stand  still."  In  the  second  place  the 
church,  which  had  been  from  the  first  thoroughly  loyal  to  the  king, 
raised  the  cry  of  privilege,  and  when  Stephen  stubbornly  held  to 
his  purpose,  the  clerical  leaders,  headed  by  Henry  of  Winchester, 
went  over  to  the  Angevin  side. 

Thus  Stephen,  in  striking  down  Roger,  had  done  more  than 
strike  down  a  powerful  family;  he  had  cut  away  the  ground  from 

under  his  own  feet.     The  royal  income  at  once  ceased, 

SerioiixnesH  iii.  hi 

nf  Stephen's    and  the  king  was  compelled  to  resort  to  the  shabby  expe- 

blunder.  -,.       ,      ^    -,.   f  •  rr.,  .         ,  ,      •  .         , 

dient  of  dishonest  coinage.  The  national  levies  refused 
to  respond  to  his  call,  and  he  was  compelled  to  summon  from  the 
continent  a  horde  of  ruffian  adventurers,  who  were  willing  to  look 
to  the  plunder  of  the  battle  field  and  the  looting  of  the  houses  of 
citizens  for  their  pay.  In  September  the  Angevin  Matilda  arrived, 
accompanied  by  Robert  of  Gloucester,  and  Stephen  at  last  found 


206  FEUDAL    REACTION  [stephen 

himself  in  the  field  face  to  face  with  his  powerful  rival,  but  shorn 
of  all  the  advantages  which  belonged  to  him  as  the  crowned  and 
accepted  king. 

Matilda  the  ex-empress,  however,  did  not  succeed  in  winning 
the  confidence  which  Stephen  had  squandered.     The  barons  as  a 

class  were  well  pleased  with  the  discord,  and  desired  to 
of^narcinj      ^^^1^  neither  Stephen  nor  Matilda,  ''lest  if  the  one  were 

overcome,  the  other  should  be  free  to  govern  them."  ^ 
Henry  of  Winchester,  who  had  been  appointed  papal  legate  a  short 
time  before  the  arrest  of  Eoger,  and  who  held  a  position  of  influ- 
ence in  the  church  even  greater  than  that  of  Theobald,  the  new 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  sought  to  act  as  arbitrator;  but  he 
was  without  military  support  and  found  himself  compelled  to 
favor  first  one  side  and  then  the  other.  Castles  soon  began  to 
blossom  on  every  hill  side;  each  with  its  independent  lord,  who 
bullied  and  browbeat  his  neighbors,  spreading*  the  terror  of  his 
name  over  the  country  for  many  miles  around.  And  as  "some 
would  endure  no  superior  and  some  not  even  an  equal,  they  fought 
among  themselves  with  deadly  hatred,"  spoiling  the  fairest  regions 
with  fire  and  rapine.  "They  greatly  oppressed  the  wretched  peo- 
ple by  making  them  work  at  these  castles,  and  when  the  castles 
were  finished  they  filled  them  with  devils  and  evil  men.  Then  they 
took  those  whom  they  suspected  of  having  any  goods,  by  night  and 
by  day,  seizing  both  men  and  women,  and  they  put  them  in  prison 
for  their  gold  and  silver  and  tortured  them  with  pains  unspeak- 
able."  ^  "They  were  continually  levying  an  exaction  on  the  towns, 
which  they  called  tenserie  (protection  money),  and  when  the 
wretched  inhabitants  had  no  more  to  give,  then  plundered  they 
and  burned  all  the  towns,  so  that  thou  mightest  well  walk  a  whole 
day's  journey,  nor  ever  shouldst  thou  find  a  man  seated  in  a  town, 
or  its  lands  tilled."  ^  Trade  and  agriculture  were  of  course  impos- 
sible; "if  three  men  came  riding  into  a  town,  all  the  inhabitants 
fled."  "God  and  the  saints,"  it  was  said,  "were  asleep."  Devil- 
ish engines  of  tort  are  called  "rachen  tages"  were  so  cunningly  con- 

^  Henry  of  Huntingdon,  p.  227. 
2  William  of  Newbury,  I,  22. 
^  Aug.  Sax.  Chronicle,  A.  D.  1137. 


1139-1141]  DECLINE    OF   MATILDA'S    POWER  207 

trived,  that  when  one  was  fastened  about  a  man's  neck,  he  could 
neither  ** sleep,  nor  stand  nor  lie,  but  had  to  bear  all  the  weight 
of  iron."  Men  were  hung  up  over  slow  fires  and  left  to  suffocate 
in  the  choking  smoke;  they  were  cast  alive  into  dungeons,  swarm- 
ing with  rats  and  toads,  and  there  left  to  die  and  rot. 

In  the  years  1139  and  1140  Matilda  and  Robert  succeeded  in 
establishing  themselves  in  the  western  counties.     Stephen  con- 
tinued to  hold  his  own  in  the  east.     But  in  1141  he  was 
Matilda,        defeated  by  Robert  and  Ralph  of  Chester  in  an  attempt 

1139-1141.  . 

to  rescue  Lincoln,  and  himself  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
victors.  For  a  short  time  Matilda's  cause  was  in  the  ascendant; 
Oxford  castle  was  surrendered,  and  London  submitted.  In  April 
Bishop  Henry  called  a  great  council  at  Winchester  and  formally 
acknowledged  Matilda  as  *'the  Lady  of  the  English." 

There  was  now  no  question  of  Stephen's  unfitness  for  his  office; 
he  had  tried  to  rule  and  had  failed.     It  was  Matilda's  turn  to  give 

evidence  of  even  greater  unfitness,  if  that  were  possible. 
T!le[^o/^'  ^^®  ^^^  Ethelred  the  Redeless  in  petticoats.  She 
^Matildas        refused  to  listen  to  the  counsel  of  Henry  of  Winchester 

and  drove  him  from  her  by  her  injustice.  She  insti- 
tuted a  wholesale  confiscation  of  the  lands  of  those  who  had  sided 
with  Stephen;  she  seized  the  property  of  the  church  and  disposed 
of  it  to  her  liking ;  she  attempted  to  extort  money  from  leading 
citizens  by  open  violence,  and  bluntly  refused  to  grant  the  plea  of 
the  people  of  London  for  the  laws  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  The 
landing  in  Kent  of  the  other  Matilda,  the  queen  of  Stephen,  with 
a  force  of  Flemings  at  once  brought  on  the  reaction.  London 
rose  as  one  man;  and  '*The  Lady  of  the  English"  was  hurled  from 
her  high  state  even  more  rapidly  than  she  had  risen.  Then  she 
turned  her  wrath  upon  Bishop  Henry  and  sought  to  take  him  in 
his  own  castle.  But  Stephen's  queen,  with  her  Flemings  and  the 
men  of  London,  compelled  her  to  raise  the  siege  and  withdraw. 
Robert  of  Gloucester  was  taken  in  endeavoring  to  cover  the  retreat. 
The  capture  of  Robert  was  the  beginning  of  the  end  as  far 
as  the  dynastic  struggle  was  concerned.  In  the  autumn  he  was 
exchanged  for  Stephen,  but  the  fall  of  Oxford  the  next  year  ended 
the  forward  movement  of  Matilda's  party.     For  five  years  longer 


208  FEUDAL   REACTION  [stephen 

she  remained  in  England;    but  both  sides  were  now  so  exhausted 

that  neither  could  make  headway  against  the  other,  or  chain  the 

turbulent  spirits  which  they  had  unloosed.    Geoffrey  de 

End  of 

dynastic         Mandeville,  who  had  been  appointed  earl  of  Essex  by 

both  claimants,  yielded  to  neither  and  betrayed  either  as 
it  suited  him.  The  earl  of  Leicester  and  his  brother,  the  count 
of  Meulan,  held  the  midlands,  but  proposed  to  be  neutral.  North 
England  was  held  by  the  Scottish  king.  So  matters  stood,  until 
the  capture  of  Ralph  of  Chester  in  1146,  followed  by  the  death  of 
Robert  of  Gloucester  the  next  year,  finally  discouraged  Matilda 
and  she  withdrew  to  the  continent. 

After  the  departure  of  Matilda,  the  war  was  left  to  burn  itself 
out  in  local  partizan  strife;  the  preaching  of  a  new  Crusade  drew 

off  some  of  the  more  restless  spirits ;  the  clergy  slowly 
ofihSrm     I'^covered  their  influence  and  the  king  again  guaranteed 

them  protection.  Thus  gradually  the  storm  subsided; 
but  England  was  sinking  hopelessly  into  the  hands  of  the  feudal 
baronage.  Even  Stephen,  rash  and  headstrong  as  he  was,  shrank 
from  stirring  up  such  a  new  war  as  would  be  necessary  to  force 
upon  his  barons  the  system  which  had  prevailed  under  his  prede- 
cessors. 

While  Matilda  had  been  thus  pursuing  her  dubious  way  in  Eng- 
land, her  husband,  Geoffrey  Plantagenet,  had  with  better  success 

been  reducing  the  castles  of  Normandy.  By  1144  he  had 
^erwi^of  g^i^^^d  control  of  the  entire  duchy  and  was  recognized 
Anjou.^^^        by  Louis  VII.  of  France  as  duke  of  Normandy;  six  years 

later  he  turned  it  over  to  Prince  Henry,  then  in  his 
seventeenth  year.  In  1149  the  young  duke  appeared  in  England,^ 
but  little  came  of  his  visit,  save  a  knighting  at  the  hand  of  his 
great-uncle,  David  of  Scotland.  His  power  on  the  continent,  how- 
ever, continued  to  increase.  In  1151  Geoffrey  died,  and  Henry 
became  also  lord  of  Anjou,  Maine,  and  Touraine.  In  the  following 
spring  he  married  Eleanor,  the  divorced  wife  of  Louis  VII. ,  and 
secured  her  magnificent  heritage,  Aquitaine,  Poitou,  Saintonge,  and 
Limousin.     Henry  had  thus  become  lord  of  all  western  France, 

^  He  had  visited  England  before  in  1142  and  in  1147. 


THE 

AXGEVIN 

DOMINIONS 


Y-^ 


Ll. 


"l-y^    i>-' 


115l]  RENEWAL  OF  THE    STRUGGLE  ^09 

Brittany  alone  excepted.  He  was  the  mightiest  subject  in  the 
west. 

The  jealousy  of  Louis  VII.,  Henry's  overlord,  was  thoroughly 
aroused.      He   hated   Henry   because   he    had    married    Eleanor 
and   won  her  lands.     He   feared   him  because  of   his 
of  the  power.     He   encouraged    Stephen   to  allow   his   eldest 

8  rtwg  .  ^^^  Eustace  to  join  in  an  attempt  to  wrest  Normandy 
from  Henry's  hands.  A  first  attempt  had  been  made  in  1151 
before  the  death  of  Duke  Geoffrey.  The  second.attempt,  made  after 
the  marriage  of  Eleanor,  fared  no  better,  although  Louis  was  sup- 
ported by  Henry's  younger  brother  Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  Theobald 
v.,  count  of  Blois,  nephew  of  Stephen,  and  others  of  Henry's  vas- 
sals. Henry  drove  back  the  French  king,  brought  his  own  vassals 
to  terms,  and  then  turned  to  carry  out  the  invasion  of  England  for 
which  he  had  been  planning  for  two  years. 

In  England  matters  were  drifting  from  bad  to  worse.  The 
church  was  now  thoroughly  involved  in  the  quarrel,  and  was  as 
seriously  rent  asunder  as  the  baronage.  Theobald,  the 
wJepoSe^'"*  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  had  sided  with  the  Angevins, 
while  Henry  Murdoc,  recently  won  by  Stephen,  had 
been  made  archbishop  of  York.  Appeals  to  Rome,  virtually 
unknown  during  the  early  Norman  period,  had  become  absurdly- 
frequent.  For  every  petty  quarrel  men  hastened  off  to  Rome  to 
get  the  judgment  of  the  pope,  and  in  January  1151  Stephen  sent 
Archbishop  Henry  to  get  the  papal  sanction  for  the  immediate 
coronation  of  Eustace.  The  coronation  of  the  son  before  the  death 
of  the  reigning  king  had  been  common  enough  in  France  but  had 
been  heretofore  unknown  in  England.  It  was  Stephen's  last  hope. 
The  ground  was  sinking  beneath  him.  Even  the  barons  of  his  own 
making  were  growing  weary  of  the  strife  and  he  felt  that  since  he 
could  not  depend  upon  them,  a  coronation  at  the  command  of  the 
pope  might  furnish  a  respectable  claim  for  Eustace.  But  the  pope 
had  no  wish  to  see  the  confusion  continue ;  Stephen,  moreover,  had 
sinned  too  grievously  against  the  church  to  be  easily  forgiven. 
The  pope,  therefore,  not  only  refused  to  sanction  the  consecration 
of  Eustace,  but  forbade  the  English  bishops  to  have  anything  to 
do   with  the  proposed  ceremony.     Armed  with  this  prohibition 


210  FEUDAL    REACTION  [stbphbn 

the  bishops  refused  all  the  solicitations  of  Stephen.  Stephen 
became  furious  and  threatened  them  with  personal  violence.  A 
few  apparently  indicated  their  willingness  to  submit;  the  rest 
refused ;  Theobald  retired  to  the  continent.  Stephen  then  once 
more  drew  the  sword,  took  Newbury  and  advanced  upon  Walling- 
ford  whose  garrison  through  all  these  years  had  refused  to  recog- 
nize any  other  lord  save  Matilda  and  her  son. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Henry  reached  England.  His 
army  was  small/  but  many  men  were  hardly  needed;  all  classes 
were  disgusted  with  the  senseless  tyranny  of  Stephen. 
fourth  ap-  The  Angevin  garrison  at  Wallingford  was  saved ;  Malmes- 
BngimiV  bury  fell ;  other  places  as  Warwick,  Leicester,  Stamford, 
and  Nottingham  either  were  taken  outright  or  their 
garrisons  declared  for  Henry  of  their  own  accord. 

At  this  point  the  sudden  death  of  Eustace  gave  an  entirely 
new  aspect  to  the  struggle  by  removing  Stephen's  l^st  hope  of 
securing  the  crown  in  his  own  family.  A  plan  of  com- 
Eustace,  promise  had  already  been  proposed,  by  which  Henry 
^"  *  should  withdraw  and  Stephen  should  recognize  him  as 
his  heir.  As  long  as  Eustace  lived,  Stephen  had  been  loath  to 
yield,  but  there  could  be  no  reason  now  for  holding  out  longer. 
He  had  other  children,  but  on  account  of  their  youth  they  had  not 
been  identified  with  the  struggle  and  had  no  following.  Accord- 
ingly Stephen  determined  to  accept  terms  which  promised  him  a 
whole  kingdom  for  the  rest  of  his  life  in  lieu  of  the  fragment 
which  then  acknowledged  him. 

The  terms  of  the  treaty  are  of  importance  because  better  than 
the  rhetorical  effusions  of  any  chronicler,  they  present  the  results 
of  "this  period  of  unprecedented  general  misery"  and 
Wallingford,  the  longing  of  the  nation  for  peace.  It  was  in  fact  a 
definite  scheme  of  reform,  an  expression  of  the  desire  of 
all  parties  to  get  back  again  to  the  order  and  unity  which  had  pre- 
vailed under  Henry  I.  (1)  The  royal  rights  were  to  be  resumed 
by  the  king.  (2)  All  estates  were  to  be  returned  to  the  lawful 
owners  who  had  enjoyed  them  in  King  Henry's  day.  (3)  The 
''adulterine"  or  unlicensed  castles  which  had  been  erected  during 

^  140  men-at-arms  and  3,000  foot.     Ramsay,  II,  448. 


1154]  DEATH    OF    STEPHEN  211 

Stephen's  reign  to  the  number  of  eleven  hundred  and  fifteen,  were 
to  be  destroyed.^  (4)  The  king  was  to  restock  the  desohite 
country,  employ  the  husbandmen,  and  as  far  as  possible  restore 
agriculture  and  replace  the  flocks  and  herds  in  the  impoverished 
pastures.  (5)  The  clergy  were  to  have  their  peace  and  not  be 
unduly  taxed.  (6)  The  jurisdiction  of  the  sheriffs  was  to  be 
revived  and  men  were  to  be  placed  in  the  office  who  would  not 
make  it  a  means  of  gratifying  private  friendship  or  hatred,  but 
would  exercise  due  severity  and  give  every  man  his  own;  thieves 
and  robbers  were  to  be  hanged.  (7)  The  bands  of  mercenary  sol- 
diers were  to  be  broken  up  and  sent  home ;  the  Flemings  to  be 
relegated  to  their  workshops,  *' there  to  labor  for  their  lords,  instead 
of  exacting  labor  as  lords  from  the  English."  (8)  The  general 
security  was  to  be  maintained,  commerce  to  be  encouraged,  and  a 
uniform  coinage  struck.  (9)  Stephen  was  to  retain  the  crown 
during  the  rest  of  his  life,  but  Henry  was  to  succeed  him.' 

The  negotiations  were  begun  at  Wallingford  in  the  summer,  but 
were  not  concluded  until  the  November  following  at  Westminster. 

On  the  13th  day  of  the  new  year  Henry  received  the 
stenhen  1154  ^^^^  ^^  ^^®  barons  at  Oxford,  and  in  Lent  returned  to 

the  continent.  The  long  struggle  of  fourteen  years  was 
at  last  ended.  Stephen  had  pledged  himself  to  restore  the  king- 
dom; but  even  at  hi«  best  he  would  have  been  unfit  for  such  a  task. 
He  was  now,  moreover,  a  broken  man;  the  spirit  was  gone  out  of 
him;  and  a  few  months  after  the  return  of  Henry  he  passed  away, 
leaving  the  great  part  of  the  work  of  restoration  still  undone. 

Henry  had  just  reached  his  twenty-first  year.     He  was  of  square 
frame,  in  later  years  inclining  to  the  stout,  with  fiery  face,  short 

red  hair,  bull  neck,  bowed  legs;  as  restless  and  active 
opHmriT      ^^  ^^  ^^^  strong.     He  was  temperate  in  food  and  drink ; 

careless  in  dress;  well  versed  in  books;  talkative,  and 
inquisitive,  yet  cautious;  coarse  in  his  tastes  and  unscrupulous. 
He  was  one  of  the  few  monarchs  of  his  time  who  cared  for  power 
more  than  for  glory  or  pleasure.     His  entire  thought  he  devoted 

^  This  has  been  the  commonly  accepted  estimate  but  the  number  prob- 
ably did  not  exceed  a  third  of  this. 
2Stubbs,  C.  H.  I,  p.  361. 


212  FEUDAL   REACTION  [henry  II. 

to  business,  and  took  delight  in  looking  after  the  smallest  details 
himself  and  in  experimenting  with  different  methods.  In  matters 
of  religion  he  showed  a  startling  irreverence,  mingled  with  curious 
superstition.  He  would  amuse  himself  during  mass  by  scribbling 
or  whispering,  occasionally  breaking  out  into  paroxysms  of  ungov- 
ernable profanity ;  yet  he  could  be  terrified  by  an  accusing  con- 
science and  at  times  sink  into  depths  of  hopeless  remorse. 

Energy,  force,  the  love  of  order,  and  the  masterfulness  of  both 
races   were   concentrated    in   the   fiery   blood   of    this    Korman- 

Angevin;  and  he  had  need  of  it  all.  His  first  task  was 
of  the  to  take  up  the  work  of  restoration  and  reorganization  as 

Stephen  had  left  it.  The  foreign  mercenaries  were 
sent  home.  The  destruction  of  the  illegal  castles  continued. 
The  new  earls  who  had  been  set  up  by  Stephen  and  Matilda  were 
deposed,  and  the  royal  domains  which  had  been  frittered  away 
when  the  rivals  were  bidding  against  each  other  for  support,  were 
taken  again  "into  the  king's  hand."  The  king  of  Scotland  was 
forced  to  give  up  Northumberland  and  Cumberland.  If  a  baron 
refused  to  give  up  his  lands  or  renounce  his  privileges,  as  in  the 
case  of  William  of  Aumale  who  had  intrenched  himself  in  the  north 
at  Scarborough  castle,  the  king  promptly  took  the  field  and 
brought  the  rebel  to  terms.  So  effectively  in  short  did  Henry  set 
his  face  against  the  further  continuance  »f  feudal  practices, 
private  warfare  or  private  coinage  or  private  justice,  that  in  an 
incredibly  short  time  the  work  was  finished  and  the  last  traces  of 
the  anarchy  which  had  disgraced  Stephen's  reign,  had  been 
stamped  out. 

Henry  then  set  himself  to  restore  the  administrative  system  of 
the  kingdom.      The  great   council   was   revived  and   once   more 

honored  by  the  confidence  of  the  king.  The  Curia 
of  the  system    Regis  was  also  restored  and  strengthened.     Able  men 

were  selected  for  office ;  Robert,  earl  of  Leicester,  and 
Richard  de  Lucy  became  justiciars;  Becket  became  chancellor  and 
Nigel  of  Ely,  a  nephew  of  the  great  Roger  of  Salisbury,  treasurer. 
The  revenues  soon  increased  threefold.  The  sheriffs  were  required 
to  come  to  the  exchequer  twice  a  year  in  order  to  render  account 
for   the  collection  of  taxes  and  the  management  of  the  king's 


THE  EXCHEQUEB 


213 


estates.  Their  accounts  were  kept  by 
means  of  *' tallies"  or  notched  sticks. 
These  *' tallies"  were  issued  in  duplicate, 
the  exchequer  keeping  one,  the  sheriff 
carrying  the  other  away  in  his  wallet.  In 
the  exchequer  chamber  the  officers  sat 
about  a  dark  covered  table  and  the  ac- 
counting was  carried  on  before  them  in 
full  view,  by  means  of  discs  or  counters. 


12S45S78 
DIAGRAM  OF  THR  KXCHKQUKR  TABLK.« 

The  resemblance  of  the  operation  to  the 
game  of  chess  probably  suggested  the 
name,  exchequer.  It  was  a  primitive 
method,  but  one  which  could  be  easily 
understood  by  all,  and  was  in  fact  nec- 
essary when  sheriffs  generally  could  neither 
read  nor  write. 

The  most  striking  figure  at  Henry's 
council-board  was  his  chancellor,  Thomas 
a  Becket.  Thomas  was  born  of  one  of 
the  Norman  families,  which  had  recently 


V 


EXCHKQUER 
TALLIES,  OF 
BKIOS  OF 
HENRY  III.l 


^  From  Introduction  to  Pipe  Rolls — The  large  notches  on  left  side  of 
tallies  represent  pounds.  The  smaller  notches  on  the  right  side  represent 
shillings,  the  lines  pence. 

2  From  Introduction  to  Pipe  Rolls — 1-8,  white  wands,  or  chalk-lines, 
marking  the  columns  of  account,  a  a,  teruiinal  spaces,  before  which  sat, 
on  the  right,  the  chancellor  and  his  suite,  on  the  left,  the  sheriff  and  suite. 


214  FEUDAL   REACTION  [hbney  II. 

established  itself  in  England.     His  parents  had   brought  him  up 
with  great  care,  and  sent  him  to  the  continent  to  complete  his 

education.  He  had  then  returned  to  England  and  en- 
BeckeT^       tered  the  household  of  Archbishop  Theobald,  where  he 

rose  rapidly.^  He  had  also  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
young  king  and  with  the  approval  of  Theobald  was  made  chancellor. 
He  was  some  fifteen  years  the  senior  of  Henry,  and  as  long  as  Thomas 
remained  in  the  chancellorship,  the  two  were  congenial  spirits  with 
but  '*one  heart  and  one  mind."  They  were  often  seen  together, 
riding  or  hunting ;  now  bent  in  earnest  converse  at  the  council-board, 
and  again  making  the  passer-by  stare,  as  they  tumbled  each  other  in 
rough  horse-play.  Thomas  unlike  the  king  was  tall  and  spare,  dark 
haired,  but  fair  skinned  and  somewhat  pale.  His  countenance  was 
pleasing,  his  manners  blithe  and  winning,  and  with  no  suggestion 
of  the  ascetic.  He  took  pride  in  having  the  most  sumptuous  table 
in  England,  and  was  exceedingly  fond  of  fine  apparel,  upon  which 
the  king  loved  to  chaff  him.  He  was  strong  of  limb  and  loved 
vigorous  hand-play.  Although  a  churchman,  he  led  a  band  of  700 
men-at-arms  at  Toulouse  and  overcame  a  French  knight  in  single 
combat.  His  speech  was  quick  and  frank,  yet  halting  somewhat 
when  under  excitement.  *'In  youth  he  had  been  known  as  a  good 
chess-player,  a  bold  rider,  and  a  keen  sportsman.  He  hated  liars 
and  slanderers.  He  was  a  kind  friend  to  dumb  brutes  and  to  all 
poor  and  helpless  folk." 

As  chancellor,  Thomas  identified  himself  thoroughly  with 
Henry's  schemes  of  reform.  When  the  war  of  Toulouse  was 
undertaken  in  1159,  it  was  Thomas  who  suggested  to  Henry  the 
expedient  of  levying  the  scutage.  The  object  of  the  war  was  to 
enforce  the  claims  of  Queen  Eleanor  to  the  suzerainty  of  Toulouse. 

Henry  could  hardly  compel  his  English  tenants  to 
Touiome^^  accompany  him  on  a  war  of  this  kind  over  sea.  It  was 
(^nd^^(^utage,    proposed  therefore  to  allow  a  kind  of  commutation  of 

service  for  a  money  payment  of  two  marks  for  each 
knight's    fee;   an  expedient  by  no    means   unknown    before  this 

^  It  is  said  that  he  was  at  Rome  when  Henry  Murdoc  appeared  to  pre- 
sent Stephen's  case  and  that  it  was  largely  due  to  his  influence  that  the 
pope  decided  against  the  coronation  of  Eustace,  see  p.  209. 


1159-1162]  THOMAS  A  BECKET  215 

period.  This  was  the  famous  scutage  and  was  paid  not  by  the 
great  barons/  but  by  those  of  the  king's  tenants  who  did  not  have 
large  estates,  and  by  under-tenants  who  could  ill  afford  to  leave  their 
farms  for  so  long  a  time.  The  move  was  certainly  a  wise  one. 
The  holders  of  small  fees  were  given  to  husbandry  rather  than  to 
war,  and  it  was  in  the  king's  interests,  especially  after  the  dis- 
tractions of  the  recent  civil  wars,  to  encourage  this  class  of  his 
tenants  in  the  pursuits  of  peace,  rather  than  to  tear  them  away  to 
engage  in  the  hazards  of  a  foreign  campaign.  The  additional  rev- 
enue of  tlie  crown  could  also  be  turned  to  practical  account  in 
enabling  the  king  to  draw  to  his  standard  the  professional  sol- 
diers who  were  ever  floating  about  Europe  and  were  far  more 
efficient  in  this  kind  of  warfare  than  men  who  left  their  homes 
with  reluctance,  and  who  had  little  heart  for  the  hardships  of  a 
war  in  which  they  took  no  interest.  From  Henry's  day  the 
scutage  becomes  more  common ;  it  foreshadows  a  radical  change 
in  the  methods  of  medieval  warfare. 

Unfortunately  for  Thomas,  Henry's  scheme  of  reform  included 

the  church  as  well  as  the  civil  organization.     The  Conqueror  had 

carefully  separated  the  two  inrisdictions ;  and  the  recent 

Thomas,  J       r  j  j 

archbishop,  anarcliy  had  taught  the  clergy  the  full  value  of  their 
special  privileges.  When  therefore  Henry  proposed  to 
bring  the  whole  state  under  one  system  of  law,  he  found  a  serious 
obstacle  in  the  jealousy  with  which  the  clergy  regarded  any  innova- 
tion which  threatened  to  invade  their  peculiar  immunities.  In 
11()1  the  venerable  Theobald  died,  and  Henry  proposed  to  put  at 
the  head  of  the  English  church  none  other  than  his  fine  chan- 
cellor. Some  of  the  barons  remembered  the  scutage  and  grumbled ; 
but  the  obsequious  churchmen  regularly  elected  Thomas  and  con- 
secrated him  to  the  vacant  see  of  Canterbury. 

Never  was  king  more  deceived  in  his  man.     Becket  felt  the 
hollowness  of  his  past  life  in  the  presence  of  the  new 

Effect  of  new        , .  . ,         ,  ^    .     ^      ,^         -,    .  1    ,  '  ^    •  cc^r 

rei^ponsihiu-    dignity  to  which  the  king  proposed  to  raise  him.     ''You 

ThAimas's  are  choosinff  a  fine  dress,"  he  exclaimed  'Ho  figure  at 
character.  n  •>  o 

the  head  of  your  Canterbury  monks."     He  felt  too  the 
weight  of  the  new  responsibility  which  he  must  face,  and  shrank 

*  Baldwin,  Scutage  and  Knight's  Service  in  England,  pp.  19-57. 


216  FEUDAL    REACTION^  [henrt  II. 

from  it;  ^'Whoever  is  made  archbishop,"  he  said,  **must  quickly 
give  offense  either  to  God  or  to  the  king."  These  protestations 
were  the  expression  of  no  sham  humility  on  Thomas's  part; 
but  the  voice  rather  of  a  deeper  nature,  which  through  all  these 
years  had  been  in  slumber,  which  Henry  had  never  recognized  and 
which  possibly  Thomas  himself  had  but  vaguely  comprehended. 
It  was  this  deeper  nature,  so  unlike  the  gay  worldling  of  the 
court,  that  awoke  under  unwonted  burdens,  and  made  Thomas  as 
completely  a  man  of  the  church  as  he  had  been  before  a  man  of 
the  world.  He  at  once  resigned  his  chancellorship,  much  to  the 
disgust  of  the  king;  renounced  the  vain  amusements  of  the  court 
and  changed  his  whole  mode  of  life.  The  same  absorbing  care 
which  he  had  bestowed  upon  his  civil  office,  he  now  gave  to  his 
new  duties,  relieving  the  poor  and  caring  for  the  sick.  I^or 
in  his  solicitude  for  the  proper  ministration  of  his  office  did 
he  neglect  his  private  religious  duties.  Yet  of  this  inner  life,  men 
saw  little;  for  Thomas  was  a  magnificent  archbishop.  His  dress 
was  still  of  the  richest,  his  tables  as  of  yore  groaned  under  the 
load  of  good  things;  but  the  guests  had  changed,  instead  of  the 
gay  butterflies  of  the  court,  the  poor  now  sat  down  with  Thomas. 
However,  few  understood  him ;  even  in  his  charities  men  saw  the 
same  ostentation,  that  had  once  expressed  itself  in  fine  clothes. 
But  when  it  was  all  over,  and  the  assassins  had  fled  from  the  pres- 
ence of  their  victim,  and  the  terrified  monks  came  creeping  back 
into  the  dark  chancel  and  took  up  the  mangled  corpse,  then  they 
knew  this  man.  *' Beneath  the  splendid  robes  they  found  the  hair 
cloth,  and  saw  on  the  body  the  stripes  of  daily  secret  penance." 

It  was  not  long  before  the  king  discovered  the  true  nature  of 
his  new  archbishop.     The  next  year  after  the  election  the  king,  at 

a  council  held  at  Woodstock,  proposed  to  enroll  as  a 
of  Woodstock,  part  of  the  royal  revenue,  the  two  shillings  which  the 

sheriffs  were  accustomed  to  take  from  each  hide  in  pay- 
ment of  their  services.^  To  this  Thomas  protested,  and  his 
vigorous  words  certainly  were  ominous  of  coming  storm.  *'We 
will  not  give  this  money  as  revenue,"  he  declared,  *'but  if  the 
sheriffs  and  servants  and  ministers  of  the  shires  shall  perform  their 

^  Not  Danegeld.    See  Round,  F.  E.,  p.  497  and  following. 


1163]  THE   COURTS   AND   THE   CLERGY  217 

duties  as  they  should,  we  will  not  be  lacking  in  contributing  to 
their  aid. "     Becket  was  right  and  Henry  had  to  yield. 

The  issue  between  church  and  state,  however,  was  not  to  be 
joined  upon  the  taxation  of  church  lands,  but  upon  the  broader 

question  of  the  proper  jurisdiction  of  the  church  courts. 
^iiSictum  ^^®^  since  the  church  courts  had  been  separated  from 

the  temporal  courts,  it  was  uncertain  just  where  lay 
the  boundaries  which  marked  their  respective  jurisdictions. 
The  system  of  canon  law  also,  which  had  been  introduced  into  the 
English  church  courts  during  the  past  century,  had  given  rise  to 
methods  of  procedure,  very  different  from  those  in  use  in  the 
secular  courts.  Appeals  to  Rome  were  encouraged  and  the  num- 
ber had  greatly  increased.  Most  serious,  however,  was  the  custom 
of  trying  a  ''criminous  clerk''  in  the  court  of  the  bishop,  where  if 
found  guilty,  he  had  little  to  fear  save  the  imposition  of  a  penance, 
or  imprisonment  in  a  monastery  or  a  fine.  At  most  he  would  only 
be  unfrocked  and  deprived  of  the  privileges  of  his  order.  In  theory 
he  should  be  degraded  and  handed  over  to  the  civil  court ;  but  the 
churchmen  were  so  jealous  of  their  own  independence,  that  they 
were  inclined  to  spare  even  a  notorious  criminal,  rather  than  call 
upon  the  laity  to  punish  one  of  their  members.  The  king's  justiciars 
alleged  that  since  the  beginning  of  Henry's  reign  "no  less  than 
one  hundred  murderers  and  innumerable  thieves  and  robbers"  had 
in  this  way  escaped  punishment. 

Henry  with  his  characteristic  bluntness  went  straight  to  the 
point,  and  proposed  that  henceforth  clerical  criminals  should  be 

tried  by  the  secular  courts  just  as  ordinary  persons,  and 
proposed        that  while  they  might  be  degraded  by  their  bishops,  they 

should  be  punished  by  the  secular  arm  with  the  severity 
which  the  law  prescribed.  Thomas  acknowledged  the  abuse,  but 
claimed  that  the  remedy  was  to  be  sought,  not  in  sacrificing  the 
independence  of  the  church,  but  by  greater  care  in  receiving  those 
who  were  presented  for  orders.  And  this  he,  as  archbishop,  had 
already  conscientiously  set  himself  to  do. 

In  1163  the  question  was  brought  to  a  direct  issue  by  the  case 
of  Philip  de  Broi,  who  was  accused  of  a  capital  crime  but  escaped 
by  claiming  benefit  of  clergy.     The  impetuous  king  would  not  be 


218  FEUDAL   REACTION"  [hknry  il. 

put  off  longer  and  in  a  great  council  held  at  Westminster,  put  the 
direct  question  to  the  bishops :  Would  they  abide  by  the  customs 
Councils  of  which  prevailed  in  the  time  of  Henry  I.  ?  The  cliurchmen, 
Sciaren^  however,  were  wary  and  would  not  commit  themselves,  so 
^^^^'  that  the  discussion  was  renewed  again  at  Clarendon  in 

the  following  January  when  Becket  finally  agreed  to  '*obey  the  cus- 
toms of  the  realm."  Henry  then  ordered  the  justiciar,  Richard 
de  Lucy,  to  present  a  list  of  these  customs;  in  nine  days  the  report 
known  as  the  Gonstitutio7is  of  Clarendon  was  ready. ^ 

The  discussion,  however,  had  evidently  drifted  beyond  the  dis- 
posal of  criminous  clerks,  and  taken  in  the  whole  series  of  ques- 
comtitutims  *^^^^  raised  by  the  ill-defined  relations  of  church  and 
^^mmary^^'  state.  Not  only  were  clerkly  criminals  no  longer  to  be 
^^^^-  sheltered,  but  all  questions  concerning  church  patronage 

or  church  contracts  or  injuries  claimed  by  clergymen  against  laymen, 
were  to  be  tried  in  the  king's  courts.  Offenses  not  capital  commit- 
ted by  clergymen  and  suits  relating  to  church  lands  held  by  spiritual 
service,  were  to  be  tried  in  the  church  courts.  A  layman  could 
not  be  punished  by  the  church  courts.  Tenants  in  chief  or 
officers  of  the  king  could  not  be  excommunicated  without  the 
king's  consent.  A  clergyman  could  hot  appeal  to  Rome;  nor 
were  archbishops,  bishops,  or  other  persons  to  be  allowed  to  leave 
the  realm  without  the  license  of  the  king.  No  villain  could  be 
ordained  without  his  lord's  permission;  no  bishop  could  be  chosen 
without  the  king's  permission. 

To  Thomas  the  constitutions  were  a  cunning  piece  of  tyranny. 
Whether  in  a  moment  of  weakness  he  was  induced  by  the  bishops, 
who  were  now  all  with  the  king,  to  give  his  formal 
SSi^BSet?  assent  or  not  is  doubtful.  At  all  events  he  left  the 
council,  determined  to  fight  for  his  cause  to  the  end ; 
while  Henry  as  naturally  determined  to  use  all  his  power  to  force 
the  stubborn  primate  to  resign.  He  summoned  him  to  appear  at 
a  council  at  Northampton  and  then  fined  him  for  not  coming.  He 
made  him  give  an  account  of  the  various  moneys  which  he  had 
handled  as  chancellor,  although  the  justiciar,  Richard  de  Lucy, 

1  Stubbs  S.  C.  pp.  135-140.  Also,  Gee  and  Hardy,  Documents,  pp.  68-70. 


1166-1176]  henry's  reforms  219 

had  formally  released  him  from  all  claims  when  he  resigned  his 
office.  Thomas,  broken  in  fortune  and  forsaken  by  his  fellow 
clergy,  believed  that  his  life  was  in  danger  and  fled  to  Flanders. 
The  king  turned  his  anger  upon  the  church  of  Canterbury  and  the 
dependents  of  Thomas,  confiscating  the  revenues  of  the  see  and 
driving  into  exile  the  kinsmen  and  friends  of  the  archbishop,  to 
the  number  of  four  hundred. 

Henry,  relieved  by  the  voluntary  exile  of  Becket,  then  went 
on  with  his  reforms.  As  early  as  the  Assize  of  Clareiidon^  11G(>, 
he  had  begun  again  to  send  the  justices  from  the 
£'*l5^**^^*'  Curia  Regis  to  sit  in  the  shire  courts.  Besides  admin- 
istering  justice,  they  were  also  expected  "to  look  after 
the  collection  of  the  royal  revenues,  the  enrollment  of  each  person 
in  a  frank-pledge,  and  to  see  that  all  proper  precautions  were 
taken  for  keeping  the  king's  peace."  These  justices  were  known 
as  justices-in-eyre^  from  the  Latin  in  itinere.  In  1176  Henry 
formally  divided  England  into  the  six  permanent  circuits  which 
have  remained  with  slight  modification  until  recent  times. 

The  methods  of  procedure  also  received  the  touch  of  the  same 
master  hand.     Civil  causes,  such  as  a  dispute  between  two  neigh- 
bors over  the  boundary  of  their  farms,  or  the  ownership 

Methods  of  .  .  -,,111 

legal  pro-  of  a  piece  of  wood,  or  the  sale  and  purchase  of  cattle, 
had  in  ancient  times  been  settled  in  full  shire-moot  by 
hearing  the  statements  on  oath  of  persons  who  claimed  to  know 
the  facts;  the  decision  was  given  by  the  body  of  suitors  present. 
The  Normans  had  introduced  the  judicial  duel,  or  combat,  in  which 
the  disputants,  or  in  case  of  women  or  monks  or  the  aged,  their 
representatives,  set  to  in  the  presence  of  the  court  and  fought  the 
matter  out.  The  Norman  method  however,  was  never  popular 
with  English  townspeople,  who  were  no  such  lovers  of  broken 
heads  and  bleeding  faces  as  the  Norman  barons.  Henry  offered  as 
an  alternative  to  those  who  preferred,  the  privilege  of  bringing 
their  disputes  before  a  body  of  sworn  men,  who  made  inquiry  under 
oath,  discovered  the  facts,  and  recorded  them.  Just  when  this  wise 
measure  was  introduced  is  unknown.  In  the  Constitutions  of 
Clarendon,  the  method  is  prescribed  for  the  settlement  of  disputes 
about  ecclesiastical  property. 


220  FEUDAL   REACTIOK  [henrt  II. 

The  methods  of  criminal  trial  in  vogue  in  the  early  twelfth  cen- 
tury were  even  more  crude  than  those  used  for  the  settlement  of 

civil  causes.  According  to  the  English  method  the 
^^nlcedure  ^ccused  man  was  allowed  first  to  clear  himself  if  he 
The  grand      could  by  the  oaths  of  his  neighbors,  who  simply  vouched 

for  his  good  character.  If  he  failed  in  this,  he  was  put 
to  the  ordeal.^  The  trial  by  battle  was  also  allowed  here  as  in  civil 
cases;  the  accused  challenging  the  accuser.  In  either  case  the 
appeal  was  supposed  to  be  made  directly  to  God,  who  knowing  the 
hearts  of  men   would  interfere  to  save  the  innocent  or  punish  the 

ffuilty.     Henry  in  the  famous  Assize  of  Clarendon  rein- 

A-Hsizc  of 

ciarencum,  stitutcd  in  the  place  of  the  accusations  of  private  indi- 
viduals the  jury  of  inquest,  corresponding  to  the  modern 
grand  jury,  which  had  been  discontinued  in  Stephen's  time  but 
had  been  used  apparently  more  or  less  since  the  days  of  Ethelred, 
when  the  twelve  senior  thanes  of  each  hundred  were  accustomed  to 
swear  on  the  rood  that  "they  would  accuse  no  innocent  man  nor 
conceal  any  guilty  man. "  ^  Twelve  legal  men  were  now  chosen  from 
each  hundred  and  four  from  each  township,  and  when  the  justices 
came  in  circuit  these  sixteen  presented  to  them  upon  oath  any 
one  in  the  hundred  who  was  ''notoriously  a  robber  or  murderer  or 
receiver  of  such. "  This  jury  was  not  a  trial  jury.  It  simply  deter- 
mined whether  the  person  accused  ought  to  be  tried  or  not.  The 
trial  then  took  place  as  before ;  but  the  only  ordeal  allowed  by  the 
Assize  was  that  of  cold  water,  which  meant  almost  certain  condem- 
nation.^ The  indictment  of  the  jury,  however,  was  a  very  serious 
matter  of  itself ;  for  even  if  the  accused  succeeded  in  passing  the 
ordeal,  he  was  compelled  to  leave  the  country  within  forty  days ;  a 
commendable  way  of  ridding  the  community  of  undesirable  char- 
acters. If  he  failed  he  was  hanged,  or  otherwise  punished  as  the 
judges  might  direct. 

In  1215  the  practice  of  the  ordeal  was  abolished  throughout 
Christendom  by  the  Fourth  Lateran  Council ;    and  as  the  jury  of  in- 


^  See  page  90. 
2Stubbs>S'.  C.  p.  72. 
^  See  page  90. 


1170]  THE   IXQUEST   OF   SHERIFFS  221 

quest  alone  was  inadequate  to  secure  the  ends  of  justice,  the  custom 
grew  up  in  England  of  supplementing  it  by  a  second  jury,  known  as 
the  petit  or  little  jury,  whose  function  was  to  review 
mTmSi'^  the  work  of  the  jury  of  inquest  in  a  special  case  and 
VifhafihT^^  either  affirm  or  deny  its  findings.  It  is  interesting  fur- 
ther to  notice  that  the  trial  by  battle  remained,  and  that 
it  was  possible  for  the  accused  to  select  it  in  preference  to  a  trial 
by  petit  jury  as  late  as  June  1819,  when  it  was  formally  abolished 
by  act  of  Parliament.^ 

In  the  management  of  the  exchequer,  Henry's  purpose  was  to 

secure  a  large  and  steady  revenue,  yet  levied  equitably  so  as  not 

to   overburden  any  particular  class.      Accordingly  he 

The  smirceit         ,     , .  ,      ,      ,        t^  i  i       i  •   i     i      -i  i         i  /- 

of  Henry's  abolisbed  the  Danegeld  which  had  ceased  to  be  pront- 
able;  but  from  the  knights  he  took  scutages,  from 
the  towns  which  were  already  growing  up  as  centers  of  wealth  he 
took  tallages.  The  clergy  who  sometimes  were  inclined  to  claim 
immunity  from  taxation,  he  caused  to  bear  their  share  by  exacting 
from  them  special  contributions  under  the  gracious  name  of 
* 'gifts," — dona.  From  the  estates  of  his  own  domain  he  received 
a  steady  stream  of  ''ferms"  paid  by  his  custodians,  and  upon  his 
officers  also  occasionally  he  levied  the  dona.  The  itinerant  justices 
periodically  visited  the  shires,  holding  pleas  and  gathering  fees  and 
lines,  all  of  which  went  into  the  royal  treasury.  Another  impor- 
tant income  Henry  derived  from  the  Jews  whom  he  undertook  to 
protect  against  the  intolerance  and  jealousy  of  the  people  in  return 
for  the  payment  of  enormous  sums  of  money. 

Yet  although   Henry  honestly  attempted  to  adjust   taxation 

fairly,  the  burden  rested  grievously  upon  the  necks  of  his  people. 

For  this  he  was  not  altogether  to  blame.     The  sheriffs 

The  Inquest  .      "  .         i        i      i.  c         i 

of  Sheriffs,  as  a  body  had  been  trained  in  the  evil  school  of  Stephen 
and  were  not  above  plundering  the  people  for  their  own 
profit.  The  poor  and  the  friendless  were  the  most  frequent  suffer- 
ers. They  were  often  turned  out  of  their  homes  and  compelled  in 
order  to  live  to  take  to  thieving  and  plunder.  The  king's  officers 
were  making  outlaws  faster  than  the  king's  courts  could   hang 

^  For  the  famous  Thornton  case  of  1817.  see  Taswell-Langiiiead,  5th  ed. 
pp.  103-105. 


222  FEUDAL    REACTION  [henby  ii. 

them.  Henry  determined  therefore  to  overliaul  the  whole  system, 
and  in  the  year  1170  sent  out  special  commissioners  to  inquire 
whether  the  sheriffs  were  enforcing  the  laws ;  whether  they  were 
taking  bribes;  how  much  money  they  were  receiving  from  the 
counties  and  in  a  word  to  inquire  into  their  entire  official  conduct. 
This  was  the  famous  Inquest  of  Sheriffs^  conceived  and  carried  out 
in  a  manner  worthy  of  Charles  the  Great.  It  was  no  mere  *' white- 
washing commission."  Twenty  out  of  twenty-seven  sheriffs  were 
reported  guilty  of  irregular  practices  and  straightway  deposed. 
The  old  sheriffs,  moreover,  had  been  selected  from  the  great  barons 
of  the  localities,  some  of  whom  held  several  counties  and  were  in 
a  fair  way  of  assuming  the  importance  of  the  former  earls.  The 
new  appointees  the  king  took  from  the  exchequer;  men  of  humble 
position  who  depended  for  their  professional  career  solely  upon  the 
king's  favor. 

For  six  years  Becket  had  now  been  in  exile.  He  had  spent  his 
time  in  a  vain  attempt  to  persuade  Pope  Alexander  III.  to  espouse 
his  cause.  But  Alexander  was  sore  pressed  by  the 
rSwiiiation  Emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa  and  was  not  inclined  to 
and^enry  '^^'^ak  with  the  English  king.  Instead,  therefore,  of  tak- 
ing up  the  cudgels  for  Becket,  he  used  his  influence  to 
bring  Henry  and  his  obdurate  primate  to  an  understanding,  but 
only  with  partial  success.  Becket  insisted  on  condemning  the 
obnoxious  Constitutions,  and  the  king  as  stubbornly  refused  to  give 
him  the  '*kiss  of  peace." 

Matters  were  drifting  in  this  uncertain  way  when  Henry  unfor- 
tunately contrived  again  to  wound  the  pride  of  the  archbishop. 
He  had  determined  after  the  French  custom  to  make 
Sa^S^^^  his  son,  Henry,  king  during  his  own  lifetime,  and  thus 
not  only  secure  the  peaceful  succession  of  the  crown, 
something  as  yet  unknown  in  the  annals  of  the  Norman  kings, 
but  also  provide  for  the  better  government  of  the  kingdom  during 
his  own  frequent  and  unavoidable  absences  in  Normandy.  No  one 
questioned  Henry's  right  to  have  his  son  crowned.  But  unfortu- 
nately the  privilege  of  crowning  English  kings  had  been  by  long 
custom  and  common  consent  conceded  to  the  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury.    Henry,  however,  was  in  no  mood  to  honor  Thomas  and 


1170]  THE   MURDER    OF    BECKET  2^3 

allowed  Roger,  the  new  archbishop  of  York,  an  old  enemy  of 
Becket,  to  hallow  the  young  Henry.  Thomas  was  furious;  he  per- 
suaded the  pope  to  suspend  Eoger,  and  also  the  bishops 
cmmiedS^  of  London  and  Salisbury  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
Westminster,  ceremony.  The  king  of  France  who  was  always  ready 
to  enlist  against  his  rival  of  England  and  was  never 
over-particular  about  the  justice  of  his  cause,  was  persuaded  that  an 
affront  had  been  intended  for  him  personally  in  that  his  daughter, 
the  wife  of  Prince  Henry,  had  not  been  crowned  with  her  husband, 
and  threatened  war.  The  elder  Henry  quailed  before  the  storm, 
and  hastening  to  France  attempted  to  conciliate  Thomas,  and  finally 
persuaded  him  to  return  to  England.  When  Thomas  arrived,  how- 
ever, Henry  was  still  in  France  and  the  primate  received  but  a  cold 
welcome  from  those  in  authority.  He  first  attempted  to  recover 
his  confiscated  estates,  but  with  indifferent  success;  and  when  he 
complained,  the  young  king  laughed,  refused  to  see  him  and  bade 
him  keep  to  his  see.  The  reply  of  Thomas  was  to  renew  the  sen- 
tence against  Roger  and  the  two  bishops.  The  elder  Henry  at  the 
time  was  at  Bures,  keeping  the  Christmas  feast.  The  report  of  the 
new  troubles  of  Becket  were  brought  to  him  by  the  suspended 
bishops  and  put  in  such  way,  we  may  believe,  as  to  reflect  most  dis- 
creditably upon  the  primate.  The  king  heard,  and  in  a  moment  of 
passion  let  slip  the  fatal  words:  **Here  is  a  man  that  has  eaten  my 
bread;  a  pitiful  fellow  that  came  to  my  court  on  a  sorry  hackney 
and  owes  all  he  has  to  me,  lifting  his  heel  against  me,  and  insult- 
ing my  kingdom  and  my  kindred;  and  not  one  of  the  cowardly 
sluggish  servants  I  feed  and  pay  so  well  has  had  the  heart  to  avenge 
me!"  Four  knights  heard  the  hot  words  of  the  king;  returned  to 
England,  went  to  Canterbury,  and  there  murdered  the  primate  in 
St.  Benedict's  Chapel. 

Indignation  and  horror  everywhere  greeted  this  act  of  sacrilege. 

Henry  cleared  himself  by  oath  of   all  complicity  in  the  primate's 

death;  but  his  reforms  trembled  in  the  balance.     The 

murder  of       Constitutions  of  Clarendon  were  nominally  abandoned; 

Thomas.  -,  ^  0    n^^ 

but  there  was  no  one  to  take  up  the  cause  of  1  nomas 
and  there  the  matter  rested.  The  whole  question  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  civil  power  was  left  open ;  but  to  leave  it  open  was  to  leave 


224  FEUDAL   REACTIOIT  [ 


Henry  11. 


the  advantage  in  the  king's  hands  and  ultimately  give  him  the 
victory.  During  the  lifetime  of  Henry,  Thomas  was  canonized, 
and  his  shrine,  erected  at  Canterbury,  soon  became  a  very  popular 
resort  for  English  pilgrims. 

It  is  now  time  to  notice  the  relation  of  the  king  of  England  to 

the  other  parts  of  the  British  islands.     From  the  time  of  William 

I.  the  princes  of  Wales  had  acknowledged  a  nominal 

cwMuesU)/^  suzerainty,  and  Henry  II.  had  carried  on  three  wars  with 

™^™         indifferent   success  to  make  these   claims  ffood.     The 

1  loo -1177.  t? 

kings  of  Scotland  had  also  acknowledged  a  dependence  of 
a  vague  kind.  A  suzerainty  over  Ireland  had  not  as  yet  been  more 
than  thought  of.  The  Irish  had  made  some  headway  in  the  arts 
of  civilization  and  had  early  accepted  Christianity,  though  they  had 
not  yet  become  attached  to  the  see  of  Rome.  In  1154  Pope 
Adrian  IV.  as  lord  of  all  the  islands  of  the  sea,  issued  a  bull  bestow- 
ing Ireland  on  the  English  king  and  exhorting  him  to  extend  hither 
the  papal  authority.  Henry  at  the  time  meditated  a  plan  of  con- 
quest, but  gave  it  up  in  deference  to  the  objection  of  his  mother 
who  thought  he  had  quite  enough  to  attend  to  at  home.  Ireland  was 
still  in  the  old  tribal  stage  with  various  rival  princes  constantly 
warring  with  one  another.  In  1166  a  prince  named  Dermod  fled 
to  Henry  and  did  homage  to  him  in  order  to  secure  his  aid. 
Henry  was  not  yet  willing  to  undertake  the  quest  himself,  but  gave 
permission  to  such  of  his  knights  as  were  ready,  to  attempt  it. 
Dermod  easily  found  allies  in  the  adventurous  nobles  of  the  Welsh 
border,  who  under  the  leadership  of  Richard  de  Clare,  earl  of 
Strigul,  better  known  as  '^Strongbow,"  invaded  Ireland  and  took 
possession  of  Leinster.  Then  lest  such  a^colony  if  left  in  inde- 
pendence should  prove  a  menace  to  the  quiet  of  England,  Henry 
asserted  his  authority  as  overlord.  The  outcome  of  the  murder  of 
Becket  was  at  the  time  still  in  suspense  and  Henry  was  probably 
glad  of  any  excuse  for  getting  out  of  England.  He  compelled 
Strongbow's  followers  to  submit  to  him,  and  besides  received  the 
homage  of  all  the  princes  of  Leinster  and  Meath.  Directly  the 
homage  of  the  Irish  princes  was  of  little  significance,  for  they 
ignored  it  again  as  soon  as  Henry's  back  was  turned;  but  a  foot- 
hold had  been  won  in   the  island,  a  claim  had   been  established 


1172-1174]  REVOLT   OF   THE   BARONS  225 

which  was  destined  to  draw  the  Irish  ever  more  deeply  under  the 
shadow  of  their  powerful  neighbors. 

The  family  life  of  Henry  reveals  the  same,  sad  blight  which 
seems  to  have  been  the  common  lot  of  medieval  kings.     His  warm 

nature  craved  affection  and  loyalty  in  those  who  were 
hcmjns,  1172-    nearest  to  him,  but  Eleanor,  proud  and  treacherous  by 

nature,  was  incapable  of  bestowing  either,  and  her  sons 
were  equally  false  and  undutiful.  lu  1172  the  king  repeated  the 
coronation  of  Prince  Henry.  He  had  already  secured  Brittany  for 
his  second  son,  Geoffrey,  by  marrying  him  to  Constance,  heiress  of 
Brittany;  and  had  made  his  third  son  Richard  duke  of  Aquitaine. 
The  danger  in  this  scheme  was  that  the  sons  who  were  never  overdu- 
tiful,  would  grow  impatient  of  their  father's  control,  and  in  hope  of 
realizing  their  inheritances  would  lend  a  ready  ear  to  the  flat- 
teries of  the  king's  many  enemies.  The  younger  Henry  in  par- 
ticular was  a  foolish  and  heady  youth  who  was  only  too  willing 
to  believe  that  now  he  had  been  crowned,  he  ought  to  be  really  the 
king.  He  easily  fell  into  the  hands,  therefore,  of  those  who  were 
jealous  of  Henry's  greatness  and  who  sought  to  use  the  youth  as 
their  tool.  Eleanor  and  the  younger  sons  also  took  side  against  the 
father.  The  barons  of  Normandy  were  soon  deeply  involved  in  the 
rebellion,  actively  aided  by  the  princes  of  Scotland,  Flanders,  and 
Champaign.  But  the  difficulties  which  faced  Henry  only  brought 
out  all  the  splendid  energy  of  his  character.  On  the  continent  he 
was  favored  by  the  dissensions  of  his  enemies.  In  England  his 
justiciars,  de  Lucy  and  Glanville,  served  him  loyally  and  were  sup- 
ported generally  by  the  sympathies  of  the  people.  In  Norfolk  they 
took  the  arch  rebel,  the  earl  of  Leicester,  while  in  the  north  the 
royal  forces  led  by  Glanville  and  supported  by  the  men  of  Yorkshire 
gained  a  decisive  victory  over  the  Scots  at  Alnwick,  taking  their 
king,  William  the  Lion.  At  the  time,  Henry  was  going  through 
his  seemly  penance  at  the  tomb  of  Becket,  spending  the  night  in 
prayers  and  tears,  and  offering  his  back  to  the  scourges  of  the 
monks.  The  news  of  Alnwick  was  received  as  the  sign  of  divine 
forgiveness;  the  rebellion  was  broken,  the  rebels  were  at  the  king's 
feet.  Henry,  however,  was  in  no  mood  to  punish ;  he  would  shed  no 
blood  and  he  made  scarcely  any  confiscations.    Yet  in  the  interests 


226  FEUDAL    REACTION  [henhyII. 

of  good  government  he  insisted  upon  taking  all  the  castles 
into  his  own  hands  and  thus  completed  the  work  which  he  had 
begun  twenty  years  before.  Before  releasing  the  king  of  Scot- 
land from  his  prison  at  Falaise,  he  obliged  him  to  do 
Fui&e^ii74  homage  and  acknowledge  his  supremacy  over  Scotland. 
The  sons,  however,  were  restored  to  their  former  posi- 
tions as  prospective  heirs  to  the  various  parts  of  Henry's  dominions. 
Yet  his  trouble  with  them  was  by  no  means  ended.  The  younger 
Henry  went  on  with  his  intrigues  until  his  death  in  1183.  The 
unpopularity  of  Geoffrey  in  Brittany  made  him  also  a  source  of 
constant  trouble  until  his  death  in  1185.  The  death  of  Henry  had 
left  Richard  the  acknowledged  heir  to  the  throne,  and  the  father 
proposed  to  transfer  a  part  of  Aquitaine  to  the  portionless  John. 
But  Eichard  was  in  no  mind  to  renounce  any  of  his  lands  in  the 
south  and  made  cause  with  Philip  against  the  father. 

Thus  Henry  struggled  on  amid  the  deepening  gloom  of  declin- 
ing years.  Yet  he  had  not  for  a  moment  forgotten  the  great  work 
to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life.  In  1176  he  renewed 
Nortimmp-  the  Assize  of  Clarendon  at  Northampton,  and  added 
other  regulations  for  the  better  preservation  of  the 
peace.  In  1178  he  further  organized  the  work  of  the  Curia  Eegis 
by  setting  apart  five  judges  and  committing  to  them  a  great  part 
of  the  judicial  business,  which  it  had  been  customary  to  bring 
before  the  Curia  as  a  whole.  This  special  committee  developed 
ultimately  into  two  separate  courts,  known  as  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench  and  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  which  with  the  Court  of 
Exchequer  already  organized,  constituted  three  coordinate  branches 
of  the  Curia. 

The  last  great  measure  of  Henry  for  the  better  ordering  of  the 
kingdom,  was  the  famous  Assize  of  Arms.  The  Norman  kings 
had  often  found  the  fyrd  useful  both  in  repelling  for- 
"Arrm^fmi^^  eign  invasion,  as  at  Northallerton,  and  also  in  check- 
ing and  overawing  the  barons.  To  encourage  and 
strengthen  the  national  forces,  Henry  proposed  that  every  freeman 
should  find  arms  and  equipment  according  to  his  ability,  estimated 
by  the  amount  of  his  property.  The  Assize  directed  that  every 
one  holding  a  knight's  fee  should  possess  a  coat  of  mail  with  hel- 


1187]  THE   CAPTURE   OF   JERUSALEM  227 

met,  shield,  and  lance ;  every  man  having  chattels  or  receiving  rent 
to  the  value  of  16  marks  should  be  armed  in  like  manner;  one  who 
was  worth  10  marks  should  have  a  coat  of  mail,  an  iron  cap,  and  a 
lance;  other  freemen  should  provide  themselves  with  doublet  of 
mail,  iron  cap,  and  lance.  The  lance  was  evidently  the  important 
implement  of  war;  the  bow  was  not  yet  conspicuous. 

As  the  years  of  Henry's  reign  drew  to  its  close,  the  eyes  of  all 
('hristendom  were  once  more  turned  to  the  east.     The  Christian 

kingdom  of  Jerusalem  had  been  established  in  1090,  as 
of^uEniem  ^"^  ^^  ^^^  results  of  the  First  Crusade,  and  had  led  a 
^^itj^he  Turks,  precarious  existence  since,  owing  largely  to  the  discords 

of  the  Christian  knights  rather  than  to  the  strength  of 
their  enemies.  The  surrounding  Turkish  states,  small,  and  divided 
against  each  other,  had  been  unable  singly  to  drive  out  the 
strangers.  But  they  had  been  united  recently  into  a  powerful 
state  by  the  Sultan  Noureddin  and  his  son  Saladin,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded in  combining  all  the  vast  military  resources  of  the  lands 
between  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates.  Henry  was  particularly  inter- 
ested, because  through  his  grandfather  Fulk  of  Anjon  who  had 
married  for  his  second  wife  Milicent,  the  heiress  of  Jerusalem,  an 
Angevin  line  had  been  established  in  the  east.  In  118G  the  last  male 
representative  of  the  eastern  Angevins  had  died,  and  Sibyl,  the 
surviving  daughter,  had  bestowed  herself  and  her  father's  crown 
upon  Guy  of  Lusignan.  The  valiant  Guy  had  made  a  noble  stand 
against  the  rising  strength  of  Saladin,  but  at  the  battle  of  Tiberias, 
July  1187,  the  last  remaining  strength  of  the  Christians  was  swept 
away,  and  Jerusalem  with  the  "true  cross"  fell  to  the  victor  as 
the  spoil  of  battle.' 

The  pope,  Gregory  VIIL,  had  already  sent  out  frantic  appeals 
for  help  but  the  danger  seemed  remote,  the  western  princes  were 

all  quarreling  among  themselves,  and  none  had  heeded. 

A  new  Cm-      rm  i  i 

sadepro-         ihen  there  came  the  news  of  the  brave  but  hopeless 

claimed.  •  •  n  i    i         i 

stand  at  iiberias,  followed  by  the  yet  more  astound- 
ing rumor  of  the  fall  of  the  holy  city.  Europe  awoke  as  it  had 
awakened  a  hundred  years  before  under  the  fervid  words  of  Peter 
the  Hermit.  The  pope  proclaimed  the  Crusade,  and  the  princes 
of  the  west,  swept  along  by  the  popular   tide,  dared   not  deny 


228  FEUDAL    REACTION  [henry  II. 

the   demand   of   their   people   to   be   led    once   more  against    the 
infidel. 

Henry,  to  whom  the  misfortunes  of  Guy  were  almost  a  personal 
matter,  had  long  before  begun  to  prepare  for  the  Crusade,  but  in 
1185  he  had  been  compelled  by  the  earnest  protest  of  his  bishops 
and  barons  to  abandon  his  project  for  the  time.  He  now  persuaded 
the  great  council  to  devote  to  the  holy  cause  a  tenth  part  of  the 
goods  of  every  man  in  England,  the  "Saladin  tithe."  ^  He  found, 
however,  that  he  was  not  yet  free  to  move.  He  soon  became  in- 
volved in  a  fresh  quarrel  with  his  son  Eichard  and  the  young  king 
Philip  II.  of  France,  who  suddenly  invaded  Henry's  continental 
dominions  at  a  time  when  he  was  not  only  ill  but  had  been  aban- 
doned by  his  mercenaries  on  account  of  arrears  of  pay.  Henry 
could  make  no  resistance.  He  was  driven  out  of  Le  Mans,  the  city 
of  his  birth,  and  at  last  compelled  to  accept  an  humiliating  treaty  in 
which  he  conceded  the  demands  of  Richard  and  Philip  without 
reserve.  Among  these  concessions,  he  agreed  that  Richard's  asso- 
ciates should  transfer  their  allegiance  from  the  father  to  the  son. 
The  king  called  for  the  list,  and  when  he  saw  at  the  head  the  name 
of  John,  his  youngest  born,  whom  he  had  not  suspected  of  treason 
and  whom  he  dearly  loved,  he  read  no  further.  ''I  have  nothing 
left  to  care  for,"  cried  the  broken-hearted  man,  "let  all  things  go 
their  way."  He  did  not  recover  from  the  shock,  but  died  three 
days  later,  attended  only  by  Geoffrey,  an  illegitimate  son,^  and  by 
William  Marshal,  who  had  been  the  friend  and  supporter  of  the 
younger  Henry  and  had  attached  himself  to  the  father  after  1183. 
The  sad  death  of  Henry  closed  a  uniformly  successful  life.  As 
head  of  a  compact  kingdom  and  lord  of  nearly  half  of  what  is  now 

France,  his  position  among  the  princes  of  Europe  was 
Hmril^^         second  only  to  that   of  the  emperor.      While  Henry 

probably  considered  his  continental  interests  of  greater 
importance,  the  work  which  has  given  him  his  name  lay  in  the 
island  kingdom.  His  reign  marks  a  great  advance  in  the  national 
life  of  England.  The  monarchy  had  triumphantly  passed  through 
the  dangers  of  feudal  anarchy.     The  king  had  proved  himself  to  be 

iStubbs,  ;Sf.  C,  p.  160. 

2  Not  to  be  confused  with  the  father  of  Arthur. 


THE   WORK    OP   HENRY 


229 


the  one  great  centralizing  and  unifying  influence  in  the  state. 
The  barons  had  been  spoiled  of  their  castles ;  the  authority  of  the 
laws  of  the  realm  over  all  classes  vindicated  and  the  supremacy  of 
the  king's  courts  established  upon  a  permanent  foundation. 


CONTEMPORARIES  OF  LATER  NORMAN  AND  EARLY  ANGEVIN  KINGS. 


KINGS  OF  FRANCE 

Philip  L,fi.  1108 
l.ouis  VI.,  (1.  1137 
l,onis  VII.,  d.  1180 
IMiilip  IL, 
Augustus,  1180 


EMPERORS 

Henry  IV.,  d.  1106 
Henry  V.  (son  in- 
law of  Henry  of 
England),  (/.  112.5 
Lothairll.,  d.  11M7 
Conrad  III..(/.  11.V3 
Fredericlt  I., 
Barbarossa,  ll'):i 


1087-1187 

KINGS    OF    SOOTS 

Malcolm  III.,  d.  um 
Donald  Kane,  king  in 
l()i»3  and  again  in  l(Ht4 
Duncan,  um 
Edgar,  i(n»7  IKH? 
Alexaiid.T  1..  <l.  Wl\ 
J)avid  ]..  (/.  1 !.-.:{ 
Mal«>oIni  IV.,  W.  iiti.-) 
Williain  the  Lion,  iHw 


MORE  PROMINENT 
POPES 

Urban  II.,  d.  1099 
Paschal  II.,  </.  1118 
Calixtus  II.,  (/.  1124 
nonoriusjr.,fMi:«) 
Iiuiocent  TI..  <}.  1113 
(•■Icstin.'  Ii,.(/.  IIH 
Hadrian  I\  .,    ll.")»- 

iir)9 
Alexander  III.,  d. 

1181 
Urban  III,  d.  1187 


PROMINENT  AUCHBISHOPS    OF   CANTEBBUBY 

Lanfranc,  d.  1089 
Anselni.  1093-1109 
Theobald,  1139-1161 
Thomas,  1162-1170 

PROMINENT  CHIEF  JUSTICIARS 

Ralph  Flambard,  1094-1100 
Roger  of  Salisbury.  1 107-1139 
Robert.  Earl  of  I^icester,  llM-1167 
Richard  de  Lucy.  llj>4-ll79 
Rauulf  de  Glanville,  1180 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  GROWTH    OF    POPULAR    RIGHTS  AND    THE  LOSS  OF    THE  CONTI- 
NENTAL POSSESSIONS  OF  THE   ANGEVINS 


RICHARD,  llH9-im 
JOHN,    1199-1204 

FAMILY  OF  HENRY  II. 

Henry  II. 

I 


Henry, 
d.  1183 


Geoffrey  William 

Archbishop    Longsword 
of  York  Earl  of 

(illegitimate)     Salisbury 

(illegitimate) 


Ricliard 
King 
1189-1199 


Matilda= Henry  of  Saxony 

Otto  IV.  Emperor, 

1209-1218 


I 

Joanna 

m. 

William  II. 
of  Sicily 


Geoffrey,    John  Eleanor 
d.  1186          King  m. 

TO.  1199-1216  Alfonso 

Constance     to.  King  of 

of  Brittany  Isabella  Castile 

I  of  I 

Arthur        Angouleme  Blanche 
Duke  of  TO. 

Brittany,  Louis 

murdered  VIII.  of 

1203  •  France 


After  Henry's  death    Richard  passed  quietly  to  the  English 
throne.     There  were  disgraceful  riots  ending  in  massacres  of  Jews 
in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom;  but  they  were  inspired 
RiSSd!^      by  the  desire  of  pious  subjects  to  relieve  their  excess- 
^^^^'  ive  loyalty,  rather  than  to  show  any  feeling  of  hostility 

to  the  new  king.  In  character  Richard  presented  a  marked  con- 
trast to  his  father.  .Henry  was  a  soldier  only  by  necessity.  He 
hated  the  riot  and  uncertainty  of  war.  He  loved  order  and  pre- 
ferred to  win  his  triumphs  over  the  lawlessness  of  the  time  by  the 
steady  encroachment  of  good  government  and  wise  administration. 
Richard  was  a  soldier  rather  than  an  administrator ;  a  knight  errant 
rather  than  a  statesman.  His  figure  suggested  great  physical 
power  and  endurance.  *'His  fresh  complexion  and  golden  hair" 
betrayed  the  viking  blood.  In  dress  he  was  showy  and  ostenta- 
tious; in  the  use  of  money,  extravagant;  in  action,  impulsive. 
Like  Stephen  he  possessed  the  generous  qualities  of  the  soldier; 
but  unlike  Stephen,  as  his  career  in  Poitou  proved,  he  could 
enforce  law  and  order.  Yet  he  was  full  of  visionary  ambitions  and 
possessed  nothing  of  the  Angevin  aptitude  for  practical  affairs.    All 

230 


1189]  SALE   OF   PRIVILEGES  231 

in  all  he  was  a  poor  king.  Although  born  in  England,  he  had 
spent  his  youth  abroad  and  knew  little  of  the  people  over  whom  he 
was  to  reign.  He  remained  always  an  Aquitanian,  and  seemed 
to  regard  his  kingdom  only  as  an  appanage  of  his  continental 
dominions.  He  cared  little  for  its  interests,  treating  it  for  the 
most  part  as  a  convenient  source  of  supplies  in  carrying  on  his 
continental  schemes.^ 

Ki chard  had  taken  the  cross  in  1188,  and  his  accession  to  the 
crown  offered  the  means  of  putting  his  long-cherished  plan  of 
Richard's  S^^^S  ^^  ^  Crusade  into  immediate  execution.  He 
?aSm'^^  found  the  treasury  full,  thanks  to  his  father's  thrift  as 
m^^ney-  much  as  to  the  recently  collected  Saladin  tithe.     But 

these  sums  were  not  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  carry  out  his  plans 
upon  the  scale  which  he  meditated ;  he  set  himself,  therefore,  to 
raise  more  money.  He  took  fees  from  those  whom  he  appointed 
to  office  and  also  from  those  whom  he  permitted  to  retire.  The 
aged  justiciar,  Ranulf  de  Glanville,  eminent  as  the  first  scientific 
writer  upon  English  law,  was  allowed  to  buy  his  way  out  of  office  that 
he  might  take  part  in  the  Crusade.  Eights  and  immunities  were 
thrown  on  the  bargain  counter  in  reckless  profusion;  * 'I  would 
sell  London,"  the  king  exclaimed,  **if  I  could  find  a  purchaser." 
In  return  for  a  payment  of  10,000  marks,  he  released  the  king  of 
Scots  from  the  homage  which  he  had  sworn  at  Falaise. 

Tvcatu  of 

Falaise  To  those  who  in  a  moment  of  thoughtless  enthusiasm 

annulled.  ,      -,   ,    ,  ,  i  ^  -i  i.  ,  •        ,   i 

had  taken  the  cross,  he  sold  licenses  to  remain  at  home. 
The  general  traffic  of  the  king  in  sheriffdoms,  justiceships,  church 
lands  and  appointments  of  all  kinds,  shocked  even  that  age  when 
public  office  had  come  to  be  regarded  largely  as  a  matter  of  private 
property;  **all  things  were  venal  to  him."  **Thus  the  king 
acquired  an  infinite  amount  of  money,  more  than  any  of  his  pred- 
ecessors is  known  to  have  had." 

In  order  to  make  provision  for  the  government  of  the  kingdom 
during  his  absence,  Eichard  placed  the  authority  of  the  justiciar 
jointly  in  the  hands  of  Hugh  of  Puiset,  the  bishop  of  Durham, 
who  paid  £3,000  for  the  honor*  and  William  of  Longchamp,  the 

^  For  character  of  Richard  see  Norgate,  England  under  Angevin  Kings, 
11,206-208. 


232  THE    GROWTH    OF    POPULAR   RIGHTS  [richard  i. 

chancellor.     Longcliamp  was  a  foreigner,  and  said  to  be  of  mean 
birth.    He  had  been  raised  over  nobler  heads  to  the  chancellorship; 

then  made  bishop  of  Ely,  and  finally  Justiciar.  He  was 
provides  for    lame  and   ugly,    but    skillful    and  unscrupulous.     He 

was  hated  by  the  nobles  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  thus 
had  every  reason  to  be  faithful  to  his  master. 

In  December  1189,  "Richard  left  England  for  Palestine.     But  his 
back  had  hardly  been  turned  before  the  two  justiciars  began  to 

quarrel  at  the  exchequer,  and  Longchamp,  secretly  sup- 
nlieof^^^^  ported  by  the  king,  displaced  his  rival.  His  increased 
uS^iwi^^'    power,  however,  brought  him  no  popularity.     He  took 

no  pains  to  disguise  his  contempt  for  the  English  whose 
language  he  would  not  speak;  he  gave  offense  to  the  nobles  by 
placing  his  foreign  friends  and  kinsmen  in  high  positions,  bestow- 
ing upon  them  the  custody  of  castles  and  towns,  which  he  seized 
under  various  pretexts.  He  lived  himself  in  great  luxury  and 
pomp,  traveling  about  the  country  with  an  extravagant  retinue  of 
fifteen  hundred  men. 

The   growing   unpopularity   of    Longchamp   might   not   have 
been  a  serious  matter,   had   it   not  been  for  Kichard's   younger 

brother  John,  who  saw  an  opportunity  for  mischief, 
a  miscMef-  '   always  grateful  to  his  intriguing  disposition.     Richard 

and  John  had  been  generally  upon  good  terms,  although 
Richard  was  not  unaware  of  John's  treacherous  nature.  He 
had  refused  to  recognize  him  as  his  heir,  and  in  the  arrange- 
ment which  he  had  made  for  the  government  during  his  absence, 
had  further  denied  John  any  share  in  the  administration.  He 
had  also  exacted  a  promise  from  John  under  oath,  that  he  would 
leave  the  kingdom  for  three  years;  but  to  conciliate  him,  had 
given  him  control  of  five  counties  with  their  revenues  and  castles. 
Against  the  advice  of  Eleanor,  however,  the  wise  precaution  of 
keeping  John  out  of  England  had  been  abandoned,  and  he  was  now 
lording  it  like  a  king  in  his  five  shires,  and  openly  encouraging 
the  discontent  of  the  deposed  justiciar,  Hugh  of  Durham,  and  the 
general  restlessness  of  the  barons  under  the  insolence  of  Longchamp. 
An  attempt  of  Longchamp  to  replace  the  castellan  of  Lincoln 
was  resisted  by  John.     For  a  moment  it  seemed  that  open  war  was 


1189-1191]  KICHARD    AND   THE   THIRD    CRUSADE  233 

inevitable;  but  the  quarrel  was  patched  up,  and  Longchamp's 
tyrannies   continued.      John's  iialf-brother,    Geoffrey,   had   been 

recently  made  archbisliop  of  York.  Like  John  he  had 
^^'^r,  been  compelled   to  promise  under  oath  that  he  would 

keep  away  from  England  during  the  king's  absence ;  but 
like  John  also  he  had  been  released,  and  in  August  1191  returned. 
Longchamp  refused  to  believe  in  the  alleged  release  and  sent  his 
men  to  arrest  Geoffrey  in  Dover  church.  The  people,  who  had  not 
yet  forgotten  the  brutal  deed  of  Henry's  knights  at  Canterbury, 
beheld  the  archbishop,  dragged  by  hands  and  feet  through  their 
filthy  streets,  bareheaded,  his  sacred  vestments  torn  and  dis- 
heveled, *' clinging  to  his  pastoral  cross  and  excommunicating  his 
tormentors  as  he  went."  The  unseemly  sight  destroyed  what 
little  respect  still  lingered  for  Longchamp's  authority.  John 
at  once  took  up  Geoffrey's  cause,  and  summoning  a  great  council 
at  London,  forced  Longchamp  to  leave  the  kingdom.  Richard,  it 
seems,  had  already  heard  of  the  difficulties  of  Longchamp  and  had 
sent  back  to  England  one  of  his  father's  old  and  long-tried  officials, 
Walter  of  Coutances,  archbishop  of  Rouen.     Walter  had  reached 

England    in   April.     At   the  moment   everything   was 

Walte^r  of  ,  .  .  . 

coutarweit,  quiet  and  according  to  instructions  he  kept  his  secret 
commission  in  his  wallet.  But  the  time  had  now  come 
to  act,  and  producing  his  commission  he  quietly  took  Long- 
champ's place  at  the  council  board.  The  arrangement  had  been 
made  by  Richard's  authority  and  John  and  his  friends  were 
forced  to  be  satisfied. 

In  the  meanwhile  Richard  was  having  his  heart's  content  of 

intrigue  and  wild   adventure.      He  and    Philip  of    France    had 

attempted    to    make    the    Crusade   together,  but  had 

Richard  and  \    -,     .  i  *        t.*-        •  i  i 

the  Third  quarreled  from  the  start.  At  Messina,  where  they 
passed  the  winter  of  1190  and  1191,  so  hot  ran  the 
fierce  war  of  words  that  they  all  but  came  to  blows.  In  June 
Richard  reached  Acre  where  Guy  of  Lusignan,  king  of  Jerusalem 
by  right  of  his  wife  Sibyl,  Richard's  kinswoman,  had  been  carry- 
ing on  a  profitless  siege  since  1189.  Frederick  Barbarossa,  the 
fine  old  septuagenarian  emperor,  had  set  out  in  1190  to  reach  Syria 
by  land,  but  had  been  drowned  while  crossing  the  Calycadmus,  a 


234  THE    GROWTH    OF    POPULAR    RIGHTS  [richabd  I. 

little  stream  of  Asia  Minor.  Only  a  small  part  of  his  army  ever 
reached  the  Holy  Land,  and  although  Philip  had  arrived  at  Acre 
in  April,  the  outlook  was  still  very  gloomy  when  Richard  came. 
The  camp  was  poorly  arranged  for  the  accommodation  of  large 
bodies  of  men,  poorly  drained  and  swept  by  pestilence.  The  ceme- 
tery near  by  already  contained  as  many  recruits  as  the  armies  that 
bivouacked  before  the  city ;  the  solemn  muster  including  the  names 
of  Baldwin  of  Canterbury,  and  Ranulf  de  Glanvilie,  Henry's  famous 
jurist.  The  arrival  of  Richard,  his  skill  and  spirit,  soon  put  new 
life  into  the  besiegers,  and  within  a  month  the  city  fell.  The  next 
step  would  have  been  naturally  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
restoration  of  Guy.  But  the  capture  of  Acre  had  cost  300,000 
men ;  the  leaders  were  divided  and  jealous  of  each  other ;  the  recent 
death  of  Sibyl,  also,  in  the  eyes  of  the  German  and  French  leaders, 
had  destroyed  Guy's  claim  to  the  crown.  Thus  a  new  bone  of 
contention  was  thrown  into  the  camp  and  Philip  and  many  of  the 
Germans  went  home  in  disgust,  leaving  Richard  to  carry  on  the 
contest  alone  as  best  he  could.  Twice  he  led  his  troops  almost 
within  sight  of  the  sacred  battlements ;  he  beat  the  Sultan  in  a 
great  battle  at  Asuf ;  still  with  his  depleted  hosts  he  could  not 
secure  the  prize.  Then  came  news  of  more  mischief-making  at 
home  where  Philip  who  had  now  reached  France,  was  secretly 
lending  his  influence  to  John's  schemes.  Richard  determined, 
therefore,  to  make  the  best  terms  he  could  with  Saladin  and  return. 
He  obtained  a  truce  which  was  to  last  three  years,  and  which 
secured  to  Christians  the  privilege  of  visiting  Jerusalem  and  trad- 
ing in  the  country.  This  done,  Richard  set  out;  leaving  Hubert 
Walter,  the  crusading  bishop  of  Salisbury,  to  bring  home  his  army. 
Richard's  troubles  were  by  no  means  over.  He  had  intended 
to  land  at  Marseilles,  but  rumor  of  a  plot  of  Raymond  of  Toulouse 
to  seize  him  upon  landing,  turned  him  back  to  the  sea. 

The  vetuvn 

and  capture.  Finally,  after  long  buffeting  by  contrary  winds,  he  was 
wrecked  near  Ragusa  'and  compelled  to  cross  Germany 
on  foot.  Everything  went  well  until  he  entered  the  dominions  of 
Leopold  of  Austria,  whom  at  the  taking  of  Acre  he  had  mortally 
offended  by  throwing  down   the  duke's  banner  from  the  walls. 


1194]  THE    RANSOM    OF    RICHARD  235 

Kichard  had  donned  a  pilgrim's  garb  and  had  allowed  his  beard  to 
grow  long.  But  he  was  recognized  in  spite  of  his  disguise,  and  as 
he  approached  Vienna  was  seized  and  cast  into  prison. 

Philip  no  sooner  heard  of  the  good  luck  of  Leopold,  than  he 
began  to  plot  deeper  mischief  with  John.     Together  they  cun- 
ningly spread  the  rumor  that  Richard  was  dead,  and 

Intriijues  ^>/      ^  i  i,  -.  ^ 

Philip  and      John  was  allowed   to  do  homage  for  Richard's  conti- 

John.  ° 

nental  dominions.  But  neither  Eleanor,  nor  Bishop 
Geoffrey,  nor  Hugh  of  Durham  could  be  caught  by  such  a  trick, 
and  when  John  demanded  the  custody  of  the  English  castles,  they 
defied  him.  Philip  then  attempted  to  rouse  the  king  of  Denmark 
to  invade  England,  while  he  with  a  French  army  invaded  Nor- 
mandy. The  nobles  of  Aquitaine  were  as  usual  ready  to  revolt, 
and  even  in  Anjou  Philip  found  a  sentiment  widely  prevalent 
among  the  nobility,  that  their  true  interests  lay  in  a  closer  alliance 
with  the  French  king. 

In  the  meanwhile  Richard  fared  but  poorly  in  the  hands  of  his 
captors.     He  was,  however,  too  valuable  a  prisoner  to  keep  in  secret 

confinement,  or  to  destroy.  Under  the  strange  ideas 
RShaixilf  which  prevailed,  when  states  might  play  the  footpad 
o/olrmany.    ^^^^   ^ig^itj^    Richard's  capture   was   in  fact   a  great 

speculation;  he  could  be  held  for  ransom.  The  busi- 
ness, however,  was  too  great  for  Leopold  alone  to  handle ;  so  he 
sold  out  to  the  Emperor  Henry  VL  who  had  grudges  of  his  own 
against  Richard,  and  was  not  averse  to  satisfying  his  malice  and 
filling  his  coffers  at  the  same  time. 

While  Richard  was  thus  spending  his  days  in  the  seclusion  of 
a   Geiunan  castle,  John   was   conducting   himself   as   though   he 

expected  his  brother  would  never  return,  seizing  castles 
Theransmn,    a^d  defying   the   justiciar.     Yet  he  did  not  forget  to " 

intrigue  with  Philip  to  prevent  Henry  from  releasing 
his  royal  captive.  All  of  this,  of  course,  only  raised  the  price  of 
ransom,  which  was  at  last  fixed  at  the  enormous  sum  of  150,000 
marks.  It  was  a  serious  burden  to  come  in  the  train  of  so  much 
else,  and  yet  the  nation  assumed  it  loyally.  Each  knight's  fee 
was  bound  by  feudal  law  to  pay  its  aid  for  the  lord's  ransom.  But 
the  customary  aid  of  20  shillings  per  fee  was  inadequate  to  meet 


236  THE   GROWTH   OF   POPULAR   RIGHTS  [kichaei>  1. 

such  a  ransom  as  this.  Accordingly  the  aids  were  supplemented 
by  the  exaction  of  a  fourth  part  of  the  revenue  or  of  tlie  mova- 
ble goods  of  every  man  in  the  kingdom.  To  this  the  Cistercians 
and  Gilbertines  were  also  induced  to  add  the  fourth  part  of  the 
wool  of  their  flocks/  and  many  of  the  more  important  churches 
contributed  their  "plate  and  jewels."  Similar  exertions  were  also 
made  in  the  continental  dominions  of  Richard.  Still  the  sum  did 
not  reach  the  ransom  demanded  by  the  enterprising  emperor;  yet 
enough  had  been  raised  to  make  a  payment  on  account,  and  the 
emperor  consented  to  release  the  king  after  receiving  hostages  in 
guarantee  of  the  balance.  Among  the  hostages  was  the  justiciar, 
Walter  of  Coutances.  As  soon  as  Richard  reached  England,  he 
summoned  a  great  council  of  his  barons  at  Nottingham,  and  to 
complete  the  ransom,  levied  two  shillings  upon  every  ploughland 
of  one  hundred  acres,  the  carucage.  It  was  also  proposed 
to  confiscate  all  the  wool  of  the  Cistercians  for  one  year, 
but  they  were  finally  allowed  to  compensate  by  a  money  payment 
instead. 

As  a  salve  to  the  pride  of  Richard,  before  he  left  Germany  the 
emperor  had  bestowed  upon  him  the  titular  crown  of  the  kingdom 
The  titular  ^^  Burgundy;  to  Richard  an  acquisition  of  some  impor- 
Bvrmmdv  ^^ucc,  sincc  by  it  he  became  a  prince  of  the  empire. 
^r'd^^Hom^^e  ^^^^^^^  transaction  is  also  connected  with  the  ransom 
for  England.  Qf  Richard  which  has  caused  English  historians  some 
difficulty  to  explain.  It  is  said  that  Richard  formally  renounced 
his  English  kingdom  to  the  emperor,  handing  him  his  cap  in  lieu 
of  the  crown  in  token  of  surrender,  and  that  the  emperor  returned 
it  to  him  again,  on  condition  of  homage  and  a  yearly  rent  of 
£5,000.  The  arrangement  was  afterward  annulled  by  the 
emperor.^  So  at  last  Richard  was  free  and  the  fabulous  ransom  was 
paid.  Henry,  apparently,  still  had  an  unworthy  feeling  that  he  might 
have  made  a  better  bargain.  But  the  pope  and  the  German  princes 
were  indignant  at  the  ill  usage  of  Richard  and  at  the  violation  of 
his  rights  as  a  crusader,  and  Henry  did  not  dare  longer  to  offend 
the  awakening  sentiment  of  Europe. 

1  Compare  Norgate  II,  p.  336  with  Stubbs,  C.  H.,  I,  p.  540. 
2Stubbs,  C.  H.,  1,  p.  601. 


1194]  HUBERT   WALTER  237 

Kichard  remained  in  England  from  March  20  until  May  12, 
barely  two  months,  but  long  enough  to  finish  tumbling  down 
John's  house  of  cards,  and  then  was  off  again  to  the 
secona  stay  continent  to  settle  his  score  with  Philip.  With  charac- 
teristic generosity  he  pardoned  John.  "I  forgive  him," 
said  the  king,  "and  hope  that  I  shall  as  easily  forget  his  injuries 
as  he  will  my  pardon."  He  was  too  shrewd,  however,  to  put  lands 
or  power  again  into  John's  hands.  John  on  his  part  realized  that 
it  was  useless  to  intrigue  further  against  his  powerful  brother, 
and  accepting  a  stipend  which  enabled  him  to  live  in  a  way 
becoming  his  rank,  he  gave  no  more  trouble  for  the  rest  of  Richard's 
reign.  After  bringing  John  to  terms,  Richard  then  set  himself 
to  raise  new  funds  in  order  'to  further  his  schemes  against  Philip. 
He  compelled  those  who  had  made  trouble  during  his  absence  to 
forfeit  vast  sums;  sheriffs  were  turned  out  of  their  positions  upon 
various  pretexts,  and  another  sale  of  offices  began ;  charters  and 
privileges  were  again  scattered  freely  for  money,  and  many  towns, 
imitating  the  recent  example  of  London,*  seized  the  opportunity 
to  gain  corporate  rights. 

While  in  his  German  prison  Richard  had  secured  the  election 
of    the    crusader    Hubert    Walter    to    the    see    of   Canterbury. 
Hubert  was  no  ordinary  priest.     He  was  a  nephew  of 
Walter.  Henry's  great  justiciar,  Ranulf  de  Glanville,  and  had 

been  trained  in  his  household.  He  had  accompanied  his 
venerable  primate.  Archbishop  Baldwin,  in  the  Crusade,  and  after 
his  death  had  been  tacitly  recognized  as  the  chief  among  the 
spiritual  leaders  of  the  English  crusaders,  and  when  Richard  has- 
tened homo,  it  was  to  Hubert  that  he  entrusted  the  conduct  of 
the  returning  host.  As  archbishop,  Hubert  had  at  once  exercised 
a  decisive  influence  in  checking  the  elements  of  disorder  which 
were  seeking  to  take  advantage  of  the  prolonged  absence  of  the 
king;  he  had  inspired  the  measures  for  raising  the  king's  ransom, 
and  by  supporting  the  Justiciar  Walter  and  casting  the  weight  of 
the  church  against  John,  had  materially  contributed  to  the  over- 
throw  of   John's    influence   even   before   the  release  of  Richard. 

^  For  date  (1191)  of  granting  the  commune  to  London  and  for  influence 
of  example,  see  Round,  The  Commune  of  Loudon,  pp.  219-260. 


238  THE    GROWTH    OF    POPULAR    RIGHTS  [richardI. 

When,  therefore,  the  justiciar  was  summoned  to  Germany  to  present 
himself  as  a  hostage  in  order  to  secure  the  king's  release.  Arch- 
bishop Hubert  had  been  appointed  to  succeed  him. 

The   task   which  was   assigned   the  new   justiciar   was  not  an 

enviable  one.     In  order  to  support  Eichard  in  the  war  which  he 

proposed  to  wage  against  his  continental  foes,  Hubert 

Hubert  was  cxpccted  to  raise  funds  from  the  already  exhausted 

Walter  and      ,  .        ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

the  political     kingdom  and  yet  keep  the  people  contented  and  sub- 

educatimiof  .      .  riM       •        .    .         ,  »    „ 

thepeopie.  missive.  ihe  justiciar,  however,  fully  grasped  the  con- 
ditions of  his  position;  he  knew  the  temper  of  the 
English  and  saw  that  his  only  hope  of  success  lay  in  win- 
ning their  confidence  and  active  support.  To  this  end  he  sought 
to  avoid  the  appearance  of  irregular  or  arbitrary  extortion 
by  throwing  the  assessment  of  levies  largely  into  the  hands 
of  the  people;  he  also  gave  them  a  more  direct  share  in  the 
administration  of  justice,  taking  from  the  sheriffs  the  selec- 
tion of  the  juries  of  presentment  and  placing  it  in  the  hands 
of  the  ''lawful  men"  of  the  shires.  He  also  greatly  enlarged 
the  scope  of  these  juries,  not  only  inviting  them  to  adjudge  pleas 
of  the  crown,  but  calling  upon  them  for  support  and  cooperation 
in  almost  every  emergency.  Constitutionally  these  innovations 
were  of  the  utmost  importance ;  they  not  only  did  much  to  restore 
the  habit  of  local  self-government,  which  was  rapidly  passing  into 
a  mere  tradition  under  the  deadening  influence  of  the  Norman- 
Angevin  system  of  centralization,  but  they  also  inaugurated  a 
course  of  political  education  which  directly  prepared  that  genera- 
tion of  Englishmen  for  the  role  which  they  were  to  play  in  the 
great  era  at  hand. 

Notwithstanding  these  wise  and  statesmanlike  measures,  how- 
ever, Hubert  was  not  able  altogether  to  forestall  discontent.  In 
London  the  poor  craftsmen,  the  weavers,  the  arrow- 
Eievemie^^  smiths,  the  day  laborers,  and  others,  who  were  not  land- 
holders and  so  had  no  voice  in  making  assessments  or 
directing  the  local  administration,  charged  the  burghers  with 
sparing  their  own  purses  at  the  expense  of  the  poor.  Murmurs 
soon  passed  to  open  riot  and  bloodshed.  An  eccentric  burgher, 
William  Fitz-Osbert,  called  also  "William  Longbeard,"  a  returned 


1194-1198]  WILLIAM    LONGBEARD  239 

crusader,  championed  the  cause  of  the  people.  He  was  a  natural 
agitator,  and  by  proclaiming  the  monstrous  doctrine  that  "every 
man,  poor  or  rich,  ought  to  pay  his  share  of  the  city's  bur- 
den according  to  his  means,"  a  doctrine  which  he  advocated  with 
rare  eloquence,  soon  made  himself  the  special  object  of  govern- 
ment wrath.  The  justiciar  attempted  to  arrest  William,  but  he 
resisted,  slew  one  of  his  assailants  and  fled  to  the  church  of  Saint 
Mary-at-Bow.  Hubert  who  might  not  take  William  in  the  church 
without  violating  sanctuary,  ordered  the  building  to  be  fired. 
The  leaping  flames  drove  William  upon  the  soldiers  waiting  with- 
out; he  was  at  once  struck  down,  and,  stripped  and  bleeding,  was 
dragged  through  the  city  to  the  gallows  at  Elms  ^  and  there  hanged 
with  eight  of  his  comrades.  The  cause  of  popular  liberty  was  to 
have  many  such  martyrs  in  the  near  future,  but  none  more  noble 
and  sincere,  none  of  clearer  vision  than  the  eccentric  William 
Longbeard. 

This  exhibition  of  harshness  did    not  increase  the  strength 
of   Hubert;    popular   disapproval    continued   to   find   expression, 

and  finally  became  so  pronounced  that  the  justiciar 
^^^hT  ^^®^  ^0  ^®  relieved.  Richard,  however,  needed  him, 
Ldrwoin/       ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  special  request  Hubert  once  more  took  up  the 

ungrateful  burden.  In  the  meantime  discontent  was 
spreading  among  all  classes,  and  steadily  solidified  into  a  stubborn 
determination  to  pay  no  more  taxes;  and  when  in  1198  Richard 
sent  over  a  demand  not  only  for  more  money  but  for  men  as  well, 
even  the  saintly  Hugh  of  Avalon,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  who  was  rever- 
enced in  England  as  no  other  man  since  the  death  of  Anselm,  pro- 
tested against  the  unheard-of  exaction.  At  a  great  council  held  at 
Oxford  he  faced  the  justiciar  with  the  noble  words:  ''Ye  know 
well,  my  lords,  that  I  am  a  stranger  in  this  land,  one  called  from 
the  plain  life  of  a  hermit  to  be  bishop.  But  when  our  Lady's 
Church  of  Lincoln  was  given  into  my  unskilled  hands,  I  set  about 
learning  what  its  rights  and  burdens  were,  and  these  thirteen  years 
I  have  walked  in  all  the  ways  of  my  forerunners.  I  know  very 
well  that  this  church  is  bound  to  furnish  knights  for  the  king's 
service  in  England,  but  not  for  service  abroad.  And  I  will  go  back 
*  The  later  Tyburn.  " 


240  THE    GROWTH    OF   POPULAR   RIGHTS  [kichardi. 

at  once  to  my  old  hermit's  life  rather  than  lay  fresh  burdens  on 
this  bishopric  committed  to  my  charge."  Herbert,  the  bishop  of 
Salisbury,  a  member  of  the  family  of  the  great  Roger,  also  sup- 
ported Hugh,  and  Hubert,  quailing  before  opposition  such  as  this, 
durst  not  press  the  demand  for  men,  although  the  barons 

The  great 

Carucage,  finally  submitted  to  the  levy  of  a  carucage,  at  the  rate 
of  five  shillings  on  each  carucate.  No  one,  however, 
paid  the  tax  willingly;  the  monks  refused  outright,  and  were 
brought  to  terms  only  by  threat  of  outlawry.  Poor  Hubert  was 
now  pressed  from  all  sides.  The  taxpayers  held  him  responsible 
for  the  exactions,  and  the  absent  king  held  him  responsible  for  the 
tardy  payment ;  while  the  pope  on  his  own  account  sent  him  some 
very  plain-spoken  advice.  *'It  was  not  worthy,"  he  wrote,  ''  that 
an  archbishop  should  be  a  judge  and  a  taskmaster."  Feeling 
that-he  was  discredited  on  all  sides,  and  undoubtedly  weary  of  the 
whole  business,  Hubert  resigned,  and  Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter,  another 
of  Henry  II. 's  men,  was  appointed  in  his  place.  The  new  justiciar 
was  quite  as  able  as  Hubert,  but  more  stern  and  troubled  by  fewer 
scruples.  The  administration,  however,  was  suddenly  confronted 
with  a  new  series  of  problems  by  the  death  of  Richard. 

Since  his  return  to  the  continent  Richard  had  been  engaged  in 

almost  constant  strife  with  the  French  king.     Philip,  as  we  have 

seen,  had  got  the  pot  well  boiling  when  the  unwelcome 

the  continent,  news  of   Richard's   release  reached  him.     The  famous 

1194-1199 

message  which  he  sent  to  John,  "The  devil  is  loose, 
take  care  of  yourself,"  attests  his  respect  for  the  wild  energy  of 
Richard's  character,  and  that  he  fully  expected  trouble.  It 
was  this  war  both  of  defense  and  revenge,  that  Richard  had 
taken  up  with  all  the  cunning  and  unscrupulous  violence  of  the 
Angevin,  and  for  which  Hubert  Walter  had  been  exacting  such 
vast  sums  from  the  long-suffering  loyalty  of  the  English.  The 
rebels  of  Aquitaine  were  reduced;  Philip  was  checked  on  the 
Korman  border;  and  Flanders,  the  ally  of  Philip,  was  bought  off 
by  a  well-timed  bribe.  The  counts  of  Chartres,  Champagne, 
Boulogne,  and  others,  including  the  most  powerful  vassals  of  Philip, 
were  leagued  in  revolt;  while  by  Richard's  influence  in  the  Ger- 
man diet  he  managed  to  secure  the  election  of  his  nephew,  Otto  of 


1199]  DEATH    OF    RICHARD  241 

Saxony,  as  Henry  VI. 's  successor,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  of 
an  alliance  of  England  and  the  empire.  In  order  to  hold  his  Norman 
frontier  against  Philip,  Richard  seized  the  church  lands  where  "the 
Seine  bends  suddenly  at  Gaillon  in  a  great  semicircle  to  the  north, 
and  where  the  valley  of  Les  Andelys  breaks  the  line  of  cliffs  along 
its  banks,"  and  here  on  a  spur  of  the  chalk  hills,  connected  with  the 
plateau  in  the  rear  by  a  narrow  neck,  at  the  dizzy  height  of  three 
hundred  feet  above  the  river,  he  reared  his  *' Saucy  Castle,"  the 
Chateau  Gaillard.  Philip  saw  the  massive  fortress  rising  and 
swore  that  he  would  take  it,  '*were  its  walls  of  iron."  Richard 
as  defiantly  replied:  *'I  would  hold  it,  were  its  walls  of  butter." 
The  archbishop  of  Rouen,  Richard's  old  justiciar,  Walter  of  Cou- 
tances,  laid  Normandy  under  an  interdict;  but  Richard  only 
mocked.  *'IIad  an  angel  from  heaven  bid  him  abandon  his  work, 
he  would  have  answered  with  a  curse."  ^ 

The  completion  of  this  great  frontier  fortress  was  to  be  the 
preliminary   to   a   final   and   crushing   blow,  which   Richard  had 

prepared  for  Philip.  Richard's  allies  were  all  ready 
^d^\h^ii99      ^^^  ^^^^y   money  was  needed.     But  to  get  this  Richard 

was  at  his  wit's  end,  for  England  had  at  last 
failed  him.  Then  came  a  mysterious  report  of  a  remark- 
able treasure-trove,  uncovered  at  Chaluz,  exaggerated  by  rumor 
into  ''twelve  knights  of  gold  seated  round  a  golden  table." 
It  was  perhaps  no  more  than  a  chess  table  with  pieces  of  gold ;  but 
it  was  enough  to  rouse  the  hungi-y  king  who  straightway  as  over- 
lord, asserted  his  rights  to  the  treasure-trove  and  claimed  the 
"find"  whatever  it  might  be.  The  Lord  of  Chaluz  refused  to 
give  up  the  treasure,  and  Richard  came  with  his  men-at-arms  to 
enforce  his  claim.  The  castle  was  not  large  and  was  defended  only 
by  fifteen  men,  seven  knights  and  eight  serving  men ;  yet  they 
held  out  for  a  day,  and  one  of  the  crossbowmen  who  in  spite  of  the 
enemies'  bolts  had  kept  his  place  on  the  walls  in  hope  of  getting  a 
shot  at  Richard,  succeeded  at  last  in  lodging  an  arrow  in  his  neck. 
The  wound  of  itself  was  not  serious,  but  the  bad  surgery  of  Rich- 
ard's physicians  as  well  as  the  king's  impatience  caused  the  wound 

1  See  Green,  H.  E.  P.,  I,  pp.  187  and  188. 


242  THE    GROWTH    OF    POPULAR    RIGHTS  [richabdi. 

to  mortify,  and  in  a  few  days   Richard  was  dead,  with  almost  his 
last  breath  forgiving  the  poor  fellow  who  had  slain  him. 

Directly,  Richard  had  had  little  to  do  with  England.    His  per- 
sonal career  belongs  to  the  continent.    Only  seven  months  all  told  of 
the  ten   years  of  his  reiffn,  were  spent  in  his  island 

Importance      ,.        ,  ,  ,  ,  «    ^      -,'■,■,  . 

of  Richard's  kingdom,  and  yet  no  ten  years  of  English  history  are 
more  important  than  these  years  of  Richard's  absentee 
reign.  It  was  an  era  when  the  results  of  Norman  and  Angevin 
rule  gathered  solidity  and  permanence;  when  the  nation  was 
beginning  to  realize  the  full  benefit  of  the  policy  of  the  two  great 
Henrys  in  crushing  the  baronage  and  reducing  all  elements  to  the 
sway  of  the  laws,  and  when  older  popular  elements,  by  taking 
advantage  of  the  needs  of  the  crown,  were  gathering  new  strength 
in  organization. 

This  latter  movement  was  particularly  noticeable  in  the 
progress  of  the  towns.  The  early  English  towns  had  grown  up 
around  castles  or  monasteries.  For  the  most  part  they 
aiidm gilds  ^^^^  merely  overgrown  villages  where  the  country  folk 
came  to  find  a  market,  and  where  in  rude  and  ill-kept 
huts  the  small  merchant  or  the  poor  artisan  sheltered  himself  and 
his  family.  Since  the  Conquest,  as  a  result  of  the  increased  foreign 
trade,  the  seaport  towns  had  risen  to  considerable  importance, 
and  in  turn  had  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  growing  wealth  of 
the  more  humble  towns  of  the  interior.  The  kings  of  foreign  blood 
kuew  the  value  of  local  organization  in  these  centers  of  denser  pop- 
ulation, its  necessity  as  an  adjunct  of  administration,  and  did  not 
hesitate  to  encourage  the  people  to  assume  some  responsibility  in 
matters  of  local  government.  In  this  they  were  assisted  by  the 
presence  of  gilds  which  had  been  a  potent  influence  in  English 
town  life  from  the  earliest  times.  These  gilds  originally 
were  private  associations  of  one  kind  or  another,  organized 
by  citizens  for  mutual  help.  Of  these  the  merchant  gilds 
very  early  assumed  an  importance  and  influence  beyond  any  of  the 
others.  Often  they  were  strong  enough  to  control  all  the  affairs 
of  the  town,  assuming  practically  the  functions  of  a  town  council. 
The  gild  hall  became  virtually  the  city  hall,  and  the  members  of  the 
gild  were  distinguished  from  the  herd  of  unprivileged  classes  as  the 


THE    COMMUNA  243 

governing  or  citizen  body.  They  jealously  guarded  their  interests 
against  outsiders  and,  save  in  the  article  of  food,  would  tolerate 
no  rivalry  in  trade  within  the  city  market  from  any  who  were  not 
gild  brethren. 

For  the  most  part  the  towns  were  situated  on  the  demesnes  of 

the  crown,  and  as  they  increased  in  wealth  and  strength,  their  first 

thought  naturally  was  to  free  themselves  from  the  con- 

Privildftcs 

oft(fwm.  trol  of  the  sheriff  and  secure  the  right  of  administering 
the  functions  of  his  oflice  themselves.  The  king,  more- 
over, soon  discovered  that  the  people  were  better  tax  collectors  than 
the  sheriff,  and  found  that  it  was  for  his  interest  to  allow  the 
towns  to  pay  a  fixed  maximum  sum  and  collect  it  themselves  in  their 
own  way.  This  privilege  was  known  as  the  grant  of  Jirma  burghi. 
The  citizens,  however,  wore  not  quit  of  the  authority  of  the  sheriff 
as  long  as  they  were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  sheriff's  court. 
Beside  the  firma  burghi,  therefore,  the  towns  sought  also  to  secure 
the  privilege  of  having  courts  of  their  own,  under  the  charge  of  their 
own  magistrates.  But  these  privileges  carried  with  them  serious 
duties,  and  in  order  to  fulfill  them  properly  some  corporate  organiza- 
tion was  necessary.  When  so  organized,  with  its  liberties  defined 
and  confirmed  in  legal  form  by  a  charter,  the  town  became  a  corpor- 
ation, or  communa.  The  Henrys  granted  many  such  charters  with 
the  sincere  desire  no  doubt  of  encouraging  wealth  and  trade 
and  building  up  cities.  Richard  granted  a  large  number  as  we 
liave  seen,  not  because  he  cared  for  the  towns,  but  because  he 
needed  money.  Yet  the  results  were  the  same;  the  charter  was 
just  as  good  and  the  privileges  as  valuable  and  just  as  highly 
prized,  whether  they  came  from  the  political  foresight  of  the  king 
or  from  his  avarice. 

Of  the  cities  benefited  by  this  generous  policy  of  the  Norman 
and  Angevin  kings,  London  was  the  most  important  as  well  as  the 
most  conspicuous.  It  then  of  course  bore  no  compari- 
'Smdlfn^^  son  to  the  present  city;  but  its  political  influence  at 
critical  periods  of  the  nation's  history  was  even  more 
marked  and  important.  It  was  the  first  city  of  the  realm  in  size 
and  wealth.  It  was  naturally  the  greatest  center  of  trade ;  from 
all  the  kingdom  the  roads  converged  upon  its  gates,  and  from  the 


244  THE    GEOWTH    OF    POPULAR    RIGHTS  [richardI. 

broad  mouth  of  the  Thames  its  shipping  went  forth  each  year  to 
seek  trade  in  unaccustomed  seas.  The  buildings  were  thickly 
set ;  fires,  a  constant  menace  to  the  medieval  city,  were  frequent 
and  disastrous;  the  streets  were  narrow,  poorly  paved,  always 
dirty,  and  lighted  only  by  the  flickering  lamp  which  piety  kept 
alive  before  the  street  corner  Madonna.  Pigs  might  be  kept  in  the 
houses,  though  they  were  not  allowed  to  wander  in  the  streets. 
But  these  things  were  not  regarded  as  they  are  now  and  other 
cities  were  in  as  bad  condition  or  worse.  All  in  all,  London  was  no 
doubt  a  very  grand  affair  to  the  rural  Englishman  who  stumbled 
through  the  foul  smells  of  its  tortuous  streets  for  the  first  time. 
The  importance  of  the  city  very  soon  brought  to  her  people  unusual 
privileges,  and  London  became  a  sort  of  ''standard  of  the  amount 
of  self-government  at  which  the  other  towns  of  the  country  might 
be  expected  to  aim. "     William  I.   gave  the  city  its  first  charter; 

a  brief  one,  the  provisions  of  which  require  only  eight 
charUr^'^       lines  of  modern  book  print  to  state;  and  yet  it  meant 

much,  for  in  these  eight  lines  the  Conqueror  gave  his 
word  to  the  citizens  that  their  property  should  not  be  taken  from 
tliem,  and  that  their  privileges  should  be  continued.  In  Henry 
I.'s  charter  the  Londoners  were  put  into  possession  of  more 
extensive  rights;  they  were  granted  the  ferm  of  Middlesex  "with 
the  right  of  appointing  the  sheriff:  they  were  freed  from  the 
immediate  jurisdiction  of  any  tribunal  except  of  their  own 
appointment,  from  several  universal  imposts,  from  the  obligation 
to  accept  trial  by  battle,  from  liability  to  misericordia  or  entire 
forfeiture,  as  well  as  from  tolls  and  local  exactions."^  They  were 
also  secured  their  separaire  franchises  a^id  their  weekly  courts. 
Yet  Henry's  charter  did  not  create  the  communa^  but  left  the 
city  still  an  "accumulation  of  distinct  and  different  corporate 
bodies."  Nor  was  it  until  Richard's  reign ^  that  London  assumed 
the  character  of  a  compact  and  perpetual  organization  under  its 
lord  mayor  and  twelve  aldermen,  each  representing  one  of  the 
twelve  wards  of  the  city. 

iStubbs,  ^.  a,pp.  107,  108. 

2  For  the  "communio"  of  Stephen  see  Round,  The  Commune  of  Lon- 
don, pp.  223,  224. 


THE   SUCCESSION"   OF   JOHK  245 

The  death  of  Richard  left  the  vast  Angevin  dominions  once 
more  at  the  mercy  of  Philip.  Richard  was  childless  and  had 
named  John  as  his  heir;  and  in  England  where  Arthur,  the  son  of 
Geoffrey,  had  no  standing,  John  succeeded  to  the  throne  without 
difficulty.  On  the  continent,  however,  Arthur  was  high  in  Phil- 
ip's favor;  for  the  same  policy  which  had  made  the 
The^8w:ceii-  j^^j^g  ^f  Prance  the  friend  of  Prince  Henry  and  Richard 
when  they  were  at  war  with  their  father,  but  John's 
friend  and  Richard's  enemy  as  soon  as  Richard  became  king,  now 
made  this  same  king  John's  most  dangerous  foe.  In  order  to 
cripple  John,  therefore,  Philip  took  up  Arthur's  cause 
PhiUp^'^^  and  helped  him,  supported  by  his  Bretons,  to  make 
good  his  claims  in  Anjou,  Maine,  and  Touraine. 
Normandy  was  safe,  for  John  had  been  invested  by  Arch- 
bishop Walter  of  Rouen  with  the  insignia  of  the  ducal  office 
before  departing  for  England  to  receive  the  English  crown. 
Aquitaine  was  also  saved  by  the  ready  wit  of  Eleanor,  who  com- 
pelled Philip  to  bestow  it  upon  her  -as  duchess  in  her  own 
right.  Philip,  moreover,  was  by  no  means  sure  of  his  ground. 
An  attempt  to  put  away  his  wife,  had  embroiled  him  with  the 
pope  and  he  feared  the  interdict,  which  might  prove  a  very 
serious  matter  should  it  come  while  he  was  at  war  with  John. 
Otto  of  Germany  and  the  count  of  Flanders  also  were  preparing 
to  carry  out  their  recent  agreement  with  Richard  and  invade 
France  from  the  northeast.  Philip,  therefore,  thought  it  safer  to 
bow  to  the  storm  and  disarm  his  foes  by  making  peace  with  John. 
Accordingly  he  changed  bis  policy;  threw  over  Arthur  entirely, 
and  received  John's  homage  for  Anjou  and  the  other  lands  in 
question.  As  a  further  pledge  of  the  French  king's  friendship, 
his  son  Louis  married  John's  niece  Blanche,  the  daughter  of  his 
sister  Eleanor  and  Alfonso  of  Castile. 

John  was  now  everywhere  triumphant,  and  a  better  man  might 

have  had  a  long  and  successful  reign,  but  he  was  his  own  worst 

enemy.     He  possessed  some  of  the  abilities,  and  all  of 

oPjoZi^^       the  darker  moral  traits  of  his  family.     He  had  been  a 

bad  son  and  a  treacherous  brother.     He  was  as  vicious 

as  William  Rufus  and  as  mean  as  Ethelred.     He  had,  moreover, 


246  THE    GllOWTH    OF    POPULAR    RIGHTS  [johm 

Kichard's  insatiate  greed  for  money  but  with  nothing  of  that 
romantic  vision  of  great  things  which  had  gone  far  to  justify  his 
extortions  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation. 

John   at   first  took  up   his   brother's  policy   and   made   little 
change  in  the  administration  at  home.     Perhaps  he  had  already 

learned  the  temper  of  the  English  people  in  his  earlier 
of'john^^^^    experiences,  and  knew  that  his  only  hope  of  success 

against  the  wily  Philip  lay  in  keeping  a  united  England 
at  his  back.  Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter  was  continued  as  justiciar  and 
made  earl  of  Essex.  Archbishop  Hubert  was  added  to  the  council 
as  chancellor.  William  Marshal,  who  had  been  John's  friend  in  the 
quarrel  with  Longchamp,  and  who  had  married  Eva,  the  heiress 
of  "Strongbow,"  was  allowed  to  succeed  to  the  Clare  estates  and 
titles  as  Earl  of  Strigul  and  Pembroke. 

John,  however,   was   the   creature   of  his  passions,  and  soon 
plunged  from  one  infatuation  into  another  in  utter  disregard  of 

the  enemies  he  might  make.  In  1189  he  had  married 
rimefof'  *^  Avice,  the  granddaughter  of  Robert  of  Gloucester  and 
pmyu^^^^  a  co-heiress   of  the  vast  estates  of  that  family.     She 

was  John's  third  cousin,  and  hence  came  within  the 
lines  of  consanguinity  forbidden  by  the  church.  Still  the  pope 
had  given  his  dispensation  and  all  had  gone  well,  until  John  made 
up  his  mind  to  marry  Isabella  of  Angouleme  and  persuaded  some 
Aquitanian  bishops  to  annul  his  first  marriage.  The  Gloucester 
family  was  very  powerful,  and  when  John  in  addition  to  the  insult, 
refused  to  surrender  the  lands  of  Avice,  the  breach  was  irrepara- 
ble. Isabella  of  Angouleme,  moreover,  was  the  affianced  bride  of 
Hugh  the  Brown,  son  of  Count  Hugh  of  La  Marche,  and  con- 
nected with  Guy  of  Lusignan  and  other  powerful  nobles  of  Poitou, 
and  when  John  claimed  the  younger  Hugh's  bride,  the  Lusignans 
in  their  turn  were  furious.  But  as  if  his  offence  were  not  serious 
enough,  John  ordered  the  barons  of  Poitou  to  appear  before  his 

court  on  charge  of  treason  against  the  late  king  and 
Angevin  ^*     himself,  and  clear  themselves  by  ordeal  of  battle.    They 

at  once  appealed  to  Philip  as  overlord;  and  he  hav- 
ing made  his  peace  with  the  pope  by  taking  back  his  wife, 
was  delighted  to  have  an  opportunity  to  reopen  the  case  against 


1304]  LOSS   OF    THE    ANGEVIN    DOMINIONS  247 

John,  and  ordered  him  to  surrender  his  French  fiefs  to  Arthur. 
John  refused  and  Philip  summoned  him  for  trial  before  his 
court  in  Paris,  When  the  appointed  day  came  and  John  failed 
to  appear,  Philip  in  accordance  with  feudal  law  declared  him  to 
be  a  contumacious  vassal  and  to  have  forfeited  by  default  all  fiefs 
which  he  held  of  the  French  crown. 

Philip  proceeded  at  once  to  carry  out  the  decree  of  his  court, 

invaded  Normandy,  and  began  reducing  its  castles.     Arthur  in  the 

meanwhile  had  been  foolish  enough  to  be  drawn  into  the 

The  murder  i  •  i  i     i  i 

of  Arthur       quarrel  affain,  and  with  his  Bretons  had  laid  siege  to 

and  loss  of         \  ,  .  .1,1  . 

Angevin        the  castle  of  Mirabeau  with  the  hope  of  seizing  Eleanor, 

dominions  t  i  1        • 

his  grandmother.  John  who  in  emergency  was  capa- 
ble of  acts  of  heroic  exertion,  by  a  forced  march  surprised 
Arthur,  carried  him  off  and  ultimately  lodged  him  at  Rouen,  the 
last  that  was  seen  of  this  unfortunate  prince.  John  was  equal 
to  any  wickedness  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  he  compassed  his 
nephew's  death,  if  he  did  not  actually  stab  him  with  his  own  hand 
and  throw  the  body  into  the  Seine,  as  reported  by  a  very  venerable 
tradition.  The  murder  of  Arthur  completed  the  trilogy  of  fatal 
blunders.  Philip  at  once  proclaimed  John  the  murderer,  cited 
him  a  second  time  to  appear  before  his  conrt  and  to  the  sentence 
of  forfeiture  added  the  sentence  of  death.*  The  Norman  castles 
fell  one  after  the  other,  and  finally,  after  a  year's  siege,  even 
Chateau  Gaillard  passed  into  Philip's  hands,  March  1204.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  The  Seine  was  now  open  to 
Philip's  armies.  John's  vassals  of  Normandy  refused  longer  to  sup- 
port him.  In  April,  1204,  Eleanor  died,  and  with  her,  John  lost 
the  last  tie  which  bound  him  to  his  continental  barons.  Before 
the  summer  closed,  Anjou,  Touraine,  and  Maine  had  also  passed 
permanently  into  Philip's  hands;  the  next  year  Poitou  was 
overrun  and  of  all  the  splendid  possessions  of  the  Angevin  kings 
on  the  continent  only  scattered  fragments  remained,  Gascony, 
Guienne,  and  one  or  two  strongholds  in  Poitou. 

At, the  time  Englishmen  regarded  the  triumph  of  Philip  with 
a  sense  of  deep  humiliation.  Yet  nothing  more  fortunate  could 
have  happened  to  the  English  state.     Richard's  absentee  reign  had 

^  Norgate,  II,  p.  408. 


248  THE    GROWTH    OF    POPULAR    RIGHTS  [john 

tested  and  proved  the  splendid  administrative  machinery  of  Henry 

II. ;  and  men  were  coming  to  distinguish  between  the  government 

and  the  personality  of  the  king.     Richard,  moreover, 

J.  tic  SCpCt'Td-        1        T     -i 

F^^f  fi  compelled  by  his  need  of  money  to  allow  the 

from  the  people  a  voicc  in  the  assessment  of  taxes.  The  shire- 
moots  also  had  been  given  control  of  pleas  of  the  crown. 
Taxation  and  representation  became  thus  linked  indissolubly  in  the 
national  mind,  and  the  people  began  to  take  their  first  steps  in 
actual  self-government.  When,  therefore,  John  was  bowed  out  of 
the  continent  by  the  wily  Philip,  he  found  himself  face  to  face 
with  a  nation  that  had  passed  its  nonage  and  would  no  longer  tol- 
erate abuses  which  had  sprung  of  an  irresponsible  kingship.  The 
old  baronial  families  who  like  the  king  were  also  severed  from  con- 
tinental interests,  forgot  their  foreign  parentage  and  once  and  for 
all  time  accepted  the  position  of  English  subjects  of  an  English 
king.  The  nation  felt  the  accession  of  strength  and  came  very 
soon  to  recognize  the  baronage  as  a  part  of  itself;  and  although 
the  influence  of  the  French  language  and  French  social  customs 
lingered  long  after  the  era  of  John,  the  power  of  French  political 
ideas  over  England  was  broken,  and  the  nation  was  left  free  to 
develop  its  own  peculiar  institutions  and  in  its  own  way.  Thus 
the  separation  of  England  from  the  continent,  though  forced  upon 
the  nation  against  the  will  of  its  king  and  against  the  will  of  the 
people,  formed  no  unimportant  link  in  the  series  of  great  events 
which  were  preparing  England  for  her  future.  It  restored  to  her 
once  more  the  natural  advantage  of  her  position  behind  the 
Channel;  it  threw  her  back  upon  her  own  resources,  and  com- 
pelled her  to  develop  that  intensive  life,  so  marked  in  every  people 
who  have  been  called  upon  to  play  a  great  role  in  human  history.^ 

^  For  review  of  the  early  Angevin  era  and  results  see  Norgate,  II, 
chap.  X,  The  New  England. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    GREAT   CHARTER 

JOHN,  1204-1216 

The  territorial  combination  created  by  the  Norman  Conquest 
was  now  definitely  broken  and  English  feudalism  had  been  cut  off 

from  the  source  from  which  it  had  originally  drawn  its 
r^new)         life.     This  event,  coming  so  soon  after  the  overthrow  of 

the  barons  and  the  restoration  of  the  national  courts, 
was  of  the  utmost  importance,  not  only  in  forestalling  any  recru- 
descence of  political  feudalism,  but  also  in  permanently  establish- 
ing as  a  part  of  the  English  constitution  the  principle  for  which 
the  Norman  Henry  and  the  Angevin  Henry  had  so  nobly  strug- 
gled,— that  in  England  all  classes  are  subject  to  the  laws  of  the 
realm.  But  the  quarrel  of  king  and  feudal  baron  had  hardly  been 
settled,  when  a  new  and  more  serious  menace  to  the  happiness  of  the 
people  appeared  in  a  quarter  from  which  they  had  been  accustomed 
heretofore  to  expect  comfort  and  protection,  and  presented  to  the 
nation  a  new  problem  for  solution.  Should  the  crown  become  an 
irresponsible  and  lawless  power;  or  should  the  king  and  his 
ministers  also  be  held  amenable  to  the  laws  to  which  they  had 
forced  the  barons  to  submit ;  and  if  so,  by  what  legal  machinery 
could  the  nation  compel  the  crown  to  respect  Its  own  laws,  with- 
out resorting  to  the  violent  methods  of  revolution?  Here  in  a 
word  was  the  new  problem  which  confronted  England. 

It  was  perhaps  fortunate  that  John  was  utterly  contemptible.   A 
nature  so  base,  so  treacherous,  could  inspire  no  sentiment  of  loyalty 

to  obscure  in  the  minds  of  good  men  the  real  issue.  His 
a  par^*^**^  tyrannies  were  so  flagrant,  so  brutal ;  his  violation  of  law, 

his  trespasses  upon  the  rights  of  all  classes  of  his  subjects, 
so  arbitrary  and  so  unreasonable,  that  it  was  impossible  to  create  a 
personal  party  in  his  favor  or  draw  about  him  any  portion  of  his 

249 


250  THE    GREAT    CHARTER  [john 

people.  The  king  stood  alone,  without  any  of  that  glamour 
which  surrounded  the  second  Stuart  and  which  made  him  in  his 
death  appear  to  many  a  veritable  martyr.  One  bad  man  stood 
alone,  confronted  by  the  nation,  powerful  in  its  integrity,  ter- 
rible in  its  calm  self-possession,  and  determined  that  the  king 
should  rule  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  land,  or  not  rule  at 
all. 

John's  troubles  at  home  began  soon  after  the  last  triumph  of 

Philip.     On  July  12,  1205,  the  veteran  Hubert  Walter  died.     Of 

late  John  and  his  chancellor  had  not  been  upon  the 

The 

crmtested  best  of  terms;  Hubert  had  not  hesitated  to  protest 
Canterbury,  against  the  tyrannies  of  John,  and  John  had  so  far 
fretted  under  the  restraints  put  upon  him  by  the  hon- 
est old  minister,  that  the  news  of  his  death  was  received  with  an 
exultant  sense  of  relief  which  he  did  not  try  to  disguise.  But 
Hubert  was  also  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  IS'ext  to  the  crown 
there  was  no  more  important  office  in  the  kingdom.  What  its 
influence  might  be  in  shaping  the  destiny  of  the  realm  or  in  brav- 
ing wayward  kings  had  been  shown  in  the  careers  of  Danstan, 
Lanfranc,  Anselm,  Theobald,  and  Becket.  John,  therefore,  fully 
realized  the  importance  of  filling  the  vacancy  with  one  of  his  own 
creatures,  if  he  would  control  the  policy  of  the  church.  But 
unfortunately  for  John's  plans  the  right  of  electing  to  this  impor- 
tant post  had  long  been  a  subject  of  dispute  between  the  suffragan 
bishops  of  the  metropolitan  province  and  the  monks  of  Christ 
Church  Priory,  who  since  the  days  of  Augustine  had  acknowl- 
edged the  archbishop  as  their  abbot.  The  king  also  had  a  right 
in  equity  to  a  voice  in  an  appointment  so  closely  related  to  the 
welfare  of  his  realm,  and  since  the  Conquest  had  generally  named 
the  candidate  to  be  elected.  When,  therefore,  John  learned  that 
on  the  very  night  following  Hubert's  death,  the  junior  monks  of 
Christ  Church  had  secretly  met,  and  had  not  only  elected  the  sub- 
prior,  Reginald,  to  the  primacy  but  had  forthwith  without  waiting 
for  the  approval  of  the  king,  dispatched  the  archbishop-elect 
to  Rome  to  secure  confirmation  at  the  hands  of  the  pope,  John 
was  furious.  The  senior  monks  and  the  bishops  were  also  deeply 
vexed.     Reginald  was  a  babbling,  shallow  sort  of  fellow,  hardly 


1207,  1208]  STEPHEN    LANGTON  251 

to  be  taken  seriously;  yet  his  election,  if  once  confirmed  by  the 
pope,  apart  from  the  question  of  right  involved,  might  prove  grave 
enough.  All  parties,  therefore,  appealed  to  Rome.  John,  however, 
first  announced  as  his  candidate  John  de  Gray,  bishop  of  Nor- 
wich, had  him  elected  and  put  in  charge  of  the  see,  and  then  sent 
him  off  to  plead  his  cause  at  the  Roman  court,  trusting  to  win  his 
case  by  the  free  use  of  money  among  the  officials  who  were  sup- 
posed to  be  in  the  confidence  of  the  pope. 

The  low  cunning  of  John  was  no  match  for  the  statesmanlike 

pope.  Innocent  III.,  who  had   recently  brought  the  wily  Philip 

Augustus  to  terms,  and  who  knew  John  better  than 

TTie  election 

of  LangUm,  John  knew  himself.  After  letting  the  case  drag  on  for 
a  full  year  and  a  half,  Innocent  declared  that  the  right 
of  election  lay  with  the  monks;  rejected  both  candidates  upon  the 
ground  that  neither  election  had  been  canonical,  and  persuaded 
the  proctors  of  the  monks  of  Christ  Church  who  were  present,  to 
elect  an  Englishman  named  Stephen-^mngton.  The  nomination 
by  the  pope  was  clearly  a  violation  of  the  right  both  of  the  Eng- 
lish church  and  of  the  English  crown;  yet  never  was  usurpation 
more  fully  justified  by  the  results.  A  better  choice  could  not  have 
been  made.  Langton  was  a  man  singularly  pure  and  noble  in  pur- 
pose, of  great  personal  dignity,  wide  learning,  and  had  been  recently 
raised  to  the  high  dignity  of  cardinal.  John  refused  to  assent  to  the 
papal  choice;  and  when  the  pope  proceeded  to  consecrate  his  candi- 
date notwithstanding,  John  swore  that  he  would  never  allow 
Langton  to  land  in  England. 

John  was  now  face  to  face  with  a  man  who  was  accustomed  to 
having  bis  way.  A  wise  king  might  have  rallied  his  people  about 
The  inter-  ^^"^  ^^^  fought  out  the  issuo  upon  the  broad  principles  of 
diet,  1208.  i\^Q  independence  of  the  English  crown.  But  John  was 
not  wise.  He  became  violent,  and  descended  to  petty  persecutions 
of  the  monks  of  Christ  Church.  He  threatened  to  drive  all  clergy- 
men from  the  realm.  He  swore  he  would  seize  and  mutilate  every 
Italian  he  found  in  his  kingdom.  The  reply  of  Innocent  to  John's 
furious  outbreak  was  the  interdict.  This  was  an  ecclesiastical  weapon 
which  had  been  used  by  earlier  popes  with  great  effect.  It  forbade 
all  religious  services,  except  baptism  and  extreme  unction.     Mar- 


252  THE    GREAT    CHARTER  [john 

riage  ceremonies  could  not  be  performed ;  mass  was  celebrated  for 
the  clergy  alone;  and  the  dead  were  buried  in  unhallowed  ground. 
It  played  directly  upon  the  tenderest  feelings  of  the  people;  it 
appealed  to  the  terrors  of  the  superstitions  and  was  expected  to 
create  a  public  sentiment  which  would  bring  the  king  to  terms. 
Innocent  had  recently  used  the  interdict  with  great  effectiveness 
against  Philip  II. ;  but  John  paid  little  attention  to  the  murmurs 
of  his  people  and  at  once  struck  back  at  the  pope  by  confiscating 
the  property  of  the  churchmen  who  obeyed  the  interdict.  Inno- 
cent replied  by  excommunicating  John.  John  then 
catumof         confiscated    the  estates  of  the  bishops,  and  used  the 

John,  1209.  ,,..,.  ^^  - 

money  to  strengthen  his  military  power.  He  was  thus 
enabled  to  force  the  king  of  Scots  to  renew  his  homage  and  pay  a 
levy  to  the  amount  of  £10,000;  he  reduced  Ireland  to  order;  cut 
up  the  English  district  into  counties,  and  introduced  English 
laws.  With  the  same  vigorous  hand  he  turned  upon  Llewelyn, 
Prince  of  Wales,  and  compelled  him  to  submit.  Thus  John  had 
only  fattened  upon  the  thunders  of  Innocent. 

Innocent,    however,    was    now    fully    aroused,    and    in    1211 
announced  through  his  envoys,  Pandulf  and  Durand,  that  as  his 

next  and  final  step,  he  would  absolve  the  subjects  of 

The  threat         ^   ,        j,  .,     •       V,      •  ^  m      -,  ^  - 

of  deposition.  John  from  their  allegiance,  formally  depose  him,   and 
paresis  summon  Philip   of   France  to    carry  out   the   decree. 

meet  it. 

John  knew  both  men;  lie  knew  that  the  threat  was  not 
idle.  He  also  learned  that  Philip  was  actually  gathering  an  army 
in  order  to  be  ready  to  invade  England,  the  moment  the  pope 
should  give  the  word.  At  home,  discontent  and  disaffection 
were  daily  spreading;  the  church  was  openly  hostile ;  the  nobles 
maintained  a  sullen  silence  which  but  poorly  concealed  the  web  of 
treason  which  they  were  weaving  about  the  king;  the  people  who 
had  supported  the  elder  Henry  with  such  sturdy  loyalty,  looked  on 
with  cold  indifference.  Yet  John  apparently  had  no  thought  of 
yielding.  His  Angevin  blood  was  up,  and  he  began  to  strike 
about  him  in  blind  fury.  The  churchmen  who  defied  him,  he 
drove  from  the  kingdom.  He  did  not  wait  for  the  nobles  to  be 
detected  in  actual  conspiracy.  If  a  man  had  power  to  injure  him, 
that  was  sufi&cient;  his  castles  were  seized  and  his  family  held  as 


1213]  JOHN    SUBMITS   TO   THE    POPE  253 

hostages  for  his  good  behavior.  With  the  people  John  tried  a 
somewhat  different  course,  playing  directly  for  their  confidence  by 
remitting  fines  and  abolishing  vexatious  customs,  and  although  in 
this  he  succeeded  but  indifferently,  England  was  overawed;  his 
enemies  at  home  were  paralyzed,  and  an  * 'enormous  host"  gath- 
ered at  his  call  to  resist  the  threatened  invasion.  Abroad  he  had 
also  secured  an  alliance  with  the  old  allies  of  Richard,  Otto  IV. 
and  Ferrand,  count  of  Flanders,  who  had  their  own  quarrel  with 
both  Philip  and  Innocent  and  stood  ready  to  invade  France  the 
moment  Philip  should  sail  for  England.  The  outlook  was  not 
inviting  to  Philip;  it  was  not  altogether  gloomy  for  John.  lie 
was  fully  prepared  to  defy  the  threat  of  deposition  as  he  had 
defied  the  interdict  and  the  excommunication,  and  apparently  with 
a  fair  chance  of  success. 

Then    suddenly   at   the   very   moment    when  the   Curia  had 
decreed  the  deposition,  and  the  legate  was  on  the  way  to  England, 

John  made  that  strange  move  which  it  is  custom- 
irlmt^mT^^  ary   -to    interpret     sometimes    as    an    exhibition    of 

despicable  weakness,  and  sometimes  as  an  exhibition 
of  remarkable  and  farsighted  statesmanship.  It  is  said  that 
in  spite  of  John's  habit  of  scoffing  at  religion,  he  really  feared 
the  papal  excommunication;  that  like  all  base  natures  he  was 
capable  of  a  groveling  superstition,  and  that  this  weakness  had  been 
recently  played  upon  by  an  alleged  prophecy  of  Peter  of  Wake- 
field, a  hermit,  who  had  declared  that  within  the  year  John  would 
cease  to  be  king.  It  is  altogether  probable  that  such  elements  had 
some  influence  upon  John's  determination,  but  it  is  also  certain 
that  more  than  pope  or  hermit,  the  thing  which  caused  John  to 
draw  back  was  his  assurance  of  a  secret  coalition  between  Philip 
and  his  own  barons.  Five  of  his  bishops  and  many  of  his  nobles 
had  already  fled  the  country  and  were  with  Philip.  John 
knew  that  they  had  many  friends  at  home;  that  the  very  army 
which  he  had  gathered  on  Barham  Down  was  honeycombed  with 
treason,  and  that  the  landing  of  Philip  would  be  the  signal  for 
general  revolt.  The  pope,  however,  was  the  bond  which  held  this 
coalition  together;  to  remove  the  pope  from  the  alliance,  would 
leave  Philip  without  moral  support  for  his  enterprise;   while  to 


254  THE    GREAT    CHARTER  [johU 

secure  the  active  friendship  of  the  pope,  would  turn  Philip's  Eng- 
lish allies,  John's  subjects,  from  dutiful  servants  of  the  church 
into  rebels  and  schismatics.  This  was  the  problem  which  con- 
fronted John,  and  with  characteristic  unscrupulousness  he 
solved  it. 

On  the  15th  of  May,  1213,  John  met  Pandulf,  the  papal  legate, 

near  Dover  and  made  his  submission.     He  ''accepted  Langton  as 

archbishop,  undertook  to  repay  certain  enormous  sums 

John's  which  he  had  recently  exacted  from  the  churches,"  and 

homage  w  •'  ' 

tjhepope,        restore  the  estates  which  he  had  ruined.    He  then  sur- 

May  15, 1213. 

rendered  his  kingdoms  to  the  see  of  Rome,  and  received 
them  again  as  the  pope's  vassal,  agreeing  also  to  pay  a  tribute  of 
1,000  marks  a  year.^  Innocent  withdrew  from  the  coalition  and 
forbade  Philip  to  proceed. 

The  closing  of  the  quarrel  with  the  pope,  however,  by  no  means 

ended  John's  troubles.     It  only  cleared  the  field  for  the  greater 

issue  of  his  reign,  which  was  now  at  hand.    Matters  on 

The  OVCO/t/€V 

isme  of  the  continent  had  gone  too  far  to  be  •  stopped  by  the 

0  nsrewn.  ^^^^j ^^f  ^jjg p^pg  Fighting  soon  began  between  Philip 
and  the  Flemings.  John  sought  to  assist  his  allies  by  sending 
over  his  half-brother,  William  Longsword,  Earl  of  Salisbury,  to 
destroy  Philip'  s  shipping  in  the  harbor  of  Damme;  but  when  he 
called  upon  his  barons  to  prepare  for  an  invasion  of  France,  upon 
one  pretext  or  another  they  refused;  the  northern  barons  putting 
themselves  squarely  on  the  ground  that  the  king  had  no  right  to 
demand  military  service  out  of  the  kingdom.  In  the 
Thecouncii     meantime  a  great  council  which  was  called  to  meet  at 

Of  St.  Al-  ^ 

ham,Av^.4,  gt.  Albans  in  August  for  the  purpose  of  estimating  the 
damages  which  church  property  had  received  during  the 
recent  quarrel,  provided  an  opportunity  for  a  free  discussion  of  the 
condition  of  the  realm,  the  failure  of  the  king  to  fulfill  his  prom- 
ises of  good  government,  and  his  numerous  invasions  of  the  legal 
rights  of  the  barons. 

Most  of  the  encroachments  of  which  the  barons  complained 


1  See  Roger  of  Wendover  (years,  1208-1214)  in  Lee,  Source  Book  of 
English  History,  pp.  155-164. 


1203-1218]  JOHN'S    EXACTIONS  255 

were  the  natural  results  of  uew  conditions  which  confronted  the 
crown.  The  old  regular  feudal  revenues  had  long  been  inadequate 
Thevrrcmas  ^^  meet  the  needs  of  government,  and  the  king  had  been 
'ibanms  forced  to  develop  new  sources  of  income  in  order  to 

defray  the  increasing  expense  of  administration.  Under 
Henry  II.  the  offices  of  state  had  been  bought  and  sold  like  ordi- 
nary fiefs;  Richard  had  driven  a  flourishing  trade  in  the  favors  of 
government,  nor  had  he  recognized  any  limit  to  the  possibilities  of 
sale  and  purchase,  save  the  depth  of  the  would-be  purchaser's 
pocket.  But  John  had  surpassed  all  his  predecessors  in  devising 
new  and  burdensome  methods  of  wringing  money  from  his  sub- 
jects. In  the  first  year  of  his  reign  he  had  raised  the  carucage,  the 
new  tax  upon  land  levied  l)y  Richard,  from  two  to  three  shillings 
on  the  carucate;  the  scutage,  also,  he  raised  from  twenty  shillings 
to  two  marks.  In  1203  he  had  exacted  a  seventh  of  the  movable 
property  of  the  barons  under  pretext  of  the  war  in  Normandy, 
and  when  the  bai'ons  became  convinced  that  John  did  not  intend  to 
fight,  and  returned  home  in  disgust,  he  declared  their  lands  for- 
feited by  desertion  and  allowed  them  to  be  redeemed  again  only  by 
the  payment  of  an  enormous  fine.  In  1207  the  king  demanded  a 
thirteenth  of  the  movable  property  of  the  entire  kingdom,  and 
when  his  brother  Geoffrey  of  York  protested  and  the  church 
refused  outright  to  pay  the  levy,  John  sent  Geoffrey  into  exile  and 
exacted  the  tax  notwithstanding.  In  other  ways  also,  no  less 
annoying,  John  had  taken  advantage  of  his  position  to  plunder  his 
barons.  The  right  of  conferring  the  heiresses  of  his  vassals  in 
marriage,  he  had  used  as  a  convenient  method  of  enriching  his  own 
creatures.  If  the  heiress  refused  the  king's  choice,  and  sometimes 
he  sought  out  the  most  unlikely  husband  that  he  could  find  for 
this  very  object,  in  accordance  with  feudal  law  the  king  was 
entitled  to  exact  a  heavy  fine.  He  also  took  advantage  of  the 
right  of  wardship  to  plunder  the  property  of  the  helpless  minor, 
not  only  exhausting  the  estate,  but  withholding  it  from  the  heir  as 
long  as  possible. 

The  barons,  however,  were  not  the  only  sufferers  from  John's 
tyrannies.  His  hand  had  been  heavy  on  the  churchmen  who  had 
remained  faithful  to  the  order  during  the  quarrel  with  the  pope. 


256  THE    GREAT   CHABTEE  [john 

He  had  not  hesitated  to  put  to  a  cruel  death  an  archdeacon  of  Nor- 
wich who  had   withdrawn  from  his  presence    at  the    time  of  the 
excommunication.^    The  people  also  had  felt  the  grievous 

Grievances       ■,        -,  o    ^  ^  \  t  • 

of  other  burden  oi  the  carncasre  and  the  repeated  taxation  of  the 
movable  property  of  the  kingdom.  The  entire  adminis- 
tration of  justice  had  been  used  as  an  engine  of  extortion;  fines 
and  confiscations  were  frequent  and  the  threat  of  them  often 
used  to  levy  blackmail.  John's  rapacity,  moreover,  was  not  the 
least  unattractive  element  of  his  character.  His  meanness, 
his  treachery  to  his  friends,  his  inordinate  lust,  are  beyond 
description. 

The  barons  and  the  people,  therefore,  were  not  without  cause  of 
grievance.  One  marvels  that  a  warlike  race  should  endure  so  long 
Legaihasis  ^^^  ^^  patiently  this  despicable  tyrant.  It  can  be 
p&tor  explained  only  by  the  wide  influence  and  patient  firm- 
thebarom.  j^ess  of  Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter,  the  justiciar.  John  hated 
Geoffrey  as  he  hated  Hubert  Walter,  the  best  testimony  to  their 
integrity  and  faithfulness ;  yet  Geoffrey  was  indispensable  and  John 
had  had  the  shrewdness  and  self-control  to  keep  Geoffrey  at  his 
post.  Matters,  however,  were  now  fast  approaching  a  crisis;  the 
more  serious  as  Geoffrey  himself  appears  as  the  spokesman  of  the 
barons.  The  men  who  surrounded  the  justiciar,  like  him,  had 
been  trained  in  the  school  of  Henry  II. ,  and  fully  appreciated  the 
moral  advantage  of  finding  some  standard,  some  definite  legal 
ground  upon  which  to  base  their  complaints  against  John.  At  St. 
Albans,  therefore,  Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter  formally  proclaimed  the 
laws  of  Henry  I.,  as  the  basis  *'of  the  good  customs  which 
were  to  be  restored."  Few  knew  just  what  these  laws  were; 
yet  the  demand  served  as  a  rallying  cry;  and  when  three 
weeks   later,  at   a  second   meetins^  of  the  barons  held 

Meetina  at 

st.PauVx,      at   St.   Paul's  in  London,  the  new  archbishop,    Lang^- 

A.ug.  25  1213.  i  '  o 

ton,  brought  forth  the  forgotten  charter  of  Henry 
I.,  the  long-needed  weapon  was  put  into  the  hands  of  the  popular 
party.  *'By  this"  declared  the  archbishop,  *'you  can  bring  back 
the  liberties  which  have  been  lost,  to  their  former  condition."     In 

1  Green,  H.  E.  P.,  I,  p.  233. 


1213,  1214]  THE   CRISIS  257 

this  definite  form  the  demand  of  the  barons  was  laid  before  the 
king.^ 

Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter  did  not  long  survive  the  council  of  London. 

To  the  king  his  death  was  irreparable;  yet  far  from  appreciating 

his  loss,  John  only  gave  utterance  to  the  brutal  words : 

TheCrifi.      *'\Vhen  he  srets  to  hell,  let  him  go  and  salute  Hubert 

Death  of  &  j  o 

Fitz-Peter,      Walter;  for  by  God's  feet,  now  am  I  for  the  first  time 

Oct  2,  1218.  •>  J  1 

king  and  lord  of  England."  To  the  barons  the  death 
of  Fitz-Peter  must  have  seemed  like  a  calamity;  and  when  John 
named  as  his  new  justiciar,  the  foreign  favorite  Peter  des  Roches, 
the  bishop  of  Winchester,  they  knew  that  there  was  none  to 
stand  between  them  and  the  tyrant.  Another  council  had  been 
summoned  on  November  7,  to  meet  at  Oxford.  In  addition  to 
those  ordinarily  called,  each  sheriff  liad  been  directed  to  send  four 
discreet  knights  from  his  shire  to  * 'discuss  the  business  of  the 
kingdom  with  the  king."  ^  Beyond  this  important  provision  how- 
ever, we  do  not  know  that  anything  was  accomplished,  or  in  fact 
that  the  council  was  ever  actually  held.  So  the  eventful  year  1213 
closed.     The  rival  parties  seemed  to  be  marking  time. 

On  the  continent,  however,  events  were  moving  rapidly  to  a 
crisis.  The  long  talked  of  alliance  of  England  with  Otto  IV.  and  the 

count  of  Flanders,  who  still  had  their  old  quarrel  with 
CnaHtion        Philip,  was  about  to  bear  fruit  in  a  joint  invasion  of 

defeated  at  *■  ^  •' 

Bourmes,        France.     It  was  the  critical  moment  in  the  history  of 

1214.  "^ 

**  English   liberty.     If   the  allies  succeeded   in  crushing 

Philip,  then  John  might  return  and  settle  with  his  barons  at  his 
leisure.  Yet  the  barons  hardly  seemed  to  realize  what  John's  suc- 
cess would  mean  to  them.  Some  of  the  southern  barons  as  loyal 
as  ever  responded  to  his  call  and  followed  him  to  Poitou.  It  is 
true  the  northern  barons  who  had  been  present  at  St.  Paul's  took 
their  stand  upon  the  ground  assumed  in  1213,  and  refused  to  serve 
out   of   the   kingdom;    but   their   action    was    due   to  a  lack   of 

1  Lee,  Source  Book,  p.  165  and  124-127. 

2  At  St.  Albans  the  reeve  and  four  legal  men  from  each  township  in 
the  royal  demesne  had  been  summoned  with  the  barons  to  assist  in  esti- 
mating the  damages  to  church  property.  They  probably  acted  only  as 
witnesses. 


258  THE    GREAT   CHARTER  [john 

interest  in  the  quarrel,  rather  than  to  any  just  comprehension  of 
the  remoter  issue.  The  great  alliance,  however,  proved  a  signal 
failure.  On  the  27th  of  July,  1214,  the  Germans,  Flemings,  and 
English,  led  by  Otto  IV.,  Ferrand,  and  Earl  William  of  Salisbury, 

met  Philip  on  the  fatal  field  of  Bou vines.  Ferrand  and 
J^^^27^%i4    ^^^®  ^^^'^  ^^    Salisbury  were    both  taken;    Otto  retired 

with  a  pitiful  remnant  of  his  German  knights,  his 
power  so  shattered  that  his  influence  at  home  rapidly  waned  before 
the  rising  prestige  of  his  young  rival,  Frederick  II.  In  the  mean- 
while John  had  attempted  a  diversion  in  the  west,  in  the  hope  of 
regaining  a  foothold  in  the  French  provinces  which  he  had  forfeited 
in  1204.  He  had  won  some  unimportant  advantages  in  Poitou; 
but  the  defeat  of  his  allies  compelled  him  to  retire  beyond  the 
Loire  and  make  a  truce  with  Philip  for  five  years.  The  great 
coalition,  which  Richard  had  built  up  by  the  expenditure  of  so 
much  English  wealth,  had  dashed  itself  to  pieces  upon  the  pikemen 
of  Philip,  and  with  it  passed  away  the  last  hope  of  John  of  ever 
wresting  from  the  hand  of  Philip  the  lands  which  he  had  seized 
ten  years  before.  The  permanent  possession  by  the  French  king 
of  Normandy,  Anjou,  Touraine,  and  Poitou  was  secure. 

John  did  not  return  to  England  until  the  autumn.     But  he 
had  not  forgotten  the  northern  barons  and  came  back  with  the 

avowed  purpose  of  calling  them  to  an  account.  The 
at  St.  Ed-       barons,  however,  knew  their  man  and  were  prepared  to 

meet  him.  Late  in  November  they  met  in  the  minster 
of  St.  Edmunds  under  the  color  of  a  pilgrimage,  and  secretly  bound 
themselves  before  the  great  altar  to  compel  the  king  to  restore  the 
liberties  of  the  realm  and  confirm  the  act  by  a  charter  given  under 
his  seal ;  if  he  refused,  they  would  withdraw  their  allegiance  and 
appeal  to  arms.^ 

Soon  after  Christmas  a  deputation  of  the  barons  laid  their 
propositions  before  the  king.     He  asked  for  time  and  promised  to 

respond  on  the  first  Sunday  after  Easter.  He  had, 
paresfor        however,  no  idea  of  submission  and  set  himself  to  pre- 

IVdV    1215 

pare   for   resistance.     He  sought   first   to   detach   the 
bishops  from  the  popular  cause,  and  on  the  15th  of  January  issued 
1  Lee,  pp.  165,  166. 


1215]  THE    CHARTER    SIGNED  259 

a  charter  in  which  he  granted  the  church  freedom  from  the  inter- 
ference of  the  crown  in  *'the  election  of  all  prelates  whatsovor, 
greater  or  less."^  Langton,  however,  was  too  wise  and  farseeing 
to  be  caught  by  John's  blandishments  and  stoutly  refused  to 
accept  any  terms  for  the  church,  which  did  not  also  include  the 
barons.  The  king  in  the  meanwhile  was  swelling  the  ranks  of 
his  foreign  mercenaries  by  enlistments  in  Brabant  and  Poitou ;  he 
fortified  and  provisioned  his  castles;  he  required  his  tenants  to 
renew  their  homage  and  directed  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  be 
taken  by  all  freemen  throughout  England.  He  also  sought  to 
secure  the  support  of  the  pope  by  assuming  the  obligations  of  a 
crusader;  an  act  which  put  him  under  the  special  protection  of  the 
church. 

In  March  the  barons  gathered  at  Stamford,  and  with  a  dignity  and 
self-possession  worthy  of  the  greatness  of  their  cause  calmly  waited 

for  tiie  expiration  of  the  truce.  They  then  marched 
thrrhnrtn;_    into  Northamptonshire  and  on  the  27th  of  April  lay 

encamped  at  Brackley.  Here  Langton  and  William 
Marshal,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  met  them  as  envoys  from  the  king  and 
asked  their  demands.  In  reply  they  drew  up  a  series  of  articles, 
known  as  the  ** Articles  of  the  Barons,"  ^  and  dispatched  them  to  the 
king,  John  read  the  demands  and  angrily  exclaimed:  **Why  do 
they  not  ask  for  my  kingdom?  I  will  never  grant  such  liberties  as 
will  make  me  a  slave."  When  the  answer  came  back,  the  barons, 
now  two  thousand  strong  and  numbering  representatives  of  the 
greatest  houses  of  England,  broke  camp  and  marched  upon  Lon- 
don. John  was  still  surrounded  by  many  of  the  older  barons; 
men  like  William  Marshal,  whose  sympathies  were  with  the  rising, 
but  who  feared  the  anarchy  of  civil  war  and  preferred  to  gain 
their  point  in  a  quieter  way  by  bringing  pressure  to  bear  upon  the 
king  within  the  lines  of  the  constitution.  The  nation,  however,  was 
against  John  and  when  on  the  24:th  of  May  ''the  Army  of  God 
and  the  Holy  Church,"  as  the  barons  styled  themselves,  entered 
London  in  the  midst  of  the  wildest  enthusiasm,  the  king's  most 
trusted  followers,  even  the  members  of  his  household,  saw  that  his 

*  Gee  and  Hardy,  Documents,  etc.,  pp.  77-79. 
^Stubbs.  ,Sf.  C,  290-296. 


260  THE    GREAT   CHARTER  [john 

cause  was  hopeless  and  abandoned  him.  Cunning  and  unscrupu- 
lous as  John  was,  supported  only  by  Flemish  mercenaries  and  a  few 
foreign  favorites,  he  saw  that  further  resistance  would  be  madness, 
and  when  the  Articles  of  the  Barons  in  a  revised  form  were  again 
submitted  to  him,  he  signed  them  and  attached  the  great  seal. 
This  historic  event  took  place  at  Runnymede,  near  Windsor,  on 
the  15th  of  June,  1215. 

So   at   last   was   secured   the   priceless   document,    known   in 
distinction  from  all  other  charters  as   the  Great  Charter.     The 

importance  of  this  famous  document  can  hardly  be 
^^^  exaggerated.     It  was  *'the  first  great  legislative  act  of 

the  English  nation,"  and,  supplemented  by  the  later 
Petitio7i  of  Right  and  Bill  of  Rights^  it  constitutes  the  legal  foun- 
dation of  Anglo-Saxon  liberties.  In  form  it  was  a  grant  similar  to 
previous  charters  of  English  kings,  issued  by  the  favor  of  the 
crown  to  all  "our  faithful  subjects."  In  theory  it  was  a  restate- 
ment of  the  customary  laws  of  feudal  England  as  they  had 
been  recognized  by  her  Norman  and  Angevin  kings.  In  fact  it 
was  a  list  of  rights  and  liberties  forced  upon  the  king  by  his  sub- 
jects; and  since  it  defined  in  legal  form  the  relations  of  king  and 
people,  and  imposed  upon  the  subjects  the  task  of  deposing  him 
as  a  sacred  duty  in  case  he  violated  these  relations,  it  virtually 
asserted  the  principle  that  the  king  was  subject  to  the  laws  of  the 
realm  as  well  as  his  meanest  vassal. 

An  analysis  of  the  sixty-three  articles  of  the  Charter  shows  that 
little  had  escaped  the  barons.^     The  church  was  "to  be  free"  and 

have  its  newly  granted  rights.  The  feudal  obligations 
tiie'charter     ^^  ^^®  barons  Were  carefully  specified,  and   the  dues 

which  the  king  might  justly  demand  were  carefully 
defined  and  limited ;  as  carefully  also  were  limited  the  rights  of  the 
king  over  his  wards.  The  administration  of  justice,  which  in 
unscrupulous  hands  had  only  too  often  degenerated  into  tyranny, 
was  to  conform  to  right  and  law.  The  penalty  of  crime 
must  conform  to  the  grade  of  the  offense.  Judges  must  be 
selected  for  their  legal  knowledge  and  probity.     Suitors  in  com- 

^  For  analysis  of  Charter  and  review  of  its  contents,  see  Taswell-Lang- 
mead,  pp.  92-115. 


PRINCIPLES   OF   THE    CONSTITUTIOlf  261 

mon  pleas  should  no  longer  be  compelled  to  drag  about  over  the 
country  in  the  wake  of  the  king's  court,  but  were  to  have  some 
fixed  place  to  which  they  might  resort.  The  king's  justices  also 
were  to  visit  the  shires  four  times  a  year,  to  hear  and  settle  dis- 
putes concerning  real  property.  Such  cases,  moreover,  could  not 
be  tried  out  of  the  county  in  which  the  lands  in  question  lay. 

Other  articles  bravely  dealt  with  the  fundamental  principles  of 
the  constitution ;  principles  the  greatness  and  farreaching  import 
of  which  the  barons  themselves  probably  did  not 
vru!l?,^rTnf  realize  and  which  it  has  taken  six  hundred  years  to 
fim/""'^^""  work  out.  In  the  regulation  which  forbade  the  king  to 
levy  scutage  or  extraordinary  aid  without  the  consent 
of  the  common  council  of  the  nation  was  involved  the  sole  right  of 
the  parliament  to  levy  taxes.  In  the  regulation  which  required  the 
king  to  summon  to  the  council  the  archbishops,  bishops,  earls,  and 
greater  barons  individually,  but  allowed  him  to  summon  the  lesser 
tenants  by  general  notification  through  the  sheriff  of  each  county, 
was  involved  the  subsequent  separation  of  the  two  houses,  as  well 
as  the  opportunity  for  the  later  development  of  the  representative 
system.  In  the  principle  that  no  freeman  should  be  imprisoned  or 
suffer  other  penalty,  *' unless  by  the  lawful  judgment  of  his  peers, 
or  by  the  law  of  the  land,"  and  that  ** justice  should  be  neither 
sold,  nor  denied,  nor  delayed,"  were  involved  the  Habeas  Corpus 
act,  and  all  the  other  regulations  by  which  Englishmen  and  Ameri- 
cans have  sought  to  protect  the  individual  from  the  abuse  of  the 
vast  powers  of  the  state. 

The  national  character  of  the  Charter  is  shown  by  the  gener- 
osity of  the  provisions  which  included  all  classes  within  its  bene- 
fits.    The  barons  agreed  that  the  liberties  which  they 

National  .       ^^  ,       ,  .  ,          .  /, 

character  of    as  tenants  received  from  the  kinsr,  they  in  turn  would 

the  Charter.       ,  .      ,      ,.  .  ,       ,     .  ^  "^  rr,,         .,. 

observe  in  dealing  with  their  own  tenants.  The  cities 
and  towns  also  were  to  have  their  liberties  and  free  customs. 
London  was  to  share  in  the  limitations  put  upon  aids  and  scutages. 
Foreign  merchants  were  not  to  be  interfered  with,  but  might  come 
and  go  without  being  subjected  to  more  than  the  ancient  customs. 
One  standard  of  weights  and  measures  was  also  prescribed  for  the 
whole  kingdom.     Even  the  villain  came  in  for  his  share  of  protec- 


262  THE    GREAT   CHARTER  [john 

tion;  his  agricultural  implements,  like  the  stock  of  the  merchant 
or  tradesman,  were  to  be  sheltered  from  the  rapacity  of  the  gov- 
ernment official.  No  man's  grain  or  other  property  was  to  be 
taken  by  royal  officials  under  the  plea  of  right  of  purveyance 
without  payment  or  consent  of  the  owner;  nor  could  land  or  rent 
be  seized  for  any  debt  due  to  the  crown,  as  long  as  the  chattels  of 
the  debtor  were  sufficient. 

Such  in  brief  was  the  famous  Charter;  the  first  attempt  to 
define  in  a  formal  way  the  powers  of  the  crown  and  the  rights  of 
the  people.  Its  moderation  is  as  remarkable  as  its 
ofuifcMrter.^^^^^^^  ^^^  Comprehensiveness.  The  barons  had  no 
wish  to  weaken  the  crown ;  they  fully  believed  that  the 
established  customs  of  the  nation  were  sufficient  guarantees  of 
their  rights,  and  these  were  all  that  they  asked;  bat  they 
demanded  that  these  customs  be  observed. 

It  was  much  that  now  at  last  king  and  subjects  had  come  to  a 
formal  understanding.     The  customs  of  England  had  been  formu- 
lated and  the  salutary  principle  established,  that  these 

Devicefor  ^   ±  x 

enforciw        customs  miffht  uot  be  violated  even  by  the  kins:.     But 

f/j6  ChdVtCT'  »J  CD 

how  enforce  this  principle?  By  what  guarantee  could 
the  barons  protect  themselves  against  the  notorious  insincerity  and 
treachery  of  John?  Former  sovereigns,  far  better  men,  had  not 
hesitated  to  break  the  most  solemn  covenants,  when  a  sufficient 
pretext  presented  itself,  and  sometimes  even  without  pretext. 
The  barons  could  not  expect  more  of  John.  The  system  of  con- 
stitutional checks,  so  well  understood  and  so  effective  to-day,  had 
not  yet  been  devised,  nor  was  other  method  understood,  save  the 
appeal  to  the  sword.  And  appeal  to  the  sword  there  certainly 
would  be,  if  John  were  left  to  himself  with  all  his  "regal  power 
and  dignity"  intact.  This  was  the  problem,  and  to  solve  it,  the 
barons  devised  a  scheme  as  naive  as  it  was  impracticable.  By  the 
sixty-first  clause  of  the  Charter  the  king  was  made  to  empower  the 
baronage  to  elect  a  standing  committee  or  council  of  twenty-five 
barons,  who  were  to  keep  w^atch  upon  the  king  and  his  officers, 
and  demand  instant  redress  in  case  any  of  the  provisions 
were  violated.  If  the  king  within  forty  days  should  not 
give   satisfactory    redress,    then    "the    five    and    twenty   barons. 


1215]  WAR    OF   JOHN    WITH    THE    BARONS  263 

together  with  the  commonalty  of  the  whole  land"  were  authorized 
by  the  king  to  make  war  upon  him,  until  the  grievance  should  be 
satisfied.  The  king  further  pledged:  ''as  to  all  those  in  the  land 
who  will  not  of  their  own  account  swear  to  join  the  five  and  twenty 
barons  in  distraining  and  distressing  us,  we  will  issue  orders  to 
make  them  take  the  same  oath  as  aforesaid."  This  rude  device 
which  imposed  upon  John's  subjects  rebellion  as  a  sacred  duty, 
and  placed  over  the  sovereign  as  John  declared,  "four  and  twenty 
kings,"  could  not  be  satisfactory  for  the  simple  reason  that  no 
government  could  long  survive  under  such  conditions. 

The  immediate  conduct  of  John,  however,  justified  all  the  sus- 
picions of  the  barons  and  soon  gave  his  "four  and  twenty  kings" 

their  hands  full.  Evidently  he  had  not  been  sincere 
offt^pope^    for  a  single  moment ;  as  soon  as  the  barons  had  returned 

to  their  homes,  he  sent  off  Pandulf  the  papal  legate  post 
haste  to  persuade  the  pope  to  free  him  from  his  oath.  The  pope 
at  heart  was  not  unfriendly  to  the  cause  of  English  liberties,  but 
he  looked  upon  the  struggle  solely  from  the  point  of  view  of  his 
interests  as  overlord,  and  Pandulf  easily  persuaded  him  that  the 
barons  in  curtailing  the  powers  of  the  crown,  were  seriously  harm- 
ing his  interests.  Moreover,  technically,  by  feudal  law  any  diffi- 
culties between  the  king  and  his  vassals  ought  to  have  been  first 
referred  to  the  overlord  for  settlement.  The  pope  accordingly 
granted  John  the  dispensation ;  threatened  the  barons  with  excom- 
munication because  they  had  levied  war  upon  a  crusader,  and 
finally  suspended  Langton. 

John  in  the  meanwhile  was  busily  preparing  for  war,  and  by 
the  en-d  of  harvest  was  ready  to  take  the  field.     He  sent  a  body  of 

foreign  mercenaries  under  Falkes  de  Breaute  to  waste 

War  '>/ 

John  and  his  the  lands  of  the  barons,  while  he  himself,  ravaging  as  he 
advanced,  marched  into  Scotland  to  punish  the  Scot 
king,  Alexander,  for  supporting  his  enemies.  It  was  a  serious 
moment  for  the  Charter.  The  suspension  of  Langton  removed  the 
only  man  who  was  able  to  hold  together  the  many  diverse  elements 
of  the  popular  party.  The  more  conservative  of  the  barons,  men 
like  Pembroke  and  Chester,  who  had  left  John  only  at  the  last 
moment,  were  inclined  to  draw  back,  while  the  younger  men,  the 


264  THE    GREAT    CHARTER  [john 

hotheads,  were  determined  to  fight  the  matter  out.  Thus  the  war 
rapidly  degenerated  into  a  struggle  of  factions,  in  which  the  pop- 
ular party  continued  to  disintegrate  and  John's  ranks  swelled  cor- 
respondingly. 

The  barons  who  held  out,  however,  were  soon  in  a  sad  plight ; 
their  estates  were  ruined,  their  castles  destroyed,  and  their  wives 

and  children  were  lying  in  John's  dungeons  as  hostages. 
frwSedto^^  In  their  desperation  they  finally  renounced  their  alle- 
crmvn^^^^      giance  altogether,  and  invited  Louis,  the  son  of  Philip, 

to  come  over  and  assume  the  English  crown.  Louis,  it 
will  be  remembered,  had  married  John's  niece,  Blanche  of  Castile, 
and  by  feudal  law,  in  default  of  John  and  his  male  heirs,  Louis's 
right  to  the  English  crown  through  his  wife  might  be  recognized. 
Philip  chose  to  regard  the  claim  as  founded  upon  good  law  and  in 
spite  of  the  threats  of  the  pope,  espoused  the  cause  of  the  barons, 
and  in  November  hurried  off  a  detachment  of  7,000  men  to  aid 
them,  reinforcing  it  at  times  during  the  winter  and  spring.  John, 
however,  in  spite  of  the  French  help,  continued  to  make  head 
against  his  foes,  and  with  the  fall  of  Colchester  in  March,  London 
remained  almost  the  only  place  of  importance  in  their  hands. 

In  May,    the  arrival   of    Prince  Louis  gave   a   new   phase   to 
the  war.     Up  to  this  point  John  had  shown  considerable  military 

skill.  His  energy  had  been  magnificent.  The  strength 
L^uff^Sm      ^^^  ^'*^^^  ^^  ^^^  blows  had  appalled  the  stoutest.     But 

now  John  began  to  display  that  want  of  resolution  in 
the  presence  of  great  emergency,  so  characteristic  of  the  man,  but 
a  new  element  in  the  Angevin  character.  When  he  heard  of  the 
landing  of  Prince  Louis  at  Thanet,  he  at  once  broke  camp  and 
retired  to  Winchester.  Louis  marched  upon  London  and  was 
received  by  the  people  with  loud  acclamations.  From  London  he 
advanced  upon  Winchester.  John's  French  mercenaries  who  con- 
stituted his  main  strength,  refused  to  fight  against  their  king's 
son,  and  John  could  do  nothing  but  waste  the  country  and 
retire  before  Louis.  Winchester  fell,  and  Louis  laid  siege 
to  Windsor  and  Dover.  Alexander  came  from  Scotland  to  do 
him  homage  and  the  northern  lords  followed  his  example;  then 
the  southern  earls  began  to  come  in  and  finally  John's  half-brother, 


1216]  DEATH   OF   JOHN  266 

William  of  Salisbury,  made  his  submission.  John's  kingdom 
was  fast  slipping  from  him ;  he  could  not  bring  his  mercenaries 
to  meet  Louis  in  the  open  field,  although  they  were  perfectly  will- 
ing to  rove  up  and  down  the  country  in  John's  train,  burning  and 
plundering  English  homes  and  butchering  the  people.  This,  how- 
ever, did  John  little  good,  and  soon  even  his  friends  were  disgusted 
with  the  lawlessness  of  his  followers. 

As  the  summer  approached  everything  was  going  Louis's  way. 
But  ere  it  had  passed,  unmistakable    signs  of  a  second  reaction 

began  to  appear.  Hubert  de  Burgh  had  succeeded  in 
john,Oct^)-     holding  Dover  against  every  attempt  of  Louis;  Windsor 

also  held  out.  The  barons,  moreover,  began  to  doubt  the 
security  of  their  position,  should  Louis  be  too  successful.  Still 
the  fear  of  John  was  superior  to  all  other  motives  and  Louis's  party 
continued  to  hold  together.  But  suddenly  in  the  midst  of  new 
successes  of  the  royal  party,  the  whole  aspect  of  the  struggle  was 
changed  by  the  removal  of  John  himself,  according  to  tradition, 
the  result  of  a  surfeit  of  new  cider  and  green  peaches. 

** History  has  set  upon  John's  character  a  darker  and  deeper 
mark  than  she  has  on  any  other  king.     He  was  in  every  way  the 

worst  of  the  whole  list;  the  most  vicious,  the  most 
inMstnv^^'    profane,  the  most  tyrannical,  the  most  false,  the  most 

shortsighted,  the  most  unscrupulous."*  And  yet  had 
John  been  less  of  a  brute,  had  it  been  possible  to  live  with 
him  upon  any  conditions,  it  is  likely  that  the  struggle  would 
never  have  taken  such  definite  form, '  or  the  principles  of  the 
Charter  become  so  promptly  established  as  the  fundamental  law  of 
England.  It  was  John's  hopelessly  base  nature,  that  made  the 
Charter  a  necessity,  and  left  it  to  succeeding  generations  as  the 
monument  of  his  reign. 

*  Stubbs,  The  Early  Plantagenets,  p.  160. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   STRUGGLE   FOR  THE   CHARTER 

HENRY  TIL,  1216-1265 

FAMILY  OF  JOHN  LACKLAND 

John    =    Isabella 
k.  1199-1216  I        of  Angouleme 

Henry  in.=Eleanor  Joan  Eleanor=  j  J  i^^"^™i^^^s„^.J],«.        Richard, 

k.  1216-1272  I     of  m.  <  2  bimon  de  Montfort  g^^.^  ^^ 

Provence     Alexander  II.  Cornwall, 

I of  Scotland King  of  the 

I  I  .(  Romans, 

Edward  I.  Edmund  Crouchback,  Margaret = Alexander  III.  d.  1271 

k.  1272-1307  Earl  of  Lancaster,  of  Scotland 

d.  1296 

A  great  forward  step  had  now  been  taken  by  England  in  secur- 
ing a  basis  upon  which  the  relations  of  crown  and  people  might  be 

formally  worked  out.  A  precedent  had  been  estab- 
for  the  lished ;  a  system  or  program  had  been  accepted  which 

embodied  in  definite  formulae  the  rights  of  the  subject 
and  the  powers  of  the  government.  Ideas,  heretofore  only  vaguely 
floating  in  men's  minds,  had  been  crystallized  into  the  formal  terms 
of  a  public  document ;  they  could  never  again  be  lost  or  forgotten. 
Yet  the  Charter  was  by  no  means  secure.  Its  provisions,  after  all, 
were  as  yet  only  the  platform  of  a  party.  Much  depended  upon 
John's  successor;  much  more  depended  upon  the  clearness  with 
which  new  leaders  should  grasp  the  principles  of  the  Charter,  and 
the  courage  with  which  they  should  uphold  them.  This  struggle 
is  the  theme  of  the  next  sixty  years  of  English  history. 

Stephen  Langton,  soon  after  his  suspension,  had  hastened  to 
Rome  to  put  a  fair  statement  of  the  quarrel  before  the  pope  and 

had  not  yet  returned.  His  absence  was  now  doubly 
^rmmL¥ai  ^^^plored.  The  Charter,  however,  found  a  new  friend  in 
oSTrTs      ^  qi^arter  where  perhaps  it  was  least  expected.     William 

Marshal,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  was  the  recognized  head  of 
the  conservative  party  of  the  barons  who  had  clung  to  John,  and, 
although  they  had  supported  the  demand  for  the  Charter  in  1215. 

266 


1216]  THE   FIRST   REISSUE   OF   THE   CHARTER  267 

had  refused  to  make  war  upon  him.  Within  ten  days  after  his 
death,  therefore,  they  brought  out  and  crowned  at  Gloucester  the 
young  Prince  Henry,  John's  eldest  son.  They  also  appointed  Pem- 
broke "governor  of  the  king  and  the  kingdom,"  but  entrusted 
the  person  of  the  king  to  the  care  of  Peter  des  Roches.  The 
supporters  of  Henry,  however,  were  not  wedded  to  John's  ways, 
and  it  required  no  great  foresight  to  see  that  the  only  hope  of  the 
young  king  of  ever  ruling  over  his  father's  kingdom,  lay  in  the 
absolute  and  immediate  abandonment  of  his  father's  policy.  To 
show  the  people,  therefore,  that  John's  policy  had  died  with  him, 
Pembroke  at  once  reissued  the  Charter,  in  a  modified 
(if  Charter,  form  to  be  sure,  but  nevertheless  the  Charter.  The 
most  important  change  was  the  omission  of  the  clauses 
which  made  the  consent  of  the  barons  necessary  to  the  levy  of  an 
unusual  aid.  The  new  government  was  at  war  with  its  own  sub- 
jects ;  a  foreign  prince  supported  by  a  powerful  army  was  in  the 
field,  and  at  so  critical  a  time  the  new  governor  of  the  kingdom 
might  well  hesitate  to  tie  his  hands,  or  acknowledge  the  powers  of 
a  group  of  men  the  most  of  whom  were  in  actual  rebellion.  Yet 
the  first  clause  of  the  modified  charter  declared  that  the  omitted 
articles  were  only  suspended  by  reason  of  the  present  emergency, 
and  that  they  should  be  considered  later.  Gualo,  the  new  papal 
legate,  and  Peter  des  Roches  had  also  borne  no  small  part  in  secur- 
ing the  reissue  of  the  Charter,  as  the  first  step  toward  the  pacifica- 
tion of  the  country.  Sworn  as  was  the  one  to  the  interests  of  his 
papal  master,  and  devoted  as  was  the  other  to  the  interests  of  John 
and  his  son,  both  saw  that  the  moment  had  come  for  compromise 
and  conciliation. 

The  first  year  was  fully  occupied  by  the  struggle  with  Louis. 
The  military  advantage  was  all  against  Henry,  but  patriotic  cur- 
rents were  running  high.  The  old  hatred  of  the  Eng- 
withLouis^  lishman  for  the  foreigner  kindled  again  under  wild 
rumors  of  French  brutality.  The  young  king  had  no 
personal  enemies.  His  very  youth,  his  misfortunes,  appealed  to 
the  awakening  loyalty  of  the  people.  The  independence  of  the 
realm  was  at  stake.  Tho  liberties  of  the  people  surely  would  be 
far  safer  under  one  of  their  own  princes,  than  under  this  French- 


268  THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   THE    CHARTER  [henry  IIL 

man,  whose  ancestors  had  always  and  at  all  times  been  the  enemies 
of  England.  Gualo,  staunch  to  the  interest  which  he  had  now  taken 
up,  thundered  his  excommunications  against  those  who  supported 
the  French  in  their  unholy  cause.  A  new  and  powerful  moral 
influence,  moving  in  ten  thousand  hidden  currents,  was  thus  rapidly 
setting  against  Louis.  In  May  1217  Pembroke  beat  the  French 
in  an  absurd  battle  at  Lincoln,  known  as  "The  Fair  of  Lincoln," 
so  easy  was  the  victory  and  so  rich  the  plunder.  In  August  the 
Fair  of  Lincoln  was  eclipsed  by  another  victory  off  Dover,  in  which 
Hubert  de  Burgh  with  a  small  fleet  of  forty  ships  completely  over- 
whelmed the  French  fleet,  and  thus  destroyed  Louis's  last  chance  of 
getting  reinforcements.  The  victory  was  due  partly  to  the  superior 
seamanship  of  the  English  sailors,  and  partly  to  the  simple  expe- 
dient of  throwing  quicklime  into  the  faces  of  the  French,  as  the 
English  bore  down  upon  them  from  the  weather  side.  This  battle 
of  Dover  practically  settled  the  war;  Louis  thought  only  of  mak- 
ing his  escape  from  the  country. 

The  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  Lambeth,  September  11, 
1217.  The  same  dignity  and  moderation,  so  characteristic  of  all 
Treaty  of  ^^^^  bears  the  touch  of  Pembroke's  great  soul,  mark 
SepUmber  ^^^^  treaty,  which  was  "almost  as  important  as  the 
11,1217.  Great  Charter  itself."     It  secured  a  general  amnesty, 

and  provided  for  the  restitution  of  all  forfeited  property.  Ten 
thousand  marks  were  paid  to  Louis  to  meet  the  expenses  which  he 
had  incurred  in  undertaking  the  war.  Thus  Pembroke  sought  to 
lay  the  foundations  of  a  lasting  peace  by  restoring  all  parties  to 
the  conditions  which  prevailed  at  the  opening  of  the  year  1215. 
Ill  a  few  weeks  Louis,  after  receiving  the  absolution  of  the  legate 
as  one  guilty  of  an  ecclesiastical  offence,  quitted  the  kingdom  for 
good. 

Pembroke  was  now  free  to  address  himself  to  the  reorganization 
of  the  kingdom  on  the  basis  of  the  Charter.  He  had  not  only 
averted  the  danger  of  another  foreign  conquest;  he  had 
Second  re-  saved  England  from  the  horrors  of  long-continued 
Charter,  i2i7.  domestic  anarchy.  The  treaty  of  Lambeth  was  imme- 
diately followed  by  a  second  reissue  of  the  Charter,  and 
also  by  the  issue  of  a  supplementary  charter,  known  as  the  Charter 


1217]  THE    CHARTER    OF   THE    FORESTS  269 

of  the  Forests,  which  became  almost  as  popular  as  the  earlier  work 
of  the  barons.  In  the  reissued  Charter  the  clause  restricting  the 
taxing  power  of  the  king  was  still  held  in  abeyance ;  illegal  castles, 
which  had  risen  again  as  in  the  wars  of  Stephen's  reign,  were 
tb  be  destroyed;  the  itinerant  justices  were  to  make  one  instead  of 
four  circuits  a  year.  The  Charter  of  the  Forests  included  the 
forest  regulations  of  the  original  charter  which  had  been  omitted 
from  the  first  reissue,  and  also  certain  new  regulations  which 
relieved  the  people  of  many  hardships.  The  boundaries  of  the 
forests  were  always  more  or  less  indefinite,  and  the  constant 
tendency  of  the  forest  courts  had  been  to  extend  these  bound- 
aries. By  the  new  Charter  the  forests  were  to  be  restored  to 
the  limits  which  had  been  recognized  in  the  time  of  Henry 
II.  ;  and  much  of  the  legal  chicanery  by  which  the  forest  courts 
were  accustomed  to  draw  the  helpless  people  into  their  toils, 
was  abolished.  No  measure  of  Earl  William's  administration 
was  more  popular;  and  long  after  his  death,  when  the  cry  for 
the  *' confirmation  of  the  charters"  was  raised  by  the  nation, 
it  was  Earl  William's  charters  of  the  year  1217  that  the  people 
demanded. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  Gualo  retired  and  Pandulf  was  again 
appointed  legate.     Gualo  had  administered  his  high  office  in  the 

main  with  wisdom  and  discretion,  and  although  he  had 
StrwS^^"^    been  somewliat  overeager  to  levy  fines  and  confiscations 

in  the  name  of  his  spiritual  lord,  no  small  credit  is  due  to 
him  for  his  staunch  support  of  Pembroke  in  restoring  the  kingdom 
to  order  and  putting  into  practice  the  principles  of  the  Charter. 
The  new  legate  had  nothing  of  Gualo's  keen  insight  into  existing 
conditions.  He  possessed,  moreover,  a  dangerously  energetic  tem- 
perament and  was  imbued  with  the  idea  that  he  was  to  govern  Eng- 
land as  a  dependent  province  of  Rome.  His  overbearing  disposition 
also  soon  brought  him  into  conflict  with  Langton  who  had  returned 
to  England  soon  after  the  death  of  Innocent  and  was  again  at  his 
post.  But  Langton's  influence  with  the  new  pope,  Honorius  III., 
finally  prevailed ;  Pandulf  was  recalled  and  Langton  obtained  the 
promise  that  during  his  lifetime  no  resident  legate  should  be 
appointed  in  England. 


270  THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   THE    CHARTER  [hekbtIH. 

In  1219  Earl  William  died.  He  is  the  "grand  old  man"  of 
this  era.  He  had  been  identified  with  every  great  political  move- 
ment since  1173.  If  he  had  supported  John  it  was  not 
hroke%i9^^'  ^^^cause  he  loved  tyranny,  but  because  he  feared  baronial 
violence.  He  represented  the  great  conservative 
thought  of  the  nation,  and  because  he  was  able  at  last  to  marshal 
this  element  in  support  of  the  Charter,  he  made  the  final  triumph 
of  the  popular  cause  possible.  His  place  could  not  be  easily  filled, 
nor  did  the  council  attempt  to  appoint  a  new  "governor." 
Hubert  de  Burgh,  the  hero  of  Dover,  had  been  justiciar  since 
1215,  and  the  chief  place  in  the  administration  naturally  fell  to 
him.  He  had  never  been  in  sympathy  with  the  restrictions  of  the 
royal  power  as  they  had  been  set  forth  in  the  Charter;  but  he 
believed  in  good  government,  and  threw  himself  with  all  the  confi- 
dence and  vigor  of  a  successful  soldier  into  the  task  of  complet- 
ing the  work  of  Earl  William. 

Hubert,  however,  was  a  very  different  man  from  the  gentle 
earl.  He  had  nothing  of  his  patience  and  little  of  his  tact  in  deal- 
ing with  rebellious  vassals.  He  saw,  moreover,  what 
de^Burgh  possibly  William  had  seen  before  his  death,  that  the 
time  for  conciliation  was  passing  and  that  the  moment 
was  at  hand  when  the  new  government  might  no  longer  shrink 
from  putting  its  authority  to  the  test,  but  that  it  must  deal  vigor- 
ously with  the  barons  who  still  refused  to  surrender  their  strong- 
holds. *The  feudal  lords  must  submit  to  Henry  III.  as  they  had 
once  submitted  to  Henry  II. ;'  the  foreigners  whom  John  had  put  in 
charge  of  his  castles  and  who  still  held  them,  must  be  removed  and 
the  strongholds  which  they  had  turned  into  instruments  of 
"tyranny  and  oppression,"  must  be  given  back  again  to  the  king. 

The  most  conspicuous  of  these  tardy  barons  were  William  of 
Aumale  and  Falkes  de  Breaute.  Aumale  was  of  the  old  French- 
English  baronage  which  had  rooted  itself  in  the  soil  since 
element  in  the  Conquest.  His  grandfather  was  that  William  of 
'  Aumale  who  had  defied  Henry  of  Anjou  when  he  began 
the  restoration  of  the  kingdom  after  the  close  of  Stephen's  stormy 
reign.  Falkes  de  Breaute  was  one  of  the  horde  of  ruffian  adven- 
turers  whom   John  had   introduced   into   England   in   order   to 


1219,  1220]  HUBERT   DE   BURGH  271 

support  his  tottering  throne.  He  was  a  Norman  by  birth,  but 
had  been  driven  out  of  Normandy  for  his  crimes  and  had  found 
congenial  occupation  in  marshalling  John's  mercenaries.  John 
had  rewarded  him  by  bestowing  upon  him  a  rich  heiress;  he  had 
also  made  him  sheriff  of  six  English  counties  and  given  into  his 
keeping  many  of  his  castles,  including  Bedford,  one  of  the  most 
formidable  strongholds  of  England.  Pembroke  perhaps  would  not 
have  hesitated  to  attack  Aumale  or  de  Breaute  had  they  stood 
alone.  But  there  were  many  other  powerful  barons  who,  like  Ralph 
of  Chester,  held  aloof  from  the  new  government  and  would 
undoubtedly  have  taken  alarm,  had  the  regent  attempted  to  coerce 
one  of  their  number.  There  was  also  within  the  council  itself  a  pow- 
erful foreign  influence,  headed  by  the  quondam  justiciar  of  John, 
Peter  des  Roches,  who  had  been  a  knight,  a  politician,  and  a  mis- 
chief-maker generally,  before  he  had  taken  orders,  and  had  not  so 
far  abandoned  his  old  profession,  that  he  could  not  use  his  present 
position  secretly  to  encourage  the  barons  to  defy  the  regent  in 
order  to  build  up  a  foreign  party  in  the  coart. 

As  a  preliminary  step  to  the  assertion  of  the  royal  authority, 
at  Whitsuntide  of  the  year  1220,   Hubert  with  the  support  of 

Langton  had  Henry  recrowned  at  Westminster  amid 
(ussert^^he  gi*6at  pomp  ajid  splendor.  It  was  to  be  the  signal  that 
ity"i22o^*^^'^   the   king  had  been  restored  to  full  possession  of  the 

royal  dignity.  Armed  with  a  bull  from  Honorius  which 
demanded  the  surrender  of  the  castles,  Hubert  then  proceeded 
against  Aumale,  and  although  he  succeeded  at  last,  it  was  not 
until  Aumale  had  resisted  the  whole  force  of  the  government  for 
nearly  a  year.  By  this  time,  also,  the  other  barons  were  fully 
aroused,  and  appearing  before  the  king,  with  Bishop  Peter  as 
spokesman,  formally  accused  Hubert  of  treason.  They  then 
retired  to  Leicester.  The  justiciar  in  the  name  of  the  king 
appealed  to  the  nation  and  gathered  a  rival  force  at  Northampton. 
Langton  also  entered  the  lists  and  issued  a  formal  excommuni- 
cation against  the  rebellious  barons.  This  * 'array  of  force  and 
authority"  overawed  the  malcontents;  and  one  by  one  they  sur- 
rendered their  castles  and  made  their  peace  with  the  justiciar. 
Falkes  de  Breaute,  however,  remained  defiant  and  Hubert  deter- 


272  THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   THE    CHARTER  [heneyIII. 

mined  to  complete  his  success  by  either  destroying  him  or  driving 
him  out  of  the  country.  But  he  took  his  own  time,  and  waited 
patiently  until  some  overt  act  of  de  Breaute  or  his  men  should 
leave  no  question  of  the  justice  of  his  position.  In  1224,  the  occa- 
sion came.  William,  a  brother  of  de  Breaute,  who  held  Bedford 
in  his  name,  seized  and  imprisoned  one  of  the  royal  justices. 
Hubert  at  once  accepted  the  challenge,  marched  against  Bedford, 
and  after  two  months'  siege,  took  it  and  hanged  William  and  some 
eighty  of  his  men  on  the  walls.  Such  prompt  and  vigorous  measures 
thoroughly  cowed  the  barons  who  still  retained  any  sympathy 
with  de  Breaute.  De  Breaute  himself  was  glad  to  leave  the  coun- 
try; Bishop  Peter  also  lost  his  influence  for  the  time,  left  the 
council,  and  soon  after  departed  for  a  Crusade. 

For  three  years  Hubert  continued  to  rule  the  kingdom  with 
vigor  and  success.  But  in  1227  Henry,  who  had  entered  upon  his 
twenty-first  year,  declared  his  purpose  of  assuming  the 
becomes  of  government  himself.  Personally  the  young  king  was 
clean  and  upright,  without  any  of  his  father's  personal 
wickedness ;  but  unfortunately  he  was  possessed  with  an  exaggerated 
estimate  of  his  own  abilities  as  an  executive,  always  coupled  with  a 
slavish  deference  to  the  papacy.  He  was,  moreover,  easily  led  by 
the  favorite  of  the  hour  and  inclined,  like  most  weak  natures  in 
high  positions,  to  be  suspicious  of  the  influence  of  strong  men. 
Hubert  continued  to  act  as  justiciar;  but  the  king  was  incapable 
of  appreciating  his  sterling  worth,  or  the  value  of  his  past  serv- 
ices. 

In  1228  Hubert  lost  his  best  and  wisest  supporter  in  the  death 
of  Langton,  who  as  no  other  English  statesman  of  the  time,  even 
Pembroke  not  excepted,  had  risen  to  the  full  concep- 
of^Huberi^^  tion  of  the  constitutional  monarchy.  He  had  unflinch- 
ingly upheld  the  liberties  of  all  classes  against  the  king; 
yet  he  had  as  staunchly  defended  the  crown  when  the  barons  pro- 
posed to  deprive  the  king  of  his  legal  and  just  powers.  As  no 
other  man  he  stood  for  the  national  rights  of  the  English  people. 
His  death  left  Hubert  to  struggle  on  alone  under  his  burdens. 
The  task  had  long  since  proved  thankless,  for  the  king  had  early 
shown  alarming  signs  of  treading  in  his  father's  footsteps.     His 


1228,  1229]  FALL   OF   HUBERT   DE    BURGH  273 

very  first  act  was  to  insist  that  all  charters  or  grants  made  in  his 
name  during  his  minority,  should  be  regarded  as  invalid,  until 
confirmation  had  been  purchased  by  the  beneficiary.  Other  acts  as 
ill-omened  of  the  future  followed.  Hubert,  loyal  to  the  last, 
found  himself  driven  to  adopt  the  policy  of  his  predecessors, 
Hubert  Walter  and  Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter;  like  them  he  deliberately 
sacrificed  his  own  popularity  to  save  the  reputation  of  his  master. 
When  he  could,  he  lightened  the  burdens  of  the  people,  but  only 
in  the  end  to  forfeit  the  favor  of  the  ungrateful  king. 

The  troubles  of  Hubert  began  soon  after  the  death  of  Langton. 
The  pope,  Gregory  IX.,  at  the  time  was  in  the  midst  of  the 

struggle  with  the  Hohenstaufen  which  had  been 
Rubeft  renewed  soon  after  the  death  of  Innocent  III.     As  a 

result  the  papal  budget  had  enormously  increased,  and 
the  ordinary  revenue  of  the  papal  see,  although  supplemented  by 
the  Peter's  Pence,  was  no  longer  sufficient  for  its  needs.  Henry 
at  his  coronation  in  12 IG,  had  formally  done  homage  to  Gualo  as 
the  representative  of  the  pope ;  and  again  in  1220,  at  the  second 
coronation,  the  sponsors  of  the  young  king  had  thought  it  neces- 
sary first  to  await  the  command  of  the  papal  overlord.  The 
tribute  of  1,000  marks  which  John  had  promised  had  also  been 
regularly  paid.  The  pope,  therefore,  had  every  reason  to  regard 
as  established  the  papal  overlordship  which  had  now  for  nearly 
fifteen  years  passed  without  a  challenge,  and  in  1229  demanded 
a  tenth  of  all  property,  both  lay  and  ecclesiastical,  to  assist  him  in 
prosecuting  his  wars.  The  demand  brought  the  papal  overlord- 
ship home  to  the  barons,  and  when  the  matter  was  brought  up  in 
the  council,  voices  were  loudly  raised  in  protest.  The  pope  dared 
not  push  the  demand  upon  the  laity,  but  he  compelled  the  church 
to  submit.  Eventually  it  became  the  established  custom  for  the 
clergy  to  set  aside  one-tenth  of  their  yearly  income  for  the  pope, 
annates,  besides  the  entire  income  of  each  benefice  during  the  first 
year  after  appointment, ^r^^/rwiY^.  Popular  feeling  ran  high,  and 
a  quickening  national  sentiment  found  voice  in  a  definite  protest 
against  the  impoverishment  of  the  nation  in  order  to  carry  on  wars 
in  which  England  had  no  interest.  The  papal  collectors  were 
plundered ;  their  stores  burned.     The  king  whose  sympathies  were 


274  THE    STKUGGLE   FOK   THE   CHAKTER  [hknbtIII. 

all  with  the  pope,  was  grieved  and  angry ;  and  when  the  justiciar 
failed  to  punish  the  perpetrators  of  these  outrages,  he  charged  him 
with  conniving  at  the  excesses  of  the  populace.  Henry  in  truth 
was  already  tired  of  his  minister.  Peter  des  Roches,  moreover, 
who  had  just  returned  from  his  crusading  venture,  and  who  was  as 
unscrupulous  and  ambitious  as  ever,  easily  made  the  king  believe 
that  Hubert's  dishonesty  was  the  cause  of  the  lean  treasury  and 
that  he  was  abetting  those  who  were  opposing  the  papal  exac- 
tions. At  last  in  July,  1232,  des  Roches  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  his  old  rival  driven  from  the  council,  like  Becket  over- 
whelmed with  a  mass  of  unfounded  charges,  and  his  lands  taken 
from  him.  Hubert  de  Burgh  was  the  last  of  the  great  justiciars. 
Inferior  men  succeeded  him.  The  political  functions  of  the  office 
passed  to  the  chancellor  and  in  the  next  reign  the  office  itself  was 
virtually  abolished  by  the  breaking  up  of  the  Curia  into  three 
distinct  and  separate  courts. 

Peter  des  Roches  was  now  supreme  in  the  council;  and  when- 
ever a  valuable  appointment  was  to  be  filled  the  king  apparently 

preferred  Peter's  foreign  friends,  adventurers  mostly, 
Srw^im-^^  to  his  own  people.  A  hundred  years  earlier  such 
favoHteS^      conduct   on   the   part   of   the   king  would   have   been 

accepted  as  a  matter  of  course,  but  the  national  feeling 
was  now  too  strong  to  allow  it  to  pass  without  a  protest.  Earl 
Ralph  of  Chester,  the  natural  head  of  the  baronage,  had  died  in 
the  year  of  Hubert's  fall.  William  Marshal,  the  younger,  had 
married  a  sister  of  the  king  and  was  not  inclined  to  break  with 
him.  William's  brother  Richard,  however,  "one  of  the  most 
accomplished  knights  and  the  most  educated  gentleman  of  the 
age,"  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  national  party  and  persuaded 
the  barons  to  refuse  to  attend  any  council  called  by  the  king  at 
which  Bishop  Peter  was  present,  and  to  demand  the  dismissal  of 
the  foreigners  whom  he  had  introduced  into  the  king's  service. 
The  king  under  the  instigation  of  des  Roches  declared  Richard  a 
traitor  and  invaded  his  estates.  The  barons  insisted  that  he 
should  be  tried  by  his  peers.  Peter  des  Roches  asserted  the 
startling  doctrine  that  there  were  no  peers  in  England  as  there 
were  in  France,  and  that  the  king  had  full  right  to  proscribe  and 


1234]  HEN^RY'S    personal    ADMIIS^ISTRATION  276 

condemn.  Eichard,  satisfied  that  he  would  receive  short  shrift 
with  Bishop  Peter  as  his  judge,  in  self-defense  made  an  alliance 
with  the  Welsh  princes.  So  the  nation  was  once  more  drifting 
toward  civil  war,  when  Richard  was  decoyed  into  Ireland  by  the 
cunning  minister  and  there  slain  in  a  skirmish.  But  his  work  was 
accomplished.  The  clergy  had  openly  taken  sides  with  the 
barons.  Langton's  successor,  Edmund  Rich,  read  a  list  of  griev- 
ances to  the  king  and  declared  himself  ready  to  pronounce  the 
excommunication  if  the  king  refused  to  heed.  Henry,  who  was  a 
coward  at  heart,  saw  himself  at  last  like  his  father  confronted  by 
an  angry  nation  and  durst  not  defy  the  spirit  which  he  had  raised. 
He  therefore  dismissed  des  Roches  and  sent  off  the  foreigners. 

Henry,  however,  did  not  propose  to  flatter  his  troublesome  vas- 
sals by  calling  any  of  them  to  his  side  as  ministers.  If  he  could 
not  select  his  own  ministers,  he  would  have  none  at  all. 
aSptnt  ^^®  measure  was  a  serious  mistake.  For  hitherto  the 
mStratum.  ininisters  had  borne  the  brunt  of  the  popular  discon- 
tent. Now  the  king  assumed  the  whole  responsibility 
himself.  He  was  extravagant,  obstinate,  and  false.  It  was  not 
long  before  a  mass  of  grievances  had  rolled  up  which  certainly 
would  have  appalled  a  wiser  head.  But  Henry  kept  on,  blind  to 
his  own  utter  incompetence,  disgusting  his  people  by  his  evasions 
and  shortcomings,  and  laying  up  an  account  for  the  future. 

These  grievances  centered  largely  about  the  question  of  money. 
Henry  loved  power  not  so  much  for  itself,  as  for  the  opportunity 
which  it  gave  him  for  ostentatious  display.  He  loved 
o/Hmry^^^^  ^^  Scatter  his  favors  in  extravagant  profusion ;  he  loved 
the  glitter  and  sliow  of  court  pageantry,  and  squandered 
vast  sums  in  supporting  its  ceremonies.  He  made  the  brilliant 
alliances  of  the  royal  house,  in  particular,  occasions  for  the  display 
of  his  magnificence.  As  a'  result,  Henry  won  an  unfortunate  repu- 
tation for  wealth  which  was  not  supported  by  facts,  but  which 
nevertheless  tickled  his  vanity  and  led  him  still  deeper  into  this 
costly  masquerading.  The  broken-down  gentility  of  Europe  who 
could  manufacture  any  claim  upon  his  bounty  flocked  to  his  court. 
Most  notorious  among  these  were  the  queen's  two  uncles,  Peter  of 
Savoy  and  Boniface,  who  came  with  a  train  of  hungry  Proven9als 


276  THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   THE    CHARTER  [hkneyIU. 

at   their   heels,  and  secured   offices  and   pensions   at   the   king's 

expense.    Henry  for  his  pains  was  rapidly  sinking  into  hopeless  debt. 

The  barons  continued  to  grant  scutages,  aids,  carucage,  or  tax 

on   movables  as   Henry  demanded.     But  their   generosity  found 

little  encouragement  in  the  financiering  of  the  kingf. 

Growing  im-        i  i   ,  ,         i  ■, 

patwnceof  whose  debts  already  exceeded  four  times  his  annual 
income.  The  barons  insisted  with  each  grant  that  the 
king  confirm  the  charters  and  promise  redress  and  reforms ;  and 
Henry  like  all  spendthrifts  was  always  ready  to  promise  when  he 
needed  money,  only  to  forget  again  as  soon  as  the  money  was  in  his 
hands.  But  the  patience  of  the  barons  had  its  limit;  the  king 
was  drifting  rapidly  near  to  the  danger  line.  Beyond  it,  was  either 
bankruptcy  or  civil  war,  probably  both,  with  the  possibility  of 
ultimate  deposition. 

The  king  at  the  time  was  preparing  an  expedition  against  Louis 
IX.  of  France.  He  had  long  cherished  an  impracticable  scheme 
of  regaining  the  French  domains  which  his  father  had 
tempt  ix)  lost,  and  had  already  squandered  the  treasures  of  his 
footifw  on  the  subiects  ill  a  wasteful  war  with  the  French  for  this  pur- 
pose ;  but  he  had  accomplished  nothing,  and  in  fact  owed 
the  continuance  of  his  power  in.  the  parts  of  John's  domain  which  had 
been  saved  from  the  general  wreck,  only  to  the  loyalty  of  the  Gascons, 
who  did  not  love  Henry  so  much  as  they  hated  and  feared  the  French. 
The  Gascon  barons,  moreover,  were  turbulent  and  unruly  by  long 
habit,  and  preferred  the  government  which  was  remote  and  there- 
fore weak ;  the  southern  merchants  also  found  England  the  best 
market  for  their  wines,  the  chief  staple  of  their  country.  But  the 
English  barons  took  little  interest  in  the  distant  struggle  and  were 
weary  of  the  endless  demands  for  scutage  and  other  subsidies.  It 
was  with  little  satisfaction,  therefore,  that  in  1242  they  saw  their 
king  bent  upon  rushing  into  still  another  war  with  the  French 
king.  The  Poitivin,  Hugh  de  la  Marche,  had  quarreled  with  Louis 
IX.,  and  appealed  to  Henry  for  help.  This  Hugh  was  the  man 
whose  bride  John  had  once  carried  off,  the  beginning  of  all  his 
troubles.  After  the  death  of  John,  Hugh  had  successfully 
renewed  his  suit  and  was  now  Henry's  stepfather.  Henry 
regarded  the  call  of  Hugh  as  the  opportunity  to  regain  his  footing 


1242-1245]  GRIEVANCES   OF  THE   CLERGY  21"}' 

in  Poitou,  and  although  the  English  barons  flatly  refused  to  grant 
the  required  subsidies,  the  headstrong  king,  determined  to  under- 
take the  quest,  took  his  army  to  Poitou,  only  to  be  disgracefully 
driven  out  of  the  country.  Then,  to  exasperate  the  baronage  still 
further,  he  brought  back  with  him  a  rout  of  hungry  Poitivins,  his 
half-brothers  and  their  friends,  to  live  upon  his  bounty  and  plunder 
the  realm  in  his  name. 

The  barons  now  began  to  see  clearly  that  it  was  not  enough  to 

protest,  or  refuse  grants.     In  1244,  therefore,  they  presented  a 

formal  remonstrance  to  the  kinff,  in  which  they  declared 

The  hcirons 

demand  con-  that  he  had  not  expended  their  grants  wisely,  and  de- 
appointment   manded  that  he  appoint  a  justiciar,  a  treasurer,  and  a 

chancellor,  subject  to  their  approval.  In  1215  the 
barons  had  demanded  only  that  the  king's  officers  be  acquainted 
with  the  law;  now  they  demand  that  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom  be 
administered  by  men  directly  responsible  to  the  great  council. 
The  barons  were  thus  at  last  feeling  their  way  towards  a  right 
solution  of  the  problem  in  which  Langton  and  the  elder  Marshal 
had  failed.  The  time,  however,  was  not  yet  ripe  for  a  step  so  rad- 
ical. The  barons  were  not  ready  to  break  finally  with  the  king, 
and  the  king  evidently  would  not  yield  to  their  demands  until 
forced  by  open  revolt. 

The  state  of  the  clergy  was  far  less  hopeful.     Like  the  barons 
they  were  subjected  to  numerous  and  heavy  exactions ;    but  they 

were  far  less  able  to  help  themselves.  The  king  was 
^heciergy    ^^^^  ^  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  hands  of  the  papal  overlord,  and  the 

English  clergy  might  well  hesitate  to  raise  an  issue  with 
the  fiery  and  inexorable  Gregory  IX.  His  remorseless  demands 
were  repeated  from  year  to  year;  yet  the  papal  treasury  was 
ever  empty.  The  pope,  moreover,  not  satisfied  with  direct 
taxation,  by  the  recently  assumed  right  of  naming  **provisors," 
sought  to  reward  his  Italian  servants  by  securing  for  them 
appointments  to  English  livings  in  advance  of  vacancies.  In 
1231  Gregory  forbade  the  English  bishops  to  **present  to  livings" 
until  provision  had  been  made  for  five  Italians  whom  he  did  not 
even  name.  In  1240  the  bishops  of  Lincoln  and  Salisbury  were 
instructed  to  provide  for  three  hundred  Italians.     In  1245  the 


278  THE   STRtJGGLE   J"OR  THE   CHARTER  [hknbt  nl. 

new  pope,  Innocent  IV.,  demanded  a  year's  revenue  from  all 
vacant  livings,  and  in  a  formal  protest,  which  the  English  bishops 
subsequently  presented  at  the  council  of  Lyons,  they  declared  that 
they  were  putting  60,000  marks  each  year  into  the  hands  of 
foreign  prelates.  At  last  the  exactions  became  so  burdensome 
that  even  the  laity  complained  of  the  impoverishment  of  the 
country. 

The  only  justification  which  can  be  advanced  in  defense  of  the 
policy  of  the  popes,  is  the  desperateness  of  the  mighty  struggle 

which  they  were  carrying  on  against  Frederick  II.  It 
temess  toward  was  a  duel  of  Titans  and  neither  party  was  scrupulous 

about  encroaching  upon  the  rights  of  inferior  powers.  It 
was  a  cause  too,  Gregory  or  Innocent  might  justly  claim,  in  which 
the  entire  church  was  interested,  and  their  vassals  of  England  ought 
to  bear  a  share  of  the  burdens  as  well  as  their  vassals  of  Italy.  To 
national  England,  however,  drawing  herself  together  after  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  of  feudal  strife,  it  seemed  that  she  was  paying 
overdear  for  her  loyalty  to  the  Roman  see,  with  her  riches  pour- 
ing into  its  cofferSj  her  livings  handed  over  to  foreign  ecclesiastics, 
many  of  whom  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  come  to  England  at  all, 
and  her  king  a  witless  tool  in  the  hands  of  a  foreign  hierarchy.  In 
the  quaint  words  of  Matthew  of  Paris,  *Hhe  pope  displayed  the 
harshness  of  a  stepfather,  and  the  church  of  Rome  the  fury  of  a 
stepmother."  Many  voices  were  raised  in  protest.  Even  the 
saintly  Edmund  Rich,  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  although 
like  Langton  he  owed  his  appointment  directly  to  the  intrusion  of 
papal  authority,  protested  against  the  continued  usurpations  of 
the  Roman  pontiff  and  went  into  exile  rather  than  submit.  Sir 
Robert  Twenge,  a  public-spirited  knight  of  Yorkshire,  went  to 
Rome  in  order  to  present  his  protest  in  person.  But  no  voice 
rang  clearer  than  that  of  Robert  Grosseteste,  the  bishop  of  Lin- 
coln, who  boldly  urged  the  clergy  to  resist  the  frequent  levies,  and 
declared  that  the  nominees  of  the  pope  were  drawing  from  Eng- 
land three  times  as  much  revenue  as  the  king  himself.  Almost 
his  last  words  were  those  of  the  noble  and  manly  protest  of  1253. 
Innocent  had  proposed  that  one  of  his  own  nephews  be  invested 
with  a  living  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln.   *'I  decline  to  obey,"  replied 


1253-1257]  THE   APULIAN"   AFFAIR  279 

Grosseteste;  * 'filially  and  obediently,  I  oppose;  I  rebel!"  Thus 
were  sown  in  the  English  mind  the  first  seeds  of  that  bitterness 
which  was  destined  two  centuries  later  to  bear  fruit  so  fatal  to 
the  pope's  interests  in  England. 

In  1257  affairs  began  to  approach  a  crisis.     Frederick  II.  had 
died  in  1250,  and  Innocent  IV.  had  followed  him  to  the  grave  in 

1254.  Innocent's  successor  was  Alexander  IV.,  a  mild 
onhecrisS^^  and  gentle  prince,  of  very  different  spirit  from  either 

Gregory  or  Innocent.  The  policy  of  the  Roman  see, 
however,  had  become  too  firmly  established;  the  enmities  which 
divided  Italy  had  bitten  too  deeply  into  the  hearts  of  the  people 
to  be  influenced  much  by  the  character  of  one  pope,  so  that 
Alexander  was  compelled  by  his  position  to  take  up  the  task  of  his 
predecessors.  A  Hohenstaufen  prince  must  not  be  allowed  to 
establish  himself  in  southern  Italy ;  a  descendant  of  Frederick  II. 
must  not  succeed  to  the  crown  of  the  Sicilies.  Innocent  had 
sought  to  interest  France  in  his  cause  by  offering  the  disputed 
crown  to  Charles  of  Anjou,  the  brother  of  Louis  IX. ;  he  had  also 
gone  begging  to  England  and  had  actually  persuaded  Henry,  who 
was  just  vain  enough  to  be  caught  by  the  dangerous  bauble,  to 
accept  the  honor  for  his  second  son  Edmund,  when  Innocent  died 
and  left  his  bargaining  and  his  scheming  for  Alexander  to  bring 
to  some  definite  result.  Henry  had  agreed  to  send  an  army  to 
take  possession  of  the  Sicilian  kingdom,  and  when  he  was  unable 
to  act,  the  pope  had  generously  undertaken  to  carry  on  the  war 
for  him,  charging  the  expense  up  to  his  account,  and  with  such 
good  results  that  very  soon  Henry's  debt  had  been  rolled  up  to 
135,000  marks.  la  the  meantime  the  pope  had  not  hesitated  to 
press  Henry  for  payment,  even  sending  his  own  creditors  to  Eng- 
land to  deal  directly  with  the  sorely  beset  debtor.  In  1257  the 
urgency  of  Alexander  finally  forced  the  king  to  lay  the  matter 
before  the  great  council  and  ask  for  a  grant  of  140,000  marks. 
Henry  tried  to  arouse  some  enthusiasm  by  presenting  to  the 
barons  the  little  Edmund  tricked  out  in  the  costume  of  Apulia, 
but  the  attempt  was  a  dismal  failure.  The  clergy  consented  to 
contribute  52,000  marks,  but  the  barons  remained  ominously 
silent. 


280  THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   THE   CHARTER  [hknry  iii, 

The  king  and  the  great  council  were  approaching  a  deadlock, 
and  a  deadlock  at  this  moment  meant  bankruptcy,  possibly  revo- 
lution. Since  the  fall  of  Hubert  de  Burgh  the  king 
ofHmii^s^  had  acted  as  his  own  chief  minister.  Since  1244  he 
^ovei^ent.  ^^^  Conducted  the  government  without  treasurer, 
chancellor,  or  justiciar.  The  affairs  of  these  important 
officers  had  been  carried  on  by  means  of  a  bureau  of  clerks,  mere 
registering  machines,  both  irresponsible  and  inefficient.  Public 
business  had  fallen  first  into  arrears,  and  then  into  hopeless  con- 
fusion. Enormous  sums  had  been  raised  but  the  treasury  was 
always  bare.  The  king  could  not  pay  even  the  menials  about 
his  court,  and  some  of  them  had  been  driven  to  highway  rob- 
bery by  actual  destitution.  To  add  to  the  general  distress  the 
year  1257  was  attended  by  a  failure  of  the  crops  throughout  Eng- 
land. Heavy  and  long-continued  rains  ruined  the  grain,  and  when 
November  came  the  harvests  still  lay  rotting  in  the  fields.  The 
price  of  wheat  rose  tenfold,  and  in  the  winter  which  followed 
thousands  of  the  people  died  of  hunger.  The  rich  had  no  con- 
fidence in  the  future,  and  the  poor,  always  the  first  to  suffer  on  the 
eve  of  national  bankruptcy,  were  openly  disloyal,  restless,  and 
defiant.  The  discontent  was  universal  and  soon  passed  into  savage 
mutterings,  the  presage  of  coming  storm. 

In  the  past,  in  the  case  of  wise  kings  like  the  first  two  Henrys, 
it  had  been  sufficient  to  protest  and  exact  some  written  guarantee 
of  better  rule.  But  this  method  had  proved  utterly 
fiyrmer  meth-  worthless  against  the  obstinate  extravagance  of  Henry 
straining  the  and  the  insatiable  avarice  of  the  creatures  who  surrounded 
him.  Never  had  charters  been  more  elaborate  or  mi- 
nute ;  never  had  king  more  readily  and  graciously  given  his  word ;  but 
never  had  king  more  lightly  broken  his  word  again  as  soon  as  his 
people's  wealth  was  safely  housed  in  the  royal  treasury.  Yet  the 
nation  had  hesitated  to  draw  the  sword.  The  memories  of  John's 
wars  were  still  fresh.  The  clergy  were  overawed  by  the  pope ;  on 
the  one  hand,  on  the  other,  they  distrusted  the  barons  and  hesi- 
tated to  join  them  in  a  struggle  against  the  royal  authority. 
The  commons  as  yet  not  only  had  no  regular  representation  in 
the   national  council,   but  by    long-accepted  tradition   they   still 


1258]  THE   MAD   PARLIAMEN'T  281 

regarded  the  king  as  their  natural  protector,  and  had  no  desire 
to  throw  the  administration  altogether  into  the  hands  of  the 
barons. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  when  in  April  1258  the  barons 
were  summoned  to  a  great  council  at  London.  They  were  still  in 
the  same  ugly  mood  in  which  they  had  met  the  king  in 
oPi258^^  the  preceding  year.  But  the  pope,  who  had  little  appre- 
ciation of  the  difficulties  which  confronted  Henry,  had 
continued  to  press  him  for  the  immediate  settlement  of  his  account; 
the  legate  had  threatened  the  kingdom  with  the  interdict  in  case 
of  refusal,  and  the  king  had  no  recourse  save  to  call  once  more 
upon  the  barons  to  assist  him  in  making  good  his  pledge.  Then 
the  barons  who  had  been  silent  before  spoke  out;  they  told  the 
king  plainly  that  he  had  acted  unwisely  in  the  Sicilian  affair 
and  without  the  advice  of  the  council,  and  that  he  must  end 
the  matter  as  best  he  could.  After  a  month  of  wrangling 
Henry  finally  promised  that  he  would  summon  the  barons  again 
at  Oxford  soon  after  Whitsuntide ;  and  that,  if  they  would  grant 
the  aid  for  which  he  asked,  he  would  consider  their  grievances 
and  consent  to  the  appointment  of  a  commission  of  twenty- 
four,  twelve  of  whom  should  be  taken  from  the  royal  council  and 
twelve  from  the  barons,  with  full  power  to  institute  the  necessary 
reforms.  The  barons  accepted  the  promise  in  good  faith  and  the 
assembly  broke  up. 

The  king  kept  his  word,  and  early  in  June  the  barons  were 

summoned  to  meet  him  at  Oxford.     There  was  no  mistaking  the 

spirit  of  this  second  assembly,  which  was  soon  christened 

The  "JJad 

Parliament,"  bv  the  king's  adherents  the  ''Mad  Parliament."  ^    The 

June  1258.         ,  ,-,.«,,  -I      Til  1     11 

barons  met  clad  in  full  armor,  and  although  they  pre- 
tended that  the  arming  was  for  the  Welsh  wars,  no  one  was  ignorant 
of  its  real  purpose.     They  first  presented  their  grievances,  a  long 

'  The  name  parliament  was  now  coming  into  vogue.  Matthew  of 
Paris  among  English  writers  first  uses  it^  parlamentum,  of  the  meeting 
of  the  barons  at  London  in  1246.  Gneist,  Const.  Hist,  of  England,  I,  p. 
320,  note  2a.  The  word  at  first  had  nothing  of  its  later  specific  meaning, 
but  was  used  in  some  such  way  as  the  word  congress  is  frequently  used 
to-day.     See  Taswell-Langmead,  p.  194  and  note  1. 


282  THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   THE    CHARTER  [henbt  111. 

and  formidable  list/  and  then  proceeded  to  the  reordering  of  the 
government.  A  justiciar,  treasurer,  and  chancellor  were  chosen, 
presumably,  by  the  parliament.  The  promised  committee  of 
twenty-four  were  also  appointed,  and  proceeded  to  draw  up  the 
constitution  known  as  the  Provisions  of  Oxford. 

In  accordance  with  the  proposed  constitution,  the  commission  of 

twenty-four   were  to  appoint  a  second  committee   of  four;   each 

twelve  to  select  two  names  from  the  opposing  twelve. 

sionsof  ihe   committee   of   four   were   then   to  select   a   per- 

Oxford.  ^ 

manent  council  of  fifteen  members.  This  council 
was  to  advise  the  king  in  matters  of  state  and  to  exercise  a 
direct  supervision  over  his  public '  acts.  The  barons  were  also 
to  appoint  a  second  permanent  committee  to  consist  of  twelve 
members  who  were  to  represent  the  "community  of  the  realm," 
meeting  in  parliament  with  the  council  of  fifteen  three  times  a 
year.  A  second  committee  of  twenty-four  were  to  be  empowered 
to  negotiate  the  aid  which  had  been  promised  to  the  king.  The 
original  twenty-four  were  entrusted  with  the  reform  of  the  church. 
In  each  shire  four  discreet  knights  were  to  be  appointed  to  watch 
the  conduct  of  the  sheriffs  and  report  at  the  parliaments.  The 
sheriffs  were  to  be  appointed  for  one  year  and  their  accounts 
were  to  be  strictly  audited.  A  direct  blow  was  aimed  at  the  foreign 
friends  of  the  king,  in  that  all  castles  were  to  be  put  at  once  into 
the  hands  of  native  Englishmen. 

The  barons  were  taking  a  long  step  in  advance  of  the  crude 
provisions  made  in  the  Great  Charter  for  safe-guarding  the  nation 
cmistuu-  against  the  tyrannies  of  the  king ;  yet  they  had  little 
tumai^nifi-  comprehension  of  the  principles  of  constitutional  gov- 
Proviswns.  ernment.  For  the  arbitrary  government  of  an  irre- 
sponsible king,  they  had  nothing  better  to  substitute  than  the 
arbitrary  government  of  an  irresponsible  oligarchy.  In  the 
method  also,  which  they  devised  for  selecting  the  men  to  whom  this 
important  trust  was  to  be  committed,  they  betray  the  same 
barrenness   of    expedient,    having    exhausted    their   ingenuity  in 

*  See  Stubbs,  S.  C. ,  p.  382.  By  comparing  these  grievances  point  by 
point  with  the  provisions  of  the  Great  Charter  it  will  be  seen  how  little 
had  yet  been  actually  secured. 


1258]  THE   t»ROVlSIONS   OF   OXFORD  ^83 

imitating  the  complicated  and  crude  machinery  of  cross  appoint- 
ments by  which  it  was  customary  to  negotiate  the  treaties 
of  the  era.  The  barons  conceded  the  supervision  of  local 
administration  to  the  knights  of  the  shire  and  allowed  them  to 
report  at  the  parliaments.  Yet  they  evidently  had  no  wish  to  allow 
the  knights  any  standing  as  a  constituent  part  of  the  parliament, 
and  really  showed  less  confidence  in  this  large  and  important  ele- 
ment of  the  commonalty  of  the  realm  than  Henry  him- 
1254.  self  had  shown  on  a  previous  occasion/  when  he  had 

assembled  the  knights  through  their  representatives,  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  great  council.  All  in  all,  the  Provisions 
were  constitutionally  a  step  backward;  they  were  designed  to 
fetter  the  king  by  putting  the  government  into  the  hands  of  an 
oligarchy  of  the  great  barons,  rather  than  to  extend  political  priv- 
ileges to  the  community  at  large  or  to  develop  its  political  activity. 
As  it  was,  the  lesser  barons  evidently  were  not  satisfied,  and  to 
quiet  them,  the  twenty-four  promised  to  announce  further  reforms 
before  the  following  Christmas. 

The  Provisions  were  accepted  by  the  king;  the  several  commit- 
tees were  appointed  and  the  members  bound  by  an  elaborate  series 
of  oaths  to  perform  their  respective  duties.     The  king 
^!i^em;iicn«     ^^^  swore  to  support  the  Provisions  and  respect  the 
launched,       advice  of  the  council.    A  flurry  was  caused  for  a  moment 

12o8.  -^ 

by  the  conduct  of  Henry's  half-brothers,  the  Lusignans, 
who  refused  to  surrender  their  castles  at  the  demand  of  the  barons, 
and,  throwing  themselves  into  the  castle  of  Winchester,  defied  the 
authority  of  the  government.  After  a  two  weeks'  siege,  however, 
they  were  compelled  to  capitulate  on  July  5,  and  were  expelled 
from  the  kingdom,  leaving  the  most  of  their  ill-gotten  wealth 
behind  them.  After  their  departure,  Edward,  Henry's  eldest  son, 
also  accepted  the  Provisions,  and  the  new  government  was  fairly 
launched.  On  the  1 8th  of  October,  in  a  document  drawn  up  in 
English,  French,  and  Latin,  the  king  formally  announced  to  the 
world  his  acceptance  of  the  Provisions  and  his  purpose  to  respect 
the  decisions  of  the  council. 

^  Taswell-Langmead,  p.  194. 


284  THE   STRUGGLE   FOtl   THE   CHARTER  [henry  in. 

The  two  men  who  thus  far  had  led  the  barons  were  Richard  of 
Clare,  Earl  of  Gloucester,  and  Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl  of  Lei- 
cester. Of  these  two  men  Richard  of  Clare  was  "by 
tlwharom.  ^^^^h,  property,  and  descent  the  natural  head  of  the 
English  baronage."  He  was  also  a  man  of  great  energy 
and  strength,  but  his  political  sympathies  were  narrow  and  con- 
fined him  to  the  interests  of  his  class.  A  very  different  man  was 
Earl  Simon.  He  came  from  an  ancient  Norman  family  and  was 
the  second  son  of  that  Simon  de  Montfort  who  had  lost  his  life 
under  the  walls  of  Toulouse  in  the  Albigensian  Crusade.  The 
younger  Simon  like  his  father  was  tall  and  handsome;  he  pos- 
sessed also  his  religious  ardor,  his  love  of  roving,  his  fondness  for 
war  and  adventure.  From  his  father's  mother  he  had  inherited  a 
claim  to  the  English  earldom  of  Leicester,  the  recognition  of  which 
by  Henry  had  given  him  a  standing  among  the  English  barons. 
He  had  risen  rapidly  in  favor,  and  in  1238  had  secretly  married 
the  king's  sister  Eleanor,  the  widow  of  William  Marshal  the 
younger.  Thus  far  the  career  of  Simon  had  not  differed  much 
from  that  of  many  another  foreign  adventurer  who  came  to  seek 
his  fortune  in  England.  His  rapid  rise,  also,  had  stirred  up  bitter 
enemies,  chief  of  whom  was  the  king,  who  was  particularly  dis- 
pleased by  the  marriage  with  Eleanor.  In  1240  Simon  departed 
on  a  Crusade  and  was  gone  two  years.  In  1248  he  was  made  gov- 
ernor of  Gascony  and  gave  its  unruly  nobles  the  best  administra- 
tion that  they  had  known  since  the  days  of  Richard  I.  He 
returned  in  1251  to  find  that  the  king's  hostility  had  not  abated 
and  that  the  malice  of  his  own  enemies  was  as  busy  as  ever.  Yet 
his  services  were  too  valuable  to  be  dispensed  with,  and  he  was 
sent  again  to  Gascony  as  the  guardian  of  Prince  Edward.  Simon's 
high  reputation  at  this  time  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he  was  twice 
invited  to  be  seneschal  of  France.  In  1254,  however,  he  was  finally 
retired  to  remain  for  two  years  under  the  deep  shadow  of  royal 
displeasure.  In  1256  he  came  back  to  England  to  throw  himself 
into  the  cause  of  reform,  and  it  was  largely  due  to  his  clear-sighted 
leadership  that  such  definite  results  had  been  wrought  out  of  the 
parliaments  of  London  and  Oxford.  He  was  not,  like  Langton,  an 
Englishman;  but  yet,  like  Langton,  like  no  Englishman  of  his  own 


1359]  DIVISION   IN   THE    PARTY    OP   THE   BARONS  285 

times,  he  rose  to  the  full  significance  of  the  movement  for  the 
political  reorganization  of  the  kingdom. 

The  year  1259  opened  auspiciously  enough  for  the  new  admin- 
istration.    After  the  expulsion  of  the  foreigners  the  adherents  of 

the  king  were  left  in  a  hopeless  minority  both  in  the 
The  split  in  council  of  fifteen  and  in  the  consulting  board  of  twelve. 
the  barons.      Henry's  personal  influence  was  feeble.    His  son  Edward 

had  a  strong  following  among  the  lesser  barons,  but 
they  were  all  with  Simon  and  the  cause  of  reform.  Eichard  of 
Cornwall,  the  king's  brother,  who  had  been  elected  King  of  the 
Komans  in  1257  and  had  been  spending  the  last  two  years  in  the 
mad  quest  for  imperial  honors,  returned  in  January  of  1259,  but 
was  compelled  to  swear  to  support  the  Provisions.  In  times  past, 
at  great  crises  in  the  nation's  history,  the  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury had  generally  played  a  most  important  role  and  the  support 
of  his  powerful  influence  was  more  to  be  desired  than  the  support 
of  an  army.  The  present  incumbent,  however,  was  Boniface  of 
Savoy,  the  queen's  uncle,  who  was  not  only  one  of  the  very  foreigners 
whom  the  barons  were  determined  to  keep  out  of  the  kingdom,  but 
had  made  himself  specially  obnoxious  by  his  brutal  violence,  so 
marked  in  contrast  with  the  gentle  saintliness  of  his  predecessor. 
There  was  no  one,  therefore,  to  rally  a  king's  party.  Yet  the  king 
was  not  long  without  friends.  He  found  them,  moreover,  where 
he  had  least  expected,  among  the  very  barons  who  had  driven  away 
his  kinsmen  and  seized  control  of  his  government.  Gloucester  and 
Leicester  were  thoroughly  incompatible  both  in  views  and  in  tem- 
perament. Gloucester  was  satisfied,  now  that  the  foreigners  had 
been  expelled,  and  had  no  desire  to  see  the  reform  carried  farther. 
Leicester,  apparently,  did  not  wish  to  stop  until  remedies  had  been 
introduced  which  should  make  such  abuses  of  power  as  had  disgraced 
the  reigns  of  John  and  Henry  henceforth  impossible.  Gloucester 
furthermore  had  no  sympathy  with  the  demands  of  the  inferior 
barons,  and  it  was  probably  due  to  him  and  the  conservative  instincts 
of  the  powerful  section  of  the  baronage  which  he  represented,  that 
tlie  Provisions  were  so  illiberal  and  that  the  inferior  barons  had 
been  put  off  with  a  promise.  Simon,  however,  was  evidently  not 
satisfied  with  simply  exalting  the  powers  of  a  few  great  barons  at 


286  THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   THE    CHARTER  [henrt  III. 

the  expense  of  the  crown;  he  contended  not  for  the  privileges 
of  his  class  but  to  secure  good  government  for  the  nation. 

Christmas  came  and  passed,  and  the  council  had  taken  no  steps 
to  fulfill  the  promises  made  at  Oxford.  In  February  the  matter 
The  Provi-  ^^^^  ^^  ^^  Q-pen  quarrel  between  Gloucester  and  Simon ; 
^JS^tr^'o^t-  ^"^  Simon  app'arently  won,  for  on  the  28th  of  March 
ober,  1259.  the  king  published  an  ordinance  by  which  the  barons  of 
the  parliament  undertook  "to  observe  towards  their  dependents  all 
the  engagements  which  the  king  had  undertaken  to  observe 
towards  his  vassals."  This  pledge,  however,  was  evidently  not 
definite  enough  to  satisfy  the  great  body  of  knights,  ^  who,  led  by 
Prince  Edward  himself,  demanded  of  the  council  that  the  specific 
reforms  promised  at  Oxford  be  forthcoming.  There  were  ominous 
threats  of  counter-revolution  in  the  air,  and  the  oligarchy  in  con- 
trol of  the  government  could  only  submit.  In  October,  therefore, 
they  published  a  second  or  supplementary  set  of  Provisions,  known 
as  the  Provisions  of  Westminster,  which,  while  not  altogether 
satisfactory,  served  to  allay  the  disquiet  for  a  time. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  trace  the  further  history  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  barons  in  detail.  They  succeeded  in  bringing  to  a 
close  a  AYelsh  war  which  had  smouldered  through  the 
mentofm  greater  part  of  Henry's  personal  reign.  They  withdrew 
England  from  all  share  in  the  unfortunate  Sicilian  affair. 
They  also  succeeded  in  settling  by  a  definite  treaty  the  long-stand- 
ing quarrel  of  England  and  France  over  the  lost  Angevin  dominions, 
in  which  the  council  renounced  all  claims  of  the  English 
BordeaiLr,  king  upou  Normandy,  Anjou,  Touraine,  and  Poitou ;  the 
French  king  conceded  Bordeaux,  Bayonne,  and  Gascony, 
with  the  bishoprics  of  Limoges,  Cahors,  and  Perigord,  all  to  be  held 
by  the  king  of  England  as  fiefs  of  the  king  of  France.  The  domes- 
tic administration  of  the  council  seems  to  have  been  likewise  suc- 
cessful. The  three  parliaments  were  held  each  year;  the  four 
knights  from  each  county  regularly  reported  on  the  conduct  of 
the  sheriffs,  and  the  courts  instead  of  being  a  source  of  extortion, 
became  again  the  guardians  of  law-abiding  subjects. 

So  matters  continued  until  the  close  of  1260.     Leicester  and 

^  "The  community  of  the  bachelors  of  England, "  Stubbs,C.  H.,  II,  p.  83. 


1260-1262]  HENRY    DEFIES   THE    COUNCIL  287 

Gloucester  were  apparently  reconciled;  but  the  estrangement  of 
Leicester  and  the  great  barons  was  not  healed,  although  Simon  had 

spent  much  of  his  time  abroad  since  the  quarrel 
wtmtM^^^  of  1259.  Gloucester  and  the  king  naturally  drew 
council,  iiear    together,    and    Edward     and    Simon,  who    had 

long  been  close  friends,  as  naturally  found  themselves 
in  accord.  Edward,  moreover,  had  been  specially  embittered 
against  Gloucester  who  it  seems  had  been  largely  responsible 
for  the  Treaty  of  Bordeaux,  having  surrendered  the  English 
claim  to  Normandy  against  the  express  protest  of  the  prince. 
Gloucester  also  had  used  the  intimacy  of  Edward  and  Simon 
to  excite  the  suspicion  of  the  king  and  caused  him  to  believe 
that  Simon  was  plotting  to  dethrone  him  in  the  interests  of 
his  son.  Henry  on  his  part  was  fully  aware  of  the  unpopu- 
larity of  Simon  with  the  great  barons  and  had  taken  advantage  of 
his  continued  absence  to  foment  trouble  in  the  council  and  had 
gathered  about  him  a  considerable  party.  At  the  opening  of  1261 
he  believed  that  he  was  strong  enough  to  act,  and  made  no  secret  of 
his  determination  to  overthrow  the  Provisions  of  Oxford,  lie  also 
received  direct  encouragement  from  the  pope,  who  annulled  the 
Provisions  and  released  Henry  and  Edward  from  their  oaths. 
Edward,  whose  sympathies  were  still  with  the  popular  cause, 
refused  the  pope's  proffered  assistance;  but  Henry  seized  and 
fortified  London  Tower,  brought  over  foreign  soldiers  and  began 
again  to  appoint  his  ministers  and  sheriffs  quite  in  the  old  way. 
Open  war  would  have  broken  out  immediately  but  neither  side  was 
yet  sure  of  its  strength.  The  great  barons,  moreover,  had  become 
altogether  lukewarm  in  their  support  of  the  Provisions,  and  prob- 
ably would  not  have  opposed  the  king  at  all,  if  he  had*shown  any 
disposition  to  keep  his  foreign  friends  out  of  the  country,  for  they 
had  already  scented  fresh  booty  and  were  beginning  to  return. 
The  liberal  views  of  Simon  also  were  steadily  gaining  ground  in  the 
towns  and  in  the  counties,  and  the  people  were  showing  their  dis- 
approval of  the  king's  course  by  open  rioting  in  the  north  and 
west.  In  1262  the  earl  of  Gloucester  died,  and  Simon  returned  to 
put  himself  again  at  the  head  of  the  popular  movement.  He  was 
joined  by  the  son  of  Gloucester,  the  young  Earl  Gilbert. 


288  THE    STRUGGLE   FOR  THE   CHARTER  [henkt  III. 

As  the  year  1263  opened,  it  was  evident  that  the  country  was 

drifting  rapidly  into  civil  war.     The  party  of  the  barons  was  at  last 

hopelessly    divided.      The    great    earls    had   come   to 

The  approach       \  .  i        -r.        •   •  in  ^  i      i  •  i 

of  civil  war,  look  upon  the  Frovisions  as  a  shallow  pretense  to  hide 
de  Montfort's  despotism.  Edward  also  had  for  some 
time  begun  to  mistrust,  if  not  the  motives,  at  least  the  wisdom  of 
the  leader  of  the  popular  party,  and  when  the  young  earl  of 
Gloucester  refused  to  swear  allegiance  to  him  as  heir  to  the 
throne,  he  regarded  it  as  cause  of  open  breach  with  his  party. 
Simon,  moreover,  had  made  an  alliance  with  Edward's  old  enemy 
of  Wales,  Llewelyn,  who  had  begun  to  attack  the  king's  partisans 
in  the  west.  The  people  of  London  had  unfortunately  also  won 
the  enmity  of  Edward  by  an  utterly  inexcusable  insult  to  his 
mother  whom  they  hated  as  one  of  the  detested  foreigners. 
Kichard  of  Cornwall,  who  had  not  yet  committed  himself  to  either 
party,  for  the  moment  managed  to  stave  off  the  war  by  persuading 
the  leaders  to  lay  their  quarrel  before  Louis  of  France  for  arbitra- 
tion. Louis,  however,  knew  little  of  the  conditions  which  existed 
The*'Mis6of  ^^  England,  and  his  decision,  the  Mise  of  Amie7is,  was 
fmiuanj  singularly  unjust  and  one-sided.  He  declared  that  the 
1264.  Provisions  of  Oxford  and  all  engagements  connected 

with  them  were  null  and  void;  that  Henry  might  appoint  his  own 
council  and  employ  foreigners  if  he  would,  but  that  previous 
charters  ought  to  be  observed. 

The  discontented  leaders  were  by  no  means  satisfied  with  the 

results  of  the  attempt  at  arbitration.     They  declared  that  they 

miffht   accept  the  decision  against  the  Provisions   of 

Rejection  of 

the  "Mise  of  Oxford,  but  that  the  foreigners  must  be  expelled  from 
•the  kingdom;  this  item  they  had  not  consented  to 
arbitrate.  The  city  of  London  was  the  first  to  repudiate  the  ver- 
dict. Simon  also  announced  that  he  proposed  to  adhere  to  the 
Provisions  of  Oxford.  Only  a  few  of  the  great  barons  went  with 
him,  but  the  citizens  of  the  large  towns,  the  native  clergy,  the 
universities,  and  the  great  body  of  the  people  hailed  his  declaration 
with  unfeigned  enthusiasm. 

The  rejection  of  the  Mise  of  Amiens  was  the  signal  for  the  begin- 
ning of  the  so  called  *' Barons'  War."   At  first  the  royal  forces  won 


1264]  THE  barons'  war  289 

marked  success  in  the  midland  counties ;  Northampton  was  taken ; 
Nottingham  opened  her  gates,  and  Tutbury  surrendered.     Then 

the  war  drifted  south,  and  finally  in  the  first  week  of 
the  ''Barons'  May,  1264,  the  two  armies  faced  each  other  at  Lewes. 

The  bishops  of  London  and  Worcester  came  to  the  king 
with  an  offer  of  50,000  marks  if  he  would  confirm  the  Provisions  of 
Oxford.  His  answer  was  a  defiance,and  a  challenge  to  do  their  worst. 
The  next  morning  Earl  Simon,  reinforced  by  a  body  of  Londoners, 
led  his  army  to  the  attack.    Simon,  good  Norman  that  he  was,  had 

spent  the  night  in  prayer,  urging  others  to  do  the  same, 
jf^^d  ^"^    *^^  ^^^  spirit  had  found  a  ready  response  among  soldiers 

who  felt  that,  like  the  men  of  1215,  they  too  had  a  right 
to  call  themselves  **The  Army  of  God  and  the  Holy  Church.''  The 
battle  went  against  the  king,  owing  largely  to  the  eagerness  of 
Edward  who  early  in  the  action  had  routed  a  band  of  Londoners 
and  led  his  men-at-arms  too  far  in  the  pursuit.  He  returned  to 
the  field  to  find  the  battle  lost,  and  Henry  and  Richard  of  Corn- 
wall prisoners. 

The  victory  placed  the  game  in  Earl  Simon's  hands;   and  the 
next  day,  a  formal  treaty,  the  Mise  of  Lewes,  was  signed  in  which 

the  king  bound  himself  to  submit  the  points  at  issue  to 
^^^f/f  a  new  board  of  arbitration ;  to  act  solely  on  the  advice 

of  his  counsellors  **in  administering  justice  and  choos- 
ing ministers;"  to  observe  the  charters  and  to  live  at  moderate 
expense;  that  Edward  and  Henry,  the  son  of  Richard  of  Corn- 
wall, be  given  as  hostages,  and  that  the  earls  of  Leicester  and 
Gloucester  be  indemnified  for  their  sacrifices  in  the  war. 

Simon  himself  was  now  apparently  ready  to  abandon  the  cum- 
bersome arrangement  devised  at  Oxford ;  and  a  month  later,  June 

22,  a  great  council  or  parliament,  to  which  were  added 
fio^ofml^'^  four  knights  from  each  shire,  was  summoned  to  ratify 

a  new  scheme  of  government.  By  this  plan  three  elec- 
tors were  to  be  chosen  by  the  parliament,  and  these  in  turn  were 
to  name  a  permanent  body  of  nine  councillors.  Of  the  nine  three 
were  to  be  in  constant  attendance,  and  only  by  their  advice  could 
the  king  act.  They  were  to  nominate  the  ministers  of  the  crown 
and  the  wardens  of  the  castles,  and  their  authority  was  to  continue 


290  THE   STRUGGLE   FOR  THE   CHARTER  [heney  IIL 

until  the  new  board  of  arbitration  provided  by  the  Mise  of  Lewes 
had  settled  the  points  at  issue. ^  The  plan  was  adopted  and  Simon 
was  named  as  one  of  the  three  electors;  with  him  were  associated 
the  earl  of  Gloucester  and  Stephen  Berksted,  the  bishop  of 
Chichester.  These  three  men  for  the  next  year  were  the  real  gov- 
ernors of  England. 

Simon  was  fully  aware  of  the  insecurity  of  his  position,  and 

had  little  confidence  in  the  proposed  arbitration.     He  seized  the 

royal  castles,  therefore,  and  placed  them  in  the  hands  of 

Ccmditionof     ,  /  _  '  ^ 

parties  after    his  own  men.     He  also  sought  to  secure  the  country  by 

the  peace.  .    ,.  .  ,       ,  .  ,,-,,,  -,.  „     , 

appointing  m  each  shire  so  called  ''guardians  of  the 
peace. "  The  royal  partisans  on  the  Welsh  border,  led  by  the  border 
lord,  Roger  Mortimer,  were  still  strong  and  defiant  and  were  pre- 
paring for  the  renewal  of  war;  Queen  Eleanor  and  the  English 
refugees  were  also  raising  a  powerful  force  in  France.*  The  pope 
too  had  entered  the  lists  and  was  using  all  his  influence  to  detach 
the  bishops  from  the  support  of  Simon,  and  the  legate  stood  ready 
to  hurl  his  anathemas  at  the  new  government. 

Simon,  nevertheless,  bravely  addressed  himself  to  the  task  of 
inaugurating  the  new  order,  and  on  the  20th  of  January  1265  his 

famous  parliament  came  together  at  London.  Of  the 
menuTms     S^^^^  barons  of  the  kingdom  only  five  earls,  including 

Simon  and  Gloucester,  and  eighteen  barons  had  been 
summoned.  The  clergy,  however,  were  generally  represented. 
The  shires  also  had  been  instructed  through  the  sheriffs  to  elect 
in  each  shire  court  ''four  legal  and  discreet  knights  to  attend  the 
king  in  parliament  at  London."  As  an  afterthought,  apparently, 
a  similar  summons  had  also  been  sent  to  such  cities  and  towns 
individually  as  were  known  to  be  friendly  to  Simon,  urging  the 
attendance  of  two  deputies  from  each.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  tlie 
list  included  all  the  most  important  cities  of  England.  The  parlia- 
ment as  thus  composed  sat  until  late  in  March.  It  had  been  sum- 
moned to  complete  the  arrangements  entered  into  at  Lewes.  The 
king  swore  to  maintain  the  new  form  of  government  during  his 
lifetime,  and  published  "a  statement  of  the  circumstances  and 
terms  of  pacification.  "     Those  who  had  lately  borne  arms  against 

^Stubbs,  ^.  C,  414. 


1265]  SIMON'S   PARLIAMENT  291 

the  king  took  the  oath  of  fealty.  Edward's  county  of  Chester 
because  of  its  military  importance  was  transferred  to  Simon,  for 
which  Edward  was  to  receive  other  lands  in  compensation.  The 
charters  were  also  confirmed  and  declared  once  more  established. 
Then  the  parliament  broke  up.  In  a  few  months  its  acts  were 
swept  away  in  the  counter  revolution  which  culminated  at  Eves- 
ham, but  a  new  suggestion,  a  hint  at  least,  had  been  given  that  the 
untitled  inhabitants  of  the  towns  might  be  useful  in  the  national 
council.  It  is  upon  this  hint,  for  precedent  it  can  hardly  be 
called,  that  the  fame  of  this  assembly  of  Simon  rests.  Represent- 
atives from  the  shires  had  been  summoned  several  times  during 
the  ten  years  preceding;  but  no  one  had  yet  thought  of  inviting 
representatives  from  the  great  towns  to  take  part  in  the  actual 
deliberations  of  the  national  council.  It  is  not  clear  that  even 
Simon  appreciated  fully  the  significance  of  the  innovation.  The 
increasing  wealth  of  the  towns  formed  no  inconsiderable  basis  of 
the  national  revenue,  and  it  was  in  every  way  important  to  secure 
their  active  sympathy  and  support  in  order  to  counteract  the 
hostility  of  the  great  barons.  In  all  probability  this  was  Simon's 
sole  motive  in  inviting  the  burghers  to  sit  with  barons  and  bishops 
and  knights  to  deliberate  upon  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom.  But, 
however  that  may  be,  although  no  one  now  calls  this  assembly  of 
1265  the  first  meeting  of  the  House  of  Commons,  it  is  nevertheless 
"a  very  notable  date" ;  it  is  the  first  hint  of  the  important  part  yet 
to  be  performed  by  the  people  in  the  government  of  England. 

Simon  was  now  to  pay  the  penalty  of  the  successful  revolution- 
ist.    He  had  been  in  fact  too  successful,  for  if  his  success  had  not 
turned  his  own  head,  it  had  turned  the  heads  of  his 

Ecesham  mi     •      •        i  t   /-,, 

and  the  fall     two  SOUS.     Their  insolence  angered  Gloucester ;  a  per- 

of  Simon  '         i: 

Augwt4,  sonal  quarrel  with  Earl  Simon  followed,  in  which  Glou- 
cester intimated  that  Earl  Simon  himself  was  one  of  the 
hated  foreigners  who  had  been  forbidden  by  the  Provisions  of  Oxford 
to  share  in  the  government  of  England,  and  when  on  the  28th  of 
May,  Edward,  who  since  the  meeting  of  parliament,  had  been 
retained  in  a  sort  of  honorable  captivity  at  Hereford,  rode  away  to 
join  Mortimer  on  the  Welsh  border,  Gloucester  threw  off  all  further 
pretense  of  acting  with  Simon  and  gathered  his  tenants  for  war. 


292  THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   THE    CHARTER  [ Henry  m. 

The  moment  was  well  chosen.  Earl  Simon  had  taken  the  king 
and  marched  into  Wales  where  the  king's  half-brother,  William  of 
Valence,  was  seeking  to  rally  a  party  among  his  tenants  of  Pem- 
broke. Edward  and  the  earl  of  Gloucester,  therefore,  by  seizing 
the  town  of  Gloucester,  easily  secured  control  of  the  Severn  and 
cut  off  Earl  Simon  from  England.  The  younger  Simon,  who  was 
at  the  time  besieging  Pevensey,  hearing  of  his  father's  danger 
advanced  to  Kenil worth.  The  father  meanwhile  was  hastily 
returning  towards  Hereford,  his  army  suffering  greatly  from 
the  privations  of  the  long  march  through  the  Welsh  hills.  His 
hope  was  to  combine  his  force  with  that  of  his  son,  and  by  sur- 
rounding Edward  force  him  to  fight  at  a  disadvantage.  Edward, 
however,  was  fully  awake  to  his  danger  and,  by  a  forced  march, 
struck  the  younger  Simon  at  Kenilworth  and  drove  him  with 
heavy  loss  behind  its  massive  walls.  But  the  elder  Simon  was 
fully  as  alert  as  Edward,  and  taking  advantage  of  his  departure 
from  the  Severn,  on  the  2d  of  August  threw  his  troops  across  the 
river,  and,  by  a  long  night  march,  on  the  morning  of  the  4th 
reached  Evesham  where  he  had  planned  to  join  his  son. 
Edward  in  the  meanwhile  had  already  countermarched  and 
was  again  approaching  the  Severn,  but  had  evidently  failed 
to  meet  the  elder  Simon.  The  younger  Simon  once  more  leaving 
Kenilworth  was  also  hurrying  forward  by  forced  marches,  not 
to  overtake  Edward  but  to  keep  his  appointment  with  his  father. 
The  two  Montforts  were  now  hardly  ten  miles  apart  and  the 
junction  of  their  armies  seemed  certain.  The  weary  toil  of  the 
night,  however,  had  told  sadly  on  their  troops  and  in  a  fatal 
moment  the  younger  Simon  gave  orders  for  his  men  to  halt  at 
Alcester  and  prepare  the  morning  meal.  This  halt  proved  the 
ruin  of  Simon,  for  Edward  ''through  the  same  memorable  night 
was  hurrying  from  the  Severn  by  country  cross-lanes,  to  seize  the 
fatal  gap  that  lay  between"  father  and  son.  Through  the  morn- 
ing mists  Simon  saw  the  troops  of  Edward  advancing,  the  men 
marching  in  long  and  regular  ranks.  He  read  his  fate  at 
once;  his  handful  of  knights,  supported  only  by  an  unorganized 
mob  of  Welsh  peasantry,  could  never  stand  before  the  disciplined 
troops  which  were  moving  down  upon  them.     "Let  us  commend 


1265] 


DEATH   OF   SIMON 


293 


our  sonls  to  God,"  he  cried  to  the  brave  men  who  stood  by  his  side, 
"for  our  bodies  are  the  foe's."  The  Welsh  gave  way  at  the  first 
shock.  The  group  of  knights  about  the  earl,  among  whom  was 
Hugh  le  Despenser  the  justiciar,  fought  till  the  last  man  was  down. 
Still  Simon,  like  Totila  of  old,  held  off  his  swarming  foes,  until  a 
foul  blow  dealt  from  behind  felled  him  to  the  earth,  and  with  the 
cry,  "It  is  God's  grace,"  the  old  hero  yielded  up  his  spirit.* 


PROMINENT  CONTEMPORARIES  OF  THE  ERA  OF  THE  CHARTER. 

KINGS  or  ENGLAND: 

Richard  1. 1189-1199.       John,  1199-1216.       Henry  III.,1216-1272. 


KINGS  OF  FRANCE 

Philip    II.,    Augustus, 

Louis'viII.,  d.  1226. 
I^uis  IX.,  d.  1270. 
Philip  III. 


EMPERORS 

d.  Frederick  I.,  Barbarossa, 

d.  1190 
Henry  VI..  (I.  1198. 
Philip,  d.  1209. 
Otto  IV.,  1209-1218. 
Frederick  II.,  1212-1250. 


KINGS  OP  SCOTS 

William  the  Lion,(i.  1214. 
Alexander  II.,  d.  1249. 
Alexander  III. 


POPES 

Clement  III.,  d.  1191. 
Innocent  III.,  d.  1216. 
Honorius  III.,  d.  1227. 
Gregory  IX.,  d.  1241. 
Innocent  IV.,  1254. 
Alexander  IV.,  d.  1261 


ARCHBISHOPS  OP 
CANTERBURY 

Baldwin.  118.V1190. 
Hubert  Walter,   1193-12(K>. 
Steplien     I^ngton,     1207- 

1228. 
Edmund  Rich,  1234-1240. 
Boniface  of  Savoy,   1345- 

1270. 


CHIEF  JUSTICIARS  OF 
ENGLAND 

Hugh  Of  Puiset.  1189-1190. 
William  Ix)ngchamii,  1190- 

1191. 
Walter  of  Coutances,  1191- 

1194. 
Hubert  Walter.  1194-1198. 
Geoffrey  Fitz  Peter,  1199- 

1214. 
Peter  des   Roches,    1214- 

1215. 
Hubert   de    Burgh,   1215- 

1232. 

(The  last  of  the  great 
justiciars.) 


See  Green's  briUiant  account  of  the  battle.    H.  E.  P.,  I,  pp.  303  and 


304. 


CHAPTER    IX 


THE    CHARTER   CON^FIRMED 


HENRY  III.,  1265-1272 
EDWARD  I.,  1272-1297 


Lewes  was  now  undone;  all  that  had  been  gained  by  two  gen- 
erations of  strife  apparently  had  been  swept  away ;  the  king  could 

now  defy  the  Charter,  squander  the  treasure  of  his  sub- 
ofEveSm.    j^^^s,  and  rule  as  he  listed.     This,  to  all  appearance, 

was  Henry's  interpretation  of  the  overthrow  of  Simon, 
and  he  at  once  set  about  punishing  those  who  had  recently  opposed 
him.  Simon's  vast  estates  were  given  to  the  king's  second  son, 
Edmund;  the  towns  which  had  favored  Simon,  London  most  con- 
spicuously, were  held  to  be  at  the  king's  mercy  and  their  privileges 
forfeited;  the  estates  of  the  barons  also  who  had  followed  Simon, 
nearly  one-half  the  gentry  of  England,  were  marked  for  forfeiture 
and  confiscation;  and  the  hungry  favorites  of  the  king,  without 
waiting  for  process  of  law,  began  at  once  to  take  possession.  In 
September  a  parliament,  brought  together  at  Winchester  in 
the  king's  interests,  legalized  these  spoliations  by  revoking  all 
charters  which  had  been  granted  during  the  king's  captivity 
and  by  authorizing  the  confiscations  in  one  gigantic  act  of 
forfeiture. 

It  was  impossible,  however,  for  the  king's  party  to  pursue  this 
mad  career  of  reactionary  vengeance  long  without  a  challenge. 

The  movement  for  popular  risrhts  had  stirred  the  people 

Evidences  of     ^  ^         -.i      .      ,         ,        -.         i     i.^  rrT. 

gathering  too  profoundly  to  be  abandoned  after  one  reverse.  The 
friars,  who  from  the  first  had  espoused  the  people's 
cause,  cherished  the  memory  of  the  fallen  Simon,  *  'who  gave  up 
not  only  his  property,  but  also  his  person,  to  defend  the  poor 
from  oppression;"  nor  was  it  long  before  miracles  were  reported 
at  his  grave, — a  throb  from  the  great  heart  of  the  people,  a  surge 

294 


1266,  1267]  DICTUM    OF    KENILWORTH  295 

from  the  lower  deep.  Then  mourning  over  the  disaster  of  Eves- 
ham gave  way  to  acts  of  popular  violence,  as  at  St.  Albans,  where  a 
king's  officer  and  his  posse  were  cut  to  pieces  by  the  townspeople 
and  their  heads  set  up  at  the  ''four  corners  of  th§  borough." 
The  powerful  garrison  of  Kenil worth  also  continued  to  defy  the 
authority  of  the  king,  levying  its  contributions  upon  all  the  sur- 
rounding country,  while  the  younger  Simon  retired  into  the  fast- 
nesses of  the  Fen  Country  on  the  lower  Trent,  and  there  rallied  to 
his  side  the  ''disinherited,"  as  the  victims  of  the  recent  forfeit- 
ures styled  themselves.  The  sturdy  burghers  of  the  Cinque 
Ports  put  their  wives  and  children  on  board  their  ships,  and 
taking  to  the  Channel,  began  to  harry  the  southern  coasts. 
Llewelyn,  the  old  ally  of  Simon,  crossed  the  borders  and  began 
to  ravage  Chester.  Bands  of  outlaws  alsq  terrorized  the  counties 
far  and  near. 

The  outlook,  therefore,  was  not  reassuring.  Such  leaders  as 
Edward  and  Gloucester  who  had  once  been  of  the  popular  party 
Dictum  of  *^^  ^^  their  hearts  still  sympathized  with  some  of  the 
Keniiworth,    ^ims  of  Simon,  were  convinced  that  the  kingdom  could 

\JCtOOCT'  o  J| 

1266.  \)Q  saved  only  by  conciliation ;    the  sweeping  decree  of 

disinheritance  must  be  recalled,  or  at  least  so  modified  that  those 
who  submitted  might  have  the  opportunity  of  redeeming  their 
lands  by  the  payment  of  a  fine;  the  king  also  must  restore  the 
Charters  as  a  guarantee  of  good  government  to  the  peopler  These 
measures  were  forced  upon  Henry  at  a  parliament  summoned  the 
following  summer  under  the  walls  of  Kenilworth,  and  were  pub- 
lished, October  31,  1266,  in  the  famous  Dictum  of  Kenilworth. 
In  November  Kenilworth  capitulated.  It  was  not,  however,  until 
the  next  year,  when  the  earl  of  Gloucester  suddenly 
appeared  in  London  and  took  possession  of  the  city  as  a 
pledge  for  the  fulfillment  of  the  king's  promises,  that  the  obtuse 
mind  of  Henry  fully  realized  that  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  con- 
tinue the  old  methods  and  that  the  new  order  was  final.  In  Novem- 
ber a  parliament  met  at  Marlborough  and  proceeded  to  put  the 
finishing  touches  to  what  was  virtually  a  revolution  by  formally 
adopting  the  Provisions  of  Westminster  of  1259,  although  the 
appointment  of  all  officers  of  state  was  carefully  reserved  for  the 


296  THE    CHARTER   CONPIRMED  [  Ed  ward  l. 

crown.  Thus  the  great  cause  for  which  Simon  had  laid  down  his 
life  after  all  was  not  lost.  The  Charters  were  saved,  and  the 
principles  for  which  Simon  had  fought  were  again  recognized  as  a 
part  of  the  •fundamental  law  of  England. 

Quiet  was  now  so  completely  restored  that  Edward,  to  whose 
wisdom  and  firmness  this  happy  outcome  was  largely  due,  thought 
it  safe  to  leave  the  kingdom  and  join  with  Louis  IX.  of 
Crusade,  France  in  the  ill-fated  Seventh  and  last  of  the  Crusades. 
He  left  England  in  1270;  reached  Tunis  just  after  the 
death  of  Louis;  then  went  to  Acre  where  he  stayed  some  months 
but  accomplished  nothing  of  importance.  In  1272  he  set  out  upon 
his  return  and  in  Sicily  heard  of  his  father's  death. 

The  last  years  of  the  old  king  had  been  uneventful  and  tranquil. 
His  advancing  age  had  fortunately  prevented  him  from  again 
Death  of  attempting  any  active  part  in  the  administration  of  the 
Nommber'  government.  He  had  been  a  good  man,  but  a  bad  king 
16, 1272.  an(j  a  dangerous  tyrant.  .  His  worst  weaknesses  were  an 

overfaithfulness  to  unworthy  friends  who  did  not  hesitate  to  sac- 
rifice him  to  their  own  interests,  an  overfondness  for  the  members 
of  his  family,  and  a  blind  devotion  to  the  religious  forms  and 
authorities  of  his  day.  ** Whatever  be  his  sins,"  said  the  just 
Louis,  "his  prayers  and  offerings  will  save  his  soul."  His  mis- 
rule was  due,  not  like  John's  to  malicious  pleasure  in  playing  the 
tyrant,  but  to  a  witless  vanity  which  plunged  him  into  extrava- 
gance, stopped  his  ears  to  wiser  counsels,  and  made  him  obsti- 
nate when  he  should  have  been  yielding,  and  yielding  when 
he  should  have  been  firm, — not  an  unusual  combination  in  men 
of  his  type. 

Four  days  after  the  death  of  Henry  the  barons  of  England  took 

the  oath  of  fealty  to  Edward,  and  although  he  did  not  return  for 

his  coronation  until  1274,  his  reign  was  regarded  by  the 

fealty  to         lawyers  as  beginning  with  the  date  of  the  taking  of  the 

November      oath  and  uot  with  his  coronation.     Here  was  something 

Oil     i  *y7  9 

new  in  the  annals  of  English  kings.  It  was  not  simply 
that  a  king  was  acknowledged  without  dispute  or  rival,  or  that  the 
oath  of  fealty  had  come  to  take  the  place  of  formal  election  by  the 
great  council,  but  that  the  hereditary  right  of  the  son  to  the  sue- 


CHARACTEK    OF   EDWARD  297 

cession  was  for  the  first  time  clearly  recognized.  The  recognition, 
however,  was  not  yet  complete; 'Edward's  reign  did  not  begin  until 
the  barons  had  taken  the  oath  of  fealty.  It  will  take  two  hundred 
years  to  bridge  this  gap. 

At  the  time  of  Henry's  death  Edward  was  thirty -three  years 
old.      He  was  already  a  veteran  in  war  and  in  administration. 

He  had  profited  much  by  the  mistakes  of  his  father ;  nor 
Edward^  ^^   ^^^  ^®  ^®^^  altogether  void  of  sympathy  with  the  visions 

of  Earl  Simon.  Yet  he  possessed  what  Simon  had  not, 
a  practical,  common  sense  way  of  adapting  his  plans  to  facts  as  he 
found  them.  His  ambition  was  to  restore  the  crown  to  its  ancient 
strength  and  dignity;  yet  he  saw  that  he  could  not  do  this  with- 
out the  cordial  support  of  a  united  people.  Here  in  a  word  is  the 
policy  of  Edward's  reign.  He  was  not  enamored  of  the  idea  of 
encouraging  the  political  activity  of  the  people;  but  he  saw  that  cer- 
tain privileges  could  no  longer  be  withheld.  He,  therefore,  accepted 
the  inevitable ;  recognized  what  he  could  not  deny,  granted  what 
he  could  not  refuse,  and  used  the  returning  confidence  of  the  nation 
to  secure  anew  the  foundations  of  his  throne.  Personally  he  was 
well  fitted  to  arouse  the  loyal  enthusiasm  of  his  people.  His 
English  name,  his  yellow  hair,  which  even  after  it  had  whitened 
with  advancing  years  still  waved  in  luxuriant  masses  to  his 
shoulders,  the  frank  and  sympathetic  blue  eyes,  his  frame,  vig- 
orous, muscular,  and  tall,  so  that  like  Saul  of  old  he  towered  head 
and  shoulders  above  the  young  men  who  attended  him,  all  associ- 
ated the  new  king  with  the  best  traditions  of  the  English  kingship, 
attracted  the  eye  and  drew  out  the  love  of  his  people.  A  warm- 
hearted Englishman  he  was,  without  any  of  the  cold  selfishness  or 
crafty  cunning  of  the  Angevins,  capable  of  deep  affection,  and 
withal  possessing  a  high  sense  of  honor.  He  could  follow  the 
bier  of  Earl  Simon,  his  old  companion  in  arms,  as  a  sincere 
mourner ;  he  could  weep  over  the  death  of  his  father,  although  it 
gave  him  a  crown.  He  was  slow  to  make  promises  and  obstinate 
in  yielding  concessions,  but  an  oath  once  given  was  to  him  a  sacred 
thing.  His  temper  was  violent,  and  when  aroused  he  could  be  fierce, 
cruel,  and  relentless.  In  the  Song  of  Lewes  he  is  *'a  lion  in  pride 
and  fierceness;"  ''a  panther  in  inconstancy  and  changeableness. " 


298  THE    CHARTER   CONFIRMED  [edwabd  I. 

And  yet  Edward  learned  to  govern  himself,  as  he  learned  to  govern 
his  people. 

The  first  serious  difficulty  which  faced  Edward  after  his  coro- 
nation was  the  long-standing  quarrel  of  the  Welsh  with  England. 

For  England  in  the  thirteenth  century  had  a  Welsh 
Wales  to        question  on  her  hands,   as   she  has  an  Irish  question 

to-day;  and  her  efforts  at  settling  the  one  then,  had 
been  as  unsatisfactory  as  are  her  efforts  at  settling  the  other  now. 
The  Welsh  princes  had  made  a  formal  submission  to  William  the 
Conqueror,  but  they  had  never  been  brought  under  the  actual  rule 
of  English  kings.  William's  successors  had  from  time  to  time 
invaded  the  country  in  order  to  enforce  the  obligations  of  the 
AVelsh  lords,  but  they  had  never  met  with  more  than  temporary 
success.  Secure  in  their  mountain  fastnesses,  the  Welsh  chieftains 
had  continued  to  raid  English  territory  as  pique  or  lust  for  plunder 
dictated;  and  English  kings  in  order  to  protect  the  western  shires 
had  been  compelled  to  establish  on  the  border  a  number  of  military 
lords  with  almost  sovereign  powers.  These  were  the  so-called 
marcher  barons,  whose  turbulent  independence  became  in  time  as 
great  a  terror  to  the  border  lands  as  the  chronic  hostility  of  the 
Welsh. 

These  unsatisfactory  conditions  had  been  specially  emphasized 
during  the  recent  struggles,  in  which  the  Welsh  lords  had  proved 

themselves  ever  ready  to  encourage  and  assist  rebellion 
duS^Wai'es    ^^  England.     When,  therefore,  at  Edward's  coronation 

Llewelyn,  Earl  Simon's  former  ally,  not  only  refused  to 
appear  among  Edward's  vassals  and  renew  homage,  but  openly 
defied  the  new  king,  Edward  determined  to  settle  the  vexing  Welsh 
question  once  and  for  all  time.  He  first  invaded  Wales  with  an 
army  strong  enough  to  bring  Llewelyn  to  terms,  and  forced  him  to 
cede  the  northern  cantreds.  He  then  proceeded  to  introduce  into 
the  ceded  district  the  English  system  of  shire  administration  and 
to  enforce  English  laws.  The  Welsh  naturally  murmured  at  this 
interference  with  their  local  institutions,  but  probably  would 
have  accepted  the  new  order  without  serious  protest,  had  not 
the  English  magistrates  made  the  common  mistake  of  treating  the 
less  civilized  people  with  severity  and  their  prejudices  with  con- 


1282-1301]  STATUTE    OF   WALES  299 

tempt.  In  1282  the  smouldering  discontent  broke  out  in  a  general 
popular  rising.  But  Edward  returned  to  the  struggle  more  deter- 
mined than  ever.  Llewelyn  was  slain  in  a  skirmish ;  his  brother 
David  held  out  for  a  year,  when  he  too  was  captured,  and  in  a 
parliament  held  at  Shrewsbury  was  condemned  to  a  traitor's 
death. 

Edward  then  took  possession  of  the  conquered  country  as  a 
forfeited   fief,  and  the  work  of  introducing  English  institutions 

began  anew.  By  the  Statute  of  Wales  the  principality 
Wai^%84     ^^^  placed  directly  under  the  dominion  of  the  crown 

and  divided  into  shires  after  the  English  model.  Ed- 
ward, however,  profiting  by  his  former  experience,  was  more  careful 
to  conciliate  the  feelings  of  the  natives  and  chose  Welshmen  rather 
than  Englishmen  for  the  administration  of  the  shires.  The  per- 
manence of  the  conquest  was  further  assured  by  settling  colonies 
of  Englishmen  in  the  towns  and  by  building  castles,  such  as  Con- 
way and  Carnarvon,  the  ruins  of  which  still  remain,  silent  testi- 
monies to  the  thoroughness  of  Edward's  work.  It  was  Edward's 
policy,  also,  to  retain  the  country  ^  a  principality,  distinct 
from  England;  nor  was  it  incorporated  in  the  kingdom  or  allowed 
to  send  representatives  regularly  to  the  national  parliaments  until 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  In  1301  Edward  gave  the  title  of  Prince 
of  Wales  to  his  eldest  living  son  Edward,  who  had  been  born  at 
Carnarvon  in  1284. 

The  subjection  of  the  rude  courts  of  Wales  to  the  English  sys- 
tem was,  only  a  part  of  a  greater  work  which  Edward  had  early  set 

himself  to  accomplish.  The  thirteenth  century  was  for 
rendffsance     E^^ope  distinctively  a  legal  age.     The  great  law  schools 

of  Bologna  and  other  Italian  cities  had  for  a  century 
been  preparing  the  way  for  a  legal  renaissance  by  creating  and 
extending  an  interest  in  the  systematic  and  scientific  study  of  the 
Roman  Law.  Under  emperors  like  Frederick  Barbarossa  and  his 
brilliant  grandson,  these  studies  had  borne  practical  fruit  in  the 
introduction  of  more  rational  methods  of  procedure  in  the  imperial 
courts,  and  in  the  production  of  formal  codes  which  supplanted  the 
crude  laws  of  feudal  custom  that  had  prevailed  heretofore  north 
of  the  Alps.     This  work- had  been  continued  in  the  west  by  such 


300  THE    CHARTER    CONFIRMED  [edwakd  i. 

princes  as  Louis  the  Just  of  France  and  Alfonso  the  Wise  of 
Castile.  In  England  the  more  perfect  organization  of  the  govern- 
ment, the  development  of  the  magistratical  functions  of  the  crown, 
and  the  coordination  of  the  courts  had  not  been  without  a  direct 
influence  in  unifying  the  laws  and  reducing  them  to  some  coherent 
system,  and  the  English  people  could  already  boast  of  their  great 
legists,  men  like  Glanville  and  Bracton,^  who  wrote  law  treatises 
and  sought  to  reach  the  underlying  principles  which  explained  and 
justified  the  decisions  of  the  courts.  But  while  the  legal  renais- 
sance in  England  had  thus  drawn  its  inspiration  in  the  first  instance 
from  sources  largely  outside  of  the  civil  law,  it  was  impossible  for 
the  English  jurists,  clerks  as  they  were,  many  of  them  educated 
abroad,  and  all  more  or  less  steeped  in  the  principles  of  the  canon 
law,  to  escape  the  subtle  influence  of  Eome ;  for  although  they  did 
not  follow  the  subject  matter  of  the  Roman  law,  they  could  not 
escape  the  charm  of  its  orderly  methods. 

Edward  was  in  full  sympathy  with  the  legal  renaissance  of  his 
age.     He  had  had  an  Italian  jurist  for  a  tutor  in  his  youth,  and 

was  very  early  made  to  feel  the  constant  contradiction 
Edwardand    between  the  relations  expressed  in  feudal  forms  and 

customs,  and  the  theories  which  the  legists  taught  him 
lay  at  the  basis  of  these  relations.  To  this  work,  therefore,  of  unify- 
ing and  systematizing  the  irregular  growths  of  centuries  of  feudal 
custom  Edward  addressed  himself,  and  with  such  energy  and  far- 
sighted  wisdom  as  to  win  for  himself  the  title  of  "the  English 
Justinian. "  He  broke  with  the  precedents  of  the  past  and  assumed 
the  right  of  the  crown  not  simply  to  amend  laws  of  custom,  but  to 
create  new  laws ;  not  simply  to  make  laws  on  the  basis  of  what  had 
been,  bat  on  the  basis  of  what  ought  to  be.  That  is,  the  laws  of 
Edward,  unlike  the  laws  of  his  predecessors,  are  not  merely  amend- 
ments or  restatements  of  existing  customs  but  are  laws  in  the 
modern  sense.  From  his  reign  "the  Statutes  of  the  Kealm"  con- 
tinue in  unbroken  series. 

Of  the  statutes  of  Edward  some  are  worthy  of  special  notice,  as 
way -marks  in  the  social  progress  of  England.     Among  these  was 

'  For  work  of  Bracton,  see  Pollock  and  Maitland,  History  of  English 
Law;  The  Age  of  Bracton,  I,  pp.  174-225. 


1276-1290]  LAWS    OF    EDWARD  301 

the  famous  Statute  de  Beligiosis,  issued  in  1279,  which  prohibited 
gifts  of  land  to  the  church  in  mortmain^  a  form  by  which  tenants 
had  been  accustomed  to  transfer  their  lands  to  some  religious  cor- 
poration and  thus  deprive  the  overlord  of  his  rights. 
DeBeiigiosis.  The  law  was  designed  not  to  check  the  growing  power  of 
the  church  as  much  as  to  protect  the  overlord  from  the 
excessive  piety  of  his  tenants,  sometimes  simulated  to  disguise  a 
deliberate  purpose  of  fraud.  Another  statute,  not  less  important 
in  protecting  the  rights  of  the  overlord,  was  the  Quia 
^mptores  Emptores^  first  issued  in  1276,  and  again  in  1290;  an 
act  intended  to  prevent  the  abuse  of  the  principle  of 
subinfeudation.  It  had  been  the  practice  of  subtenants  to  part 
with  portions  of  their  laud  by  creating  other  subtenants  who  in 
turn  might  continue  the  subdivision  and  subgranting  indefinitely. 
In  this  way  the  overlord's  power  was  seriously  diminished,  and 
there  was  constant  danger  that  the  tenants  might  grant  away  so 
much  land  that  there  would  not  be  enough  left  to  bear  the  obliga- 
tions of  the  fief.  By  the  Statute  Quia  Emptores  the  new  tenant 
escaped  from  the  lordship  of  the  last  grantor  and  became  the  vassal 
of  the  original  lord.  This  statute  it  was  supposed  would  benefit 
particularly  the  great  barons,  who  strongly  supported  it  in  the  par- 
liament. Its  more  conspicuous  effects,  however,  were  greatly  to 
increase  the  number  of  tenants  in  chief,  and  thus,  by  breaking  down 
the  hierarchical  gradations  of  feudalism,  hasten  the  time  when  all 
should  stand  in  the  same  relation  to  the  king.  An  even  more 
important  act  appeared  at  Winchester  in  1285,  which 
ivinch^ler  ^^^^"^^^  some  of  the  older  institutions  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  period  that  during  the  two  centuries  of  feudal- 
ism had  been  allowed  largely  to  fall  into  decay.  It  regulated  the 
action  of  the  hundred,  revived  the  hue  and  cry,  reimposed  the 
duties  of  watch  and  ward,  and  reenacted  the  obligation  of  the 
fyrd  which  Henry  II.  had  once  reorganized  in  the  Assize  of  Arms. 
By  this  act  every  man  was  bound  to  aid  in  the  pursuit  of  criminals 
when  the  hue  and  cry  was  raised,  and  to  hold  himself  in  readiness 
to  serve  the  king  under  arms  in  case  of  invasion  or  rebellion ;  every 
hundred  also  was  to  be  responsible  for  the  crimes  committed  within 
its  limits,  and  every  walled  town  was  to  close  its  gates  at  sunset 


302  THE    CHARTER    CONFIRMED  [ehward  l. 

and  compel  every  stranger  to  give  an  account  of  himself  before  the 
magistrates. 

Like  the  first  Plantagenet  also  Edward  saw  that  the  way  to 
bring  the  crown  into  touch  with  the  nation  was  through  a  more 

perfect  organization  of  the  royal  courts.  Henry  II.  had 
refirmJof  definitely  established  the  Curia  Regis  as  the  central  court 
The  courts      ^^  ^^^^  national  judicial  system.     Its  activities,  however, 

had  steadily  extended  their  scope,  and  the  volume  of  busi- 
ness had  increased  enormously.  Yet  up  to  the  thirteenth  century 
one  staff  of  judges  had  served  for  all  departments  of  justice.  But 
in  the  thirteenth  century  the  policy  of  differentiating  the  work  of 
the  Curia,  already  forecasted  in  the  reservation  of  certain  business 
for  certain  sittings,^  was  fully  carried  out,  and  by  the  close  of 
Henry  III.'s  reign  the  ancient  Curia  Eegis  had  been  divided  into 
three  separate  and  distinct  courts:  the  Court  of  Exchequer  to 
hear  all  cases  touching  the  revenue,  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  to 
receive  civil  cases,  and  the  Cou7't  of  King''s  Bench  to  deal  with  cases 
affecting  the  king's  interests  and  criminal  questions  reserved  for 
his  judgment.  The  chief  justiciar,  however,  still  remained  the 
bond  of  union  of  these  courts  until  Edward  finally  abolished  the 
common  presidency  by  giving. to  each  court  its  own  chief.  The 
common  law  courts,  furthermore,  had  their  limitations  as  instru- 
ments for  the  redress  of  wrongs.  Their  decisions  were  necessarily 
based  upon  precedent  and  the  strict  letter  of  the  law.  But  in  the 
complexity  of  human  actions  many  questions  may  arise  to  which 
no  existing  law  applies  or,  if  applied,  may  work  actual  injustice  to 
the  individual.  Henry  II.  had  reserved  all  such  cases  for  the 
special  action  of  the  king  in  council ;  but  Edward  I.  gave  a  still 
wider  extension  to  this  equity  jurisdiction  of  the  crown  and 
referred  such  cases  to  the  special  care  of  the  chancellor.  Thus 
there  grew  up  about  the  chancellor  the  fourth  of  the  series  of  great 
royal  courts — the  Court  of  Equity.  The  Chancery,  however,  as  a 
court  of  equity  was  not  definitely  organized  until  the  time  of 
Edward  III.,  nor  was  its  equity  jurisdiction  permanently  estab- 
lished until  the  reign  of  Richard  II. 

I  See  p.  194. 


1289]  THE    ROYAL    REVENUES  303 

Edward  I.,  furthermore,  understood  that  the  strength  of  his 
courts  consisted  in  rendering  real  and  not  fictitious  justice.  He 
therefore  attacked  unsparingly  the  abuses  by  means  of 
fhi'SniM  which  the  judicial  circuits  had  become  engines  of  extor- 
tion, hated  and  feared  by  the  people.  In  1289  all  the 
king's  judges  were  brought  forward  on  charges  of  bribery,  and  all 
were  found  guilty  except  two.  The  chief  justice  of  the  Common 
Pleas  had  amassed  a  fortune  of  100,000  marks.  Nothing  could 
more  strikingly  show  the  extent'of  the  corruption  which  had  crept 
into  all  branches  of  service  during  the  inefficient  administration  of 
Henry  III. 

Edward's  love  of  justice  was  real;  yet  he  had  the  faults  of  a 
legal  mind,  and  was  too  often  willing  in  construing  the  law  to 
strain  it  in  his  own  favor.  While  he  seldom  broke  the 
Tjm?}i^^  letter  of  the  law,  he  often  violated  its  spirit.  Most  of 
his  legal  chicanery,  however,  was  prompted  by  the 
incessant  demands  of  his  treasury.  It  was  his  misfortune  to  find 
the  throne  encumbered  with  debt,  from  which  he  was  never  able 
entirely  to  extricate  himself.  He  was  by  no  means  extravagant  like 
his  father,  but  his  plans  for  the  monarchy  required  more  money 
than  could  be  raised  by  the  old  methods.  The  crown  domains, 
moreover,  had  been  greatly  reduced  by  the  follies  of  John  and 
Henry.  The  incomes  from  feudal  dues  had  also  declined  with 
feudalism.  Scutages  and  similar  levies  were  not  worth  the  trouble 
which  it  cost  to  collect  them.  The  courts  returned  their  fines  to 
the  royal  treasury,  but  this  was  not  a  revenue  which  could  be 
wisely  developed.  In  his  last  year  Henry  II.  had  instituted  a  tax 
on  personal  property;  and  although  as  first  introduced  it  was 
designed  only  to  secure  money  for  the  Crusade,  the  Saladin  tithe, 
it  had  since  become  the  most  common  form  of  taxation.  It 
depended  on  a  parliamentary  grant  and  varied  from  a  thirtieth  to 
a  seventh.  But  such  relief  could  be  only  temporary,  and  parlia- 
ment was  loath  to  repeat  it  too  frequently.  Edward,  therefore, 
was  obliged  to  search  for  still  other  sources  of  revenue  in  order  to 
secure  a  permanent  and  steady  income.  He  found  the  answer  to 
his  quest  in  the  possibilities  offered  by  the  rapidly  developing  com- 
merce of  England,  especially  by  the  wool  trade  of  which  England 


304  THE    CHAKTER    CONFIRMED  [edward  l 

virtually  enjoyed  the  monopoly.  England  since  the  close  of  the 
barons'  war  had  been  comparatively  free  from  private  warfare  and 
quite  removed  from  the  possibility  of  invasion.  She  had  brought 
her  rural  interests  to  a  high  state  of  prosperity  and  had  become 
the  great  wool-growing  country  of  Europe.  The  old  way  of  taking 
a  portion  of  the  goods  going  in  or  out  of  the  country  was  no  longer 
satisfactory   to   king   or   merchants;  and  accordingly   in   1275    a 

parliament  at  Westminster  granted  to  the  crown  the 
Cmtmn^^i275    ^^S^^  ^^  levying  an  export  duty  upon  wools,  skins,  and 

leather,  the  so-called  Gi^eat  Custom^  in  return  for  a 
renunciation  by  the  king  of  his  ancient  right  of  levying  upon  all 
goods  entering  or  leaving  the  kingdom.  This  was  the  legal  begin- 
ning of  the  English  customs-revenue.  It  is  not  now  considered 
good  policy  for  a  country  to  tax  its  exports;  but  at  that  time,  the 
Flemings  were  absolutely  dependent  on  England  for  the  wool  to  sup- 
ply their  looms.  So  that,  in  this  case  at  least,  the  tax  had  to  be  paid 
by  the  foreign  consumer.    The  king  still  continued  from  time  to  time 

to  use  the  right  of  prise  in  regard  to  other  commodities. 
Mercatoria,     But  bv  the  Carta  Mercatoria  of  1303,  customs  on  wine, 

1303 

cloth,  and  other  articles  of  merchandise  were  formally 
recognized  and  regulated.     By  the  time  of  Edward  III.  these  had 

become  a  regular  part  of  the  ordinary  revenue.  Another 
'Knkmhood     ^^^ort  of  Edward  for  restoring  his  treasury  was  known 

as  Distraint  of  KniglitUood.  In  the  summer  of  1278  he 
issued  a  writ  compelling  every  freeholder  who  possessed  an  estate 
of  £20  a  year  to  assume  the  obligations  of  a  knight,  or  to  pay  what 
amounted  to  a  heavy  fine.  The  advantage  was  twofold.  Those 
who  obeyed  increased  by  so  much  the  body  of  knighthood.  While 
those  who  did  not  wish  to  assume  the  obligations  of  knighthood, 
gladly  paid  the  fine  and  by  so  much  increased  the  revenue.  In 
1282  all  persons  possessing  an  estate  of  £20  a  year,  were  ordered  to 
provide  themselves  with  horse  and  armor. 

In  these  schemes  for  raising  money,  the  Jews  also  did  not 
escape  the  attention  of  the  royal  financier.  From  the  time  of  the 
Conquest  they  had  occupied  a  singular  place  in  England.  In  the 
age  of  the  Crusades  it  is  not  strange  that  they  were  hated  as 
infidels.      The  most  shocking  crimes,  involving  murder,  sacrilege, 


1290]  THE   EXPULSION   OF   THE   JEWS  305 

and  even  cannibalism  were  popularly  imputed  to  them.  The  real 
source  of  popular  hatred,  however,  was  perhaps  the  fact  that  the 
Jews  held  virtually  the  monopoly  of  the  banking  busi- 
TheJews^and  ^^gg  Qf  Europe.  They  were  the  money  lenders  and  usu- 
rers of  the  time,  and  by  these  means  had  accumulated 
vast  wealth.  In  the  middle  ages  the  propriety  of  taking  interest  for 
tlie  use  of  money  was  not  understood,  and  usury,  as  all  interest 
taking  was  called,  had  been  condemned  by  the  church.  Not 
infrequently  the  hatred  and  suspicions  of  the  people  expressed 
themselves  in  violent  outbursts.  The  first  year  of  Richard's  reign 
had  been  disgraced  by  a  massacre  at  York.  But  the  Jew  always 
had  a  strong  protector  in  the  king,  who  needed  him  for  his 
money's  sake,  since  a  large  share  of  the  Jew's  profits  was  sure  to 
come  ultimately  into  the  royal  treasury  as  blackmail  levied  under 
the  guise  of  protection.  No  small  part  of  the  extravagance  of 
Henry  III.  had  been  met  by  tallages  levied  upon  Jews.  Some  of 
the  nobles  also  used  the  Jewish  brokers  as  leeches  to  draw  wealth 
from  the  people,  in  order  that  they  might  compel  the  Jew  to  dis- 
gorge later.  The  great  men  of  the  time  like  Grosseteste,  Simon 
de  Montfort,  and  Edward  himself  shared  in  the  popular  antipathy. 
Edward  at  first  tried,  restriction ;  he  would  not  allow  the  Jews  to 
hold  real  property;  he  compelled  them  also  to  wear  a  distinctive 
dress,  which  greatly  increased  the  grievous  burden  of  their  lot 
by  making  the  Jew  always  a  marked  man  in  the  streets,  where  the 
hoodlum  element,  by  no  means  a  peculiarity  of  the  modern  city, 
was  always  ready  to  take  the  Jew's  distinctive  garb  as  a  challenge. 
Even  these  annoyances,  however,  did  not  satisfy  tlie  popular 
clamor,  and  in  1290,  Edward  expelled  this  much  abused  people 
from  the  country  altogether,  allowing  them  to  take  only  their  mov- 
able property  with  them.^  A  grateful  parliament  granted  him  a 
tax  of  a  fifteenth.  The  great  banking  houses  of  Italy  were  already 
coming  into  prominence  and  from  this  time  the  money  business  of 
England  fell  largely  into  their  hands. 

The  reforms  of  Edward,  thus  far,  were  reforms  which  any  abso- 
lute monarch  might  have  instituted  who  was  bent  upon  adminis- 

^  Thev  were  not  allowed  to  return  until  the  time  of  Cromwell. 


306  THE    CHARTER    CON^FIRMED  [edwaed  i. 

tering  his  trust  upon  rational  principles;  but  sooner  or  later 
the  great  underlying  thought  of  the  Charter,  the  right  of 
Theneiv  ^^®  nation  not  only  to  fair  treatment  by  the  gov- 
probUm.  ernment  but  to  a  fair  share  in  the  gOYernment,  must 
force  itself  upon  Edward. 

The  nation  as  the  basis  of  political  organization  was  hardly 
recognized  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Political  unity  had  been 
sacrificed  in  the  upgrowth  of  feudal  classes.  The 
Estates^^  multitude  of  petty  sovereignties  which  had  marked  the 
earlier  stages  of  feudal  society,  had  been  slowly  merged 
in  the  expanding  powers  of  the  national  monarchy,  but  the  baron- 
age, the  great  feudal  landholding  aristocracy,  still  constituted  a 
society  by  itself,  with  its  own  peculiar  rights  and  privileges. 
Alongside  of  this  feudal  community,  moreover,  bound  to  it  by  a 
thousand  intangible  ties,  and  yet  not  of  it,  there  had  grown  up 
another  community,  the  ecclesiastical,  with  its  own  aims,  its  own 
methods,  its  own  laws,  its  own  courts,  and  finally  its  own  complete 
and  well-defined  organization ;  on  the  one  hand,  asserting  its  inde- 
pendence of  the  feudal  society,  and  on  the  other,  its  supremacy 
within  the  feudal  society.  Furthermore,  as  the  middle  centuries 
progressed,  with  the  increased  wealth  and  numbers  of  the  urban 
population,  there  had  gi'own  up  still  a  third  community,  or  rather 
group  of  communities,  which  by  reason  of  numerous  privileges  and 
immunities,  conferred  generally  by  charter,  had  won  a  certain  inde- 
pendence of  the  feudal  and  ecclesiastical  societies,  and  formed  a 
group  by  itself.  As  yet  the  members  of  this  third  group  were 
united  only  by  the  possession  of  common  privileges ;  they  had 
less  coherence  than  the  individuals  of  the  feudal  group,  and  noth- 
ing of  the  unity  which  was  conferred  upon  the  ecclesiastical  group 
by  its  hierarchical  organization.  This  threefold  grouping,  or  rather 
separation,  of  the  free  elements  of  the  nation  was  not  peculiar  to 
England,  but  was  characteristic  of  the  feudal  state  wherever  it 
existed.  The  several  groups  were  known  familiarly  as  the  Estates, 
and  their  relative  importance  and  dignity  in  each  case  was  indi- 
cated by  the  preeminence  which  was  given  to  the  ecclesiastical  as 
the  First  Estate,  to  the  feudal  as  the  Seco7id  Estate,  and  to  the 
burghers  as  the  Third  Estate. 


THE    COMMONS  307 

In  England,  however,  this  threefold  division  early  began  to 
assume  certain  features  which  in  time  became  characteristic  and 

which  go  far  to  explain  why  popular  institutions  developed 
development    a  strength  and  importance  upon  English  soil  as  nowhere 

upon  the  continent.  As  early  as  Magna  Charta  a  dis- 
tinction had  been  recognized  between  the  great  barons  who  were 
summoned  to  the  national  council  by  name,  and  the  lesser  barons 
who  were  summoned  through  the  sheriffs  in  a  body.  But  the 
attendance  of  the  body  of  small  landholders  upon  the  meetings  of 
the  great  council  was  for  many  reasons  impracticable,  and  even  in 
John's  reign  the  expedient  had  been  resorted  to  of  allowing  the 
knights  to  be  represented  by  delegates  chosen  at  the  shire  court 
.under  the  direction  of  the  sheriff.  By  the  close  of  the  century  this 
expedient  had  become  a  regularly  established  custom.  The  eccle- 
siastical or  First  Estate,  as  indicated  above,  had  a  divided  interest. 
Its  members,  however,  had  very  early  acquired  a  definite  status 
of  their  own.  They  had  their  special  councils  and  separate  courts,  and 
preferred  to  hold  their  own  separate  parliaments,  or  convocations^ 
and  discuss  and  vote  their  grants  separately.  The  great  church- 
men, however,  the  bishops  and  abbots,  were  also  barons,  or  feudal 
tenants  of  the  crown,  and  as  such  continued  to  sit  with  the  great 
lay  barons  in  the  national  council.  Here  then  was  a  cross  division 
which  cut  through  the  two  higher  estates,  severing  the  great 
barons,  ecclesiastical  or  lay,  from  the  inferior  members  of  their 
respective  orders.  Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  interests  and  sym- 
pathies of  the  lower  orders  of  both  knights  and  clergy  were  far 
more  nearly  allied  to  those  of  the  towns  than  to  those  of  the  great 
barons,  and  thus  very  soon  after  the  crown  began  to  summon  dele- 
gates from  the  towns,  it  became  customary  for  the  representatives 
of  the  towns  and  the  representatives  of  the  shire  to  meet  together 
in  an  assembly  distinct  from  that  of  the  great  barons.  Thus  the 
Commons^  so  called,  came  at  last  to  represent  not  simply  an  estate, 
but  the  people,  the  nation.  The  lower  orders  of  the  clergy  by  pre- 
ferring the  convocation,  undoubtedly  lost  a  distinct  and  separate  rep- 
resentation in  this  more  popular  branch  of  the  national  assembly; 
but  in  as  much  as  their  interests  were  really  merged  in  those  of  the 
towns  and  tlie  shires,  they  too  were  virtually  represented  in  the 


308  THE   CHARTER   CONFIRMED  [edwabd  I. 

more  numerous  body.  Thus  the  original  threefold  division  of  the 
national  council  into  separate  Estates,  which  on  the  continent  hard- 
ened into  an  insurmountable  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  popular 
institutions,  in  England  gave  way  to  a  twofold  division  in  which 
there  were  really  but  two  classes  represented, — the  titled  nobility 
and  the  untitled  people,  or  the  nation.  In  other  words,  in  Eng- 
land the  original  Third  Estate  absorbed  the  lower  ranks  of  the 
First  and  Second  Estates ;  and  since  it  thus  came  to  include  the 
body  of  the  wealth  and  population  of  both  city  and  country,  the 
great  undivided  middle  class,  its  representatives  in  the  national 
council  soon  gained  a  unity  and  influence  which  the  simple  deputies 
of  the  towns  never  attained  upon  the  continent,  and  compelled  the 
crown  at  last  to  recognize  their  importance  as  the  source  of  its 
authority  and  the  support  of  its  power. 

This  final  goal,  however,  was  not  reached  until  long  after  the 
age  of  Edward  I.     There  is  no  evidence  that  either  Simon  or 

Edward  ever  had  any  thought  of  attaining  such  a  result 
Edward's  ^s  this ;  or  that  the  expedient  of  summoning  delegates 
summoning     from    the    towns    was  consciously  designed  as  a  step 

toward  giving  the  people  a  more  direct  influence  in  the 
government.  Simon  sought  to  find  in  the  lower  orders  the  support 
which  the  barons  had  denied  him.  Edward  needed  money  and 
thought  only  of  making  the  wealth  of  the  country  gentry  and  the 
burghers  tributary  to  the  needs  of  his  treasury.  And  even  in  this, 
he  appears  like  a  man  who  is  feeling  his  way  toward  a  goal  of  which 
he  is  at  first  uncertain,  stumbling  at  last  by  a  series  of  experi- 
ments upon  the  only  possible  principle  by  which  that  end  might  be 
attained ;  not  the  high  and  lofty  end  of  bestowing  liberties  upon  the 
nation,  but  the  entirely  ignoble,  yet  practical,  end  of  securing  new 

sources  of  revenue  for  the  crown.  Thus  in  his  first  parlia- 
pariiaments    ments  he  began  by  summoning  the  knights  of  the  shire 

in  addition  to  the  prelates  and  barons.  Sometimes, 
however,  he  brought  together  only  the  magnates  in  the  old  way. 
In  1290  the  great  barons  met  to  deliberate  upon  a  proposed  statute, 
and  the  knights  came  later  to  take  part  in  voting  a  tax.  In  1282, 
when  the  expenses  were  unusually  heavy  on  account  of  the  second 
Welsh   war,   the  king  sent    around  to  the   different   shires   and 


1283-1295]  THE   MODEL   PARLIAMENT  309 

boroughs  to  ask  each  community  separately  for  its  aid.  The 
results  of  these  local  appeals  were  not  satisfactory,  and  the  next 
year  he  brought  together  on  the  same  day  two  separate  assemblies, 
one  at  York,  and  one  at  Northampton.  It  is  to  be  noted  further, 
that  the  principle  underlying  the  feudal  state  is  recognized  in  all  of 
these  early  efforts  to  secure  aid  from  the  nation;  the  crown  had  no 
right  to  levy  taxes  directly  upon  the  people,  whether  lord  or  simple, 
other  than  those  prescribed  by  the  implied  feudal  contract,  or  as 
established  in  the  customs  of  each  locality.  If  more  were  needed, 
it  could  be  secured  only  by  voluntary  grant  on  the  part  of  each 
class,  or  of  each  corporation.  It  is,  therefore,  a  marked  step  in 
advance  when  it  is  recognized  that  the  consent  of  each  individual 
separately  is  not  necessary  to  the  legality  of  such  a  grant,  and  that 
such  consent  may  be  given  for  him  by  his  representatives,  or  by  a 
majority  of  tlie  representatives  of  the  class  to  which  he  belongs, 
acting  collectively. 

This  important  principle  was  explicitly  recognized  in  the  call- 
ing of   the  famous  parliament  of  1295,  which  on  account  of  its 
completeness  was  lonff  known  as  the  **  Model  Parlia- 

The  Model  ^  ,,      t^  ^-  •  i  •  i.  mi.        u 

Parliament     ment.        It  was  a  time  of  general    anxiety.      Ihe  old 

of  1295 

Welsh  question  had  been  replaced  by  an  even  more 
serious  Scottish  question,  and  the  long  war  had  begun  which 
was  Edward's  reward  for  interfering  in  a  Scottish  dynastic 
quarrel.  The  Scots,  moreover,  had  found  eager  allies  in  the 
French,  who  had  their  own  perpetual  quarrel  on  with  their  rivals 
across  the  Channel,  and  Philip  IV. 's  fleets  were  threatening  the 
English  coasts.  The  king  was  beset  on  all  sides.  In  his  need  he 
appealed  to  the  common  interest  of  the  nation.  "It  is  a  most  just 
law,"  he  declared,  *Hhat  what  concerns  all  should  be  approved  by 
all,  and  that  common  dangers  should  be  met  by  measures  provided 
in  common."  The  war  was  neither  the  king's  war,  nor  the  barons' 
war;  all  classes  were  interested,  and  all  classes  ought  to  bear  their 
share  of  its  burdens.  Accordingly,  he  summoned  not  only  the  great 
churchmen  as  heretofore,  but  also  directed  that  there  be  sent  one 
proctor  from  the  chapter  of  each  cathedral,  and  two  proctors  from 
the  clergy  of  each  diocese.  In  the  same  manner  he  summoned  the 
great  barons  as  heretofore,  bat  directed  also  that  two  knights  be 


BIO  THE    CHARTER   CONFIRMED  [edwaed  i. 

sent  from  each  shire  and  that  two  citizens  be  sent  from  each  city  or 
borough.  For  the  first  time  all  the  different  elements  of  the  nation 
represented  by  the  free  subjects  of  the  king,  met  together  in  a 
national  council,  coming,  at  the  king's  request,  so  constituted  that 
the  representatives  of  each  estate  should  have  power  to  levy  a 
tax  upon  all  the  members  of  that  estate.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  the  results  fully  justified  the  confidence  of  the  king.  The 
First  Estate,  the  clergy,  voted  a  tenth  of  their  movables ;  the  Second 
Estate  composed  of  the  great  barons  and  knights,^  an  eleventh; 
while  the  representatives  of  the  towns  outdid  them  all  in  loyalty 
by  voting  a  seventh. 

In  the  Model  Parliament  Edward  had  established  a  pre- 
cedent which  was  to  be  invaluable  in  the  future.  The  clergy 
apparently  did,  not  take  kindly  to  the  idea  of  merging 
w-ecedent  their  independence  in  a  secular  parliament,  and  pre- 
ferred rather  to  vote  their  gifts  through  the  two  great 
archiepiscopal  convocations  of  Canterbury  and  York,  so  that  the 
lower  clergy  soon  ceased  to  attend  the  parliaments  altogether.  The 
towns,  however,  had  no  other  common  organization,  and  with 
loyal  enthusiasm  they  hailed  the  recognition  of  their  importance 
and  the  opportunity  of  bearing  their  share  of  the  public  burdens. 
They  were  still  separated  from  the  knights  of  the  shire; 
their  right  to  a  share  in  the  general  deliberations  of  the  council 
was  by  no  means  clearly  defined  or  fully  recognized ;  yet  they  had 
entered  parliament  to  stay,  their  wealth  and  the  needs  of  the  crown 
were  guarantees  that  they  should  receive  a  hearing. 

Edward's  relations  to  the  church  mark  as  complete  a  departure 
from  the  policy  of  his  father  as  his  relations  to  the  national 
council.  He  was  slow,  however,  to  break  with  the 
m^cMvrch^  papacy.  He  needed  the  support  of  the  clergy,  and 
the  popes  generally  were  not  averse  to  the  heavy 
grants  which  Edward  continued  to  demand.  But  in  1294 
Boniface  VIII.  began  his  reign;  a  man  whose  ideals  of  papal 
prerogative  were  taken  from  the  era  of  Innocent  III.  and  who 
seemed  unconscious  of  the  deep  currents  of  national  life  which  the 

1  The  knights  of  the  shire  still  deliberated  and  voted  with  the  great 
barons. 


1296]  EDWARD   AND   THE    CHURCH  311 

thirteenth  century  had  set  in  motion.  In  1296  he  issued  the 
famous  bull,  Clericis  Laicos^  which  forbade  the  clergy  to  pay 
any  taxes  to  the  temporal  authority.  The  measure  was  primarily 
aimed  at  Philip  IV.  of  France;  but  it  affected  every  state  of 
Europe  and  fairly  opened  the  question  of  the  place  of  the  church 
in  the  new  national  systems.  Were  the  clergy  of  England  or  of 
France  a  part  of  the  nation  and  liable  to  its  duties  as  subjects  of 
the  national  king,  or  were  they  solely  the  subjects  of  the  pope,  and 
as  such  were  they  and  theirs  exempt  from  the  exactions  of  the 
national  government?  It  was  really  the  old  issue  which  Henry  II. 
and  Becket  had  fought  out,  only  in  a  new  form.  Then  it  had  been 
the  independence  of  the  church  courts  which  was  at  stake ;  now 
it  was  the  independence  of  the  church  treasury.  Archbishop 
Winchelsey  supported  the  papal  pretension,  and  when  in  1290  a 
parliament  modeled  on  that  of  the  preceding  year,  was  called  at 
Bury  St.  Edmunds,  the  clergy  under  the  archbishop's  leadership 
refused  to  make  a  contribution  and  presented  the  pope's  bull  in 
defense.  '*We  have  two  lords,"  said  the  archbishop,  '*the 
one  spiritual,  the  other  temporal.  Obedience  is  due  to  both,  but 
most  to  the  spiritual."  Edward's  reply  was  characteristic  of  the 
man.  He  did  not  threaten  like  John  to  put  out  the  eyes,  or  slifc 
the  noses  of  disobedient  churchmen ;  he  simply  applied  their  own 
doctrine.  If  they  would  not  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  gov- 
ernment, they  should  be  treated  as  aliens  and  not  have  the 
protection  of  subjects.  In  other  words,  they  should  have  no 
rights  in  the  king's  courts.  The  sentence  amounted  to  a 
decree  of  outlawry.  The  clergy  might  be  robbed  or  mal- 
treated or  even  murdered  with  impunity,  for  the  civil  author- 
ity refused  to  punish.  The  results  reveal  how  rapidly  Europe 
was  receding  from  the  ideals  of  the  past.  The  time  had  been 
when  even  emperors  quailed  before  the  ban  of  the  church ;  but 
now  compared  with  the  excommunication  of  the  king  the  ban 
of  the  church  was  only  so  much  stage  thunder.  Before  the  king's 
ban  the  church  bowed  its  head  and  the  proudest  prelate  was  silent. 
Edward  followed  up -the  sentence  of  outlawry  with  the  further 
threat,  that  unless  the  clergy  yielded  before  Easter,  he  would  him- 
self confiscate  their  lands,  and  the  clergy  knew  the  king  too  well 


312  THE    CHARTER    CONFIRMED  [edwabd  l. 

to  hope  for  one  moment  that  his  threat  would  not  be  carried  out. 
Winchelsey  personally  refused  to  yield  and  sacrificed  his  lay 
estates,  but  he  was  wise  enough  to  advise  his  clergy  to  make  the 
best  terms  they  could  individually.  They  were  quick  to  profit  by 
the  permission  and  soon  made  their  peace  with  the  king,  for  the  most 
part,  paying  the  money  under  the  name  of  gifts,  sometimes  passing 
it  through  the  hands  of  a  third  party  and  sometimes  leaving  it  at 
a  convenient  place  where  the  royal  officers  might  find  it. 

The  new  struggle  with  France  had  reopened  the  old  question 
of  service  on  the  continent.  The  French  king  had  naturally 
selected  Gascony  as  the  first  object  of  attack,  and 
Quarrel  of  Edward  proposed  to  send  his  earls  to  defend  Gascony 
his  barons,  while  he  in  person  led  another  expedition  to  Flanders. 
The  English  barons,  however,  felt  little  interest  in  Gas- 
cony. Wales  and  Scotland  were  near  at  home  and  the  English 
were  always  ready  to  respond  to  a  call  to  defend  their  borders  or 
cripple  their  hereditary  foes  by  counter  invasion ;  but  it  mattered 
little  to  them  whether  Gascony  were  held  by  an  English  king 
or  not.  In  an  assembly  of  the  nobles  in  1297,  the  king  laid 
his  plans  before  his  earls  and  barons,  but  was  met  by  the  protest 
of  Koger  Bigod,  Earl  of  Norfolk,  the  Marshal,  and  Humfrey  de 
Bohun,  Earl  of  Hereford,  the  Constable,  who  fell  back  on  their 
traditional  rights  and  refused  to  leave  England  save  as  they  fol- 
lowed the  king's  person.  '*By  God,  Sir  Earl,"  cried  the  angry 
king,  '*you  shall  either  go  or  hang."  "By  that  same  oath,  Sir 
King,"  coolly  answered  Bigod,  "I  shall  neither  go  nor  hang." 
The  assembly  broke  up  in  confusion.  The  two  earls  called  their 
people  to  arms  and  were  soon  at  the  head  of  fifteen  hundred  men. 
It  was  the  crisis  of  Edward's  reign.  His  ambitious  foreign 
policy  had  imposed  a  serious  burden  upon  the  nation.  The  splen- 
did response  of  the  year  1295  had  been  followed  by  the 
thebaroL  P^'^test  of  the  clergy  in  1296;  and  now  in  1297  came 
the  yet  more  stubborn  and  dangerous  protest  of  the 
barons.  For  the  refusal  of  the  earls  to  go  to  Gascony  was  only  a 
pretext  to  cover  the  growing  suspicion  of  the  Estates  of  the  king, 
and  the  feeling  that  by  these  aids  and  exactions  dangerous  prec- 
edents were  to  be  left  to  the  future  that  might  one  day  put  in 


CONFIEMATION    or   THE    CHARTERS  313 

jeopardy  the  rights  and  privileges  which  the  fathers  had  won. 
The  king,  however,  was  in  no  mind  to  yield  or  renounce  his 
proposed  expedition,  and  in  order  to  raise  the  funds  which  the  . 
parliament  had  failed  to  grant,  he  seized  the  wool  of  the  mer- 
chants and  made  requisitions  upon  the  shires  on  the  basis  of 
former  grants.  He  also  issued  orders  for  all  who  held  lands  of  £20 
a  year  or  upwards  to  meet  in  London  under  arms  on  July  7. 
Bigod  and  Bohun  refused  to  move ;  but  the  king,  by  promising  to 
confirm  the  charters,  persuaded  the  leaders,  who  had  come  together 
for  the  military  levy,  to  consent  to  a  grant  of  one-eighth  of  the  mov- 
ables of  the  barons  and  knights,  and  one-fifth  of  the  towns.  The 
action  was  altogether  too  much  in  the  spirit  of  Edward's  predeces- 
sors, and  Bigod  and  Bohun  at  once  sent  to  Edward  a  formal 
protest  in  the  name  of  '*the  whole  community  of  the  land." 
They  declared  that  the  numerous  tallages  and  other  exactions  were 
devouring  their  resources,  and  that  they  were  utterly  ruined. 
Then  in  remarkably  bold  and  clear-spoken  words  they  proceeded 
to  demand  that  the  Great  Charter  and  the  Charter  of  the  Forests 
be  confirmed,  and  pointedly  hinted  that  with  Scotland  hostile  it 
would  be  wise  for  the  king  to  stay  at  home. 

The  document  reached  Edward  when  he  was  on  the  point  of 
embarking  for  the  war.  Such  outspoken  words  from  subjects  had 
been  common  enough  in  his  father's  day,  but  had  not 
oft^^chaf-^  been  heard  before  in  Edward's  reign.  His  own  sense 
hers^mn!^'  ^^  justice  told  him  that  he  had  gone  too  far,  and  his 
better  wisdom  would  not  allow  him  to  come  to  an  open 
rupture  with  his  barons.  Yet  he  was  not  ready  to  submit,  or  give 
up  his  plan  of  invading  France.  He  avoided  a  direct  answer, 
therefore,  on  the  plea  that  lie  could  not  act  without  his  council,  and 
that  it  was  impossible  then  to  bring  them  together.  The  two  earls, 
however,  were  not  to  be  put  off  by  evasion,  and  when  the  departure 
of  the  king  assured  them  that  their  petition  was  to  be  ignored, 
they  at  once  marched  to  London  and  forbade  the  royal  officers  to 
collect  the  eighth,  which  had  been  granted  at  the  London  levy,  and, 
further,  protested  against  the  seizure  of  the  wool.  Edward  had  left 
his  son  with  his  councillors  to  do  the  best  they  could  in  quieting  the 
barons.     But  to  do  this  they  found  that  they  must  summon  a 


314  THE   CHARTER   CONFIRMED  [edward  L 

regular  parliament  and  secure  the  aid  in  a  lawful  manner.  The  par- 
liament, however,  came  together,  not  to  grant  the  aid,  but  to  insist 
upon  the  promised  confirmation  of  the  charters.  The  original  taxing 
clause,  which  had  been  omitted  from  William  Marshal's  reissue  of 
the  Great  Charter,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  never  been  formally 
restored,  although  the  crown  had  since  generally  recognized  the 
principle.  The  earls,  therefore,  insisted  upon  the  introduction  of 
several  new  clauses,  by  which  they  recognized  the  ordinary  aids 
fixed  by  ancient  feudal  custom  but  demand  that  the  king  should 
again  pledge  himself  not  to  claim  as  a  right  aids  which  the 
people  had  granted  of  their  own  will,  and  that  such  aids  should  be 
taken  only  by  the  ^'common  consent  of  the  realm."  The  kiug 
had  also  taken  advantage  of  the  vast  increase  in  the  wool  trade  to 
levy  a  customs-duty — the  maltote^ — which  amounted  to  a  virtual 
confiscation  of  a  large  part  of  the  profits  of  the  trade.  The  earls 
insisted  that  the  king  should  renounce  the  maltote  and  should 
pledge  himself  and  his  heirs  not  again  "to  take  any  such  thing,  or 
any  other,  without  the  common  consent  and  good  will  of  the 
commonalty  of  the  realm."  The  Great  Custom  of  1275,  however, 
was  to  be  retained.  In  this  form  the  charters  were  confirmed  by 
the  council  in  the  name  of  the  absent  king,  and  then  sent  to  him 
at  Ghent  to  be  ratified.^  The  victory  of  the  earls  was  final. 
Edward  subsequently,  like  John,  obtained  from  the  pope  a  dis- 
pensation which  relieved  him  of  the  obligation  of  keeping  his 
pledge,  but  he  dared  not  make  use  of  it.  The  barons  at  last  had 
found  the  right  weapon  by  which  to  hold  the  king  to  his  word ; 
and  for  several  years  to  come,  they  insisted  upon  the  renewal  of 
the  king's  pledges  as  the  condition  of  each  grant. 

The  Confirmation  of  the  Charters  completed  the  work  which 
Langton  and  the  barons  had  begun  at  Eunnymede.     What  had 

been  "recognized  as  a  usage,  now  became  a  matter  of 
Langtm         written  right."     Henceforth,  no  general  tax  could  be 

legally  taken  from  the  nation  without  the  consent  of 
its  representatives".  The  constitutional  importance  of  this  prin- 
ciple can  not  be  overestimated.  It  made  the  king  dependent  for 
his  power  upon  the  good  will  of  his  people.     It  made  it  impossible 


1297]  Langton's  work  completed  315 

for  an  evil  king  who  once  lost  the  sympathy  of  the  nation,  to 
carry  out  his  designs  by  legal  methods.  It  furnished  the  vantage 
ground  from  which  the  nation,  in  working  out  the  problem  of  con- 
stitutional government,  might  take  the  next  great  upward  step  by 
establishing  the  responsibility  of  the  king's  ministers  to  the  parlia- 
ment. 


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PAKT  in— NATIONAL  ENGLAND 

THE   ERA   OF   NATIONAL  AWAKENINO 
BOOK  I— SOCIAL  AWAKENING 

FROM  1297  TO  1485 


CHAPTER   I 

THE   NEW   ERA;  EDWARD   I.    AND    THE   BEGINNING   OF  THE  WARS 

OF   FOREIGN    CONQUEST.      THE    STRUGGLE   OF 

THE   SCOTS   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

EDWARD]!.,  12Sn-t3m 

THE  DISPUTED  SUCCESSION  TO  THE  SCOTTISH  THRONE 
David  I. 
Henry,  Earl  oflHimtingdon 


Haron 
Hastings 


William  the  Lion  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon 

1165-1214  I 

I  1 1 : 1 

Alexanuek  II.       Margaret  =  Alan  Isabella  =  Robert  Bruce     Ada  =  Henry, 

1214-1249  I  of  Galloway  I    of  Annandale 

Alexander  III.  Devorguilla  =  John  Balliol  Robert  Bnice, 

1249-1286  ! (/.  1295  Henry  Hastings 

I  1 f  I  I 

Margaret = Eric  of  Margaret       John  Balliol,  Robert  Bruce,  John  Hastings 

I  Norway  of  Galloway        k.  1293-1296  d.  1305 

Margaret,  the  John  Comyn,  Robkrt  L, 

Maid  of  Norway,        murdered  by  k.  1306-1329 

d.  1290.  Bruce,  1306 

A  new  era  in  English  history  begins  with  the  last  years  of 
Edward's  reign.     With  the  determination  of  the  internal  structure 

of  the  government,  English  kings  began  to  adopt  what 
n^&^a^  ^^  ^^^  modern  politician  would  call  a  more  brilliant  policy 

plunging  the  nation  into  a  long  series  of  extensive 
foreign  wars,  which  in  turn  reacted  powerfully  upon  all  phases  of 
national  life,  quickening  national  feeling,  stimulating  new  forms 
of  economic  activity,  and  ending  at  last  in  social  upheaval  and 
civil  strife.     The  remote  issues  of  the  era  were  also  as  marked  as 

317 


318  TH^    NEW    ERA  [ed^ardI. 

they  were  varied  and  far-reaching.  The  general  intellectual  and 
moral  awakening  expressed  itself,  on  the  one  hand,  in  a  deepening 
hatred  of  the  foreigner  and  a  growing  estrangement  from  the 
papacy;  on  the  other,  in  the  creation  of  a  distinctive  English 
literature,  a  stronger  life  in  the  universities,  and  the  quickening 
interest  of  the  people  in  public  affairs.  The  rapid  development  of 
the  economic  resources  of  the  nation  stimulated  the  growth  of 
cities  and  the  expansion  of  commerce,  accompanied  by  the  disap- 
pearance of  villainage  and  the  opening  of  the  first  breach  between 
"labor  and  capital."  The  creation  of  a  national  military  spirit  in 
contrast  with  the  old  class  militarism  of  feudalism,  born  of  such 
victories  as  Crecy  and  Agincourt,  laid  the  foundation  of  England's 
military  prestige  and  opened  the  age-long  struggle  for  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  seas.  Parliament  also  rapidly  assumed  unity,  form, 
and  dignity,  becoming  the  controlling  instrument  of  government; 
a  position  which  it  surrendered  only  after  the  nobles  had  shattered 
their  strength  in  the  dynastic  struggles  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
Premonitions  of  this  new  life  had  long  since  been  felt  by  the 
nation.  The  people  had  taken  a  profound  interest  in  the  consti- 
tutional struggles  of  the  thirteenth  century.  They  had 
PrertKmitwm  fgjt  the  Conflict  between  the  unvoiced  aspirations  of  the 

of  new  life.  .... 

age  and  the  institutions  which  were  supposed  to  embody 
its  best  thought.  At  a  time  when  the  temporal  glories  of  the 
papacy  were  approaching  zenith,  when  bishops  had  become 
worldly  politicians,  and  monasteries  had  declined  into  rich  land- 
owning institutions  and  love  of  wealth  and  ease  had  obscured  their 
original  purpose,  the  old  primitive  spirit  of  Christianity  was  strug- 
gling for  utterance  in  the  saintly  lives  of  sacrifice  and 
The  Fran-      service  of  the  friars,  the  "Salvationists"  of  the  thir- 

ciscans.  ' 

teenth  century.  New  economic  and  social  conditions 
were  crowding  the  cities  with  a  helpless  and  dependent  population. 
Sanitation  was  practically  unknown.  Surface  wells  and  surface 
drainage  were  the  rule.  Habitations  were  small,  dingy,  and  over- 
crowded. Town  government  was  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  gilds 
or  the  communes,  the  members  of  which  did  not  fail  to  provide  for 
their  own  families  by  seeking  high  and  airy  quarters  where  they 
reared  their  comfortable  dwellings ;  but  below  them  lay  the  slums, 


1224]  THE     FRIARS  319 

never  an  inconsiderable  part  of  the  medieval  city,  where  poverty 
and  vice  gravitated  in  hopeless  squalor.  Neither  the  town  organi- 
zation nor  the  church  felt  any  responsibility  for  the  condition  of 
this  outcast  class.  Beyond  the  isolated  efforts  of  individuals, 
little  was  done  to  alleviate  their  condition.  New  forms  of  dis- 
ease also  appeared,  conspicuously  the  leprosy  which  had  been 
brought  back  from  the  Crusades ;  diseases  that  fattened  in  filthy 
lanes  and  crowded  quarters,  appalling  in  hideousness  and  fatality. 
Into  these  stews  of  wretchedness  came  the  *'Gray  Brothers,"  the 
followers  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  who  had  renounced  home  and 
kindred  that  they  might  care  for  the  outcast  poor.  In  1224  the 
first  of  the  Gray  Friars  reached  England.  Heretofore  the  monks 
had  sought  the  silence  and  seclusion  of  the  wilderness,  where  they 
might  spend  their  lives  in  a  kind  of  selfish  devotion,  undisturbed 
by  the  sad  sights  of  the  world  which  surrounded  them.  But  the 
brothers  of  St.  Francis  sought  rather  the  very  centers  of  popula- 
tion, where  the  human  hive  swarmed  and  reeked.  Hither  they 
came,  two  by  two,  without  scrip  or  purse,  living  like  the  lazzaroni 
whom  they  sought  to  help,  sleeping  under  arches  or  lying  on  the 
church  porches  among  the  beggars,  bringing  with  them  their  Gospel 
of  good  Samaritanism.  Their  chief  settlement  was  fixed  in  New- 
gate, near  the  butchers'  shambles,  in  a  spot  which  went  by  the 
unsavory  name  of  "Stinking  Lane." 

From  the  first  the  growth  of  the  order  was  rapid.  Godly  men 
felt  the  reality  of  religion  such  as  this,  and  many  hailed  the  oppor- 
tunity of  reaching  a  helping  hand  to  the  suffering  about 
offhXder.  ^^^^-  The  people  recognized  the  genuineness  of  the 
new  spirit  that  was  taking  hold  of  the  church  and  gave 
the  friars  their  confidence  without  reserve.  Good  Bishop 
Grosseteste  of  Lincoln  wrote  of  their  work  to  the  pope:  '^0  that 
your  holiness  could  see  how  devoutly  and  humbly  the  people  run 
to  hear  the  word  of  life,  to  confess  their  sins,  to  be  instructed  in 
the  rules  for  daily  life;  how  much  profit  the  monks  take  from  imi- 
tation of  them." 

With  the  rapid  growth  of  the  order,  its  usefulness  extended 
into  new  fields.  St.  Francis  had  sought  to  avoid  the  temptations 
which  had  turned  aside  the  older  orders,  by  discouraging  learn- 


320  THE   NEW    ERA  [edwabd  L 

ing  among  his  followers  as  he  had  forbidden  wealth.  But  the 
efforts  of  the  brothers  to  care  for  the  sick  and  improve  the  sani- 
tary conditions  which  surrounded  the  poor,  led  them 
Suence^  almost  against  their  will  to  take  up  the  study  of  medicine 
and  the  physical  sciences;  while  the  wide  popularity  of 
their  preaching  and  their  constant  warfare  against  the  strange 
opinions  which  Crusaders  had  brought  back  from  the  east,  com- 
pelled them  to  study  theology  and  logic.  Into  these  new  fields 
they  entered  with  the  same  consecrated  fervor,  and  could  soon 
boast  the  greatest  doctors  of  the  age.  Eoger  Bacon,  the 
precursor  of  the  modern  scientist,  was  of  their  number.  Many 
became  teachers  in  the  universities,  where,  as  at  Oxford,  they 
helped  to  mould  the  thought  of  the  coming  generation.  They 
were  also  quick  to  see  the  interest  of  their  wards,  the  people,  in 
the  great  political  struggles  of  the  century,  and  did  not  hesitate  to 
plunge  into  the  strife  for  the  Charter.  It  was  largely  due  to  their 
influence  that  Earl  Simon  was  so  well  understood  and  supported 
by  the  common  people. 

Side  by  side  with  the  Franciscans,  and  hardly  less  famous, 
toiled  the  Dominicans.  St.  Dominic,  the  founder  of  the  order, 
had  felt  the  shortcoming  of  the  church  in  another 
icans  reach  direction.  He  had  seen  the  growth  of  heresy  and  un- 
*  belief  among  the  higher  orders,  and  had  justly  traced 
its  cause  to  the  prevailing  worldliness  of  the  church  and  the  heart- 
less indifference  of  its  agents  to  the  needs  of  the  people.  He  pro- 
posed to  establish  an  order  of  popular  preachers,  who  should  meet 
heretic  or  infidel  upon  his  own  ground,  and  prove  by  devotion 
and  piety  that  Christianity  was  something  more  than  a  system  by 
which  gorgeous  bishops  could  be  enriched  or  abbots  fattened.  The 
Dominicans  reached  England  three  years  before  the  Franciscans, 
but  heresy  had  never  taken  such  hold  upon  the  English  as  Upon  the 
people  of  southern  France,  and  hence  the  Dominicans,  the  **'Black 
Friars,"  never  became  as  popular  or  as  influential  in  England  as 
the  Franciscans,  the  Gray  Friars. 

The  universities  also  felt  the  new  life.  The  gathering  of  poor 
scholars  at  Oxford  swelled  rapidly  during  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  course  of  study  was  still  meagre  and  narrow.     Latin  was  the 


1238-1264]  THE   UNIVERSITIES  321 

language  of  the  class  room.  Greek  was  practically  unknown  and 
Aristotle  reached  the  student  only  through  garbled  translations. 
Logic  was  the  backbone  of  the  educational  system  and 
fiius'^^^^^  dialectics  was  largely  pursued  for  its  own  sake.  Hair- 
splitting became  a  science,  and  the  search  for  truth  was 
sacrificed  to  the  love  of  bandying  empty  words.  Yet  thinking  men, 
like  Koger  Bacon,  felt  the  barrenness  of  tlie  methods  in  vogue,  and 
urged  not  only  a  freer  use  of  existing  knowledge,  but  the  search 
into  wider  fields.  Student  life  and  student  thought,  always  rough, 
free,  and  hearty,  was  inclined  to  outrun  the  dignified  pace  of  the 
teachers,  and,  often  in  closer  contact  witli  the  people  than  the 
church,  refused  to  be  bound  by  existing  traditions,  readily  respond- 
ing with  the  reckless  fervor  of  youth  to  the  stimulation  of  new  and 
high  ideals.  Hence  student  infhience  was  generally  to  be  found  on 
the  side  of  the  man  who  durst  question  the  right  of  the  feudal  lord 
or  the  authority  of  the  wealthy  clergy.  In  1238  the  students  of 
Oxford  openly  attacked  the  papal  legate,  and  in  12G4  the  whole 
student  body  turned  out  to  join  the  party  of  Earl  Simon. 

While  the  poor  were  suffering  and  the  pious  friars  were  grap- 
pling with  the  serious  problems  of  the  age,  the  rich  were  leading 
an  unreal  life  which  they  stimulated  by  mock  sentiment 
and  by  turning  serious  matters  into  play.  The  early 
Crusades  had  provided  the  wild  baronage  of  Europe  with  a  real 
sentiment  in  which  they  sought  to  realize  the  **ideal  of  Christian 
knighthood."  The  champion  of  the  cross  found  ample  scope  for 
the  cultivation  of  all  the  noblest  traits  of  manhood  in  facing  hard- 
ship and  danger  in  defense  of  the  poor  and  th6  oppressed,  often 
to  the  sacrifice  of  life  itself.  The  noblest  ideals  were  set  forth  in 
the  solemn  and  impressive  ceremonies  by  which  the  knight  was 
ushered  into  the  duties  of  his  order.  lie  bound  himself  to 
observe  the  laws  of  honor,  to  fight  fairly,  to  protect  the  church,  to 
defend  women,  and  to  act  with  courtesy  to  his  equals  and  with 
deference  to  his  superiors.  But  with  the  decline  of  the  religious 
fervor  which  attended  the  early  Crusades  the  vows  of  chivalry 
lost  their  significance.  Its  noble  sentiment  became  mere  senti- 
mentalism,  which  failed  to  gloss  the  heartless  brutality  of  the 
noble.     The  hero  became  a  "gentleman,"  who  prided  himself  on 


322  THE   NEW    ERA  [edward  i. 

his  class,  and  despised  and  abased  those  who  were  socially  beneath 
him.  His  fine  sentiments  lost  their  meaning  in  the  narrow  self- 
ishness of  a  class  spirit  which  felt  no  pity  and  recognized  no  duty 
toward  peasant  or  bnrgher.  For  a  time  the  great  constitutional 
struggle  of  the  thirteenth  century  furnished  him  with  a  true 
moral  motive,  but  too  often  his  position  was  determined  by  the 
selfish  interest  of  the  hour  rather  than  by  any  true  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  liberty,  and  if  he  drew  near  to  the  commons,  it  was 
because  he  needed  the  help  of  the  burgher's  pike  or  the  burgher's 
purse.  When  the  reign  of  Edward  drew  to  its  close  the  ques- 
tions which  had  roused  men  like  Earl  Simon  were  settled,  and 
in  the  wars  of  the  new  century  the  knight  rarely  felt  any 
higher  motive  than  glory  or  privilege,  or  worse,  plunder. 
Chivalry  became  more  polished,  more  gorgeous,  but  also  more 
hollow,  more  heartless.  It  sought  its  victories  not  in  conflicts 
waged  in  defense  of  virtue  or  weakness  or  principle,  but  at 
grand  tournaments,  where  bodies  of  knights  or  squires  joined  in 
combat  for  the  purpose  of  displaying  their  skill  or  courage.  Fre- 
quently the  tournament  proper  was  varied  with  the  joust  where 
two  knights  engaged  each  other  with  blunted  spears,  the  one 
attempting  to  hurl  the  other  from  his  horse.  Such  combats  were 
always  attended  with  much  danger  and  frequently  ended  fatally. 
The  lamented  Henry  II.  of  France  lost  his  life  as  a  sacrifice  to  the 
popular  sport,  and  Edward  1.  of  England,  while  on  his  eastern 
expedition,  narrowly  escaped  paying  the  same  forfeit  in 
ofChaion,"     a  tournament  at  Ohalon,  long  known  as  the  "Little 

1273. 

Battle  of  Chalon,"  where  after  a  desperate  struggle 
and  the  loss  of  many  lives,  he  and  his  party  finally  came  off  victo- 
rious. At  these  bloody  orgies,  ladies  presided  and  awarded  the 
prizes.  Kenilworth  became  famous  as  the  place  where  Edward 
held  his  "Bound  Table"  in  imitation  of  the  imaginary  glories  of 
the  fabled  Arthur's  court.  Hither  flocked  the  gay  and  frivolous 
worldlings  of  the  court,  the  king,  his  knights  and  their  hidies, 
"clad  all  in  silk."  The  climax  of  this  hollow  extravagance 
was  reached  during  the  reign  of  Edward  HI. ;  a  fitting  intro- 
duction to  the  era  of  luxury  and  cruelty  which  followed.  Earlier 
kings,  like    Henry   II.,    had    forbidden    tournaments   altogether, 


SCOTLAND    AND    THE    ENGLISH    CKOWN  323 

but  Richard  had  not  hesitated  to  license  them  for  money.  Openly 
encouraged  by  such  kings  as  Edward  I.  and  Edward  III.,  the 
tilt-yard  remained  for  nearly  three  centuries  the  chief  amusement 
of  the  nobility. 

The  era  of  foreign  wars  began  with  the  attempt  of  Edward  to 
subjugate  Scotland.  Ireland  had  already  been  partly  subdued  and 
placed  under  English  governors.  The  Welsh  had  beeu 
nina^(7ihc  crushed  and  the  cantreds  organized  into  English  shires 
s'coiiand^^^^  and  hundreds.  These  early  successes  of  Edward  as  well  as 
his  fondness  for  order  and  harmony,  naturally  suggested 
a  single  sovereignty  over  the  entire  island  of  Britain.  The  way 
was  opened,  as  in  the  case  of  Wales,  by  a  call  for  a  more  definite 
interpretation  of  the  shadowy  claims  which  English  kings  had  from 
time  to  time  asserted  over  the  kings  of  Scotland.  Edward  was  a 
legalist  by  disposition,  inclined  always  to  insist  upon  his  technical 
rights,  and  without  that  finer  sense  of  justice  so  marked  in  Louis 
IX.  which  made  the  rights  of  others  ever  as  sacred  as  his  own. 
Edward,  moreover,  was  in  possession  of  all  the  vast  resources  of  the 
newly  harmonized  state,  and,  fully  conscious  of  his  strength,  he  was 
the  last  man  to  allow  a  mere  question  of  metes  and  bounds  to  go 
long  unsettled. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  the  Scots  were  a  rising  people. 
Goidel,  Briton,  Norse,  and  English  were  at  last  merging  into  a  sin- 
gle kingdom.  The  relation  of  their  kings  to  the  English 
kiiwdUynu^^'^  court  was  ucccssarily  intimate.  They  had  frequently 
intermarried  with  the  English  royal  house;  had  held 
lands  south  of  the  border  as  vassals  of  the  English  king,  and  as 
English  barons  had  not  hesitated  to  take  part  in  his  quarrels. 
They  had  also,  even  before  the  Norman  Conquest,  recognized  in 
the  English  king  a  vague  right  of  overlordship  over  the  Scottish 
kingdom.  IIeiu*y  II.  had  brushed  away  all  technical  difficulties  in 
the  treaty  of  Falaise,  by  which  he  had  compelled  William  the 
Lion,  who  was  then  his  prisoner,  to  become  his  liegeman  for  Scot- 
land and  all  his  other  lands.  But  fifteen  years  later,  for  a  pay- 
ment of  10,000  marks,  Richard  had  restored  to  the  King  of  Scots 
the  border  castles  which  Henry  had  retained  as  security,  and  released 
him  and  his  heirs  forever  from  the  homage  promised  for  Scotland. 


324  THE    NEW    ERA  [edward  l. 

The  later  English  kings,  however,  had  not  regarded  the  matter  as 
finally  adjusted,  and  although,  in  the  century  following,  the  royal 
families  of  the  two  countries  had  remained  upon  more  or  less 
friendly  terms,  they  had  more  than  once  raised  the  question  of 
overlordship. 

In  1286  Alexander  III.  died.     His  daughter  Margaret  had  mar- 
ried Eric  King  of  Norway,    and  their  daughter,  known  as   the 

"Maid  of  Norway,"  was  the  sole  descendant  of  Alex- 
successuni,      ander.     The  claims  of  the  little  granddaughter,  also  a 

Margaret,  were  recognized  by  the  Scots.  Edward  saw 
at  once  the  opportunity  for  a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  unadjusted 
claims  of  the  English  crown,  and  proposed  the  marriage  of  Mar- 
garet to  his  own  son,  Edward  of  Carnarvon,  then  a  lad  about 
Margaret's  age.  The  Scottish  nobles  were  not  averse  to  a  union  so 
much  in  accord  with  recent  traditions  of  both  kingdoms  ^  and  so 
promising  in  many  mutual  advantages.  It  was  stipulated,  how- 
ever, by  the  Scottish  estates  that  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  should 
remain  separate  with  its  own  laws  and  customs.     These  conditions 

were  formally  accepted  by  Edward  at  Brigham.  But 
Brigham,       unfortunately  the  little  Maid  of  JNorway  did  not  sur- 

1290. 

vive  to  reach  England,  and  the  fine  plan  of  Edward, 
which  would  have  brought  England  and  Scotland  under  one  crown 
three  centuries  before  the  time  of  James  Stuart,  was  blasted  in  the 
bud. 

A  swarm  of  claimants  for  the  vacant  throne  now  sprang  up. 
A  definite  law  of  succession  had  never  been  clearly  established  in 

Scotland,  but  the    superior  importance  was  ffenerallv 

TUe  judgment  .-,<.-,.         ,  -,  -,  ,     <.  -rx      • -,       ,  "^ 

of  Edward,  recognizcd  of  claims  based  on  descent  from  David,  the 
earl  of  Huntingdon,  a  younger  brother  of  William  the 
Lion,  and  a  contemporary  of  Henry  II.  and  his  two  immediate 
successors.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  earl  of  Huntingdon  was 
represented  by  three  male  descendants :  John  Balliol,  Robert  Bruce, 
and  John  Hastings.  Of  these  John  Balliol  was  the  grandson  of 
Margaret,  the  eldest  daughter  of  David ;  John  Hastings,  the  lord 
of  Abergavenny,  was  the  grandson  of  a  tliird  daughter ;  but  Bruce 

1  Edward's  sister  Margaret  had  been  the  wife  of  Alexander  III. ;  hig 
aunt  Joan  the  wife  of  Alexander  II. 


1291,  1292]  THE   JUDGMENT   OF   EDWARD  325 

was  the  son  of  a  second  daughter  and  so  a  degree  nearer  to  David 
than  either.  According  to  the  custom  of  feudal  inheritances, 
when  the  holder  left  daughters  only,  the  fief  was  divided  equally 
among  them  as  co-heiresses.  Hastings  claimed  that  the  law 
should  be  applied  in  this  case,  and  that  heirs  of  David's  daughters 
should  share  the  kingdom  equally.  Bruce  and  Balliol,  however, 
advanced  each  his  right  to  the  whole  kingdom;  based,  the  one 
upon  his  nearer  descent  from  David,  and  the  other  upon  the  fact 
that  he  represented  the  eldest  line.  In  the  absence  of  precedent, 
one  claim  was  probably  as  valid  as  another.  All  three  of  the 
claimants  were  more  English  than  Scotch  in  feeling;  they  had  also 
borne  their  part  in  English  politics,  Bruce  having  been  chief  justice 
of  the  King's  Bench.  The  contestants,  therefore,  naturally 
appealed  to  Edward,  and  in  the  long  existing  confidence  which 
bad  prevailed  between  the  two  courts,  felt  no  hesitation  in  recog- 
nizing him  as  overlord.  In  1291  Edward  invited  the  nobles  of 
Scotland  to  meet  him  at  Norham,  but  before  he  would  act  as  arbi- 
trator lie  insisted  upon  a  formal  recognition  of  his  position  as 
superior  lord  of  the  Scottish  realm.  Accordingly  he  received  the 
homage  of  the  Scots,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  court  lawyers  pro- 
ceeded to  examine  the  case  with  care  and  deliberation.  The 
decision  was  not  rendered  until  the  next  year,  when  both  Bruce 
and  Hastings  were  set  aside  and  the  kingdom,  undivided,  was 
awarded  to  John  Balliol.  Balliol  straightway  did  homage  to 
Edward  for  the  kingdom  and  was  crowned.  All  parties  apparently 
were  satisfied  with  the  result. 

To  Edward,  however,  the  recognition  of  overlordship  meant 
more   than  a  public  acknowledgment  of    preeminence  in    rank. 

Arguing  from  the  well-established  relations  of  his  own 
of^jiaHsdSm  aut^iority  in  Aquitaine  to  his  French  overlord,  he  held 
ffmrts!^''^^      that  it  was  his  right  to  hear  appeals  from  the  highest 

court  in  Scotland,  and,  the  very  first  year  of  John  Bal- 
liol's  reign,  when  four  Scottish  suitors  appealed  to  Edward  against 
the  decision  of  the  Scottish  courts  he  seized  the  opportunity  to 
put  his  claim  to  the  test,  and  summoned  King  John  to  appear  at 
Westminster  to  answer  the  complaint  of  his  aggrieved  subjects. 
Here  certainly  was  innovation;  an  application  of  feudal  theory 


326  THE    NEW    EKA  [edward  i. 

which  the  high-spirited  Scottish  nobles  were  by  no  means  inclined 
to  accept.  And  although  Balliol  went  to  Westminster  and  pro- 
tested in  person  against  the  usurpation  of  Edward,  his  movements 
were  altogether  too  sluggish  to  satisfy  the  fiery  spirits  whom  he 
had  left  at  home.  His  motives  were  suspected,  and  in  1295  the 
nobles  took  the  administration  out  of  his  hands  altogether  and  put 
it  in  the  hands  of  a  commission,  in  some  such  way  as  the  English 
nobles  had  assumed  control  of  the  government  of  Henry  III. 

Edward,  however,  was  by  no  means  free,  either  to  support  his 
vassal  king,  or  to  intimidate  his  turbulent  rear  vassals  of  Scotland. 
Philip  IV.,  a  very  different  man  from  the  just  and 
with^France!  P^^ific  Louis,  was  uow  upon  the  throne  of  France; 
ambitious,  treacherous,  and  full  of  guile,  he  only  waited 
an  opportunity  to  complete  the  work  of  Philip  11. ,  by  shaking  the 
English  from  their  last  hold  on  the  Garonne.  A  special  oppor- 
tunity for  making  mischief,  moreover,  had  been  offered  by  the 
chronic  hostility  of  the  Norman  and  Gascon  sailors.  The  distinc- 
tions between  lawful  trade  and  piracy  were  hardly  as  yet  under- 
stood, and  the  wine  ships  coming  from  Gascony  to  England  were 
the  favorite  prey  of  the  Norman  ship-masters.  The  Cinque  Ports, 
the  great  trading  towns  of  southern  England,  naturally  took  the 
part  of  the  Gascons.  Eeprisals  were  made  on  both  sides,  and  in 
1293  the  affair  came  to  a  head  in  a  great  sea  fight  in  the  harbor  of 
St.  Mahe  in  Brittany,  in  which  a  fleet  of  Normans, 
St.  Make,  Flemings,  and  French,  engaged  a  fleet  of  English,  Gas- 
cons, and  Irish.  The  Normans  and  their  allies  were 
completely  overwhelmed,  their  ships  sunk,  and  fifteen  thousand 
lives  sacrificed.  Philip  naturally  was  not  inclined  to  let  such  a 
serious  matter  pass  unnoticed,  and  at  once  summoned  Edward  as 
duke  of  Aquitaine  to  appear  in  the  French  court  and  answer  for 
the  conduct  of  his  Gascons.  Edward  neglected  the  summons,  and 
Philip  declared  his  duchy  forfeited.  Ordinarily  such  a  decision 
would  mean  war,  but  Edward,  warned  by  the  growing  restlessness 
of  the  Scots,  was  not  ready  to  plunge  into  a  confiict  with  Philip. 
He,  therefore,  sent  over  his  brother  Edmund,  the  earl  of  Lancas- 
ter, to  represent  him  and  do  what  he  could  by  negotiation.  Philip 
was  gracious  and  suave,  and  tricked  Edmund  into  believing  that 


1296]  FIRST   SCOTTISH    WAR    OF    EDWARD  327 

all  he  sought  was  some  formal  recognition  of  his  authority, 
persuading  him  to  hand  over  the  castles  of  Guienne  to  be  held  for 
forty  days  and  then  returned  again.  But  when  the  forty  days 
were  up,  Philip  canceled  the  agreement  with  Edmund,  poured  his 
troops  into  the  Gascon  country  and  entered  into  an  active  alliance 
with  the  Scots. 

Edward  could  not  refuse  the  challenge  and  prepared  for  war. 
The  usual  Welsh  outbreaks  helped  to  rouse  popular  sentiment,  and 
when  in  1295  Edward  summoned  his  famous  Model 
scfmshWar  P^^-rliament  to  consider  the  difficulties  which  confronted 
%%^^^^^^'  him,  the  nation  responded  with  an  alacrity  and  una- 
nimity never  before  known  in  English  history;  the 
burghers  outdoing  tlie  nobles  and  the  clergy  in  generous  response 
to  the  king's  call  for  money.  Edmund  of  Lancaster  was  dis- 
patched to  the  Garonne,  while  Edward  in  person  led  an  army  into 
Scotland  and  summoned  I^alliol  to  appear  before  him.  But  instead 
of  presenting  himself,  the  unhappy  king  sent  to  Edward  at  New- 
castle a  formal  renunciation  of  the  homage  which  he  had  sworn  in 
1292.  *'The  false  fool,"  cried  Edward,  **if  he  will  not  come  to  us, 
we  will  go  to  him.''  Berwick  fell  in  March.  In  April,  Earl 
Warenne  who  commanded  the  English  advance,  defeated  the  Scots 
on  the  plain  before  Dunbar.  Then  followed  in  quick  succession 
the  surrender  of  Dunbar,  Koxburgh,  Edinburgh,  and  Stirling. 
Finally  the  surrender  of  Balliol  completed  the  speedy  and  unex- 
pected triumph.  Edward  continued  his  march  through  the 
Lowlands,  receiving  the  keys  of  the  Scottish  strongholds  and 
admitting  the  nobles  to  homage.  He  made  Earl  Warenne  guard- 
ian and  then  returned  to  England,  taking  with  him  to  Westmin- 
ster the  famous  stone  of  Scone,  the  traditional  coronation  stone  of 
Scottish  kings. 

Edward's  triumph  apparently  was  final.  Scotland  lay  under 
his  feet,  prostrate,  destitute;  her  strongholds  held  by  English 
garrisons,  her  dethroned  king  a  captive  in  a  foreign  prison.^  Yet 
Edward  had  hardly  turned  his  attention  to  France  when  disquieting 
rumors  began  to  reach  him  from  his  new  conquest.    Earl  Warenne, 

^  Balliol  was  confined  for  a  while  in  the  Towner  of  London  and  then 
allowed  to  depart  for  the  continent  where  lie  finally  died  in  obscurity. 


328  •  THE     XEW    ERA  [edward  i. 

although  guardian  of  the  realm,  had  turned  the  administration  over 
to  two  men,  Cressingham  the  treasurer,  and  Ormesby  the  justiciar, 

who  were  utterly  incapable  of  understanding  the  Scot- 
fng^under^  tish  people;  nor  was  it  long  before  the  discontent 
i^"^^'        aroused  by  their  petty  tyrannies  passed  into  widespread 

revolt,  and  the  Highlands  far  and  near  blazed  with 
the  fires  of  a  bloody  guerrilla  warfare.  The  wild  mountain  glens 
and  dreary  upland  moors  offered  a  safe  hiding  to  desperate  outlaws. 
Here  they  gathered  in  ever  increasing  numbers,  finding  leaders 
among  those  who  had  felt  the  hand  of  the  tyrants  and  lived  only 
for  vengeance.  All  other  leaders,  however,  sank  into  shadow  by 
the  side  of  the  famous  Wallace,  whose  daring  and  energy  awed  and 
terrified  the  English,  as  it  inspired  and  heartened  his  own  people. 
Edward  was  absent  in  Flanders.  The  absentee  guardian  of  Scot- 
land roused  himself  and  entering  the  country  with  a  great  army 

approached  Stirlins^.  At  Cambuskenneth  a  lonsr  bridge 
neth,  SepUm-  spanned  the  Forth,  so  narrow  that  only  two  mounted 

ber  1297. 

men  could  cross  it  abreast.  Beyond  the  bridge  a  range 
of  low  hills  reached  almost  to  the  water's  edge.  It  was  just  such 
a  spot  as  Wallace  and  his  desperate  band  of  outlaws  knew  how  to 
make  the  most  of.  The  southern  army  approached  the  bridge  and 
began  the  long  and  tedious  crossing.  Five  thousand  men  under 
the  hated  Cressingham  were  already  on  the  other  bank  when  the 
Scots  led  by  Wallace  and  Sir  Andrew  Murray  rushed  upon  them. 
The  slaughter  was  frightful;  Cressingham  was  slain  and  his  fol- 
lowers butchered  almost  to  a  man.  The  main  body  of  the  English 
retired.  The  news  of  the  victory  electrified  the  prostrate  nation; 
the  lukewarm  and  the  cautious  hesitated  no  longer;  everywhere 
the  Scots  rose  and  the  English  garrisons  fled  for  their  lives.  Scot- 
land was  now  again  in  the  hands  of  her  own  people,  and  a  provi- 
sional government  was  organized  under  Wallace  and  Murray,  who 
assumed  the  title  of  "Generals  of  the  Army  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Scotland  and  Guardians  of  the  Kealm  for  King  John." 

Edward  saw  that  if  he  would  save  Scotland,  he  must  return  at 
once,  and  strangely  enough  Philip  consented  to  a  truce  and  left 
Edward  free  to  devote  all  his  splendid  energy  and  skill  to  the 
recovery  of   Scotland.     Wallace's  tactics  were  simple  and  would 


1298]  FALKIRK  329 

have  succeeded,  had  he  dealt  with  a  less  able  general.  The  Low- 
lands were  harried  by  his  orders  and  nothing  was  left  that  might 
feed  an  invading  army.  The  English  were  sore  put  to 
cnmpaimof  ^^  ^^^  food,  and  a  disgraceful  retreat,  which  must  have 
Edward,  1298.  ^een  jfinal,  seemed  unavoidable,  when  Edward  by 
one  of  those  brilliant  movements  which  mark  the  great 
general,  suddenly  confronted  Wallace  in  Falkirk  wood  and  com- 
pelled him  to  fight  against  his  will. 

The  battle  is  interesting  because  it  illustrates  the  rapid  progress 
which  the  English  were  making  in  the  art  of  war,  soon  to  give 
them  such  superiority  in  the  approaching  struggle  with 
S!"^'^'  France.  Wallace  had  hardly  any  cavalry,  for  the  Scot- 
tish nobles  had  not  taken  kindly  to  the  man  of  the 
people.  They  suspected  his  motives  also  and  feared  the  results  of 
his  rapid  successes.  Wallace,  therefore,  was  compelled  to  depend 
almost  altogether  upon  his  pikemen.  These,  however,  he  drew 
up  with  real  skill  behind  a  marsh,  so  arranged  that  they  formed 
four  squares,  or  circles  rather,  connected  by  a  line  of  archers.  In 
the  rear  he  posted  his  few  horsemen.  Edward  saw  that  his  heavy 
armed  knights  were  useless  against  such  a  formation,  and  resorted 
to  the  tactics  which  his  great  ancestor  had  used  at  Hastings,  and 
with  similar  success.  The  English  had  of  late  begun  to  develop 
the  long  bow,  which  in  the  Welsh  wars  of  Edward  had  proved  its 
superiority  to  the  old  short  bow  or  the  cross  bow.  The  archer,  by 
the  greater  length  of  the  bow  and  weight  of  his  arrow,  was  able  to 
throw  the  entire  strength  of  his  body  into  the  shaft,  drawing  the 
bolt  to  the  ear  instead  of  the  breast,  and  sending  it  with  such 
force  that  it  could  pierce  armor  or  shield.  Edward  had  brought 
with  him  a  body  of  archers  skilled  in  the  use  of  this  terrible 
weapon.  He  now  ordered  them  into  action  and  had  them  concen- 
trate their  fire  upon  the  Scottish  squares.  The  pikemen,  mad- 
dened by  the  swiftly  flying  shafts  but  unable  to  protect  them- 
selves by  reason  of  their  close  formation,  were  soon  thrown  into 
confusion ;  then  a  well-timed  charge  of  the  English  cavalry  into 
the  struggling  mass  of  men  and  tall  spears,  and  Falkirk  was  won. 
Wallace's  power  melted  away  as  rapidly  as  it  had  arisen.  He 
escaped  from  Falkirk  to  spend  the  next  six  years  in  hiding ;   but 


330  THE    NEW    ERA  [edward  l. 

was   finally   betrayed   by  the   Scots  themselves,  delivered  over  to 
Edward  and  put  to  death   as  a   traitor.     The   people,    however, 

would  not  forget  him.  He  became  the  hero  of  the 
of  Wallace's  struggle  for  independence.  Even  the  well-earned 
power.  fame   of   the   younger  Bruce  paled  before    the  favor- 

ite   of    legend    and    song,    the    first    among    Scottish   national 
patriots. 

Although  Wallace  had  been  routed  and  his  power  dispelled,  it 
took  Edward  six  years  to  recover  the  lost  ground.     He  had  made 

an  alliance  with  Flanders  against  France,  but  the  alli- 
Thecmitimia-  ^yicq  proved  expensive  and  unsatisfactory.  The  money 
Faikirk^'^^^  which  the  English  estates  had  so  generously  voted  him 

in  1295  had  been  expended,  and  yet  had  secured  no 
adequate  results.  The  towns  were  restless  under  later  exactions; 
the  church  disobedient  and  the  barons  defiant.  The  pope,  Boni- 
face VIII.,  also  embarrassed  the  king  by  putting  forth  a  claim  as 
overlord  of  Scotland  and  forbade  him  to  interfere  further  with  the 
Scots.  New  leaders  also  came  forward  to  carry  on  the  work  of 
Wallace.  In  1302  John  Comyn,  a  nephew  of  Balliol,  supported  by 
the  bishop  of  St.  Andrews,  won  the  important  battle  of  Roslin  and 
for  the  moment  delivered  Scotland  north  of  the  Forth.  Ordinary 
difficulties,  however,  did  not  discourage  Edward.  In  1301  he  had 
again  confirmed  the  charters  and  in  return  secured  the  promise  of 
the  English  barons  to  defend  his  claim  to  Scotland  against  the 
threatened  intervention  of  the  pope.  But  fortunately  the  rival 
claim  of  Boniface  was  never  brought  to  an  issue;  nor  is  it  likely 
•that  he  meant  to  do  more  than  assert  his  position  as  guardian 
of  the  peace  of  Europe.  At  all  events  he  was  soon  able  to  give 
proof  of  the  genuineness  of  his  desire  for  peace  by  securing  an 
agreement  between  Edward  and  Philip,  in  accordance  with  which 
Philip  restored  Gascony,  and  Edward,  whose  first  wife  had  died  in 
1290,  married  Philip's  sister;  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  also 
betrothed  to  Philip's  daughter  Isabella.  By  this  double  marriage 
it  was  hoped  to  assure  the  friendly  relations  of  the  two  courts  for 
many  years  to  come;  a  fatuous  hope,  for  it  was  through  the  mar- 
riage of  Prince  Edward  and  Isabella  that  English  kings  came 
subsequently  to  lay  claim  to  the  throne  of  France. 


1304-1307]  RISING    OF    BRUCE  331 

The  Scottish  barons,  now  that  they  were  deserted  by  Philip, 
felt  the  uselessness  of  continuing  the  struggle.  At  Dumfries, 
Comyn,  who  had  been  acting  as  King  John's  regent. 
End  of  armed  j^q^  Edward  and  agreed  to  a  peace  on  condition  that 
inScotJand,  ^he  Scottish  barons  should  not  be  deprived  of  their 
lands,  but  should  be  allowed  to  redeem  them  by  the 
[)ayment  of  a  fine.  In  1304  Stirling  fell  and  all  armed  resistance 
ceased.  In  the  meantime  Edward  was  maturing  plans  for  the 
settlement  of  the  kingdom,  and  a  really  good  scheme  was  struck 
out.  But  he  was  to  meet  the  common  experience  of  most  ambitious 
sovereigns  who  attempt  to  foist  a  foreign  government  upon  a  high- 
spirited  and  warlike  people  against  their  will.  The  temporary 
successes  of  Wallace,  followed  by  the  glorious  but  ineffectual  strug- 
gle carried  on  by  Andrew  Murray  and  John  Comyn,  had  appealed 
powerfully  to  national  sentiment  and  the  people  only  waited  for  a 
new  leader. 

This  leader  appeared  in  the  young  Robert  Bruce,  grandson  of 

that  Robert  Bruce  who  had  been  Balliol's  rival.     Hitherto  he  had 

been  on  the  English  side  and  high  in  favor  with  Edward, 

RiMng  of        ^vho  had  trusted  him  and  consulted  him  upon  the  reor- 

Bruce,  1306.  ^    *■ 

ganization  of  the  country.  But  in  1306  in  an  interview 
at  Dumfries  with  Comyn  who  was  heir  to  Balliol's  claims,  hot 
words  had  arisen  between  the  two  men,  swords  had  been  drawn,  and 
Comyn  was  slain.  Bruce,  an  outlaw  and  a  murderer,  had  then  fled 
to  the  mountains  of  Galloway,  and,  apparently  in  self-defense,  had 
raised  the  standard  of  revolt.  In  March  1306  he  was  able  to  make 
his  way  to  Scone  and  secure  a  coronation. 

Edward  heard  of  the  new  revolt,  and  roused  himself  to  crush 
it.     Apparently  it  was  not  a  very  serious  matter,  and  Aymer  de 

Valence,  Edward's  nephew,  easily  drove  Bruce  into  the 
The  last  cam-  ^Yestern  islands  for  refuge.     But  Edward  was  now  well 

paign  of  o 

Edward,  gone  in  years,  and  infirmity  was  fast  creeping  upon  him. 
His  wrath  was  as  terrible  to  onlookers  as  ever;  but  the 
lightnings  had  lost  their  power  to  blast.  He  hurried  on  after  his 
armies,  but  crippled  by  his  years  he  was  no  match  for  the  young 
and  energetic  Bruce  whose  rapid  movements  easily  eluded  the  pur- 
suit of  the  king's  lieutenants  and  enabled  him  to  strike  again 


332  THE    NEW    ERA 

where  least  expected.  Edward  fumed  and  stormed  and  vented  his 
wrath  upon  the  lackless  Scottish  nobles  who  fell  into  his  power. 
They  were  put  to  death  without  mercy ;  their  estates  confiscated 
and  turned  over  to  Englishmen.  The  Countess  of  Buchan,  who 
had  placed  the  crown  upon  Brnce's  head,  was  put  in  an  iron  cage 
and  hung  from  the  walls  of  Berwick  castle.  The  efforts  of 
Edward,  however,  only  added  fuel  to  the  insurrection.  The  war 
took  on  more  and  more  the  character  of  a  national  rising,  and  in 

1307  Bruce  was  able  to  take  the  field  at  the  head  of  a 
ward,  July     Considerable  force.    The  old  king,  broken  by  fifty  years 

of  service,  rose  from  his  bed  to  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  his  troops  as  of  yore;  but  the  effort  was  too  much  for  his  fail- 
ing strength.     He  died  at  Burgh-on-the-Sands,  July  7,  1307. 

So  died  the  great  Edward;   lawgiver,  statesman,  soldier,  and 
king.     The  closing  years  of  his  long  and  brilliant  reign,  clouded  by 

his  unfortunate  attempt  to  make  good  his  lordship  over 
Edward's        Scotland,  must  not  obscure  the  real  greatness  of  the 

man  or  the  success  of  his  fifty  years  of  administration. 
His  father  had  made  a  pitiful  failure  and  had  been  saved  from  utter 
ruin  only  by  the  cool  determination  of  the  barons  and  the  wise 
leadership  of  the  son.  When  Henry  died  all  strife  had  ended,  and 
Edward,  as  no  Norman  or  Plantagenet  before  him,  succeeded  to  a 
peaceful  and  united  realm.  Of  this  harmony  he  made  the  most. 
He  fully  grasped  the  elements  of  the  problem  before  him ;  accepted 
the  results  of  the  barons'  wars;  kept  himself  in  touch  with  the 
national  sentiment  of  the  age,  and  sought  not  to  check,  but  to 
direct  the  efforts  by  which  the  nation  was  seeking  to  secure  better 
laws  and  a  wiser  service.  Once  he  seemed  to  waver  in  his  allegi- 
ance to  the  cause  of  constitutional  government,  when  for  the 
moment  the  pressure  of  unsuccessful  foreign  war  had  blinded  him 
to  the  possible  results  of  his  actions;  but  it  is  this  very  incident, 
connected  with  the  names  of  Bigod  and  Bohun,  that  reveals  the 
real  greatness  of  Edward, — the  infinite  distance  which  separates 
him  from  John  Lackland  or  Henry  III.  for  Edward  was  man 
enough,  when  once  he  saw  his  mistake,  to  confess  his  error  and 
right  the  wrong.  The  attempt  to  conquer  Scotland,  however,  was 
more  than  a  mistake  of  policy;    it  was  a  political  crime,  and  bit- 


GREATNESS    OF     EDWARD 


333 


terly  Edward  paid  the  penalty  in  the  humiliation  of  failure  which 
shadowed  his  last  days  and  in  the  fatal  debt  with  which  he  fettered 
the  reign  of  his  unfortunate  son.  Yet  the  attempt  to  conquer  the 
northern  kingdom  was  not  the  outcome  of  mere  vulgar  hunger  for 
military  glory;  Edward  simply  tried  to  make  real  and  practical  his 
right  as  overlord,  just  as  every  other  great  national  king  in  the 
west  was  then  doing.  It  is  remarkable,  however,  that  one  who 
had  such  keen  appreciation  of  the  significance  of  national  senti- 
ment in  England,  should  have  so  little  perception  of  its  strength 
in  other  lands. 


KINGS  OF  FRANCE 

Philip  III.,  (1.  1285. 
Philip  IV. 


CONTEMPORARIES  OF  EDWARD  I. 
1272-1307 


EMPERORS 

Rudolph  of  Haps- 

burg,  d.  1291. 
Adolphus,  d.  1298. 
Albert. 


KINGS  OF  CASTILE 

Alphonso  X.,  the  Wise. 

rf.  1284. 
Sancho  IV.,  the  Great, 

d.  12l>5. 
Ferdinand  IV. 


KINGS  OF  SCOT- 
LAND 

Alexander  III.,  d. 

1286. 
John     Balliol,    k. 

1292-1296. 
Robert  I.,  k.  1306. 


PROMINENT  POPES 

Gregory  X.,  1271-1276. 
Nicolas  III.,  1277-1281. 
Martin  IV.,  1281-1285. 
Honorius  IV.,  128.5-1289. 
Nicolas  IV.,  1289-1292. 
Boniface.  VIII.,  1294-1303. 
Benedict  XI.,  1303-1305. 
Clement  V.,  1305. 


ARCHBISHOPS    OF 
CANTERBURY 

Robert   Kilwardby,    1273- 

1278. 
John  Peckhain,  1279-1292. 
Robert  Winchelsey,  1294. 


FAMOUS  MEN 

(Not  princes) 
Roger  Bacon,  d.  1272. 
Dante  Alighieri,  h.  1266,  d. 

1321. 
William  Wallace,  b.  1274(  ?) 

d.  1305. 
Marco  Polo,  b.  12&4,  d.  1324. 


CHAPTER    II 


THE    BAROKS   AKD    THE    ROYAL   FAVORITES.      THE    INDEPENDENCE 
OF    SCOTLAND    ESTABLISHED 

EDWARD  II..  1307-1327 

THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER 

Edmund,  Earl  of  Lancaster,    ' 
brother  of  Edward  I. 

. I  


Thomas,  Earl  of  Lancaster,  Henry,  Earl  of  Lancaster, 

d.  1322  I  d.  1345 

Henry,  first  Duke  of  Lancaster 

Blanche  m.  John  of  Gaunt, 
fourth  son  of  Edward  III. 

The  new  king,  Edward  of  Carnarvon,  was  a  failure  from  the 
first.     He  was  frivolous,   unprincipled,  and  utterly  incapable  of 

handling  the  questions  which  his  father's  death  had  left 
me^Tm^.  i^nsettled.  He  tied  himself  to  a  contemptible  favorite 
Piers  Gaves-    Qf  j^jg  boyhood,  a  Gascou  by  the  name  of  Piers  Gaveston, 

who  encouraged  him  in  dissipation  and  costly  extrav- 
agance, and  used  his  influence  for  his  own  ends.  The  foreign 
birth  of  Gaveston,  his  rapid  elevation,  his  worthlessness,  roused 
the  enmity  of  the  baronage,  and  at  onee  created  a  powerful  anti- 
administration  party  among  the  nobility  as  in  the  days  of  the  for- 
eign favorites  of  Henry  III. 

The  most  bitter  and  dangerous  opponent  of  Gaveston  was  the 
king's   cousin,  Thomas  Earl   of    Lancaster,  the  son  of  Edmund 

Crouchback,  the  once  titular  king  of  Sicily.  Earl 
Lanmster's  '^^^^^^  ^^Id  the  lordship  of  five  earldoms,  controlled 
G^vesm,^      enormous  wealth,  and  possessed  great  personal  influence. 

He  had  resented  the  insolent  ways  of  the  upstart  Gaves- 
ton and  had  smarted  under  the  lashing  of  his  sharp  tongue;  for 
Gaveston  rather  prided  himself  on  his  wit,  and  took  a  silly  delight 
in  fixing  various  nicknames  upon  the  prominent  members  of  the 

334 


1308]  PIERS   GAVESTON  '  335 

court.  Thus  Lancaster  he  had  dubbed  "The  Hog;"  Pembroke, 
*'Joseph  the  Jew;"  Gloucester,  "The  Cuckoo;"  and  Warwick, 
"The  Black  Dog  of  Arden."  It  was  fine  fun  no  doul3t  for  Gaves- 
toii  and  his  admirers,  but  dangerous. 

In  1308  Edward  returned  from  France  with  his  bride  Isabella, 
and  held  the  ceremony  of  coronation  with  great  magnificence.     He 

made  the  usual  promises  to  maintain  the  customs  of  the 
Gnveaton,       realm  and  respect  its  laws.      But  the  frivolous    and 

insincere  nature  of  the  king  was  so  well  understood,  and 
the  continued  affront  of  Gaveston's  presence,  his  reckless  insolence, 
was  sucli  a  constant  challenge  to  the  barons,  that  the  most  sanguine 
could  not  fail  to  see  that  trouble  was  at  hand ;  nor  was  it  long 
before  the  storm  broke.  At  a  great  council  held  soon  after  the 
coronation,  the  barons  insisted  upon  the  expulsion  of  the  favorite 
from  the  kingdom,  and  Edward  was  forced  to  yield. 

The  barons,  however,  had  only  begun  their  work.  Earl 
Thomas  imagined  that  he  was  destined  to  play  the  role  of  a  second 

Montfort;  and  the  next  year,  in  a  full  parliament  in 
as^arepmrnr  ^^^^^^^  ^^®  commons  were  represented,  he  persuaded  the 

Estates  to  refuse  to  vote  any  supplies,  unless  the  king 
consented  to  redress  certain  grievances,  as  unjust  seizures  of 
provisions  by  the  king's  officers  under  the  name  of  purveyance, 
excessive  duties  on  wines,  cloth,  and  other  imports,  irregular 
coinage,  and  similar  abuses,  particularly  grievous  to  the  merchant 
classes.  The  king  had  banished  Gaveston  as  he  had  agreed,  but 
he  had  sent  him  off  loaded  with  gifts  to  the  governorship  of 
Ireland.  He  now  offered  to  grant  the  reforms  provided  the  favor- 
ite might  be  allowed  to  return  to  the  kingdom.  The  barons,  how- 
ever, were  in  no  mood  to  be  gracious  and  refused  their  consent. 
Then  Edward  undertook  to  gain  his  point  by  coaxing,  wheedliiig, 
and  bribery,  and  although  the  body  of  the  barons  were  still  stub- 
born, thinking  he  had  support  enough  to  act  without  their  consent, 
he  recalled  his  man.  It  was  a  fatal  step  for  both  king  and 
minister. 

The  king  again  drifted  into  his  old  ways  of  living;  and  Gaves- 
ton, looking  upon  his  recall  as  a  triumph,  became  more  irritating 
than  ever.     When  the  barons  assembled  the  next  year,  they  came 


336  •  THE   BARONS   AND   THE    FAVORITES.  [edwaed  n. 

with  the  grim  determination  to  take  the  government  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  king  who  could  so  soon  forget  his  promises.  A  com- 
mittee of  administration  was  appointed  of  twenty-one  barons, 
known  as  ''Lords  Ordainers;"  including,  beside  the 
GaSwk"  ^"^  archbishop  Winchelsey,  Lancaster,  Pembroke,  War- 
wick, and  Gloucester;  all  of  whom  had  felt  the  lash 
of  Gaveston's  tongue,  and  with  the  exception  of  Winchelsey,  were 
_     ^  moved  more  by  hatred  of  the  favorite  than  by  any  intel- 

The ''Lords      ,.  t  .  ,  J        J 

Ordaimrs,"  ligent  devotion  to  the  cause  of  pure  government.  They 
were  specially  commissioned  to  reform  existing  abuses 
and  to  regulate  the  king's  household.  The  report  of  the  Lords 
Ordainers,  known  as  the  "Ordinances,"  consisted  of  forty -one 
articles,  and  dealt  with  current  abuses,  some  of  which  were  as  old 
as  Magna  Charta.  Of  chief  importance,  however,  were  the  excess- 
ive duties  which  had  prevailed  since  the  beginning  of  the  Scot- 
tish wars.  The  Lord's  Ordainers  fixed  the  duties  of  the  year 
1275  as  standard.  They  directed  also  that  Gaveston  be  per- 
manently banished,  and  forbade  the  king  to  appoint  ministers, 
go  to  war,  or  leave  the  kingdom  without  the  approval  of  the 
barons. 

Edward,  cowed   and  humbled,    signed    the    Ordinances,    but 

entreated  the  barons  to  save  his  "brother  Piers."     He  then  went 

north,  where  the  rising  power  of  Bruce  liad  lonff  since 

The  Ordi- 

iianceH  demanded  attention.     Here  he  no  sooner  found  him- 

self out  from  under  the  shadow  of  the  Lords  Ordain- 
ers, than  he  defied  the  Ordinances  and  called  his  favorite  to  his 
side.  This  new  evidence  of  the  bad  faith  of  the  king  was  too 
much  for  the  temper  of  the. barons.  They  appealed  at 
'GavS)n  ^^^^  ^^  arms,  took  Gaveston  at  Scarborough  and  sent 
him  to  Wallingford  under  the  pledge  of  the  earl  of 
Pembroke  to  present  him  at  the  meeting  of  parliament.  But 
such  fiery  spirits  as  Warwick,  Lancaster,  Hereford,  and  Arundel, 
were  too  impatient  to  await  a  trial,  and  had  the  favorite  seized  on 
the  way  to  Wallingford  and  hurried  off  to  Warwick  Castle.  Here 
he  was  brought  into  the  presence  of  his  foes  and  his  fate  decided. 
It  would  not  do  to  let  the  fox  go,  they  said ;  they  would  only  have 
to  hunt  him  again. 


1311-1313]  SUCCESSES   OF    BRUCE  337 

The  murder  of  Gaveston  was  prophetic  of  the  era  at  hand.  It 
was  a  new  thing  for  politicians  to  butcher  their  fallen  rivals. 
From  this  time  until  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.,  politics 
^UaracUr  becomes  more  and  more  a  bloody  trade.  Feuds  were 
vouucs^^  started  which  were  not  to  be  allayed  until  many  of  the 
finest  families  of  England  had  perished.  It  was  the  hot 
breath  of  the  new  era;  the  natural  effect  of  continual  war, 
of  the  factitious  life  bred  of  chivalry,  and  of  the  decay  of  per- 
sonal piety.  The  unhappy  king  was  powerless  to  punish ;  he 
had  to  content  himself  with  receiving  the  feigned  submission 
of  the  men  who  had  slain  his  favorite,  and  proclaim  a  general 
amnesty. 

The  troubles  of  Edward  with  his  barons,  the  generally  crip- 
pled condition  of  the  government,  will  explain  why  so  little  had  yet 
been  done  to  repress  Bruce.  The  great  strongholds  of 
fc?%5fe  ^^®  Lowlands,  Roxburgh,  Linlithgow,  Perth,  Edinburgh, 
{/S!^^^^  and  Stirling,  still  remained  in  English  hands,  but  Bruce 
was  everywhere  master  of  the  open  country.  Moreover, 
as  the  weakness  of  the  English  became  more  apparent,  the  hopes 
of  the  Scots  rose  correspondingly;  their  daring  also  increased  to 
such  an  extent  that  they  answered  Edward's  invasion  of  1311  by  a 
counter  raid  into  the  northern  counties  of  England,  and  in  1312 
Bruce  began  the  systematic  reduction  of  the  English  strongholds. 
It  was  a  great  year  in  Scottish  story.  In  January  Bruce  car- 
ried the  battlements  of  Perth  by  assault;  Roxburgh  surrendered 
in  March;  seven  days  later,  Randolph,  a  son  of  Bruce's  sister, 
led  a  band  of  thirty  men  up  the  frowning  cliff  on  whose  crest 
rises  the  huge  keep  of  Edinburgh  Castle,  scaled  its  ramparts,  and 
took  the  garrison  by  surprise, — one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  dar- 
ing enterprises  of  all  history.  A  brilliant  strategy  at  the  same 
time  secured  Linlithgow.  A  countryman,  with  the  good  Scotch 
name  of  Binnie,  approached  the  gates  on  a  bright  morning  with  an 
innocent  looking  load  of  hay.  Under  the  portcullis  the  load 
stopped  and  a  band  of  sturdy  Scotchmen,  sword  in  hand,  springing 
out  from  under  the  hay,  held  the  gate  until  their  comrades  could 
rush  in  and  overpower  the  garrison.  By  the  opening  of  the  next 
year,  only  Stirling  held  out.     The  garrison  were  sore  pressed  and 


338 


THE    BAKONS    AND    THE    FAVORITES 


["edward  II. 


Philip  Mowbray,  the  governor,  agreed  to  surrender,  if  they  were 
not  relieved  before  June  24,  1314. 

Edward  had  time  enough  to  relieve  the  town  and  was  in  fact 

deeply  stirred   by  the  new    responsibility   which    the  conditions 

accepted  by  Mowbray  imposed  upon  him.     But  he  was 

Attempt  to  ;  -'  ^  rni 

relieve  stir-     no   longer  his  own    master.       Ihe    barons    were    not 
inclined  to  trust  him  with  a  large  army.     The  months  of 


grace  slipped  by.    The  king  urged  and  pleaded. 


Still  Lancaster  and 
his    men  held 
aloof;  yet    as 
the   last  days 
approached, 
they    were 
apparently 
shamed  out  of 
their    sulky 
mood  and  al- 
lowed Edward 
to    act.      He 
came     within 
sight  of  Stirl- 
ing on  the  23d 
of   June,   one 
day  before  the 
time  fixed  for 
Mowbray  's 
surrender. 
Bruce  had 
drawn    up     his    men    behind    the     Bannockburn    in    order   to 
command    the    roads    to   Stirling.      His   position    was    one    of 
great  natural  strength.  A  marsh  protected  his  right 
burn^i3i4       ^i^^'  while  his  left  was  covered  by  low  ground,  filled 
here  and  there  with  pools  of  water.     Wherever  there 
was  a  chance  for  horsemen  to  secure  a  footing,  he  had  also  dug 
pits  and  concealed  them  with  hurdles.     The  formation  of  Bruce 
was  similar  to  that  adopted  by  Wallace  at  Falkirk,  but  back  of  his 
bristling  circles  he  had  a  powerful  body  of  cavalry  in  reserve.     For 


1314]  BANNOCK  BURN  339 

in  the  seven  years  which  had  followed  the  death  of  Edward  I. ,  Bruce 
had  won  to  his  side  all  the  discontented  elements  of  the  population, 
and  the  younger  nobility  in  particular  had  rallied  to  his  support. 
The  English  commanders  showed  little  skill  in  marshalling  their 
men.  The  men  showed  little  confidence  in  their  leaders.  Edward 
opened  the  battle  by  sending  forward  his  archers;  his  plan  being 
first  to  riddle  the  Scottish  array,  and  then  hurl  forward  his  heavy 
cavalry  as  his  father  had  done  at  Falkirk.  But  unfortunately  he 
allowed  the  archers  to  advance  so  far  that  the  English  horse  could 
not  support  them,  and  a  well-timed  charge  by  Bruce's  horse  from 
the  flank  swept  them  from  the  field.  Edward  then  sent  forward 
his  horse,  but  the  Scottish  knights  had  recovered  their  position  and 
the  English  knights  found  only  the  dense  array  of  spearmen  to 
receive  them.  In  vain  they  hurled  themselves  upon  the  forest  of 
pikes.  Their  splendid  courage  only  increased  the  confusion  and 
slaughter.  Then  suddenly,  appearing  above  the  high  ground  in  the 
rear  of  the  Scots,  the  English  caught  the  glitter  of  arms  and  the 
waving  of  banners  of  a  second  army  approaching.  It  was  only 
the  camp  followers  of  Bruce,  his  sutlers  and  cattle  herders, 
tricked  out  for  the  occasion,  but  the  sight  was  too  much  for  the 
shattered  nerves  of  the  English  leaders.  They  fully  believed  that 
a  second  army  was  about  to  enter  the  field  in  support  of  the 
Scots,  and  thought  only  of  flight.  The  Scottish  horse  dashed 
in  among  the  mass  of  struggling  fugitives  and  began  a  ruthless 
slaughter.  The  earl  of  Gloucester  was  slain ;  Hereford  was  taken 
at  Bothwell,  and  the  king  with  great  difficulty  got  away  to  Dun- 
bar, and  finally  to  Berwick. 

Edward  had  left  many  of  his  barons  and  knights  on  the  field  of 
Bannockburn ;  yet  for  the  moment  he  talked  wildly  of  summoning 

a  new  army  and  renewing  the  war.  It  was  evident  to 
oftheScJ^^  Edward's   advisers,   however,    that    the    country    was 

utterly  disheartened;  that  no  one  had  confidence  either 
in  the  king's  ability  or  his  courage,  and  that  a  second  attempt 
would  only  invite  fresh  disaster.  Yet  no  one  dared  to  propose 
peace  while  the  disgrace  of  Bannockburn  rankled  in  the  public 
mind.  The  king  also  was  obstinate  in  his  determination  to  regard 
Bruce  as  a  rebel,  and  persisted  in  refusing  to  listen  to  any  of  his 


340  THE    BAKONS    AND   THE    FAVORITES  [edwari>  il. 

overtures.  Bruce  on  his  part  fully  appreciated  the  significance  of 
his  victory,  and  was  more  than  ever  determined  to  compel  the 
English  to  recognize  the  independence  which  he  had  now  won. 
He  had  already  seized  the  Isle  of  Man  and  in  1315 
Sco^Si^^'^  allowed  his  brother  David  to  enter  upon  the  ill-starred 
jreiand,  attempt  to  wrest  Ireland  from  the  English.  In  1316 
Bruce  himself  went  over  to  assist  his  brother,  but  soon 
became  satisfied  that  the  place  to  strike  England  successfully  was 
not  in  Ireland  but  upon  his  own  border.  Soon  after  his  return, 
therefore,  he  began  the  systematic  harrying  of  the  northern 
shires.  The  capture  of  Berwick  opened  the  eastern  highway  into 
England,  and  every  harvest  time  saw  the  Scots  in  the  saddle, 
and  the  English  farmers  fleeing  for  their  lives ;  their  hay  ricks  and 
granaries  going  up  in  flames;  their  cattle  gracing  the  homeward 
march  of  the  Scots.  In  a  single  raid  the  Scots  burned  Scarborough, 
Northallerton,  Boroughbridge,  and  Skipton.  In  1319  the  York- 
shire farmers,  led  by  their  priests  in  their  white  surplices,  attempted 
to  make  a  stand  at  Myton,  but  the  simple  peasantry  fled  at  the 
first  rush  of  Kandolph's  men-at-arms.  They  were  cut  down  like 
sheep.  So  many  of  the  clergy  were  slain  that  the  bat- 
of^Myton''^^  tie  or  rather  massacre  was  known  as  the  ''Chapter  of 
Myton."  Still  Edward  refused  to  recognize  Eobert 
Bruce  as  king  of  Scotland.  In  1322  he  again  attempted  to  invade 
the  country  but  only  to  bring  the  Scots  to  the  gates  of  York  for 
his  pains.  It  was  more  than  ever  evident  that  nothing  was  to  be 
gained  by  further  war,  and  in  1323  Edward  prudently  determined 
to  unload  part  of  his  trouble  by  giving  peace  to  the  northern  bor- 
ders. The  truce  was  to  last  thirteen  years,  Bruce  in  the  mean- 
time to  take  the  title  of  king.  But  upon  the  accession  of 
Edward  III.,  four  years  later,  Bruce  seized  the  opportunity  to 
force  upon  England  a  full  recognition  of  his  claims  and  the  accept- 
ance of  a  permanent  peace.  The  treaty  was  signed  at 
Northamp-  Northampton  in  1328.  England  formally  recognized 
Bruce  as  king  of  Scotland  and  renounced  all  claims  to 
the  Scottish  overlordship.  So  at  last,  for  the  time,  ended  the  strug- 
gle for  Scottish  independence.  It  had  cost  much ;  but  it  was  worth 
it  all.     The  Scottish  nation  had  come  out  of  the  fires  a  great  peo- 


13144318]  THOMAS    OF    LANCASTER  •  341 

pie.  They  had  learned  self-reliance ;  they  had  learned  to  think  and 
act  for  themselves ;  they  had  learned  that  they  were  Scotchmen. 
Above  all  they  had  received  a  priceless  heritage  in  the  memory  of 
great  names  and  heroic  deeds,  the  true  soil  of  patriotism. 

Edward  in  the  meantime  was  steadily  sinking  in  the  pit  of  his 
own  digging.  He  had  fled'  from  Bannockburn  with  a  troop  of 
furious  Scotchmen  at  his  heels,  and  a  brave  and  warlike 
mwardii  people  could  not  forgive  their  king  for  missing  this  rare 
chance  of  dying  like  a  hero.  Even  the  royal  title  could 
no  longer  impart  dignity  to  a  character  so  contemptible.  Lancas- 
ter became  the  dominant  spirit  both  at  the  council  board  and  in 
the  army.  He  removed  old  ministers  and  appointed  new  ones  at 
will.  He  fixed  an  allowance  for  the  king's  expenses  and  deter- 
mined his  personal  friends.  He  was  commander-in-chief  of  the 
army.  He  became  president  of  the  council.  But  unfortunately 
ho  proved  as  incompetent  in  administration  as  he  had  been  unscru- 
pulous and  violent  in  opposition.  The  baronage  would  not  endure 
his  despotic  ways;  they  broke  up  into  rival  factions,  and  turning 
their  arms  against  each  other,  left  the  Scots  to  plunder  and  ravage 
the  north  as  they  pleased.  A  serious  failure  of  the  harvest  added 
to  the  distress  caused  by  domestic  anarchy  and  foreign  war,  and 
the  people  were  not  slow  to  charge  the  government  with  their 
misfortunes.  Men  whispered  that  Earl  Thomas  had  entered  into 
a  secret  league  with  the  Scots  and  had  agreed  for  a  price  not  to 
molest  the  enemy  in  the  plunder  of  English  fields  and  the  slaughter 
of  English  burghers.  In  their  despair  the  hearts  of  the  people 
turned  again  to  their  young  king.  Affairs  had  gone  better  when 
he  was  left  free  to  bring  whom  he  would  into  his  council  chamber. 
Even  Gaveston  had  managed  things  better  than  this.  So  the  bal- 
ance began  to  shift  again  and  Edward's  chance  of  once  more  con- 
trolling his  government  began  to  mend.  With  the  fall 
of  Berwick  and  the  failure  of  the  attempt  to  recover  it 
the  next  year,  only  the  poor  shreds  of  Thomas's  former  influence 
remained. 

Two  new  men  now  became  prominent  among  the  rival  factions 
of  the  baronage  and,  by  making  the  cause  of  the  despised  king  their 
own,  secured  a  marked  advantage  over  their  fellows.     These  men 


342  THE   BARONS   AND   THE   FAVORITES  [edwabd  ii. 

were  the  Despensers,  father  and  son.     Unlike  the  fallen  Gaveston, 
they  represented  one  of  the  fine  old  Norman  English  families  of 

tlie  baronage,  which  for  generations  had  been  closely 
pmsfrf.'         identified  with   the  political    history   of  the   country. 

Hugh  le  Despenser  the  elder  was  the  son  of  the  Hugh  le 
Despenser  who  had  been  justiciar  under  Earl  Simon  and  had 
fallen  by  his  side  at  Evesham.  The  son  had  regained  the  royal 
confidence  during  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  and  had  occupied  an 
important  place  among  his  ministers;  he  had  since  adhered  to  the 
second  Edward  and  had  supported  him  heretofore  tlirough  all  his 
troubles.  Earl  Thomas  hated  the  man  and  held  him  as  his  per- 
sonal enemy,  while  the  barons  affected  to  regard  him  as  a  traitor 
to  their  cause.  The  son,  Hugh  le  Despenser  the  third,  was  nearer 
the  king's  age;  ambitious,  avaricious,  and  not  overscrupulous  as  to 
the  means  employed  to  gain  his  ends.  He  had  married  a  sister  of 
the  earl  of  Gloucester,  and  after  his  death  at  Bannockburn  had  come 
in  for  a  third  of  his  estates,  becoming  thus  by  right  of  his  wife  one 
of  the  richest  lords  of  England.  In  the  new  government  organized 
after  the  fall  of  Berwick,  he  had  been  made  chamberlain,  and  was 
thus  brought  into  direct  personal  relations  to  the  king,  nor  had 
he  hesitated  to  take  advantage  of  the  enforced  loneliness  and  iso- 
lation of  the  unhappy  man  to  worm  his  way  into  the  place  of  con- 
fidence once  held  by  the  fallen  Gaveston. 

Of  the  unscrupulous  greed  of  the  Despensers  there  can  be  little 
doubt.     It  is  not  unlikely,  however,  that  some  of  the  principles 

adopted  by  the  old  popular  party  of  Earl  Simon's  day 
theDespetis-    had  descended  with  the  family  traditions,  and  that  the 

later  Despensers  justified  their  ambitions,  to  themselves 
at  least,  in  the  avowed  purpose  of  securing  a  more  distinct  recog- 
nition of  the  political  rights  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  by  over- 
throwing the  personal  rule  of  Earl  Thomas  and  setting  up  in  its 
stead  a  more  direct  control  of  the  royal  council  by  the  parliament. 
At  all  events  some  of  the  maxims  ascribed  to  the  younger  Hugh 
reveal  a  grasp  of  the  principles  of  constitutional  government  far 
in  advance  of  his  age.  One  element,  however,  the  Despensers  had 
not  fully  considered;  and  that  was  the  latent  hostility  of  the  nation 
to  the  royal  favorite,  in  whatsoever  guise  he  might  appear.     Earl 


1321,  1322]  THE   FALL   OF   EARL   THOMAS  343 

Thomas  and  his  friends,  therefore,  found  little  difficulty  in  appeal- 
ing to  this  deep-seated  prejudice,  and  persuaded  even  the  luke- 
warm that  a  new  Gaveston  had  arisen  in  the  younger  Hugh.  So 
great  had  become  the  unpopularity  of  the  pair  that  in  the  parlia- 
ment of  1321  almost  the  entire  baronage  turned  upon  the  favor- 
ites; and  the  lords,  "peers  of  the  realm"  as  they  had  begun  to  call 
themselves,  passed  a  formal  sentence,  decreeing  the  Despenser 
estates  forfeited  and  banishing  the  Despensers  from  the  land. 

The  triumph  of  Thomas  was  as  brief  as  the  reverse  was  fatal. 

An  insult  offered  to  the  queen  by  Lady  Badlesmere,  gave  the  king 

a  pretext  for  raising  an  army.     The  barons  joined  him, 

The  fall  of  ^   _,,  1.      t    J  1  i.  lu      -o    ^1 

Earl  Thomas,  and  Thomas,  who  had  no  love  to  spare  on  the  Badles- 

1322. 

meres,  held  aloof.  But  the  king  finding  himself  at  the 
head  of  an  army  at  last,  with  that  energy  which  even  the  most 
contemptible  of  the  Plantagenet  race  were  capable  of  displaying  at 
times,  turned  upon  the  friends  of  Thomas  and  proceeded  to  avenge 
the  fall  of  the  Despensers.  The  border  castles  of  Hereford, 
Audley,  and  D'Amory  were  marked  for  destruction.  Thomas  now 
saw  his  mistake,  and  summoning  his  followers,  *'the  good  lords," 
at  Doncaster,  prepared  for  open  war.  The  king,  however,  had 
secured  the  first  move  in  the  game,  and  Thomas  with  all  his  energy 
could  not  regain  his  advantage.  At  Boroughbridge  he  was  fairly 
brought  to  bay,  and  in  the  battle  which  followed,  his  little  army 

was  routed  and  himself  taken.  Four  days  later,  he  was 
Execvtumof   tried  in  his  own  castle  of  Pontefract,  condemned  as  a 

Thomas  of  ' 

Lanc(uster,      traitor,  and  at  once  put  to  death.     **So  the  blood  of 

March  22.  ^  ^  ^ 

Gaveston  was  avenged,  and  the  tide  of  savage  cruelty 
began  to  flow  in  a  broader  stream."  Thirty  of  Lancaster's  adher- 
ents were  also  executed,  and  many  more  were  imprisoned,  while  a 
vast  wealth  in  the  form  of  fines  and  forfeitures  was  gathered  from 
those  whom  obscurity  or  family  influence  saved  from  the  fate  of 
the  leaders.  Earl  Thomas  soon  became  a  popular  hero.  With 
characteristic  inconsistency  the  people,  forgetting  his  blunders  and 
his  despotism,  lamented  Boroughbridge  as  a  second  Evesham,  and 
Thomas  as  a  second  Montfort.  The  usual  miracles  were  reported 
from  his  tomb  and  his  name  became  a  Watchword  of  liberty. 

Six  weeks  after  Boroughbridge,  Edward  held  a  parliament  at 


344  THE    BAKONS    AND   THE    FAVORITES  [edward  IL 

York,  and  at  once  secured  the  revocation  of  the  Ordinances  and  a 
formal  declaration  of  the  theory  of  constitutional  government 
toward  which  all  these  struggles  were  tending.  By  this 
ment^^Yorii,  statement,  all  "matters  to  be  settled  for  the  estate  of 
^^^^'  the  king  and  his  heirs,  and  for  the  estate  of  the  realm 

and  of  the  people  were  to  be  treated,  accorded,  and  established  in 
parliaments  by  the  king,  and  by  the  consent  of  the  prelates,  earls 
and  barons,  and  commonalty  of  the  realm,  according  as  had 
hitherrto  been  accustomed;"^  the  government  must  not  again  be 
put  into  the  hands  of  an  irresponsible  commission  as  in  1311. 

The  Despensers  were  now  supreme :  they  had  sought  to  win  the 
commons  by  recognizing  their  right  as  a  constituent  part  of  the 
national  assembly,  denying  for  all  time  the  right  of  an  oligarchy  of 
the  great  nobles  to  rule  England,  and  the  parliament  had 
responded  by  reversing  the  hostile  acts  which  had  been  passed  by 
the  lords  at  the  instigation  of  Lancaster  and  Hereford.  Yet  the 
unfortunate  word  "favorite"  clung  to  the  Despensers;  the  people 
saw  them  fattening  on  the  estates  of  the  slaughtered  lords,  and 
they  could  not  forget. 

The  king,  however,  was  now  without  a  rival.  Men  might 
league  secretly  with  the  Scots,  as  did  the  earl  of  Carlisle,  but  they 
durst  not  openly  brave  the  king  and  his  council. 
^UlT  Earl  Thomas  had  left  his  brother  Henry  as  his  heir, 
plotter.  -^^^^  ^YiQ   king,  by  refusing  to    confer    upon    him  the 

Lancastrian  estates,  had  left  him,  for  the  time  at  least,  a  political 
cipher.  But  there  was  one  whom  neither  the  king  nor  the 
Despensers  had  taken  into  their  calculations,  the  French  queen 
of  Edward,  Isabella.  With  all  his  faults  Edward  had  not  been 
an  unkind  husband;  but  the  close  relationship  of  the  queen  to 
Lancaster  had  forbidden  the  fullest  confidence  between  the  royal 
pair.  Isabella,  moreover,  hated  the  king's  ministers,  and  soon 
became  the  center  of  a  widely  extended  intrigue.  It  is  not  likely 
that  the  queen  at  this  time  had  consciously  determined  upon 
treason.  She  found  herself  the  center  of  a  group  of  inferior  men, 
who  saw  their  ambitions  balked  by  the  fall  of  Lancaster  and  their 
one  chance  of  some  day  becoming  bishops  or  ministers  of  state 

1  Tasvvell-Langniead,  p.  255. 


1322-1324]  ISABELLA    AND    MORTIMER  345 

wane  before  the  continued  prosperity  of  the  Despensers,  and,  stung 
by  her  husband's  lack  of  confidence,  piqued  by  the  successes  of 
the  men  whom  she  hated,  and  puffed  up  by  the  flattery  of  the 
creatures  who  fawned  about  her,  she  accepted  the  role  of  chief 
plotter  and  soon  became  involved  in  the  sad  intrigue,  which  has  so 
deservedly  blackened  her  name  for  all  time. 

In  1322  Isabella's  brother,  Philip  V.  of  France,  died  and  the 
new  king    Charles    IV.,   also  a    brother,   summoned   Edward  in 
accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  feudal  age  to  come 
onhe^m       ^^  France  and  do  homage  for  the  fiefs  of  Ponthieu  *  and 
^France  Gascony.      But    the    Despensers,   conscious    of    their 

growing  unpopularity,  were  afraid  to  allow  Edward  to 
leave  the  kingdom.  For  two  years  negotiations  dragged  on, 
Edward  seeking  to  avoid  giving  offense  to  his  powerful  brother-in- 
law,  and  the  enemies  of  the  Despensers  bringing  all  influence  to 
bear  upon  Charles  to  prevent  a  compromise.  Finally  a  per- 
emptory summons  was  sent  by  the  French  king,  accom- 
panied by  a  threat  of  forfeiture  in  case  of  longer 
delay.  This  summons  was  nothing  less  than  an  ultimatum, 
as  the  modern  politician  would  call  it,  that  is,  a  threat  of  war. 
Then  Edward  in  sore  despair  sent  over  his  queen  to  plead  his 
cause  at  the  French  court.  She  parted  with  him  on  good 
terms,  and  at  the  French  court  presented  his  cause  with  such 
apparent  success,  that  Charles  agreed  to  allow  her  son  Prince 
Edward  to  represent  his  father,  and  to  make  over  the  provinces  to 
him  in  the  king's  stead. 

The  unhappy  king  had  fallen  into  a  most  cunningly  devised 
trap.  The  young  prince  had  hardly  reached  France,  when  all 
disguise  was  thrown  off  by  the  queen  and  she  openly 
^ndisclbeiia.  j^^^^d  the  king's  bitterest  enemies.  The  most  danger- 
ous of  these  was  Roger  Mortimer,  the  lord  of  Wigmore, 
an  old  friend  of  Lancaster,  who  had  recently  escaped  from  the 
Tower  and  now  found  at  the  French  court  ample  opportunity  for 
satisfying  his  desire  for  revenge.  lie  won  an  unbounded  influence 
over  the  queen's  mind,  and  used  it  to  the  undoing  of  the  king. 

^  For  origin  of  Plantagenet  claims  to  Ponthieu,  see  Stubbs,   Early 
Plantagenets,  p.  243,  also  below  p.  364. 


346  THE    BARONS    AND    THE    FAVORITES  [edwabd  II. 

The  young  Edward,  a  mere  lad  of  fourteen,  was  taiight  that  his  duty 
to  his  father  demanded  him  to  break  the  power  of  the  Despensers. 
Even  the  king's  brother,  Edmund  of  Kent,  was  induced  to  join  the 
conspirators.  The  plotting  at  last  became  so  open,  and  the  scan- 
dal so  flagrant,  that  Charles  out  of  self-respect  was  compelled  to 
drive  Mortimer  and  the  queen  from  the  court.  They  found  a  more 
congenial  atmosphere  at  the  court  of  Hainault,  whose  count  was 
not  above  sharing  in  the  profit  of  the  proposed  invasion,  and 
readily  furnished  men  and  ships,  while  the  Italian  bankers  fur- 
nished money. 

Edward  knew  what  was  going  on  bufc  was  helpless  to  defend 
himself  from  the  threatened  blow.     Parliament  met,  but  refused 

to  act.  Military  musters  were  ordered  but  the  people 
Landing  of  refused  to  assemble.  As  long  as  the  Despensers  were 
tember^i326:'  retained    in  power,   no  one  would   support   the  king. 

In  September  1326,  Isabella  landed  in  Suffolk  with 
her  foreign  army  and  at  once  proclaimed  her  mission  as  the 
"avenger  of  Lancaster  and  the  sworn  foe  of  the  favorites." 
Edward,  who  was  in  London  at  the  time,  called  upon  the  citizens 
for  help;  but  no  man  would  draw  sword  in  the  cause  of  the 
hated  ministers.  He  then  fled  westward  seeking  help  among  the 
Despenser  lands.  The  Londoners  rose  behind  him  and  murdered 
the  unfortunate  bishop  of  Exeter,  the  treasurer,  who  was  regarded 
as  a  creature  of  the  Despensers.  Archbishop  Reynolds  sought  to 
make  the  best  terms  he  could  with  the  queen. 

The  earls,  the  bishops,  Henry  of  Lancaster,  the  king's  half- 
brothers,  all,  almost  to  a  man,  now  went  over  to  the  queen.     The 

king  fled  to  Gloucester,  then  to  Wales,  whence  he 
iSemerr    ^ought  to  pass  into  Ireland.     On  October  26,  the  queen 

reached  Bristol;  here  she  took  the  elder  Despenser, 
now  earl  of  Winchester,  and  hanged  him  forthwith.  The  lords 
in  her  train  declared  Prince  Edward  "Guardian  of  the  King- 
dom," and  in  his  name  summoned  a  parliament.  In  the  mean- 
time the  queen  continued  to  make  havoc  among  her  husband's 
friends  and  advisers.  The  young  Despenser  was  taken  with  the 
king  on  November  16,  and  on  the  24th  was  hanged,  drawn,  and 
quartered;  the  king  was  brought  to  Kenil worth  for  safe  keeping. 


1327]  THE    CHARGES    AGAINST   EDWARD  34? 

The  reign  of  Edward  II.  was  now  ended.  The  parliament 
which  the  lords  had  summoned  in  the  name  of  Prince  Edward  met 

at  Westminster  January  7,  1327.  There  were  those 
aqainst  to  whom  it  Seemed  that  the  matter  had  gone  far  enough, 

and  that  now  the  Despensers  had  been  struck  down,  the 
king,  harmless  enough  in  himself,  might  be  left  to  continue  his 
reign.  But  Mortimer,  the  dark  lord  of  Wigmore,  knowing  that 
such  crime  as  his  could  never  be  forgiven,  and  that  so  long  as  the 
king  remained  even  nominally  in  power,  his  own  head  could  never  be 
safe  upon  his  shoulders,  used  all  his  influence  to  secure  an  imme- 
diate deposition.  What  should  come  after  deposition,  had  been  also 
fully  determined  no  doubt;  but  this  for  the  time  he  kept  to  him- 
self. In  the  presence  of  the  armed  bands  which  he  had  brought 
with  him  to  the  parliament  and  with  the  clamor  of  the  London 
mob  rising  without,  the  courage  of  the  few  friends  of  the  fallen 
king,  who  may  have  found  tlieir  way  to  Westminster,  melted,  and 
no  voice  was  raised  in  his  defense.  On  the  other  hand  the  high- 
est dignitaries  of  the  church  so  far  forgot  themselves  as  to  spread 
the  mantle  of  their  authority  over  the  shameful  plot.  Reynolds, 
the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  declared  that  the  voice  of  God  spoke 
in  the  clamor  of  the  people.  Bishop  Orleton  declared  that  the  life 
of  the  queen  would  not  be  safe  if  the  king  were  released.  Bishop 
Stratford  of  Winchester  presented  the  series  of  articles  which 
were  to  serve  as  a  basis  for  formal  abdication,  declaring:  Jirst  that 
the  king  was  incompetent  and  throughout  his  reign  had  put 
himself  in  the  power  of  evil  counsellors,  and  had  proved  him- 
self unable  to  distinguish  *'good  from  evil,"  and  when  the  great 
me!i  of  the  realm  had  called  upon  him  t6  remedy  the  existing  evil, 
he  had  obstinately  rejected  their  counsel;  second^  he  had  spent  his 
time  in  labors  unseemly  for  a  king  and  had  neglected  the  business 
of  the  kingdom ;  thirds  by  his  mismanagement  he  had  lost  Scotland, 
Ireland,  and  Gascony; /o?«rM,  he  had  injured  the  church,  and 
destroyed  many  great  and  noble  men  of  the  land;  fifths  he  had 
violated  his  coronation  oath;  sixths  he  was  a  menace  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  country  in  that  he  was  without  hope  of  amendment. 
It  was  assumed  that  these  charges  were  proved  **by  common 
notoriety,"  yet  the  queen's  advisers  shrank  from  an  act   so  revolu- 


348  THE    BARONS   AND   THE   FAVORITES  [edward  ii. 

tionary  as  deposition ;  they  preferred  to  secure  from  the  broken- 
spirited  king  a  formal  abdication.  The  matter  was  not  difficult. 
The  unhappy  monarch,  shorn  of  his  friends  and  aban- 
dwaMoruie^'  doned  by  the  nation,  had  nothing  to  do  but  yield.  It 
cidedupon.  gj-jeved  him  much,  he  said,  that  he  had  deserved  so  lit- 
tle of  his  people,  and  he  begged  pardon  of  all  who  were  present ; 
but  since  it  could  not  be  otherwise,  he  thanked  them  for  electing 
his  eldest  son. 

On  the  20th of  January  the  enforced  abdication  was  completed; 
the   parliament  renounced   the   homage  and  fealties  of  its   mem- 
bers, and    the    steward    of    the    household    publicly 
Ahdieatimiof  broke  his  staff  as  a  token  that  Edward  II.  had  ceased 

tLUwata  11. 

to  reign.  Of  the  subsequent  life  of  Edward,  but  little 
ever  reached  the  ears  of  the  public.  Grim  stories  of  insult  and 
actual  bodily  suffering  at  the  hands  of  brutal  keepers  soon  began 
to  be  whispered  about,  but  no  hand  was  raised  to  help  him.  A 
terror  seized  upon  those  who  by  kinship  or  gratitude  might  feel 
called  upon  to  interfere.  On  the  21st  of  September,  eight  months 
after  the  abdication,  Edward  was  murdered  at  Berkeley  Castle  in 
some  mysterious  way,  so  cunningly  and  devilishly  devised  as  to 
leave  no  mark  of  violence  upon  his  person.  "Thus  ended  a  reign 
full  of  tragedy,  a  life  that  may  be  pitied,  but  affords  no  ground  for 
sympathy.  Strange  infatuation,  unbridled  vindictiveness,  reck- 
lessness beyond  belief,  the  breach  of  all  natural  affection,  of  love, 
of  honor,  and  loyalty,  are  here;  but  there  is  none  who  stands 
forth  as  a  hero.  There  are  great  sins  and  great  faults  and  awful 
vengeance,  but  nothing  to  admire,  none  to  be  praised."  ^ 

The  constitutional  significance  of  the  reign  of  Edward  II.  is  of 
considerable  importance.     The  right  of  the  nation  to  a  voice  in  the 

selection  of  the  king's  ministers  was  undoubtedly  set 
?^mance^^  forth  in  the  successive  overthrow  of  the  favorites,  Gaves- 
%  Edward  II  ^^^  ^^^  ^^®  Despensers,  although  it  was  to  be  a  long  time 

before  the  principle  would  be  definitely  accepted,  or  its 
full  significance  understood.  Linked  with  the  right  of  the  nation  to 
a  voice  in  the  control  of  the  king's  ministers,  or  rather  the  justi- 
fication of  the  principle  itself,  was  still  another  idea,  which  since 

*  Stubbs,  Early  Plantagenets,  p.  288. 


MEANING   OF   DEPOSITION   OF   EDWARD   II.  349 

the  days  of  John  Lackland  had  been  slowly  but  surely  taking 
definite  shape  in  the  mind  of  the  people,  that  the  crown  was  not  a 
piece  of  private  property  to  be  administered  or  neglected  in  accord- 
ance with  the  whim  or  caprice  of  the  incumbent,  but  that  it  was  a 
public  trust,  and  that  the  accident  of  birth,  instead  of  granting  to 
a  king  immunities  such  as  no  subject  enjoyed,  imposed  rather 
responsibilities  which  made  him  beyond  all  men  the  servant  of  the 
nation,  and  that  as  a  servant  he  was  to  be  held  to  a  strict  and 
awful  accountability. 

The  deposition  of  an  unfaithful  king  was  not  a  new  exercise  of 
the  authority  of  a  national  council.  The  old  English  witan  had 
not  hesitated  to  depose  such  a  king  as  Ethelred  the  Redeless. 
And  yet  since  the  Norman  Conquest  there  had  been  no  actual  case 
of  deposition.  Had  John  Lackland  lived,  he  undoubtedly  would 
have  been  dethroned  and  possibly  put  to  death.  The  question  of 
a  change  in  the  succession  had  also  been  raised  by  the  barons  in 
the  case  of  Henry  III.  But  now,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the 
actors  or  of  the  motives  which  inspired  them,  an  English  king 
had  been  formally  arraigned  by  the  nation  represented  in  the 
parliament,  declared  incompetent  and  unworthy  to  reign,  the 
oaths  of  homage  and  fealty  withdrawn,  and  the  crown  transferred 
to  a  new  king;  and  the  sole  justification  of  this  act  of  the 
national  council  was  the  failure  of  the  king  to  fulfill  the  duties  of 
his  high  oitice. 


CHAPTEE    III 


EDWARD  III.    AND   THE    OPENIN^G   OF   THE   HUNDRED  YEARS'    WAR 

EDWARD  III.,  1327-1360 
THE  VALOIS  SUCCESSION 

Louis  IX.,  d.  1270 
I 
Philip  III.,  1270-1285 


Philip  IV.,  the  Fair 
1285-1314 


Louis  X, 
1314-1316 

I 


Philip  V. 
1316-1323 


Charles  IV. 


L 


Isabella 

m. 
Edward  II. 

I     of  England 

Edward  IIL 


Charles  of  Valois 

Philip  VL 
1328-1350 

John  the  Good 
1350-1364 

Charles  V., 
the  Wise 


Joan  Jo 

Charles  of  Navarre,  h.  1332 

Edward  III.  was  only  fourteen 'years  of  age  when  the  successful 
treason  of  his  mother  brought  him  to  the  throne.  A  regency, 
therefore,  was  necessary.  It  pleased  Isabella  and  Mor- 
dirnis^'^^^  timer,  however,  while  retaining  the  real  control  to  keep 
themselves  in  the  background  and  shoulder  all  responsi- 
bility for  the  administration  upon  men  like  Henry  of  Lancaster 
and  the  ex-king's  brothers  who  by  reason  of  their  royal  lineage 
commanded  the  confidence  of  the  people.  Such  an  arrangement 
detracted  in  nothing  from  the  actual  influence  of  the  chief  plotters 
and  for  a  time  concealed  from  the  nation  the  real  nature  of  the 
revolution.  The  position  of  the  "guardians,"  as  the  committee  of 
regency  was  called,  was  thus  not  an  enviable  one.  They  were 
responsible  for  a  government  which  they  could  not  direct.  They 
were  compelled  to  submit  to  the  insolent  dictation  of  a  man  whom 
neither  office  nor  royal  lineage  entitled  to  speak.  They  had 
struck  down  the  king's  favorite,  to  exalt  the  queen's  favorite. 

But  the  part  of  Mortimer  in  the  recent  plot  had  been  too 
prominent,  his  present  influence  was  too  marked,  to  permit  him  to 
remain  unnoticed  in  the  background,  nor  did  it  take  the  people  long 
to  divine  his  actual  relation  to  the  queen.     They  had  never  liked 

350 


^^  ,r  XT  ^  X  Orecu 


v  G  *"  A»    T.   <»    o y^  Ticquigriy 


\m 


GENERAL  MAP  OF 

HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


1328-1330]  FALL   OF   MORTIMEK  351 

the  man  and  resented  his  insolent  ways.  They  were  particularly 
offended  by  the  presence  of  a  body  guard  of  knights  which  he  kept 

ever  in  attendance;  an  ostentation  which  was  hardly 
divine  the       seemly  in  a  man  who  was  not  even  an  earl  and  who  had  no 

nominal  connection  with  the  government.  Grim  rumors 
also  began  to  spread  as  to  the  fate  of  the  deposed  king;  men's  blood 
stood  still  at  the  horrible  details,  and  they  were  ready  to  believe 
the  worst.     There  was  something  wrong  also  in  the  recent  peace 

with  the  Scots,  in  which  the  guardians  had  formally 
Nm-Phampum,  and  finally  recognized  the  independence  of  that  realm. 
March,  1828.  rjij^^  peace  perhaps  was  wise,  but  what  had  become  of 
the  £20,000  which  the  Scots  agreed  to  pay  into  the  royal  treasury? 
Rumor  reported  that  the  guilty  queen  and  her  paramour  had 
appropriated  this  money  to  their  own  uses.  Was  it  for  this  then 
that  the  English  must  suffer  the  humiliation  of  defeat?  Was  it 
not  enough  that  Edward  II.  had  thrown  away  Scotland?  Must 
this  debauched  Frenchwoman  now  openly  trade  in  the  blood  of  his 
subjects?  The  people  called  the  peace  *'tho  shameful  peace,"  and 
when  the  guardians,  in  order  to  keep  their  agreement  with  the  Scots, 
proposed  to  return  the  Stone  of  Scone,  so  great  was  the  uproar  among 
the  Londoners  that  the  king's  councillors  dared  not  proceed,  and 
thus  the  famous  talisman  was  left  permanently  in  English  hands. 
Mortimer's  insolence  in  the  meantime  kept  pace  with  his  grow- 
ing unpopularity.     His  one  thought  seemed  to  be  to  add  to  his 

wealth  and  titles.  He  was  made  Earl  of  March.  He 
Mortfmer,  Hved  in  regal  state.  In  1329  in  a  moment  of  anger  he 
^■''*^^*  brought  a  baud  of  armed  retainers  to  the  parliament  of 

Salisbury,  broke  into  the  parliament  chamber,  and  threatened  the 
members  with  personal  violence.  At  last  the  reproaches  of  the 
people  and  the  continued  insolence  of  the  favorite  goaded  Lancas- 
ter and  the  king's  uncles  ^  into  action,  but  only  to  be  cowed  into 

» THE  UNCLES  OF  EDWARD  IIL 

Edward  I. 

m.  1  Eleanor  of  Castile j m.  2  Margaret  of  France 

Edward  II.  m.  Isabella  of  France  |  ^| 

I  Thomas,  Edmund, 

Edward  III  Earl  of  Norfolk  Earl  of  Kent 


352  THE   HUNDRED   YEARS'    WAR  [] 


Edward  111. 


silence  again,  the  moment  the  cunning  villain,  who  was  fast  ter- 
rorizing the  whole  kingdom,  raised  his  head.  Mortimer,  however, 
on  his  part  was  not  to  be  satisfied  with  silence,  and  with  diabolical 
art  set  a  snare  for  the  high-minded  bat  simple-hearted  Edmund  of 
Kent,  who  was  led.  by  Mortimer's  secret  agents  to  believe  that  the 
late  king  was  still  alive,  and  was  thus  tricked  into  committing  him- 
self to  a  plan  of  rescue.  The  unfortunate  earl  was  at  once  arrested 
upon  a  charge  of  treason,  condemned  by  an  obsequious  parliament 
then  sitting  at  Winchester,  and  hurried  to  execution.  A  terror 
seized  the  nobility;  no  man  could  feel  sure  of  his  position,  or 
know  what  devilish  trap  might  be  spread  for  his  feet.  In 
desperation  the  nobles  turned  to  the  boy  king.  Though  a  lad  in 
years,  he  felt  deeply  the  humiliation  of  his  position  and  had  grown 
restless  under  the  tyrannical  tutelage  which  his  mother  and 
Mortimer  had  imposed  upon  him.  Isabella  scented  mischief  and 
carried  Mortimer  off  with  her  to  Nottingham  Castle;  but  the 
young  king  with  a  band  of  determined  men  followed  them,  and, 
secretly  gaining  access  to  the  castle  through  an  underground  pas- 
sage, since  known  as  "Mortimer's  Hole,"  seized  the  favorite, 
and,  with  the  cries  and  protests  of  the  queen  ringing  in 
their  ears,  bore  him  down  the  stairs  and  out  into  the  night 
and  off  to  London,  where  he  was  straightway  condemned  by 
the  lords  and  hanged  at  the  Elms.  Isabella  was  sent  to  Castle 
Rising  where  she  was  kept  a  prisoner  until  her  death  twenty-eight 
years  later. 

The  actual  reign  of  Edward  III.  now  began.     He  had  '*a  hand- 
some person,  pleasant  and  affable  manners,  a  fluent  tongue  and  an 

energy  that  contrasted  most  happily  with  the  listless 
EdwSrd^ii    iiitlolence  of  his  unhappy  father."     He  was,  however, 

no  statesman  like  Edward  I.  and  soon  developed  a 
thriftless  recklessness  in  pursuing  the  ends  of  mere  personal  ambi- 
tion. Like  Richard  I.  he  gloried  in  the  glamour  of  costly  military 
pageants.  He  thought  little  of  the  expense  and  suffering  which 
he  imposed  upon  friend  or  foe,  if  only  he  might  acquit  himself  with 
what  he  called  honor.  Yet,  during  the  early  part  of  his  reign,  he 
was  loved  and  honored  by  his  people,  who  did  not  then  understand 
the  heartless  selfishness  of  his  real  nature. 


1330-1347]  RESTORATION    OF    ORDER  853 

The  first  acts  of  Edward  were  directed  to  the  suppression  of  the 
disorder  which  had  sprung  up  under  the  weak  government  of  his 

father.  Armed  bands  of  outlaws  infested  the  highways, 
of^rrd&r^^^     Seized  travelers    for  ransom,   and  overawed  courts  of 

justice.  The  great  nobles,  as  Mortimer  at  Salisbury  in 
1329,  did  not  hesitate  to  employ  such  bands  to  defy  the  laws  or 
work  out  their  criminal  plots.  Even  the  boys  on  the  street  were 
infused  with  the  prevailing  spirit  of  disorder;  a  law  of  the  times 
forbids  them  to  amuse  themselves  by  ''knocking  off  the  hats  of 
passers-by  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  palace  of  Westminster." 
The  Statute  of  Winchester  of  Edward  I.  had  made  each  locality 
responsible  for  all  crime  within  its  precincts;  the  leading  men  of 
each  county  were  now  in  addition  to  assemble  the  people  by  hue 
and  cry,  and  pursue  the  peace-breaker  ''from  vill  to  vill"  and 
"from  hundred  to  hundred."  The  king  was  also  to  make  regular 
tours  through  the  counties  to  see  that  this  law  was  observed.  The 
courts  of  "trailbaston,"  which  had  been  instituted  under  special 
commissions  by  Edward  I.  for  the  purpose  of  dealing  with  gangs  of 
outlaws  too  powerful  for  the  ordinary  courts  to  handle,  were  also 
revived  and  did  good  service  during  the  first  twenty  years  of  Edward 
III.'s  reign.  In  1347  these  special  courts  were  superseded  by  the 
appointment  of  permanent  local  officers  known  as  "keepers  of  the 
peace,"  who  soon  began  to  be  called  "justices  of  the  peace," 
becoming  a  recognized  part  of  the  police  system  of  the  counties. 

While  the  young  Edward  was  thus  putting  his  hand  to  the 
restoration  of  order  within  his  kingdom,  fresh  troubles  arose  with 

Scotland  which  taxed  seriously  the  wisdom  of  the  new 
UoVH^aUnnl't  administration.  It  had  been  one  of  the  terms  of  the 
iSul^'"^'      P®^^®   ^^  ^'^^^  ^^^^  ^^^®  estates  of  English  nobles  in 

Scotland,  which  Brnce  had  confiscated,  should  be 
restored.  This  promise  had  not  been  fulfilled,  and  the  English 
barons  who  were  interested,  now  that  the  great  Bruce  was  no  more 
and  the  kingdom  left  to  his  infant  son,  believed  that  the  moment 
had  come  for  enforcing  their  rights,  and  proposed  to  place  upon 
the  throne  of  Scotland,  Edward  Balliol,  son  of  the  quondam  King 
John.^  They  first  appealed  to  Edward,  but  he  could  not  openly 
violate  the  recent  treaty  and  ostentatiously  closed  the  border  roads 


354  THE   HUNDRED   YEARS'   WAR  [edward  in. 

against  them.  They  were  left,  however,  to  fit  out  their  expedition 
at  Ravenspur  and  finally  sail  away  for  the  coast  of  Fife  with  a  small 
army  of  3,300  men.     Their  success  was  beyond  their  expectations. 

They  met  the  regent  of  Scotland  at  Dupplin  Moor, 
M!x)r,^August  August  12,  1332,  and  easily  defeated  him.     Perth,  the 

capital,  was  then  taken,  and  on  September  24  Edward 
Balliol  was  crowned  at  Scone. ^  An  army  of  Scots  hastily  gathered 
to  retake  Perth  but  disbanded  again  without  accomplishing  any- 
thing, leaving  the  handful  of  English  adventurers  virtually  in  pos- 
session of  the  great  part  of  the  kingdom.  Yet  five  weeks  after 
the  coronation,  Balliol 's  mushroom  throne  had  crumbled  before  the 
revival  of  the  old  Scottish  national  party,  and  he  was  himself  a 
fugitive  on  English  soil. 

The  weakness  of  the  regency,  however,  had  been  discovered, 
and    the   recovery   of   what   Edward   II.    had  lost   seemed   now 

an  easy  task.  Edward  III.  was  unequal  to  such 
ferenceof       temptation,  especially  when   Balliol  waited   to    renew 

Edward  III.    T  .     ^  ^,       ,'        ^  -nj  J      XI         i.  .J 

his  father's  homage.  Edward,  therefore,  recognized 
Balliol  as  rightful  king  of  Scotland  and  sent  him  back  with  an 
English  army  to  support  his  claim.  Edward  himself  joined  the 
invaders  before  Berwick,  and  when  the  Scots  attempted  to  relieve 

the  town,  met  them  at  Halidon  Hill,  where  mainly 
Hiii^^^         through    the    efficiency   of    the    English    archery,   he 

administered  such  a  crushing  defeat,  that  for  the 
moment  it  seemed  that  Bannockburn  had  been  undone  and  all 
that  the  Scots  had  gained  by  a  generation  of  sacrifice  had  been 
lost.  Balliol  again  assumed  the  royal  state,  and  formally  recog- 
nized the  English  overlordship.  He  also  ceded  to  Edward,  Tweed- 
dale  and  part  of  Lothian. 

The   second   reign  of   Edward   Balliol  was   hardly  longer   or 
more  satisfactory  than  the   first.     The  humiliation   of  Scotland 

was  more  than  her  proud  people  could  endure,  fired  as 
fSj^fsff^'  they  were  by  the  traditions  of  the  glorious  past.  The 
i^>i'  French    king  Philip  VI.   also    was  quick    to  see  the 

advantage  of  a  vigorous  Scottish  alliance  in  case  of  quarrel  with 

^  Scone,  the  ancient  capital,  was  two  miles  from  Perth.     Perth  re- 
mained the  capital  until  1436. 


1332-1339]  CAUSES    OF    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR  355 

England,  and  did  not  propose  to  allow  Edward  III.  to  entrench 
himself  permanently  in  Scotland.  He  sent  his  ships  to  the  coast, 
and  while  avoiding  open  war,  managed  to  keep  alive  a  party  loyal 
to  King  David.  In  1339  Balliol  was  once  more  driven  from  the 
country,  and  two  years  later  David  Bruce,  who  had  been  hurried  off 
to  France  in  1332,  ventured  to  return.  Edward  could  not  again 
interfere,  for  England  and  France  were  already  drifting  into  the 
shadows  of  the  *' Hundred  Years'  War,"  and  he  needed  all  his 
strength  to  defend  his  own  coasts  against  a  threatened  French 
invasion.  Berwick,  however,  remained  in  the  possession  of  the 
English.* 

The  great  event  of  Edward's  reign  was  now  approaching,  the 
opening  of  the  long  duel  with  France.     Like  most  great  national 

conflicts  this  struggle  struck  its  roots  far  into  the  past. 
causeanfthe  Evcr  since  a  vassal  of  the  French  crown  had  become 
YmfPfvar.  king  of  England,  it  had  been  the  accepted  policy  of  the 

French  court  to  weaken  the  hold  of  the  English  king 
upon  his  French  vassals  and  drive  him  from  the  continent  if  pos- 
sible. Hence  the  complications  which  had  sprung  from  the  ill- 
advised  attempt  of  Edward  I.  to  subjugate  Scotland,  had  been 
hailed  with  satisfaction  by  his  watchful  neighbor  across  the  Chan- 
nel, and  a  new  clause  added  to  the  old  traditional  policy  of  the 
French  court;  namely,  the  maintenance  of  a  close  alliance  with 
Scotland  against  England  and  the  support  of  the  independence  of 
the  Scottish  crown  at  all  hazards.  It  was  not  that  the  French 
king  loved  the  Scots ;  but  he  saw  here  a  chance  to  fetter  his  rival 
by  preparing  for  him  a  powerful  diversion  at  home,  whenever 
England  and  France  should  come  to  blows.  As  we  have  seen  it  was 
this  alliance  with  France  which  roused  John  Balliol  to  assert  himself 

^  The  English  possession  was  not  yet  permanent.  Between  1332  and 
1461  the  Scots  regained  the  town  several  times,  although  each  time  they 
failed  to  hold  it.  But  in  1461,  Henry  VI.  formally  ceded  it  to  them  in 
gratitude  for  the  kind  treatment  which  they  had  given  him  after  Tow- 
ton,  and  the  Scots  held  the  place  for  twenty-one  years.  In  1481  it  passed 
permanently  into  English  hands.  The  English,  however,  still  regarded 
the  town  as  a  part  of  a  foreign  kingdom,  conceding  to  it  its  own  civil 
and  military  establishment,  and  leaving  it  in  fact  a  separate  but  depend- 
ent state  until  the  act  of  Union  in  1807. 


356  THE    HUNDRED    YEARS '    WAR  [ 


Edward  111. 


in  1295,  and  gave  Wallace  liis  opportunity  in  1297.  It  was  a  French 
war  also  that  had  assisted  Bruce  in  1306,  and  it  was  the  continued 
friendship  of  France  that  had  enabled  the  old  Scottish  party  to  expel 
the  younger  Balliol  at  last  and  bring  back  David  Bruce  in  triumph 
to  his  father's  throne.  The  earlier  wars  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  claims  of  English  kings  south  of  the  Channel,  had  never  taken 
any  very  serious  hold  upon  the  English  nation.  For  the  most 
part  the  people,  and,  after  the  loss  of  N'ormandy,  even  the  feudal 
nobility,  took  no  deep  interest  in  these  wars,  but  begrudged  rather 
both  the  time  and  the  money  which  they  were  ever  demanding. 
But  the  Scottish  wars  had  struck  nearer  home;  national  sentiment 
had  been  awakened.  Hence  Englishmen  could  not  overlook  the 
unneighborly  acts  of  the  French,  and  it  was  not  long  before  they 
began  to  hate  the  French  as  bitterly  as  they  hated  the  Scots.  Other 
causes  also  helped  to  fan  the  popular  hatred  and  develop  the  war 
spirit.  England  and  France  had  already  begun  their  commercial 
rivalry,  and  were  elbowing  each  other  on  the  seas  and  in  the  marts 
of  the  Low  Countries.  The  merchant  service  of  civilized  nations, 
moreover,  was  still  exposed  to  the  temptation  of  piracy;  the  plun- 
dering of  merchantmen  by  their  rivals  of  other  nations  even  in 
times  of  peace  was  hardly  regarded  as  a  crime.  The  battle  in  the 
harbor  of  St.  Mahe  in  1293  had  been  the  direct  outgrowth  of  such 
piracies. 

In  the  year  1328  Charles  IV.,  the  last  male  of  the  elder  line  of 

Capet,  died.      There  were- nieces  and  a    sister,^  the  mother  of 

Edward  III. ;    but  the  French  lawyers,  in  the  interests 

TheVaiois      ^f  the  Collateral  house  of  Valois,  had  seen  fit  to  give  a 

succession.  '  ° 

constitutional  interpretation  to  the  old  Frankish  law 
which  decreed  that  "no  part  of  the  Salic  land  could  fall  to  a 
woman."  The  law  of  course  applied  only  to  the  transmission  of 
private  property,  and  even  here  had  long  since  become  a  dead 
letter.  But  it  was  sufficient  for  the  purpose  of  the  lawyers  to  serve 
as  the  basis  for  a  quibble  in  order  to  justify  the  transfer  of  the 
crown  to  Philip,  the  son  of  Charles  of  Valois. 

The  new  king  had  adopted  fully  the  traditional  policy  of  the 

1  Charles  of  Navarre  was  not  born  until  1332,  see  table  p.  350. 


MAKING    READY    FOR   WAR  357 

French  court  and  proceeded  to  seize  every  opportunity  of  harassing 

the  English.     He  had  kept  the  borders  of  Guienne  in  turmoil  and 

had  continued  to  encourasre  the  French  piracies.     He 

Policy  of  (=>  r 

Philip  of        had  also  renewed   the  former  alliance  of   Philip   IV. 

VdUiis. 

with  the  Scots,  sending  them  ships,  men,  and  money, 
and  in  1332  had  given  the  exile  David  Bruce  a  cordial  welcome. 

Ten  years  of  Edward  III. 's  reign  had  now  passed.  In  spite  of 
the  renewal  of  the  quarrel  with  the  Scots,  at  home  England  had 
enjoyed  comparative  quiet  and  the  nation  had  been 
readyflyr  restored  to  much  of  the  prosperity  and  confidence  which 
^"*^*  it  had  enjoyed  under  Edward  I.     Dupplin  Moor  and 

Ilalidon  Hill  had  done  much  to  efface  the  deep  humiliation  of 
Bannockburn,  and  the  people,  flushed  with  victory,  were  not 
inclined  to  endure  much  longer  the  persistent  interference  of  the 
French  king  in  insular  affairs,  or  the  ever-increasing  annoyance  of 
French  piracies.  War  in  short  had  already  begun.  Not  only  was  it 
no  secret  that  French  money  was  equipping  ships  in  Sicily,  Genoa, 
Norway,  and  Holland,  but  French  ships  were  actually  wasting 
the  English  coast.  The  English  also  were  equipping  themselves 
for  the  struggle.  Parliament  had  adopted  the  quarrel  as  its  own, 
and  had  not  only  voted  largo  grants  of  money,  but,  without  a 
protest,  had  allowed  the  king  to  violate  the  promise  of  Edward  I. 
concerning  the  raising  of  money  by  tallage.  Each  seaport  town 
also  was  required  to  furnish  a  quota  of  ships  for  the  defense 
of  the  coasts;  a  measure  for  which  Edward  III.  had  precedent 
enough  in  the  past.  The  Scottish  alliance  of  Philip,  Edward 
sought  to  offset  by  an  alliance  with  the  petty  principalities  which 
fringed  the  eastern  borders  of  France;  for  the  most  part  purchas- 
ing their  support  outright  either  by  subsidy  or  by  the  promise  of 
important  commercial  advantages.  He  bought  up  the  emperor 
for  a  subsidy  of  3,000  florins,  getting  2,000  men  to  fight  for  him, 
and  when  the  German  princes  of  the  Rhine  hesitated  to  fight  under 
a  foreign  prince,  the  emperor  conferred  upon  Edward  the  title  of 
''Vicar  General  of  the  Empire  on  the  Left  Bank  of  the  Rhine," 
with  authority  to  lead  the  princes  of  the  empire  for  seven  years. 

Of  all  these  allies,  the  Flemings  were  the  most  important.  In 
the  industrial    arts  they  were    the  foremost  people  of   Europe. 


358  THE    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR  [edwardIII. 

Their  cities  teemed  with  hard-headed  burghers  who  had  made  for- 
tunes by  manufacturing  English-grown  wool,  and  had  little 
^^  .  sympathy  with  the  feudal  maxims  which  controlled  the 

The  impor-       ^      ^         "^ . 

^nc^pf  ^^«  J^  rench  kingdom  of  which  they  were  nominally  a  part. 
Nine  cities  had  already  formed  a  defensive  league  under 
the  inspiration  of  the  famous  *' Brewer  of  Ghent,"  James  Van 
Arteveldt,  and,  quick  to  see  the  advantage  of  an  alliance  with  the 
country  which  furnished  the  wool  for  their  looms,  now  readily 
yielded  themselves  to  the  blandishments  of  Edward. 

It  is  difficult  to  say,  then,  just  when  the  war  began  or  who  was 
more  responsible.  The  open  support  which  France  had  given  to  Scot- 
land, the  attack  upon  Gascony,  and  the  plunder  of  Eng- 
ningofthe  h'sh  shipping,  would  be  regarded  by  any  modern  state  as 
war,  1337.  sufficient  ground  for  war.  In  1337  Van  Arteveldt  came 
to  blows  with  the  count  of  Flanders,  who  was  a  vassal  of  the 
French  king,  and  Edward  sent  over  an  English  fleet  to  support 
his  ally,  and  drove  the  garrison  of  Count  Louis  out  of  Cadsand. 
The  next  year  Edward  himself  went  to  the  continent  to  begin  a 
direct  attack  upon  France  using  Flanders  as  a  base.  Here  he  was 
made  to  feel  at  once  the  strength  of  Philip  and  the  worthlessness 
of  his  own  allies.  The  frontier  cities  were  really  huge  fortresses,  or 
fortified  camps,  well  garrisoned  for  long  sieges,  and  the  two  years 
of  1338  and  1339  Edward  spent  in  the  vain  endeavor  to  break 
through  this  ring  of  frontier  strongholds.  Phih'p  also  took  the  field, 
but  stubbornly  refused  to  be  drawn  into  a  general  engagement, 
satisfied  to  see  Edward  wear  out  the  patience  of  his  troops  and 
exhaust  his  resources  in  useless  campaigning  against  stone  walls. 
Edward's  allies  also  soon  proved  that  they  were  more  interested  in 
drawing  his  subsidies  than  in  defeating  his  enemies.  Even  the 
Flemings,  upon  whom  Edward  had  most  reason  to  depend,  while 
perfectly  willing  to  march  under  Edward's  banners  and  draw  pay 
from  his  treasury,  hesitated  when  it  came  to  fighting  against  their 
sovereign  in  person.  John  Lackland  had  met  the  same  difficulty 
when  he  tried  to  bring  his  Flemish  mercenaries  into  the  field 
against  Prince  Louis. 

These  and  other  considerations  now  led  Edward  to  determine 
upon  a  step  which  soon  gave  new  color  to  the  entire  war,  effectually 


1337-1340]  EDWARD    CLAIMS   FRENCH    CROWN"  359 

obscured  its  original  cause,  and  made  peace  impossible  until  one 

or  both  of  the  two  nations  had  been   entirely  exhausted.     This 

step  was  to  claim  for  himself  the  crown  of  France  as  his 

varices  claim   bv  right  of  his  mother  Isabella.     When  Charles  IV. 

to  the  French    ,.    ,  ?  x     i    n  t   ^i-        •  i  • 

crown  OH  a  dicd  in  1328,  Isabella  and  Mortimer,  wlio  were  then  in 
power,  while  accepting  the  principle  that  a  woman  might 
not  inherit  the  crown  of  France,  had  yet  advanced  the  claim  of  the 
young  Edward  on  the  ground  that  a  claim  might  be  transmitted 
by  a  daughter  to  her  male  offspring.  But  the  claim  was  not  pressed, 
and  Edward  by  doing  homage  to  Philip  VI.  for  the  French  pos- 
sessions of  the  Plantagenets,  had  virtually  recognized  Philip  as  right- 
ful king  of  France.  Largely,  therefore,  as  a  war  measure,  and  at 
the  earnest  solicitation  of  Van  Arteveldt,  Edward  determined  to 
assert  his  title  as  king  of  France.  It  is  difficult  to  understand 
the  logic  by  which  Edward  could  convince  himself  that  his  claim 
was  just.  Even  if  in  1328  he  were  the  nearest  male  heir  of 
the  elder  Capetian  line,  he  had  been  debarred  since  by  the  birth  of 
Charles  of  Navarre,  the  grandson  of  Louis  X.  Still,  as  a  war 
measure,  Edward's  claim  was  good  enough,  and  accordingly 
in  January  1340,*  as  a  preliminary  to  a  new  campaign,  he 
formally  declared  himself  king  of  France  by  right  of  his  mother, 
and  quartered  the  arms  of  the  leopards  with  those  of  the  fleur-de- 
lis,  adopting  the  motto  '*God  and  my  right."  On  the  8th  of 
February  he  carried  his  effrontery  so  far  as  to  issue  a  charter  to 
the  French  as  their  king. 

The  war  was  now  on  in  serious  earnest;  the  quarrel  of  Edward 

and    Philip    was    irreconcilable.      In    the    early  spring    Edward 

returned  to  England  to  levy  new  taxes  upon  his  people 

navau^ctory  ^^^  prepare  for  the  new  campaign.     But  Philip  had 

Junef4,'i34o.  changed  his  tactics  somewhat  and,  by  gathering  a  fleet 

of  upwards  of  two  hundred  sail  in  the  harbor  of  Sluys, 

proposed  to  prevent  the  return  of  Edward  to  the  Low  Countries. 

*  Edward  evidently  had  had  this  step  in  mind  since  1337,  for  he  had 

used  the  title  as  early  as  October  7   of  that  year,  but  inasmuch  as  the 

title  is  not  found  in  any  documents  between  that  date  and  the  26th  of 

January,  1340,  he  seems  to  have  temporarily  abandoned  the  matter.     The 

better  judgment  of  Europe  was  against  it,   and  on  March  5,   1340,  the 

pope  wrote  to  dissuade  him.     See  Stubbs,  O.  H.  II,  p.  400,  note  1. 


360  THE    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR  [edward   II. 

Edward  promptly  accepted  the  challenge  and  on  the  24th  of  June 
attacked  Philip  upon  his  own  ground.  As  the  English  ships,  with 
the  wind  and  sun  at  their  backs,  bore  down  upon  the  enemy,  the 
archers  swept  the  French  decks,  while  Edward  and  his  knights,  sword 
in  hand,  stood  ready  to  board  the  moment  the  shock  of  collision 
came.  The  victory  was  as  brilliant  as  it  was  complete.  The 
French  fleet  was  annihilated;  thirty  thousand  men  were  slain 
upon  the  decks  or  drowned  in  the  harbor.  No  such  victory  had 
been  won  by  the  English  at  sea  since  the  exploit  of  Hubert  de 
Burgh  before  Dover  in  1217. 

The  English  remained  masters  of  the  Channel  for  thirty  years. 
Not  only  was  all  fear  of    a  French  invasion  dispelled;    but  the 

entire  French  coast  lay  open  for  Edward  to  choose  his 
sSs^^^        own  time  and  place  of  attack.     Yet  instead  of  taking 

advantage  of  his  victory  he  sat  down  before  the  first  big 
French  town  that  lay  across  his  path,  this  time  Tournay,  and 
frittered  away  precious  months  in  a  vain  attempt  to  persuade 
Philip  to  meet  him  like  a  knight  and  settle  their  quarrel  in  fair 
combat.  Philip,  who  had  already  proved  himself  a  master  in  a 
contest  of  matching  patience  with  Edward,  simply  repeated  the 
tactics  of  the  former  campaign,  and  with  such  success  that  the 
autumn  passed  and  still  Edward  had  accomplished  nothing;  his 
supplies  were  exhausted  and  the  winter  was  coming  on.  He  was 
glad,  therefore,  to  secure  a  truce  of  nine  months  and  be  allowed 
to  return  home  where  his  presence  was  by  this  time  sorely  needed. 
Nearly  five  years  had  now  passed  since  the  beginning  of  the 
war ;  vast  sums  had  been  squandered ;  thousands  of  lives  had  been 

sacrificed,  and  nothing  had  been  gained.  If  there  were 
firS'%e^^^^  advantages  on  either  side,  they  lay  with  Philip  rather 
Hto^-.oL'^'''''  than  with  Edward.      It    is    true    that    Edward    had 

1337-1342. 

destroyed  the  French  fleet,  but  he  had  signally  failed  to 
break  through  Philip's  frontier.  Philip's  lieutenants  on  the  other 
hand  had  broken  into  Gascony  and  now  held  a  part  of  that  unhappy 
country  for  their  king.  The  Scots,  moreover,  had  by  the  aid  of 
French  troops  recovered  their  cities  and  castles  and  once  more 
threatened  the  northern  shires  of  England.  Five  years  of  war  had 
not  sweetened  the  temper  of  the  English  people  nor  softened  their 


1341-1343]  THE   BRETON    SUCCESSION  361 

hearts  towards  the  French,  but,  they  were  weary  of  a  war  which 
had  borue  such  meagre  results,  'and  had  lost  much  of  their  early 
enthusiasm.  Parliament  was  growing  restless;  its  supplies  were 
doled  out  with  a  niggardly  hand  and  the  members  were  begin- 
ning to  show  alarming  signs  of  a  disposition  to  inquire  into  the  way 
in  which  the  king's  ministers  were  spending  his  money.  The 
emperor's  support  also  was  weakening  and  the  pope  was  exerting 
all  his  powerful  influence  to  bring  about  a  permanent  peace. 
Hence  at  the  opening  of  1342  peace  did  not  seem  to  be  far  off, 
when  a  new  cause  of  quarrel  arose  in  a  dispute  over  the  succession 
to  the  Duchy  of  Brittany. 

In  1341  John  III.  of  Brittany  had  died  childless.^     His  brother 
Guy  had  died  before  him  but  had  left  a  daughter  Jeanne,  the  wife 

of  Charles  of  Blois,  nephew  of  the  French  king.  But 
succmdnn-  ^^^^^  WES  also  a  lialf-brother  of  the  late  duke,  another 
^newaiof'     John,   wlio   bore  the  title  of  de    Montfort  from    his 

mother.  Philip  claimed  the  duchy  for  his  niece  in 
nccordanco  with  the  well  established  law  of  Brittany.  De  Mont- 
fort claimed  the  succession  as  the  sole  male  heir  of  his  father 
Arthur.  Here  was  an  application  of  the  Salic  law  which  was  not 
so  pleasing  to  Philip.  Edward,  who  minded  little  the  incon- 
sistency of  his  position  when  he  saw  an  opportunity  of  striking 
Philip  in  a  new  quarter,  took  up  the  claim  of  de  Montfort. 
Thus  the  war  shifted  to  Brittany.  Edward's  candidate,  how- 
ever, made  little  progress  and  soon  found  his  way  into  on6 
of  Philip's  prisons.  In  the  autumn  of  1342  Edward  himself  came 
over,  but  after  many  trials  and  much  suffering  on  the  piirt 
The  truce  of  ^^  ^^^  troops,  he  was  glad  to  accept  a  truce  again 
¥(nmaruf'  ^^  ^^®  ^®^^  ^^J  ^^^^  ^^  ^  ^^^  busincss.  The  truce  was 
1343.  ^Q  Ig^g^  until  Michaelmas,  was  to  include  all  the  con- 

tending parties,  and  might   be  made  permanent,  if  the  English 

1  THE  BRETON  SUCCESSION 
Arthur  Duke  of  Brittany 

John  III.  Guy  John  de  Montfort 

Duke  of  Brittany,  | 

died  1341  Jeanne  =  Charles  Count  of     . 

Blois,  nei)hew  of  Philip  VI. 


362  THE    HUKDRED    YEAKS'    WAK  [ 


Edward  111. 


parliament  should  consent  to  its  terms;  for  Edward  had  thought 
it  politic  to  defer  the  final  decision  for  parliament. 

Parliament  met  early  in  1343  and  agreed  to  lay  the  matter  of 

quarrel  before  the  pope  for  arbitration,  at  the  same  time  declaring 

for  the  continuance  of  the  war,  if  peace  could  not  be 

Ineffectual      jjajj  npon  iust  terms.     It  is  difficult  to  believe  that 

peace  ^         «' 

negotiatiom,  Edward  was  doing  else  than  playing  for  time.  What- 
ever he  may  have  thought  of  his  claims  upon  the 
French  crown,  he  had  fully  made  up  his  mind  to  accept  nothing 
short  of  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  Guienne.  Philip  on  the  other 
hand  was  Just  as  determined  that  Edward  should  never  rule  French 
territory  save  as  his  vassal.  The  negotiations,  therefore,  dragged 
on  their  weary  length  and  ended  at  last  where  they  began.  It 
was  no  doubt  what  Edward  expected;  possibly  what  he  most 
desired.  He  had  gained  eighteen  months  of  valuable  time  and  was 
ready  to  strike  again. 

Philip  in  the  meantime    had   not  been    idle.      Trouble    still 

smouldered  in  Flanders.     The  small  towns  had  turned  against  the 

cities,  roused  by  their  monopolies,  and  in  the  rioting 

The  war         which  ensucd  Edward's  old  friend  Van  Arteveldt  had 

renewed. 

been  slain.  Philip  had,  also,  contrived  to  keep  alive  a 
powerful  French  party  in  Aquitaine,  where  he  was  steadily  under- 
mining Edward's  influence.  Edward  sent  hither  in  the  summer 
of  1345  a  considerable  army  under  the  command  of  Henry,  Earl  of 
Derby,  the  son  of  Henry  of  Lancaster,  a  commander  of  no  mean 
parts,  who  by  a  series  of  brilliant  successes  fully  justified  the 
confidence  of  the  king.  The  main  expedition  which  w^as  designed 
for  Normandy  followed  in  the  spring.  It  was  led  by  Edward  in 
person  and  was  composed  of  Irish,  Welsh,  and  English,  *'a  great 
army  of  souldiours  well  appointed,"  of  whom  ten  thousand  were 
bowmen. 

Edward  landed  on  the  northwest  coast  of  Normandy  and  without 
any  particular  plan  other  than  to  punish  the  coast  towns  for  their 

piracies,  began  ravaging  the  country,  pillaging  the 
campaign       cities,  and  burning  the  shipping,  but  moving  in  a  gen- 

of  C^vfcu 

eral  easterly  direction  with  Calais  possibly  as  his  goal, 
where  he  expected  to  find  the  Flemings  in  force  and  with  them 


1346]  CAMPAIGN   OF   CRECY  3G3 

take  the  city.  All  went  well  until  Edward  reached  Kouen,  for 
Philip  had  drawn  away  his  soldiers  to  protect  his  southern  borders 
against  the  vigorous  attack  of  the  earl  of  Lancaster.^  But  at  Rouen 
Edward  found  that  the  French  had  destroyed  the  bridges  over  the 
Seine  and  he  was  compelled  to  ascend  the  river  toward  Paris  in 
search  of  another  crossing.  Edward's  position  was  one  of  great 
peril.  Before  him  lay  the  high  walls  of  Paris,  with  its  mighty 
population,  formidable  even  in  that  day.  Behind  him  lay  an 
exasperated  people,  whose  lands  he  had  ruined  and  where  he  had 
himself  destroyed  the  means  of  feeding  an  army.  Philip,  more- 
over, had  hastily  returned  from  the  south,  and  now  lay  on  the 
farther  bank  of  the  Seine  at  St.  Denys,  with  an  army  which 
outnumbered  the  English  two  to  one.  Edward  was  in  short 
caught  in  a  trap.  But  Philip,  most  fortunately  for  Edward,  mis- 
took the  northward  march  for  an  attack  upon  Paris,  an  error  in 
which  he  was  confirmed  by  a  skillful  feint  of  the  English.  He 
waited  therefore  at  St.  Denys  for  Edward  to  wear  himself  out  upon 
the  city  gates,  while  his  own  army  continued  to  augment  by  daily 
arrivals  from  the  south  and  east.  But  Edward  in  the  meanwhile 
was  quietly  repairing  the  bridge  at  Poissy  and  on  the  16th  of 
August  crossed  to  the  east  bank,  and  after  defeating  a  detachment 
of  new  recruits  who  were  advancing  to  join  Philip,  marched  away 
toward  Pontoise.  At  Airaines  Edward  halted  for  three  days,  while 
his  scouts  patroled  the  banks  of  the  Sommo  in  a  vain  search  for  a 
ford;  for  the  only  bridge  which  the  French  had  spared  on  the 
lower  river  was  at  Abbeville,  where  Philip  had  had  the  foresight 
to  leave  a  strong  garrison.  Edward's  position  was  once  more 
growing  critical.  Philip  had  at  last  broken  camp  at  St.  Denys 
and  was  swiftly  approaching  Airaines  with  an  army  which  now 
outnumbered  Edward's  fully  three  to  one,  and  was,  moreover, 
eager  for  battle.  Edward  dared  not  delay  longer  and,  as  a  forlorn 
hope,  hastily  broke  camp  and  marched  upon  Abbeville.  So  hurried 
was  his  departure,  that  when  the  French  entered  his  camp,  two 
hours  later,  they  found  **meat  on  the  spits,  pasties  in  the  ovens, 
and  tables  ready  spread."     Yet  Edward's  good  fortune  did  not 

*  Henry  of  Derby  had  become  Earl  of  Lancaster  by  the  death  of  his 
father,  September  22,  1345. 


364  ^  THE   HUNDEED   YEARS'    WAR  [edwakd  ill. 

forsake  him.  As  he  neared  Abbeville  he  learned  of  a  ford  at  a 
place  called  Blanche  Tache,  where  the  waters  of  the  Somme  widen 
ere  they  pass  into  the  sea,  and  where  an  army  might  find  footing 
at  low  tide.  Edward  easily  reached  the  ford,  but  only  to  find  him- 
self confronted  from  the  opposite  bank  by  a  force  of  twelve  thou- 
sand men  drawn  up  under  Guimar  du  Fay.  With  the  powerful 
army  of  Philip,  however,  pressing  upon  him  from  the  rear,  the 
English  king  had  no  choice  but  to  lead  his  troops  into  the  river 
and  fight  for  the  passage.  The  banks  were  speedily  cleared  by  the 
English  "archers,  and  Edward's  men-at-arms  were  soon  pursuing 
the  knights  of  Guimar  across  the  fields  of  Ponthieu.  The  crossing 
was  not  won  a  minute  too  soon;  Edward's  rear  guard  had  hardly 
shaken  the  water  from  their  garments,  when  the  light  horse  of  the 
French  advance  appeared  on  the  bank  which  the  English  had  just 
left.  But  Edward's  men  were  now  safe,  the  tide  was  already  roll- 
ing in  again  over  the  white  shoals ;  and  nothing  was  left  to  Philip 
but  to  halt  his  army  at  Abbeville. 

Edward  now  declared  that  he  would  retreat  no  further.  Ho 
was  in  Ponthieu,^  surrounded  by  abundance;    his  way  was   open 

to  Calais;  his  army  although  small  was  formidable, 
wimdrawsto  nor  could  Philip  attack  him  before  the  morrow  at  the 

earliest.  He  would  give  his  men,  therefore,  what 
remained  of  the  day  and  the  night  for  rest,  and  prepare  to  give  a 
good  account  of  himself  when  Philip  should  appear.  Accord- 
ingly he  first  sent  out  numerous  small  parties  to  secure  forage,  and 
then  withdrew  the  main  body  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  little 
village  of  Crecy,  finally  taking  up  a  strong  position  on  a  hill  slope 
to  the  east  of  the  town  and  facing  Abbeville. 

In  the  meanwhile  Philip  also  was  attempting  to  give  his  unwieldy 
host  an  opportunity  to  rest  at  Abbeville,  but  with  poor  success. 

The  accommodations  of  the  little  town  were  altogether 
AbibS)me       inadequate  to  the  needs  of  so  many  men  and  the  great 

part  slept  in  the  open  fields.  Nevertheless  Philip  tar- 
ried from  Thursday  until  Saturday,  without  gaining  other  advan- 

1  The  reason  which  Froissart  assigns  for  this  decision  of  Edward  was 
that  Ponthieu  had  belonged  to  Edward's  mother.  Compare  p.  345  note 
with  Longman,  Life  and  Times  of  Edward  III. ,  I,  p.  254,  note  1. 


1346] 


CEECY    FIELD 


3G5 


Vadicourt  **3 


tage  than  the  accession  of  fresh  troops  to  swell  the  size  of  his 
already  unmanageable  army.  On  Saturday,  the  26th  of  August, 
long  before  sun-up  the  vast  host  was  astir  and  soon  streaming  away 
towards  Crecy;  the  men  marching  without  order,  a  confused 
multitude  of  horse  and  foot,  possessing  but  one  prime  military 
quality,  an  eager  desire  to  come  up  with  the  foe. 

Six  leagues  away  Edward  and  his  men  were  quietly  waiting  on 
their  hillside.  All  told  they  numbered  about  four  thousand  horse 
and  ten  thousand  archers,  besides  an  irregular  body  of 
order  of  Irish  and  Welsh  footmen.^  The  knights  were  dis- 
mounted and  drawn  up  in  three  divisions  as  pikemen. 
The  first  di- 
vision was 
placed  at  the 
foot  of  the 
slope  and 
commanded 
by  Edward, 
the  king's 
eldest  son, 
the  beloved 
Black 
Prince,  sup- 
ported by 
some  of  the 
ablest  c  a  p- 
tains  in  the 

English  service.  To  the  left  was  drawn  up  the  second  division,  led 
by  the  earls  of  Arundel  and  Northampton.  The  third  division,  com- 
manded  by  the  king  in  person,  was  marshalled  on  higher  ground  in 

'  The  number  of  the  French  army  was  by  this  time  probably  not  far 
from  seventy  thousand  men.  The  number  of  the  English  has  long  been  a 
subject  of  dispute.  Estimates  have  varied  from  8,000,  determined  on  the 
basis  of  the  disposition  of  the  several  divisions  as  given  by  Froissart,  and 
32,000  as  given  by  the  Italian  Villani.  The  treasury  accounts,  recently 
discovered  in  the  Herald's  College,  however,  have  now  furnished  the  data 
for  a  satisfactory  estimate.  See  Wrottesley,  Crecy  and  Calais,  from  the 
Public  Records.  Reviewed  by  J.  E.  Morris  in  Eng.  Hist.  Review,  1899,  p.  766. 


Battle  of 
CRECY 

Aug.  26,  1346 

English   Foot 
English  Archers 
Irish  and  Welsh 
French 


/// 


366  THE    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR  [edwardIU. 

the  rear  as  a  sort  of  reserve  corps.*  Before  each  division  the 
archers  were  thrown  out  in  open  order;  the  men  in  the  successive 
ranks  arranged  like  the  pieces  on  a  checker-board,  so  that  each 
man  should  have  an  open  space  before  him  for  the  full  play  of  his 
terrible  bow.  It  is  also  stated,  but  upon  questionable  authority, 
that  between  the  divisions  were  placed  very  small  bombards  ** which 
with  fire  and  a  noise  like  God's  thunder,  threw  little  balls  of  iron 
to  frighten  the  horses."  ^  The  Irish  and  Welsh,  armed  with  long, 
ugly  looking  knives,  hovered  on  the  flanks  and  completed  the  array. 
About  noon  Edward's  preparations  were  fully  completed  and 
betook  up  a  position  back  of  his  third  division  near  a  windmill 

from  which  he  could  survey  the  field.  Below  him  his 
Au{jiuit26,       men  stood  in  their  places,  or  sat  on  the  ground  with 

their  iron  caps  lying  on  the  grass  beside  them;  their 
coolness  and  quiet  order  in  marked  contrast  with  the  confused 
chaos  of  martial  valor  that  was  rolling  down  upon  them  from 
Abbeville.  When  the  afternoon  was  well  on  Philip's  men  began  to 
appear  and  soon  all  the  lanes  and  avenues  leading  to  the  English 
position  were  choked  with  the  increasing  press  of  men  and  horses. 
Philip  had  tried  to  get  his  troops  into  some  order  on  the  march,  but 
had  only  increased  the  confusion,  and  when  he  arrived  on  the  field 
he  was  fully  determined  to  postpone  the  attack  until  the  next  day. 
But  the  sight  of  the  English,  sitting  there  on  the  hillside  and  look- 
ing down  upon  him  with  insolent  indifference,  was  too  much  for  his 
temper;  and  in  an  outburst  of  anger,  he  bade  his  marshals  send 
forward  the  Genoese  cross-bowmen  and  begin  the  battle.  Of  these 
cross-bowmen  Philip  had  brought  along  some  six  thousand  to 
engage  the  English  archers.  But  the  poor  fellows  were  "quite 
fatigued,  having  marched  on  foot  that  day  six  leagues,  completely 
armed,  and  carrying  their  cross-bows,"  and,  to  add  to  their 
discomfort,  moreover,  while  they  were  getting  ready  for  action, 
there  came  up  a  terrific  thunder  storm,  accompanied  by  a  drench- 
ing rain.  When  the  storm  had  passed  the  Genoese  were  ready 
and  advanced  with    a   great    shout.     But   the   cross-bow  was  no 

*  See  Colby,  Selections,  p.  98,  for  Froissart's  account  of  the  battle. 
2  Villani  is  the  sole  authority  for  the  employment   of  these  toy  can- 
non by  the  English.     Longman,  I,  p .  250. 


1346]  .     THE   BATTLE   OF   CRECY  367 

match  for  the  English  long  bow.  The  English  archers  also 
fully  understood  their  work  and,  rising  to  their  feet,  coolly 
unlimbered  their  weapons  and  waited  for  the  Genoese  to  come  well 
within  range.  ''Then  they  stepped  forth  one  pace  and  let  fly  their 
arrows  so  hotly  and  so  thick  that  it  seemed  snow."  The  long 
lines  of  cross-bowmen  faltered,  swayed,  then  surged  backward  and 
broke.  Philip  was  furious  and,  turning  to  the  men-at-arms  who 
were  supposed  to  support  the  Genoese,  cried:  "Kill  me  those 
runaway  scoundrels."  The  order  was  the  signal  for  the  beginning 
of  the  main  battle.  The  men-at-arms  spurred  forward  their  heavy 
horses,  riding  down  the  unfortunate  Genoese,  only  in  their  turn 
to  meet  the  murderous  flight  of  cloth-yards.  Soon  the  field  was 
covered  with  writhing  men  and  plunging  horses.  Then  came  the 
moment  of  the  Irish  and  Welsh  footmen,  who  darting  under  the 
rearing  horses,  and  slashing  at  the  huge  bellies  with  their  long 
knives,  added  not  a  little  to  the  havoc  and  the  wild  confusion. 
Other  bands  of  French  knights  came  up,  and  passing  around  the 
first  battle  and  skirting  the  hedge  of  archers,  managed  at  last  to 
get  at  the  English  men-at-arms.  The  press  about  the  first  divi- 
sion increased  and  there  was  danger  that  it  would  be  borne  away  by 
sheer  weight  of  superior  numbers.  From  the  height  by  the  wind- 
mill the  anxious  watchers  with  the  king  saw  the  sea  of  tossing 
crests  close  around  the  little  band  which  surrounded  the  Black 
Prince,  and  cried  to  Edward  to  lead  them  to  the  rescue.  A  mes- 
senger also  came  in  hot  haste  asking  the  king  to  come  to  the  help 
of  the  captains  who  were  with  the  prince.  But  Edward  saw  that 
the  moment  had  not  yet  come  for  leading  out  his  reserve.  ''Let 
the  boy  win  his  spurs,"  he  coolly  replied,  "that  the  honor  may  be 
his."  So  Edward  waited;  moments  dragged  into  hours,  still  the 
battle  raged  on.  Philip  had  had  no  control  of  his  army  from  the 
first,  and  apparently  made  no  effort  to  hold  his  knights  together  or 
to  hurl  them  in  masses  upon  the  English  lines.  The  broken  bands 
were  left  to  return  again  and  again  to  the  onset,  accomplishing 
prodigious  feats  of  valor,  but  only  to  foam  themselves  away  against 
the  bristling  wall  of  lances.  Philip's  brother  fell  with  his  sword 
in  his  hand.  John,  the  blind  old  king  of  Bohemia,  Philip's  ally, 
asked  to  be  led  into  the  thick  of  the  fray  that  he  might  strike  one 


3G8  THE   HUN^DRED   YEARS*    WAR  [edward  ill. 

blow  at  the  English,  and  there  lie  died.  Night  at  last  put  an  end 
to  the  useless  carnage.  Belated  bands  of  French  continued  to 
arrive  during  the  night  and  the  next  day  there  was  some  desultory 
fighting;  but  the  French  could  not  rally  and  the  fighting  rapidly 
degenerated  into  a  mere  slaughter  of  fugitives  by  the  English. 
Philip,  wounded  in  body  and  broken  in  spirit,  had  already  fled  to 
Amiens  under  cover  of  the  night,  leaving  behind  him  on  the 
field  twelve  princes  of  France,  thirteen  hundred  knights,  and  six- 
teen thousand  lesser  folk.^  The  English  loss  was  inconsiderable. 
Once  more  France  lay  at  Edward's  mercy;  yet,  instead  of  tak- 
ing advantage  of  his  victory,  he  repeated  the  mistake  which  he  had 
made  after  Sluys,  spendine^  the  winter  months  of  1346 

The  sieae  of  j    ^      i.  n 

Calais,  1346,  and  1347  under  the  walls  of  Calais,  patiently  waiting 
for  the  burghers  to  eat  up  their  store  of  provisions^ 
while  Philip  was  left  to  rally  his  shattered  strength  unmolested. 
France,  however,  was  weaker  now  than  in  1340,  and  a  wholesome 
dread  of  meeting  the  English  in  battle  had  taken  the  place  of  the 
former  vainglorious  enthusiasm  of  her  nobles.  Yet,  as  the  autumn 
months  wore  on,  and  it  became  evident  that  the  terrible  invader 
was  to  come  no  nearer,  the  people  took  fresh  heart  and  began  to 
turn  their  thought  to  the  relief  of  the  beleaguered  garrison. 
Philip  roused  his  old  allies,  the  Scots,  in  the  delusive  hope  of  forcing 
Edward  to  return  home  to  defend  his  northern  counties;  but  the 
northern  earls,  Henry  N^eville  and  Ralph  Percy,  proved  themselves 
amply  able  to  hold  the  borders,  meeting  the  Scots  at  Neville's  cross, 
and  beating  them  with  great  slaughter,  taking  King  David  himself. 
An  attempt  of  the  French  to  relieve  Calais  by  water  met 
Calais, Au-  with  no  better  success.  At  last  in  the  spring  Philip 
managed  to  get  another  army  into  the  field;  but  he 
could  no  longer  bring  his  troops  to  face  the  English  archers,  and 
after  an  ignominious  retreat  was  compelled  to  leave  the  brave 
burghers  to  throw  themselves  on  Edward's  mercy. 

The  first  thought  of  Edward  was  of  slaughter.  The  city  had 
allowed  its  harbor  to  be  used  freely  by  the  Channel  pirates  and  had 
long  proved  a  scourge  to  English  commerce.     He  proposed,  there- 

'  For  the  several  estimates  given  above  see  E.  Maunde  Thompson's 
Edition  of  Le  Baker's  Chronicle,  pp.  259-262. 


1347]  EFFECTS   OF    WAR    ON    ENGLISH    LIFE  369 

fore,  to  read  its  citizcMis  a  lesson  which  should  not  be  soon  forgot- 
ten. But  better  counsels  prevailed,  and  he  determined  to 
make  Calais  an  outpost  of  England  on  French  soil.  He  first 
drove  out  the  French  who  would  not  take  the  oath  of  allegiance, 
and  filled  their  places  with  new  colonists  from  England.  He  then 
established  a  market  for  tin,  lead,  and  cloth;  repaired  the  walls  and 
settled  witliin  the  city  a  powerful  resident  garrison.  The  town  at 
once  took  on  a  new  life,  becoming  the  chief  channel  of  English 
trade  with  the  continent.  It  remained  in  English  hands  for  two 
hundred  and  ten  years,  during  the  most  of  which  it  enjoyed  an 
unexampled  prosperity. 

When  Edward  returned  to  England  in  1347  he  was  at  the 
height  of  his  glory  and  the  idol  of  the  hour.  The  spoils  of  war, 
the  plunder  of  France,  poured  into  the  kingdom.  ''There 
Kdintni-s  was  uo  womaii,  it  was  said,  "who  had  not  got  gar- 
ments, furs,  feather  beds,  and  utensils  from  the  spoils  of 
Calais  and  other  foreign  cities."  The  country  forgot  the  earlier 
drain  upon  its  resources.  A  new  taste  for  articles  of  luxury  and 
extravagance  was  awakened,  and  swept  away  even  the 
ofmtmr^  sober-visaged  clergy.  It  expressed  itself  in  marvelous 
t^i^nn  Eiwii^h  gowus  of  great  length,  trimmed  with  furs,  and  stiff  with 
embroideries;  in  hanging  sleeves,  so  long  that  they  could 
be  tied  behind  the  back ;  in  shoes  with  wonderfully  pointed  toes 
that  had  to  be  fastened  to  the  knees  with  silver  chains.  It  was 
the  heyday  of  the  furrier  and  the  clothier.  A  single  gown  would 
cost  the  price  of  a  duke's  ransom.  The  king  led  in  this  extrav- 
agant foppery.  He  decorated  a  select  band  of  his  knights  with  a 
"blue  garter,"  thus  originating  the  famous  order.  Pie  held 
tournaments  without  number, — as  many  as  nineteen  within  a  six- 
month,  some  of  them  lasting  more  than  a  fortnight.  Hither 
flocked  the  gay  and  frivolous  court,  to  lead  in  the  carnival  and  set 
the  people  wild  in  their  mad  chase  after  French  and  Italian  fash- 
ions. The  fondness  of  the  people  for  these  pageants  became  so 
extravagant  that  it  was  forbidden  to  hold  them  without  the  royal 
license ;  a  permission,  however,  which  it  was  never  hard  to  secure. 
The  chase  also,  hunting  or  hawking,  lost  nothing  of  its  charm  for 
the  elegant  idlers  who  surrounded  the  court.     Vast  tracts  of  land 


370  THE    HUJ^DRED   YEARS*    WAE  [edwakd  hi. 

were  kept  waste,  and  troops  of  gailj  attired  men  and  women  swept 
by  in  wild  rout  in  pursuit  of  the  quarry,  trampling  down  the  crops 
of  the  peasantry  and  destroying  the  food  supply  of  the  hapless 
poor. 

The  taste  for  extravagance  was  also  revealed  in  the  architec- 
ture of  the  period.  The  old  pointed  arch,  which  had  supplanted 
the  simple  and  massive  architecture  of  the  Normans, 
Wchitecture.  ^^adily  yielded  to  elaborate  decoration, — the  "decorated 
style. ' '  The  castles  of  the  nobility  changed  from  gloomy 
strongholds  into  elegant  palaces,  which  vied  with  each  other  in  the 
tapestries  which  hung  from  the  walls  or  the  exquisite  carvings 
which  ornamented  beds,  tables,  and  chairs.  In  London  the  houses 
of  the  tradesmen  rose  two  and  three  stories  high.  Glass  was  also 
coming  into  use,  though  only  the  rich  and  the  great  could 
yet  afford  it.  There  were  larders,  too,  batteries,  and  ward- 
robes, filled  with  endless  supplies  which  were  the  pride  of  the 
housewife. 

In  other  less  direct  ways  also  the  war  had  powerfully  stimulated 

the  development  of  the  resources  of  the  country.     Edward  had 

very  early  in  the  struffde  felt  the  need  of  new  sources 

Indirect  j  j  oo 

effects  of  the  of  revenue.  The  knights  were  still  regarded  as  the 
flower  of  the  army,  but  recent  wars  had  proved  the 
value  of  archers,  light  cavalry,  and  footmen  of  various  kinds, 
besides  ships  and  other  engines  of  war.  The  duty  of  feudal  serv- 
ice, moreover,  did  not  compel  knight  or  yeoman  to  follow  Edward 
over  the  seas  in  his  foreign  war.  Such  service  could  be  carried  on 
only  by  voluntary  enlistment  and  this  required  money  and  much 
of  it.  To  furnish  a  foundation,  therefore,  for  the  revenues  which 
the  war  demanded,  Edward  sought  to  encourage  both  industry  and 
commerce.  His  methods,  however,  were  curiously  arbitrary  and 
inconsistent  and,  as  the  sequel  proved,  both  false  and  harmful. 
Yet  for  a  time  he  succeeded  in  stimulating  powerfully  the  eco- 
nomic life  of  the  nation.  He  ordered  that  foreign  merchants  be 
allowed  to  enter  the  country  freely  and  sell  their  wares  without  in- 
terruption. He  brought  over  weavers  from  Flanders  and  furnished 
a  market  for  English  wool  at  home.  And  when  the  people  began 
to  show  an  undue  preference  for  foreign-made  goods,  he  forbade 


1333-1348]  THE    BLACK    DEATH  371 

them  to  wear  any  cloth  not  made  in  English  towns.  The  nobles 
and  the  wealthy,  however,  he  exempted  from  the  law.  To  keep 
control  of  the  wool  trade,  he  forbade  the  exportation  of  English 
rams,  and  allowed  the  raw  wool  to  be  sold  abroad  only  at  author- 
ized ports,  or  staples.  Sometimes  he  attempted  to  prevent  the 
exportation  of  wool  altogether.  Sometimes  he  turned  merchant 
himself  and  used  the  royal  authority  to  control  the  market.  In 
1338  he  was  given  the  right  to  purchase  twenty  thousand  sacks, 
or  half  the  wool  of  the  kingdom,  fixing  the  rate  at  £3  a  sack. 
He  * 'unloaded"  at  Antwerp  for  £20  a  sack.  He  prevented 
competition  by  forbidding  other  merchants  to  sell  until  he  had 
completed  the  transaction.  A  more  harmful  regulation  for- 
bade the  people  to  sell  or  the  merchants  to  buy  wool  or  other 
standard  commodities  at  other  places  than  regularly  established 
markets, — the  staples, — a  measure  designed  solely  to  simplify 
the  levying  of  duties.  The  people  were  also  forbidden  for  a  long 
period  to  trade  with  Scotland.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  arbitrary 
rulings  of  the  government,  the  war  created  a  vigorous  demand  for 
the  products  of  all  kinds  of  industry;  wages  were  good;  food  was 
abundant;  prices  were  steady  and  trade,  secure  in  the  prestige  of 
England  on  the  seas,  flourished. 

Suddenly  over  all  this  prosperity  the  "Black  Death"  cast  its 
shadow.  This  mysterious  malady,  it  is  thought,  appeared  first 
in  China  about  the  year  1333,  and  following  the 
Death  134S,  old  trade  routes  extended  steadily  westward,  reach- 
ing the  eastern  Mediterranean  the  year  after  Crecy.  In 
January  1348  it  broke  out  on  the  lower  Ehone.  In  August  it 
appeared  in  England.  Its  ravages  were  appalling;  no  part  of 
the  kingdom  was  exempt;  no  class  was  spared.  The  king's 
daughter  and  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  were  among  the  vic- 
tims of  the  first  year.  The  hale  and  the  hearty  succumbed  as 
readily  as  the  weak  and  the  infirm.  In  some  parts  of  Yorkshire, 
one-half  the  priests  perished;  a  noble  testimony  of  their  fidelity  in 
the  hour  of  the  nation's  trial.  A  nameless  dread  fell  upon  all 
classes.  The  nation  put  off  its  festal  attire  and  sat  in  the  pres- 
ence of  its  dead;  nor  were  voices  lacking  to  remind  the  people  that 
such  woe  comes  only  to  those  who  have  sinned. 


372  THE    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR  [ 


Edward  III. 


Then  the  horror  passed  by,  but  the  desolation  remained.  It 
was  said  that  of  the  entire  population  one  in  three  had  perished. 
The  laboring  element  naturally  suffered  most.  Its 
Bi^k%eath  strength  was  shattered.  Whole  families  had  been 
swept  away;  in  many  manors  rows  of  tenantless  cot- 
tages, silent  and  forsaken,  were  all  that  remained  to  tell  of  the 
population  that  had  disappeared.  The  life  of  the  nation,  however, 
had  been  so  quickened  by  all  the  experiences  of  the  century,  its 
pulse  was  so  strong  and  steady  that  prostration  could  not  last 
long.  Yet  the  symptoms  of  convalescence  were  hardly  understood 
by  the  king  or  his  advisers.  The  free  life  of  the  nation  was  fet- 
tered by  restrictions  upon  labor  and  trade,  designed  no  doubt  with 
the  best  intent,  but  destined  to  bring  new  and  unheard-of  dis- 
orders in  their  train. 

At  the  opening  of  Edward  TII.'s  reign,  rural  England  appar- 
ently had  not  passed  very  far  beyond  the  condition  of  the  rural 
England  of  the  eleventh  century;  the  manor  was  still 
Ruraiiifein    the  prevailing  form  of  orsfanization  of  the  a2:ricultural 

En^landin  ^  ^  ^  P 

14th century,  community.  llie  Village  liie  was  still  simple  and 
isolated ;  although  comforts  were  few,  there  was 
always  plenty  to  eat  and  vagrancy  was  virtually  unknown.  The 
lord  lived  quietly  in  his  manor,  surrounded  by  his  family  and  his 
household  servants ;  fully  occupied  with  the  homely  duties  of  his 
station.  The  great  outer  world  broke  in  occasionally  when  some 
preaching  friar  or  pardoner  from  Rome  came  that  way,  with  fresh 
stores  of  gossip  from  court  or  council,  not  the  least  popular  of 
their  wares.  There  were  sabbaths  and  feast  days  also,  when 
young  and  old  made  merry  and  joined  in  the  rude  old  country 
sports.  There  were  the  great  fairs  too,  whither  the  bailiffs 
brought  their  woolpacks,  and  whither  the  good  wife  went  with 
*'her  man"  to  buy  the  supplies  for  the  year  to  come.  Some- 
times, also,  when  the  work  of  the  summer  was  done  and  the 
granaries  were  full,  lord  and  villain,  freeholder  and  artisan,  clerk 
and  scrivener  might  be  seen  drifting  along  the  pleasant  highways, 
entertaining  each  other  by  guileless  tales  and  seeking  the  shrine 
of  some  neighboring  saint,  for  the  rest  of  their  bodies  and  the 
good  of  their  souls. 


EFFECTS  OF  THE  BLACK  DEATH  373 

Yet  even  when  Edward  began  his  reign  these  pleasant 
scenes  were  not  without  some  signs  of  change.  The  long 
era  of  domestic  peace  which  had  followed  the  close  of  the 
Barons'  Wars,  and  had  hardly  been  broken  by  the 
Enniwhrurai  troubles  which  had  attended  the  reign  of  the 
second  Edward,  the  steady  development  of  the  cities, 
the  growth  of  corporate  privileges  and  tlie  extension  of  economic 
activities  into  new  fields,  had  not  been  without  a  direct  and  whole- 
some influence  upon  the  manor  and  its  tenants.  This  influence 
was  manifesting  itself  in  two  very  marked  ways.  First,  the  cus- 
tom was  steadily  prevailing  of  allowing  the  tenant  to  exchange  his 
ordinary  labor  service  into  a  regular  money  service,  or  rental ;  the 
lord  on  his  part  hiring  such  labor  as  he  needed  and  paying  regular 
wages.  When  the  villain  secured  the  privilege  of  paying  a  stated 
rent  for  his  land  in  lieu  of  the  ancient  labor  service,  a  memoran- 
dum of  the  agreement  was  indorsed  on  the  manor  roll;  a  copy  was 
given  to  the  villain,  who  became  a  copyholder;  the  land  was  known 
as  a  copyhold.  Second^  with  the  increase  of  luxury  the  lord  lost 
his  taste  for  the  old  quiet  life  of  the  manor  and  preferred  rather 
to  rent  the  demesne  outright  with  all  that  belonged  to  it  in  the 
way  of  farm  buildings,  implements,  and  stock. 

The  first  effect  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War  had  been  greatly 
to  accelerate  the  changes  which  the  long-continued  tide  of  pros- 
perity had  already  set  in  motion.  The  people  begau  to 
Wack%eath  ^^^^^'^  luxury  in  dressing  and  living  as  something  desir- 
able. Their  needs,  also,  increased  with  the  development 
of  taste,  and  they  became  dissatisfied,  restless,  grasping,  and  hard. 
Then  came  the  Black  Death,  and,  by  shattering  the  strength  of 
the  laboring  class,  struck  directly  at  the  basis  of  all  this  prosperity. 
Landlords  could  not  get  "hands"  to  save  their  rotting  crops.  In 
their  distress  they  competed  with  each  other  in  offering  higher 
wages.  This  in  turn  reacted  upon  the  villains  who  still  held  land 
under  the  old  service  tenure  and  who  saw  themselves  thereby  pro- 
hibited from  taking  advantage  of  the  general  increase  in  wages. 
They  became  dissatisfied  and  refused  to  work  for  their  lords. 
Smaller  tenants  left  their  crops  standing  and  went  out  to  work  for 
their  richer  neighbors.     Land  sank  in  value,  and  tenants  who  held 


374  THE    HUl^DRED    YEARS'    WAR  [edwaud  ill. 

by  copyhold,  could  no  longer  keep  up  their  rental  and  pay  the  pre- 
vailing ruinous  wages  for  help. 

The  distress  and  confusion  which  now  fell  most  heavily  upon 
the  landlords,  attracted  the  attention  of  the  government,  and  the 
,  .  ^  king  attempted  to  remedy  the  evils  which  he  did  not 

of  govern-       understand.     *' Seeing  that  a  great  part  of  the  people 

and  principally  of  laborers  is  dead  of  ^  the  plague,  and 
that  some  seeing  the  necessity  of  masters  and  the  scarcity  of  serv- 
ants, will  not  work  unless  they  receive  exorbitant  wages,  ...  we 
have  ordained,  .  .  .  that  every  able-bodied  man  and  woman  of  our 
kingdom,  .  .  .  not  living  by  trading  or  having  of  his,  or  her 
own,  wherewithal  to  live,  .  .  .  shall  if  so  required,  serve  another 
for  the  same  wages  as  were  the  custom  in  the  twentieth  year  of 
our  reign."  The  parliament  who  represented  only  the  landholding 
class  and  regarded  the  alleviation  of  the  distress  of  the  landlords  of 
far  more  importance  than  the  matter  of  justice  to  the  laborers, 

supported  the  king  by  passing  the  famous  Statute  of 
Labourers      Lahouvers^^  in  which  an  attempt  was  made  to  prescribe 

a  regular  scale  of  wages,  corresponding  to  the  rates  paid 
before  the  appearance  of  the  plague.  The  laborer  who  refused  to 
work  at  such  wages  was  to  be  put  in  the  stocks.  If  he  went  into 
another  shire  in  search  of  higher  wages,  he  was  to  be  branded  in 
the  forehead.  These  laws,  harsh  and  cruel  as  they  were  senseless, 
only  increased  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  and  did  not  help  the 
landlords.  Yet  they  were  reenacted  again  and  again ;  the  penalties 
each  time  increasing  in  severity.  Still  the  suffering  and  the  con- 
fusion continued.  Then]  it  dawned  upon  the  king  and  his  econo- 
mists that  the  cost  of  living  had  also  risen,  that  not  only  had  the 
cost  of  labor  advanced  but  the  cost  of  everything  that  labor  pro- 
duced was  also  advancing,  and  that  a  man  could  not  be  expected  to 
accept  for  a  week's  work  wages  which  would  not  keep  himself  and 
his  family  for  a  day.  So  the  king  turned  his  attention  to  the 
regulation  of  prices.  In  this  he  was  also  guided  by  the  popular 
prejudices  of  the  hour.  He  turned  upon  the  "forestallers,"  men 
who  purchased  in  large  quantities  to  sell  later  at  retail.  The  people 
suspected  the  forestallers  and  hated  them  as  they  suspect  and  hate 

1  See  Lee,  Source  Book,  pp.  206-208. 


1349-1369]  ECONOMIC   DISORDERS  375 

the  promoters  of  trusts  to-day  and  for  the  same  reason;  they 
believed  that  the  forestallers  aimed  to  exclude  other  tradesmen 
from  buying,  so  that  they  might  control  the  markets  themselves, 
*' thirsting  after  wicked  gain."  "Forestalling"  therefore  was  for- 
bidden by  law  under  pain  of  the  pillory.  Merchants  also  were  for- 
bidden to  bid  against  each  other  *in  the  fish  market,  lest  they  should 
raise  the  price  of  fish.  The  king  and  his  parliament  might  as 
well  have  legislated  against  the  law  of  gravitation,  provided  they 
knew  what  the  law  of  gravitation  was.  The  discontent  of  the 
laboring  element  only  increased;  the  hostility  of  landowner  and 
landless  hardened  into  hatred;  and  since  the  landowner  made  the 
laws  and  wielded  the  power  of  the  government,  the  landless  man, 
as  in  the  France  of  1789,  only  waited  for  a  leader  and  an  occasion, 
to  begin  the  burning  of  chateaus  and  the  massacre  of  the  nobles.se 
and  their  bailiffs.  In  the  meantime  the  Black  Death  came  and 
went  again;  first  in  1349,  again  in  13C9;  each  time  leaving  an 
aftermath  of  economic  and  social  disorder.  In  vain  the  reeves  or 
manor  stewards  attempted  to  force  men  to  work  for  the  wages 
prescribed  by  law.  Their  crops  were  in  the  field  and  must  be 
gathered.  They  themselves  were  the  first  to  weaken  and  seek  labor 
at  any  price.  In  vain  they  sought  to  exact  to  the  uttermost  the 
services  of  those  who  still  lived  under  the  older  system.  In  vain 
the  government  took  fishmongers  and  forestallers  in  hand. 
Prices  continued  to  rise,  and  wages  continued  to  increase,  and  the 
interference  of  the  government  only  exasperated  the  people  and 
laid  up  trouble  for  the  future. 

The  war  had  now  languished  for  eight  years  since  the  fall  of 
Calais.  There  had  been  no  formal  peace,  not  even  a  truce;  yet 
Influence  of  ^^^ither  nation  had  the  heart  to  renew  the  struggle  in 
uDfmme^  the  presence  of  the  Black  Death  or  the  economic  or 
war.  social  distresses  which  had  followed  it.     Neither  party, 

however,  had  ceased  to  intrigue;  a  bitter  partisan  strife,  also,  smoul- 
dered in  Brittany  where  the  question  of  succession  was  not  yet 
settled;  open  war  occasionally  flickered  up  on  the  Gascon  border. 
In  1350  the  Spanish,  probably  incited  by  French  intrigue, 
attempted  a  descent  upon  the  English  coast.  Edward  went  out 
with  his  fleet,  and  in  the  brilliant  victory  of  "L'Espagnols  sur 


376  THE    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR  [edward  m. 

mer"  off  Sluys,  in  which  the  feat  of  John  Paul  Jones  off  Flam- 
borough  Head  was  repeated  three  several  times,  once  by  Edward 
himself,  again  vindicated  his  title  of  "King  of  the  Sea." 

A   week  before   this  famous  action  Philip  VI.  had    died  and 

John  of  Normandy  had  succeeded  him.     Edward  announced  his 

willingness  to  renounce  his  claim  to  the  French  crown, 

Uwwa?i355    ^^  John   would  cede  him  Gascony  in  full  sovereignty. 

Bat  John  rejected  the  offer;  and  both  sides  prepared 

again  for  the  active  renewal  of  the  war. 

Edward  planned  to  strike  France  in  three  different  places  at 
once.  One  army  was  to  land  in  Brittany  and  assist  the  Montf  orts , 
a  second  army  led  by  the  king  was  to  descend  upon 
Northern  Normandy,  where  he  expected  help  from  the  young 
Charles  of  Navarre,  son-in-law  of  the  French  king,  a 
dangerous  and  reckless  youth  of  twenty-three  who  had  quarreled 
with  John  over  his  daughter's  dowry,  and  was  perfectly  willing  to 
annoy  his  royal  father-in-law  by  assisting  Edward,  although  his 
title  to  the  French  crown,  even  according  to  Edward's  way  of 
reckoning,  was  better  than  Edward's.  Nothing,  however,  came 
of  either  of  these  expeditions,  and  Edward  returned  shortly  to  repel 
a  new  invasion  of  the  Scots. 

In  the  meantime  the  third  expedition,  under  the  young  Prince  of 
Wales,  had  landed  at  Bordeaux  and  begun  a  systematic  plundering 
of  the  valley  of  the  upper  Garonne,  passing  by  the  cities, 
m^incit^^^^  but  cutting  a  wide  swath  through  the  open  country  of 
Prince  1355,  Langucdoc  to  the  Mediterranean, — a  veritable  "march 
to  the  sea."  The  successes  of  the  first  year  led  the 
Black  Prince  to  attempt  to  repeat  the  experiment  the  next  year 
on  the  Loire.  He  advanced  across  Poitou,  as  in  the  pre- 
vious year  ravaging  the  countryside  and  leaving  a  desolate 
wilderness  behind  him.  All  went  well,  until  four  miles  from  Poi- 
tiers, where  the  prince  found  himself  confronted  by  a  French 
army  which  outnumbered  him  seven  to  one.  He  was  far  from  the 
Gascon  frontier;  his  army  was  not  only  encumbered  with  prisoners 
and  spoil,  but  all  told  did  not  number  more  than  twelve  thousand 
men.  To  retire  was  impossible;  to  fight  was  only  to  invite  the 
destruction  of  thousands  of  brave  men  to  no  purpose.     He  offered, 


1356] 


POITIERS 


377 


therefore,  to  surrender  his  prisoners  and  his  spoil,  and  pledge  his 
word  not  to  fight  again  for  seven  years,  if  he  might  be  allowed  to 
withdraw.  But  John,  who  now  at  last  saw  an  English  army  within 
his  power,  refused  to  grant  any  terms  other  than  the  unconditional 
surrender  of  the  English  prince  and  one  hundred  of  his  knights. 
At  this  the  prince  and  his  knights  determined,  ratlier  than  to  lay- 
down  their  arms  in  an  unknightly  way,  to  sell  their  lives  as  dearly 
as  possible. 

The  English  with  their  usual  skill,  seeking  to  take  all  the 
advantage  which  a  strong  position  might  afford  them,  had  drawn 
up  their  array  on 
some  high  ground 
west  of  the  farm  of 
Maupertuis,  pro- 
tected in  front  by  a 
dense  hedge  which 
was  broken  in  the 
middle  by  what 
was  probably  an  or- 
dinary farming 
road.  On  the  right 
the  hill,  or  plateau, 
descended  to  a 
marsh  drained  by 
a  small  stream,  be- 
yond which  the  ground  again  rose  abruptly  and  was  covered 
thickly  with  briars  and  bushes.  The  combination  of 
fonrmt&n!^  hedge,  marsh,  and  rough  ground  beyond  made  an 
excellent  cover  for  the  English  archers  who  were 
thus  protected  effectually  from  the  enemy's  horse.  The  English 
knights,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  band  reserved  for  skirmishing, 
were  dismounted  as  at  Crecy  and  drawn  up  in  three  divisions 
which  after  several  maneuvers  were  finally  arranged  so  that  Salis- 
bury held  the  left  wing,  Warwick  the  center,  and  the  Black  Prince 
the  right  where  he  could  support  the  archers  in  the  marsh. 

King  John  was  a  better  soldier  than  his  father,  but  he  was  no 
match  for  a  Plantagenet.     Some  of  his  knights,  conspicuously  a 


378  THE    HUNDKED    YEARS'    AVAR  [edwakd  HI. 

Scotchman  by  the  name  of  Dudley,  thought  that  they  had  dis- 
covered the  secret  of  the  English  strength,  which  they  ascribed  not 
Thebattieof  ^^  ^^^  archery,  but  to  the  fact  that  the  English  men- 
Septemier  ^t-arms  were  accustomed  to  fight  on  foot,  and  per- 
19, 1356.  suaded   John   to  dismount  his  knights  also,  reserving 

only  a  small  company  of  three  hundred  mounted  French  sind  a 
band  of  mounted  Germans  who  were  to  ride  down  the  English 
archers.  With  these  men  John  began  the  battle  in  a  vain  attempt 
to  break  through  the  hedge.  Again  he  attempted  to  storm  the 
English  position,  sending  forward  the  first  division  of  his  army 
under  the  command  of  his  eldest  son,  Charles  Duke  of  Normandy. 
The  English  arrow-flight  riddled  the  French  lines,  and  the  division 
melted  away;  Charles  and  some  eight  hundred  of  his  knights 
mounted  their  horses  and  fled  from  the  fleld.  The  second  division, 
under  command  of  the  king's  brother,  Philip  Duke  of  Orleans,  also 
lost  heart  and,  apparently  without  striking  a  blow,  marched  from 
the  field,  leaving  John  with  his  third  and  last  division  to  meet  the 
counter  attack  of  the  whole  English  army  led  by  the  Black  Prince 
in  person.  John  himself  fought  like  a  lion,  but  he  was  outgen- 
eraled by  Prince  Edward,  and  his  men  were  outfought  by  the  Eng- 
lish. At  last,  taken  both  in  front  and  rear,  the  third  division  also 
gave  way.  John  refused  to  flee  and  with  his  youngest  son  Philip, 
who  fought  by  his  side,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  The 
battle  had  opened  at  nine  o'clock,  and  by  noon  John  was  a  captive 
in  the  tent  of  the  Black  Prince. 

The  case  of  France  was  now  pitiable  enough.     The  disaster  of 
Poitiers  had  come,  not  at  the  close  of  an  era  of  prosperity,  but  after 

fifteen  years  of  as  bitter  and  cruel  war  as  has  ever 
p^uers^^*^^   desolated  western  Europe.     Moreover,  from  the  first, 

France  had  been  uniformly  unsuccessful  in  the  war. 
She  had  suffered  while  her  enemy  had  waxed  fat  and  insolent. 
Then  she  had  hardly  ceased  mourning  for  her  dead  after  the 
disaster  of  Crecy,  when  the  Black  Death  came  creeping  upon  her 
from  the  south,  afflicting  her  even  more  sorely  than  it  afflicted 
England,  for  she  was  far  less  able  to  endure  the  scourge.  It  was 
upon  this  already  desolate  land  that  the  disaster  of  Poitiers  had 
fallen.     The  best  of  the  nobility  had  been  slain  or  taken ;  the  king 


1356-1359]  FEANCE    AFTER    POITIERS  379 

was  a  prisoner,  and  the  government  demoralized.  The  Dauphin,^ 
who  was  hastily  appointed  regent,  was  an  untried  youth,  his 
magnificent  ability  as  yet  unknown,  and  men  feared  to  trust  him. 
The  riffraff  of  the  two  armies  that  had  fought  at  Poitiers,  troops 
of  disbanded  soldiers,  .infested  the  highways,  and,  forming  them- 
selves into  **free  companies,"  fastened  upon  the  countryside,  liv- 
ing by  plunder  and  rapine.  The  knights  and  nobles,  also,  who  had 
been  captured  in  the  battle,  having  bargained  with  their  captors  for 
their  ransom,  returned  to  wrest  the  money  from  their  peasant  ten- 
ants, already  distracted  by  present  sufferings  beyond  measure.  The 
wildest  disorder  prevailed.  In  1358  the  peasantry,  the  Jacquerie, 
rose  against  their  lords,  and  to  the  fierce  plundering  of  a  lawless  sol- 
diery, tlie  attacks  of  the  English,  and  the  destitution  and  misery 
which  had  followed  plague  and  famine, were  now  added  the  yet  deeper 
horrors  of  a  servile  war.  The  regent  summoned  the  States-Gen- 
eral, but  only  to  increase  the  confusion  by  precipitating  a  war  of 
classes, — the  nobles  and  clergy  against  the  Third  Estate.  Petrarch, 
who  visited  France  about  this  time,  wrote  of  the  universal  desola- 
tion which  confronted  him:  *'I  could  not  believe  that  this  was 
the  same  kingdom  which  I  had  seen  so  rich  and  flourishing. 
Nothing  presented  itself  to  my  eyes  but  a  fearful  solitude,  an 
extreme  poverty,  land  uncultivated,  homes  in  ruins,  even  the 
neighborhood  of  Paris  manifested  everywhere  marks  of  destruc- 
tion and  conflagration.  The  streets  are  deserted;  the  roads  over- 
grown with  weeds;   the  whole  is  a  vast  solitude." 

In  the  meantime  John  had  been  treated  right  royally  by  his 
English  captors ;  his  entry  into  London  was  a  pageant.  Negotia- 
tions were  opened  and  he  agreed  to  cede  to  England  the 
renewed  1359.  ^^^^^'^  Western  seaboard  of  France  including  a  district 
nearly  equal  in  extent  to  the  original  Angevin  domin- 
ions. But  the  Estates  were  in  no  mood  to  accept  terms  so  humili- 
ating, and  promptly  rejected  them.  Edward  prepared  for  a 
renewal  of  the  war.     He  first,  however,  took  advantage  of  the 

^In  1349  Philip  VI.  bought  the  domain  of  Humbert,  Dauphin  of 
Vienne,  and  ceded  the  district  to  Charles,  his  grandson,  who  took  the 
name  of  the  Dauphin,  afterward  the  established  title  of  the  eldest  son  of 
the  King  of  France. 


380  THE    HUl^DRED    YEARS'    WAR  [ 


Edward  III. 


death  of  Edward  Balliol  to  put  his  relations  with  Scotland  upon  a 
more  secure  basis  by  releasing  David,  who  had  been  in  captivity 
since  the  day  of  Neville's  Cross,  and  acknowledging  again  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  kingdom.  The  Scots  of  course  had  to  pay  a  round 
ransom  for  the  return  of  their  king  and  a  second  sum  in  addition 
m  lieu  of  the  claim  which  Edward  renounced.  In  1359  Edward 
was  ready  to  begin  operations  on  the  continent,  and  with  an 
army  of  one  hundred  thousand  men  started  from  Calais  to  march 
upon  Eheims  with  the  idea  of  having  himself  formally  crowned 
king  of  France.  He  could  not  hope  to  feed  such  an  army  in  a 
country  already  thrice  a  desert,  so  he  carried  with  him  his  own 
provision  train  of  eight  thousand  carts.  The  march  was  like  a 
gala  day  parade.  The  Dauphin  shut  himself  np  in  Paris  and  left 
his  people  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Edward  threw  his  vast  host 
around  Rheims  and  waited  under  its  walls  until  January  1360. 
Then  he  was  compelled  to  raise  the  siege,  for  his  eight  thousand 
carts  had  now  been  eaten  empty.  He  next  turned  upon  Paris  where 
he  fared  worse  than  at  Rheims.  The  winter  was  one  of  great 
severity  and  the  English  ere  long  were  suffering  more  than  the 
people  within  the  city.  Then  at  last,  at  the  earnest  entreaty  of 
Pope  Innocent  VI. ,  the  Dauphin  consented  to  sue  for  peace ;  but  it 
was  not  until  Edward  had  been  fairly  driven  off  by  famine  and  had 
begun  his  march  toward  Brittany. 

The  messengers  of  the  regent,  following  the  trail  of  starving 
men  and  horses,  overtook  Edward  at  Chartres.  He  was  ready 
for  peace;  he  could  no  longer  blind  himself  to  the  vanity  of 
attempting  to  unite  the  two  crowns,  and  agreed  to  renounce  all 
claims  to  the  throne  of  France  and  to  the  ancient  possessions  of 
his  house  north  of  the  Loire.  The  French  king  was  to  renounce 
on  his  part  all  suzerainty  over  the  lands  south  of  the  Loire  which 
had  once  belonged  to  Eleanor.  Ponthieu  with  Calais  were  also  to 
be  ceded  in  full  sovereignty  to  the  English  king,  and  John  was  to 
be  ransomed  for  3,000,000  crowns.  The  treaty  was  signed  at 
Bretigny,  near  Chartres,  May  8,  1360. 


3J^ 

52.0 


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^|v-:^4'4^>rS" 


h))\iS  weri 


CHAPTER  IV 

the  decline  of  fdward  iii.     second  stage  of  hundred 

years'  war 

EDWARD  III.,  1360-1377 


FAxMILY  OF  EDWARD  III. 

Edward  III.  =  Phllippa  of  HainaiUt, 
k.  1327-1377     I       d.  1369. 


Edward 

William,        Lionel, 

ho  Black  Prince, 

d. 

1335         Duke  of 

Duke  of 

Clarence, 

Aqultaine, 

rf.  1368 

d.  1376 

1 

Phllippa 

Richard  II. 

m.  Edmund 

k.  1377-1399 

Mortimer,  Earl 
of  March 

Jolm  of  (iaunt 

m.  Blauclie  of 

Lancaster, 

d.  1399 

Henry  IV. 
k.  1399-1413 


Edmund.  Thomas, 

Duke  of  York,       Duke  of 

d.  1403  Gloucester, 
I  d.  1397 


Edward, 
Duke  of 
York, 
d.  1415 


Richard, 
Earl  of 
Cambridge, 
d.  1415 


The  last  years  of  Edward  III.  's  reign  were  full  of  trouble. 

Edward  himself  was  called  upon  to  pay  the  penalty  which  nature 

so  often  exacts  of  prematurely  developed  mental  and 

PcvsoticlI- 

decline  of       physical  powersi   he  was  an  old  man  long  before  his 

Edward.  f .  -^  n,f      ,     mI-       .  .    xi 

time.  The  brilliant  successes  of  the  war,  moreover, 
had  encouraged  the  baser  elements  of  a  nature  which  was  by  birth 
mean,  selfish,  and  shallow ;  nor  could  the  glamour  of  court  pageantry 
long  hide  the  spuriousness  of  his  character  from  the  people,  or 
conceal  the  fact  that  their  glorious  Edward  was  fading  into  a  con- 
temptible little  old  man,  decrepit  in  body,  small  of  soul,  and  weak 
of  will,  the  prey  of  politicians  and  court  parasites. 

The  nation  also  was  now  face  to  face  with  the  inevitable  results 
of    long-continued    war.      The    people    were    hardening    under 

burdens    which    they    could    not    bear.     They    were 

content  of       beginning  to  regard  the  landlord,  once  their  patron  and 

epeope.       pj^Q^ector,  as    their  worst   enemy.      The  titled  clergy 

were    the    special    objects    of    their    hatred;     not   the    humble 

priest  and  the  friar,  who  were  poor  and  suffered  as  the  people 

381 


382  SECOND    STAGE    OF    HUNDRED    YEA.RS'    WAR       [edward  in. 

suffered,  but  the  mighty  bishops  and  abbots,  who  controlled  the 
government,  made  the  laws,  ground  their  tenants,  and  hoarded 
their  wealth,  or  worse,  sent  it  off  to  Rome  to  buy  favors  and  pre- 
ferment, yet  lifted  not  a  finger  to  relieve  the  distress  about  them. 
The  people,  moreover,  were  not  without  leaders.  New  and  strange 
voices  were  raised ;  startling  doctrines  were  taught, — the  rumbling 
of  approaching  upheaval. 

In  the  year  1360  all  this  was  still  below  the  surface.     Edward's 

power  was  at  zenith;  his  revenues  were  double  what  they  had  been 

when  he  ascended  the  throne  thirty-three  years  before : 

Edward's         i.^  iir^i  ii-.iti 

power  at        his  fleets  rode  the  Channel;    his  armies  had  shattered 

zenith,  1360. 

the  military  might  of  France  and  one-half  of  her  ter- 
ritories had  been  added  to  his  kingdom.  The  magnificence  of 
Edward's  court  had  fully  kept  pace  with  his  military  triumphs. 
It  was  the  most  splendid  in  Europe.  The  king  of  France  was  his 
prisoner-guest.  The  king  of  Scotland  waited  upon  him  in  person 
to  secure  some  modification  of  the  hard  terms  of  his  ransom. 
The  king  of  Cyprus  came  from  the  distant  east  to  secure  the  help 
of  the  mightiest  captain  of  Christendom  against  the  Turk. 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  the  first  shadows  began  to  fall 

across  this  fine  pageant,  dulling  its  glamour  and  filling  the  minds  of 

the  wise  with  foreboding.      The  Treaty  of   Bretisrny 

FaUureof  ,  ^   ^      s,   '^  i-.  { 

the  Treaty  of  provcd  a  Complete  failure  as  a  basis  for  a  permanent 
peace.  The  French  people,  sore  burdened  and  dis- 
traught, could  not  raise  the  enormous  ransom  which  had  been 
pledged  for  the  return  of  their  king,  and  left  him  to  die  in  exile. 
The  other  terms  of  the  treaty  also  were  never  carried  out. 
Edward  had  promptly  organized  the  newly-acquired  territories  as 
the  Duchy  of  Aquitaine  and  had  installed  the  Black  Prince  as 
duke,  but  the  French  king  had  never  formally  renounced  his  sover- 
eignty, neither  had  Edward  renounced  his  claim  to  the  French 
crown.  But  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the  success  of  the 
treaty  lay  in  the  temper  of  the  Aquitanians  themselves.  It  was 
too  late  to  dismember  France.  The  new  subjects  of  Edward 
regarded  themselves  as  a  part  of  France,  and  when  they  found  that 
they  had  been  abandoned  by  their  king  and  turned  over  to  a  for- 
eign master,  a  bitter  sorrow  seized  them.     "We  will  obey  the  Eng- 


1360-1367]  PEDRO  THE   CRUEL  363 

lish  with  our  lips,"  said  the  good  people  of  Rochelle,  *'but  our 
hearts  shall  never  be  moved  toward  them."  Geographically 
Aquitaine  belonged  to  the  great  political  system  which  the  middle 
Hge  was  slowly  but  surely  building  up  about  the  old  Duchy  of 
Francia,  and  there  was  no  reason,  other  than  the  arbitrary  decision 
of  battle,  for  annexing  this  region  to  England.  The  fourteenth 
century  was  the  era  for  the  growing  of  nations;  the  time  for  the 
building  of  empires  was  not  yet. 

The  Treaty  of  Bretigny,  therefore,  in  the  nature  of  things,  was 

only  a  truce  and  a  very  uncertain  truce  at  that.     Not  so  readily 

was  England  to  shake  herself  loose  from  the  complica- 

Pedro  the 

cnieiin  tions  whicli  the  unfortunate  war  with  France  had 
entailed;  not  so  easily  could  she  escape  the  penalty 
which  a  war  of  conquest  always  brings  in  its  train.  The  old 
struggle  continued  to  rage  in  Brittany,  and  when  in  1365  a  crush- 
ing defeat  of  the  French  party  definitely  settled  the  succession  in 
favor  of  John  de  Montfort,  a  new  storm  center  suddenly  devel- 
oped south  of  the  Pyrenees.  Pedro,  known  by  the  ugly  but 
well  merited  nickname  of  'Hhe  Cruel,"  a  crowned  madman,  had 
been  ruling  Castile  for  fifteen  years.  He  had  conducted  his  reign 
like  a  Dahomey  chief  rather  than  a  Christian  prince;  destroying 
his  leading  nobles,  assassinating  his  brothers,  and  poisoning  his 
wife,  the  gentle  and  unoffending  Blanche  of  Bourbon.  By  this 
last  outrage  Pedro  had  bitterly  offended  Charles  V.  the  new  king 
of  France,  whose  wife  was  the  sister  of  Blanche.  He  had 
already  aroused  the  church,  for  he  had  not  scrupled  to 
put  bishops  to  death,  and,  to  complete  his  measure  of  wicked- 
ness, had  entered  into  a  formal  league  with  the  Mohammedan 
ruler  of  Granada.  Pedro  had  thus  raised  up  two  powerful 
enemies,  who  might  well  think  that  any  means  would  be  justified 
in  putting  down  this  Spanish  Caligula,  and  when  the  Castilian 
nobles  found  a  leader  in  Henry  of  Trastamara,  the  illegitimate 
brother  of  Pedro,  who  by  the  law  of  the  church  could  not  inherit  a 
crown,  the  pope  had  removed  the  bar  by  legalizing  the  birth,  and 
Charles  had  furnished  an  army  by  authorizing  liis  famous  captain 
Bertrand  du  Guesclin  to  collect  the  "free  companies"  and  lead 
them  into  Spain.     Pedro,  who  did  not  dare  to  trust  his  subjects  to 


384  SECOND    STAGE    OF    HUNDRED   YEARS*    WAR       [edwari>  ill. 

fight  for  him,  fled  before  the  storm  to  seek  comfort  from  the 
enemy  of  France. 

In  an  evil  hour  the  Black  Prince  received  Pedro  in  his  court  at 

Bordeaux.     Wise  counsellors,  like  Sir  John  Chandos,  -advised  him 

to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  evil-minded  king.     But 

The  Black         , ,  ,  •      ,    .  ,  „    ,  i         -,    ^  ,      -.    , 

Prinec  the  chivalric  nature  oi  the  duke  was  touched  by  the 

misfortunes  of  a  fellow  prince.  He  also  saw  in  the 
irregularity  connected  with  the  succession  of  the  base-born  Henry 
of  Trastamara  a  threat  to  the  rights  of  royalty  based  upon  legiti- 
mate succession,  and  persuaded  Edward  III.  and  the  parliament 
to  consent  to  a  proposal  to  restore  Pedro  to  his  throne.  The 
prince  met  Henry  and  his  allies  at  Navarrete,  and  added  another  to 
the  series  of  brilliant  victories  which  England  has  associated  with 
his  name;  *'a  victory,  however,  of  which  every  decent  Englishman 
should  be  heartily  ashamed."  The  generous  and  gentle  Henry  of 
Trastamara  fled  to  Aragon,  and  the  ferocious  Pedro  was  once  more 
established  in  Castile.  When  in  Aquitaine  the  royal  refugee  had 
agreed  to  pay  the  wages  of  those  who  should  enlist  under  the 
Black  Prince  and  had  pledged  the  treasures  of  his  kingdom.  But, 
now  that  he  had  his  own  again,  he  showed  no  disposition  to  keep 
his  promise,  and  left  the  prince  and  his  army  "not  only  without 
money,  but  absolutely  without  food,  on  tlie  burning  plains  of 
Castile."  Here  the  Gascons  died  of  famine  and  pestilence,  while 
the  miscreant  king  amused  himself  with  fetes,  wholesale  slaughter, 
and  assassination.  At  last  "the  gallant  defender  of  royal  rights" 
was  glad  to  leave  Spain,  "with  the  loss  of  his  soldiers 
Septemhcr,  ^nd  of  his  money  and  of  his  health,  befooled  and  cheated 
in  one  of  the  worst  causes  in  which  English  blood  and 
English  treasure  have  ever  been  squandered  on  the  continent  of 
Europe."^  He  had  won  new  glory,  but  he  had  incurred  a  serious 
debt,  with  the  odium,  also,  of  fighting  in  a  bad  cause. 

Henry  of  Trastamara  returned  to  Castile  the  next  year,  caught 
his  brother  in  a  trap  and  slew  him;  and  thus  the  matter  ended  as 
far  as  the  civil  war  in  Spain  was  concerned.  Not  so  the  Black 
Prince;  after  straining  every  resource  to  meet  the  obligations 
incurred  by  the  war,  the  best  that  he  could  do  for  the  still  unpaid 
■'  Burke,  History  of  Spain,  I,  p.  311. 


1368,  1369]  THE   HEARTH-TAX  385 

** companies,"  was  to  offer  them  half  pay  with  license  to  levy  the 

rest  on  the  subjects  of  the  French  king.     Bat  the  young  duke 

could  not  so   easily  satisfy  the    claims  of  his  merce- 

tax  and  the     naries  I  Only  a  tew  took  advantage  oi  the  permission  to 

Aquitaniam.         ,-r^T,.,  -,,i  •  i-i 

enter  French  territory,  and  the  prmce  was  compelled 
to  cast  about  for  some  new  method  of  raising  money.  In  an 
evil  hour  he  was  persuaded  to  propose  the  levy  of  a  hearth-tax, 
the  most  vexatious  and  unjust  of  all  methods  of  taxation,  since  it 
fell  upon  the  humblest  Aquitauian  peasant  who  cooked  his  scanty 
meal  on  his  hearth  fire,  as  well  as  on  the  rich  landlord.  The 
nobles  of  Aquitaine  refused  to  consent  to  the  levy,  and  when  the 
duke  persisted  in  his  demand,  they  appealed  to  the  king  of  France 
to  protect  them.  Charles,  always  wise  and  sure-footed,  had  no 
intention  of  committing  himself  to  a  renewal  of  the  war  with  the 
English  until  he  was  certain  of  his  ground.  So  he  waited  a  year 
to  give  the  Aquitanians  a  chance  to  know  their  own  mind  and  to 
prepare  himself  and  his  people  for  the  struggle.  Then  he  resumed 
the  overlordship  of  Aquitaine,  and  summoned  the  duke  to  Paris  to 
answer  the  complaints  of  his  vassals.  The  prince  replied  with 
characteristic  spirit  that  he  would  come,  but  only  with  helmet  on 
head  and  sixty  thousand  men  at  his  back.  The  response  of  Charles 
was  a  declaration  of  war,  contemptuously  sent  by  a  kitchen  scullion. 
The  English  soon  found  tbat  they  had  a  new  kind  of  antagonist 
to  deal  with   in   the  young  French  king;    a  man  who  despised 

chivalry  and  its  nonsense,  and  saw  no  glamour  in  war; 
The  French     ^liose  bodilv  infirmities  forbade  him  to  lead  armies,  but 

adopt  ncir  J  ' 

'icar'"''^ "'  ^^^  knew  men,  and  from  the  quiet  seclusion  of  his  castle 
with  unerring  wisdom  observed  events  and  selected  his 
instruments.  The  French  king  saw,  moreover,  that  in  any  cam- 
paign upon  his  own  territory  the  invader  must  sooner  or  later 
retire  baffled  and  beaten,  if  only  he  could  be  prevented  from  fight- 
ing battles.  He  also  fully  realized  the  uselessness  of  continuing  to 
pit  feudal  levies  against  the  trained  soldiers  of  England,  and 
steadily  substituted  the  professional  soldier  for  the  feudal  knight; 
placing  in  command  not  his  dukes  and  counts,  whose  claim  to 
preferment  rested  merely  upon  their  social  alliances,  but  trained 
warriors  like  Bertraud  du  Guesclin,  men  who  were  conspicuous  for 


386  SECOND    STAGE   OF   HUXBRED   YEARS'    WAR       [edward  ill. 

tried  abilities  rather  than  for  high  birth,  and  who  thoroughly 
understood  their  business  of  war.  For  this  modern  method  of  war 
vast  sums  were  needed;  these  soldiers  of  fortune  had  to  be  paid  in 
hard  gold;  yet  the  shrewd  business  ability  of  Charles  did  not  fail 
him.  He  understood  the  art  of  economizing  and  getting  the 
most  out  of  his  limited  resources,  as  well  as  the  art  of  find- 
ing men. 

In  1370  the  French  entered  Aquitaine;  the  Black  Prince  with 

shattered  health  and  wasted  treasury,  with  the  country  largely  in 

sympathy  with  the  invaders,  could  onW  look  on,  while 

The  French        «/      j.         •/  '  j  ^ 

reconquest      the  disaffected  towns  opened  their  gates  and  received 

of  Aquitaine.  .  t^  i  i  .  -,       . 

l^rencn  garrisons.  13at  when  the  episcopal  city  of 
Limoges  surrendered,  he  roused  himself  from  his  sick  bed  with 
the  desperate  resolve  to  retake  the  traitorous  city,  and  although 
he  was  forced  to  conduct  the  siege  from  his  litter,  he  inspired  his 
troops  with  such  energy  that  in  spite  of  the  heroic  efforts  of  both 
garrison  and  citizens  the  city  fell.  'No  mercy  was  shown  to  the 
unfortunate  inhabitants;  men,  women,  and  children  were  put  to 
the  sword.  A  body  of  knights  who  had  determined  to  sell  their 
lives  dearly,  won  the  compassion  of  Edward  and  were  spared  for 
their  knighthood ;  an  act  of  spurious  mercy,  fully  in  keeping  with 
the  debased  chivalry  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  "Mirror  of 
Chivalry"  could  spare  knighthood,  but  look  on  with  cold  indiffer- 
ence while  the  women  and  little  children,  who  had  never  given  any 
offense,  sobbed  for  mercy  at  his  feet.  The  massacre  at  Limoges 
has  no  rival  in  civilized  warfare.  Even  the  Sepoys  at  Cawnpore 
might  plead  their  wrongs  and  the  teaching  of  centuries  of  barbar- 
ism. The  recapture  of  Limoges  was  the  last  exploit  of  the  Black 
Prince.     The  next  year  he  returned  to  England  a  dying  man. 

The  war  in  the  meanwhile  continued;  the  prestige  of  the  Eng- 
lish faded;   their  power  in  the  newly  conquered  provinces  dis- 
integrated.    Their  armies  marched  hither  and  thither, 
Engiian  but  no  battles  were  fought.     Cities  that  consented  to 

"blackmail"  were  spared;  the  rest  were  plundered  and 
burned.  A  bitter  hatred,  fed  upon  such  scenes  as  those  of 
Limoges,  took  possession  of  the  population  and  made  them  ready 
to  receive  even  the  ruffians  who  followed  du  Guesclin  as  saviors. 


1373]  DISASTER  AT   ROCHELLE  387 

In  1372  Edward  sent  out  an  expedition  under  the  command  of 
Earl  John  of  Pembroke,  who  had  been  appointed  lieutenant  of 
Aquitaine  in  consequence  of  the  declining  health  of  the 
June 22,^23,  Black  Prince.  Pembroke  proposed  to  invade  France 
by  way  of  Rochelle;  but  he  was  so  long  in  getting 
started,  that  his  plans  were  well  known  to  the  French,  and  when  at 
last  he  reached  his  destination,  he  found  a  powerful  Spanish  fleet 
lying  in  wait  for  him  in  the  harbor.  The  English  fought  with 
great  bravery,  but  their  ships  were  outclassed  by  the  huge  Spanish 
deckers,  and  after  a  two  days'  fight,  their  fleet  was  sunk,  and  Pem- 
broke and  his  surviving  captains  were  loaded  with  chains  and  borne 
away  to  the  prisons  of  Spain.  The  English  had  met  with  no  such 
reverse  since  Edward  III.  began  his  reign;  the  supremacy  on  the 
seas,  which  they  had  enjoyed  since  Sluys,  was  at  an  end;  they 
could  no  longer  support  their  armies  in  the  field,  and  a  French 
invasion  of  England  was  a  possibility  of  the  near  future.  This 
was  Henry  of  Trastamara's  requital  for  the  support  which  England 
had  given  to  Pedro  the  Cruel. 

The  disaster  at  Rochelle,  the  reports  of  other  reverses  in 
Aquitaine  following  each  other  in  quick  succession,  roused  Edward 
to  make  one  more  attempt  before  the  summer  should  end  to  relieve 
his  distressed  garrisons,  and  on  the  30th  of  August  he  himself 
embarked  with  the  Black  Prince  at  Southampton.  The  fleet  con- 
sisted of  four  hundred  ships  and  had  on  board  four  thousand  men- 
at-arms  and  ten  thousand  archers.  The  equipment  had  cost  the 
government  the  incredible  sum  of  £90,000.  But  after  five  weeks 
of  useless  struggling  against  contrary  winds,  Edward  returned  to 
port  and  the  expedition  upon  which  so  much  had  been  expended 
was  abandoned.  The  people,  whose  consciences  rested  none  too 
easily  under  the  discouragement  of  repeated  misfortune,  saw  in  the 
contrary  winds  a  direct  interposition  of  Providence.  God  they 
said  was  now  plainly  for  the  king  of  France. 

In  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1372  the  French  continued  to 
reduce  the  strongholds  of  Aquitaine,  and  in  the  spring  du  Guesclin 
invaded  Brittany  with  a  large  army.  The  English  made  new 
exertions  to  fit  out  a  relief  expedition  and  finally  saw  it  depart  in 
June  under  the  command  of  John  of  Gaunt,   the  king's  fourth 


388  SECOND    STAGE    OF    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR     [edward  m, 

son.  The  danger  of  approaching  Aquitaine  by  sea  was  now  so 
great  that  it  was  determined  to  land  at  Calais  and  attempt  to 
John  of  relieve   the   southern    garrisons    by    marching    across 

France\s73  France.  Charles,  ^*that  mysterious  man,  who  never 
took  the  field  himself,  nor  allowed  his  armies  to  fight 
if  they  could  avoid  it,"  simply  strengthened  his  castles  and 
watched  the  enemy,  giving  strict  orders  to  his  generals  under  no 
conditions  to  hazard  a  battle.  The  French,  also,  burned  over  the 
country  before  the  invading  army,  leaving  nothing  to  feed  man 
or  beast.  These  measures  were  heroic  but  v/ere  fully  justified  by 
the  results.  The  march  of  the  English  resembled  a  retreat. 
The  winter  caught  them  amid  the  mountains  of  Auvergne,  and 
when  at  last  they  reached  Bordeaux,  all  that  was  left  of  the  "mag- 
nificent army,"  which  had  marched  out  of  Calais  six  months 
before,  was  a  horde  of  miserable  fugitives,  disorganized  and  dis- 
heartened. They  had  marched  across  France,  a  distance  of  six 
hundred  miles;  they  had  endured  incredible  hardships,  and  all  to 
no  purpose.  The  English  could  send  no  other  reinforcements; 
in  a  few  months  only  Bordeaux  and  Bayonne  remained  in  their 
hands.  The  next  year  they  were  glad  to  accept  a  truce,  which 
continued  in  force  theoretically  until  Edward's  death. 

Thus  the  tables  had  been  completely  reversed ;  the  prestige  of 

the  English  had  not  only  been  swept  away,  but  they  had  been  left 

with  hardly  a  foothold,  where  a  few  years  before  they 

The  decline  j  ^  -j  j 

of  English  had  been  the  unquestioned  masters.  Their  govern- 
ment, moreover,  was  bankrupt  and  their  splendid  king 
fast  sinking  into  the  gloom  of  a  dishonored  old  age.  These 
changes  were  not  the  result  of  a  mere  freak  of  fortune.  France 
was  now  better  governed  than  England;  her  administration  better 
ordered;  her  armies  better  equipped  and  better  disciplined;  her 
king  was  a  better  man.  The  frugality,  almost  parsimony  of  his 
court  was  in  marked  contrast  with  the  wasteful  prodigality  of 
Edward's  court;  the  quiet  atmosphere  which  pervaded  the  sol- 
itary castles  where  he  met  his  counsellors  and  planned  his  cam- 
paigns or  directed  the  administration  of  his  kingdom,  with  the 
bickering  and  intrigue,  the  wholesale  corruption  and  general  demor- 
alization which  surrounded  Edward. 


1359,  1369]  FACTIONS   OP   ENGLISH   COURT  389 

The  good  Queen  Philippa  had  died  in  1369,  and  soon  after  her 
death  Edward  had  become  blindly  infatuated  with  a  young  woman 

of  her  household  named  Alice  Ferrers.  He  lavished 
izaturn^^^  upou  her  the  late  queea's  jewels.  He  paraded  her 
^ourt"^^'^       through  the  streets  attired  as  *'The  Lady  of  the  San." 

He  suffered  her  to  interfere  in  affairs  of  state  and  sit 
with  the  royal  judges  when  she  wished  to  influence  their  decisions. 
He  allowed  her  to  lead  him  into  the  wildest  extravagance,  while 
she  secretly  leagued  with  other  favorites,  as  avaricious  and  shame- 
less as  herself,  to  speculate  in  the  claims  of  the  king's  disheartened 
creditors.  The  adult  children  of  the  king,  who  ought  to  have 
steadied  his  steps  to  the  grave,  gave  him  little  support.  The 
broken  health  of  the  Black  Prince  had  compelled  him  to  retire 
from  public  life.  Lionel  Duke  of  Clarence,  a  third  son,^  had  died 
the  year  before  Queen  Philippa.  John  of  Gaunt,  the  fourth  son, 
instead  of  protecting  his  father  did  not  scruple  to  join  with  Alice 
Ferrers  and  the  other  parasites  of  the  court  in  order  to  wheedle 
favors  out  of  the  doting  old  king. 

The  high  offices  of  the  state  were  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy; 
but  they  had  lost  the  sympathy  of  the  people  and  had   roused  the 

bitter  hostility  of  the  baronage,  and  particularly  of  the 
onhc^nnuT.  creatures  who  surrounded  the  king.  To  this  latter 
Vaiicaiur!     ^^^^  belonged  John  of    Gaunt.      This    powerful  but 

unprincipled  man  had  married  Blanche,  the  daughter 
and  heiress  of  Henry  of  Lancaster,  and  with  the  titles  and  vast 
estates  he  had  also  succeeded  to  the  traditions  of  this  ancient 
house.  He  was  the  recognized  leader  of  the  old  conservative 
wing  of  the  baronage,  and  was  in  full  sympathy  with  its  narrow 
class  feeling;  he  saw  nothing  to  be  commended  in  the  rising  power 
of  the  commons,  and  scoffed  at  the  new  ideas  which  had  found 
lodgment  in  the  constitution;  he  did  all  that  he  could,  moreover, 
to  develop  hostility  to  the  clergy,  begrudging  their  wealth,  and 
claiming  for  himself  and  his  friends  a  monopoly  of  the  public 
offices  of  the  kingdom.  Such  a  man  could  never  become  a  great 
popular  leader.  The  people  missed  that  high-toned  self-respect 
which  had  characterized  Earl   Simon,  and  refused  to  trust  the 

^  Edward's  socond  son  William  had  died  in  1335. 


390  SECOND    STAGE    OF   HUlJiTDRED   YEARS'    WAR     [edwakd  ill. 

prince  even  when  he  tried  to  win  their  favor.  Yet  John  of  Gaunt 
was  an  exceedingly  dangerous  man.  A 'powerful  reactionary  spirit 
was  everywhere  quickening  into  action,  and  although  no  one 
credited  him  with  any  patriotic  motive,  he  was  allowed  to  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  the  reaction,  confuse  its  real  interests,  and  use 
its  influence  to  further  the  factional  strifes  of  the  court. 

Opposed  to  this  Lancastrian  court  party  was  a  second  faction 
of  the  barons  whose  natural  leader  was  Edmund  Mortimer,  the  earl 

of  March,  the  great-grandson  of  that  Roger  Mortimer 
f'^mn^Sf^  who  had  been  hanged  at  the  Elms  for  his  misdeeds  in 
ThJ^eariof  the  early  years  of  Edward's  reign.  He  had  married 
March.  Philippa,  the  daughter  of  the  late  earl  of  Clarence,  and 

had  the  interests  of  his  wife  and  son  to  maintain  against  the  ambi- 
tions of  John  of  Gaunt.  He  was,  therefore,  the  natural  ally  of 
the  clerical  party,  represented  by  the  chancellor,  William  of 
Wykeham,  the  bishop  of  Winchester,  who  as  head  of  the  govern- 
ment was  the  special  object  of  the  enmity  of  John  of  Gaunt  and 
the  favorites. 

Independently  of  these  factions  of  the  court  there  had  also 
grown  up  in  the  nation  at  large  a  vigorous  and  energetic  party 

whose  purpose  was  ecclesiastical  reform ;  who  protested 
Thereform     j^q^  against  the  church  but  the  abuses  of  the  church ; 

not  against  the  clergy  but  against  their  useless  wealth, 
their  extravagance,  their  worldly  ambition  and  heartless  indiffer- 
ence to  the  sufferings  of  the  poor ;  not  against  the  papacy  as  an 
institution,  but  against  the  interference  of  the  pope  in  English 
affairs,  and  the  indirect  taxation  of  the  English  church  through 
the  * 'provisions"  which  the  pope  was  still  in  the  habit  of  making 

for  his  Italian  servants.  In  1351  parliament  had  passed 
Provimrs,  the  Statute  of  Provisors,  which  made  the  recipient  of  a 
Prcemunire,    papal  provision  liable  to  imprisonment  and  forfeiture. 

In  1353  the  even  more  important  Statute  of  PrcB- 
munire  had  directly  attacked  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the 
Koman  Curia  by  making  it  a  serious  crime  for  any  English- 
man to  appeal  from  the  decision  of  an  English  court  to  a 
foreign  court.  In  1366,  also.  Urban  V.  had  very  unwisely 
put  a  new  weapon  in  the  hands  of  the  reform  party  by  making  a 


1366-1372]  DISMISSAL   OF   WYKEHAM  391 

formal  demand  upon  the  English  king  for  the  payment  of  the 
tribute  which  John  had  once  pledged  to  Innocent  III.  During 
the  great  part  of  Henry  III.'s  reign  this  tribute  had  been  paid, 
though  not  regularly.  Edward  I.  had  refused,  but  Edward  II. 
had  resumed  the  payment.  Edward  III.  had  again  refused, 
and  for  thirty  years  the  pope  had  missed  his  annual  gift  of  1,000 
marks  from  the  English  king.  The  pope  was  now  unwise  enough  to 
send  to  England  a  demand  for  the  renewal  of  the  tribute  and  for  the 
payment  of  the  arrears  in  full.  The  moment  was  not  well  chosen. 
The  English  government  was  burdened  with  debt;  the  people- 
were  restless  and  dissatisfied ;  a  powerful  and  growing  party  among 
the  nobility  were  jealous  of  the  monopoly  of  the  high  offices  of 
state  by  the  clergy,  and  were  eagerly  waiting  for  some  pretext  for 
open  attack.  The  king  submitted  the  pope's  claim  to  parliament, 
and  although  parliament  made  short  work  of  it  by  denying  the 
right  of  King  John  to  enter  into  any  such  compact,  the  discussion 
aroused  was  most  unfortunate  because  it  helped  to  turn  the  eyes 
of  the  nation  from  the  much-needed  reforms  within  the  church  to 
the  abuses  which  had  sprung  up  in  the  borderland 
character  of  where  the  interests  of  church  and  state  came  into  con- 
ereorms.  ^^^^^  ^^^^  deflected  the  activity  of  the  reformers  from 
the  moral  to  the  political  field,  making  such  men  as  Wyclif 
the  tools  of  John  of  Gaunt  and  the  other  politicians,  who  were 
bending  all  their  energies  to  drive  the  churchmen  out  of  the 
state  offices  and  secure  them  for  themselves.  In  1371  the  opposi- 
tion believed  themselves  strong  enough  to  open  a  direct  attack 
upon  the  ecclesiastical  office-holders,  and  persuaded  parliament  to 
petition  the  crown:  '* Whereas  the  government  has  been  carried  on 
by  men  of  Holy  Church,  who  are  not  justifiable  in  many  cases, 
from  which  great  mischief  and  damages  have  come  in  time  past 
and  more  may  happen  in  time  to  come;  therefore,  laymen  being 
able  and  sufficient,  none  other  shall  be  made  chancellors,  barons 
of  the  exchequer,  or  shall  be  appointed  to  other  great  offices 
of  state  for  the  future."  The  petition  shows  the  drift  of 
popular  opinion  at  the  time  and  prepares  us  for  the  dismissal 
of  William  of  Wykeham  and  his  fellow  ecclesiastics  the  next 
year. 


392  SECOND    STAGE    OF    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR       [edwakd  iii. 

The  new  lay  officials  who  took  the  place  of  the  deposed  ecclesi- 
astics had  to  experience  the  common  lot  of  a  party  long  out  of 
office  when  suddenly  entrusted  with  a  vast  and  delicate 
the  new  machinery,   the   safe    management  of    which    depends 

government.  .  .,  ,  j       -n        mi         i      i 

upon  experience  quite  as  much  as  good  will.  They  had 
charged  the  ecclesiastical  ministers  with  sluggishness  in  the  con- 
duct of  the  war.  To  justify  the  charge,  therefore,  they  were 
bound  to  take  the  war  in  hand  and  push  it  vigorously.  But  how 
should  they  secure  the  money?  They  hesitated  to  tax  the  great 
landholding  middle  class  or  to  lay  hands  on  the  goods  of  commerce. 
As  astute  politicians  they  shrank  from  incurring  the  odium  of  the 
class  which  controlled  the  parliaments.  They  turned,  therefore, 
upon  the  hated  churchmen,  and  proposed  to  raise  the  money 
needed  by  a  direct  tax  of  22s.  3d.  on  every  parish  of  the  kingdom, 
but  taken  from  lands  ''which  since  the  eighteenth  year  of  Edward 
I.  had  passed  into  mortmain."  There  was  this  to  justify  such  an 
action:  lands  held  in  mortmain  were  exempt  from  feudal  service 
and  hence  bore  no  share  of  ordinary  taxation.  Transfers  in  mort- 
main, also,  had  been  illegal  since  the  passage  of  the  Statute 
of  Mortmain  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  Tactically,  however,  the 
measure  was  a  serious  blunder.  By  a  strange  miscalculation,  pos- 
sibly due  to  the  lack  of  experience  of  the  new  financiers  quite  as 
much  as  to  the  fault  of  existing  statistics,  the  ministers  overesti- 
mated the  number  of  parishes  in  England  by  about  five  times. 
This  compelled  the  government  to  increase  the  tax  per  parish 
from  22s.  to  116s.,  in  order  to  produce  the  sum  required  by  the 
budget,  and  gave  only  too  much  ground  for  the  cry  of  the  church 
party,  that  they  were  the  objects  of  malicious  persecution  and 
were  being  robbed  in  the  name  of  the  state.  A  singular  misfor- 
tune, moreover,  attended  the  efforts  of  the  new  councillors  to 
prosecute  the  war.  The  fleet  which  was  raised  with  the  money 
taken  from  the  clergy  was  the  one  which  Pembroke  lost  at  Eochelle 
in  1372.  Then  Edward  III.  led  his  ships  out  of  Southampton  to 
be  driven  back  again  by  adverse  winds,  and  the  next  year  John  of 
Gaunt  led  his  ill-fated  expedition  into  the  heart  of  France.  At 
home  in  the  meantime,  while  English  ships  were  sunk  at  sea  and 
English  soldiers  were  dying  like  flies  on  the  fatal  march  across 


1376]  THE    GOOD    PARLIAMENT  393 

France,  the  court  was  openly  parading  its  shame;  Alice  Ferrers 
was  allowed  to  traffic  in  her  influence  with  the  king,  and  her 
favorites  traded  in  the  claims  of  his  hapless  creditors. 

Mismanagement,  extravagance,  overwhelming  failure,  the 
scandals  of  the  court,  and  the  evident  helplessness  of  the  king,  at 
last  brought  on  the  inevitable  reaction.  In  1376  the 
rlifi^^The^'  Black  Prince  came  forth  from  his  seclusion,  and,  making 
ment^^^^^^'  common  cause  with  William  of  Wykeham  and  the  earl 
of  March,  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  opposition. 
In  the  parliament  known  as  the'*Good  Parliament,'' which  metin 
April,  Peter  de  la  Mare,  steward  of  the  earl  of  March,  who  had  been 
elected  speaker,  proceeded  with  great  boldness  to  discuss  the  misman- 
agement of  the  government,  and  demanded  an  account  of  recent  re- 
ceipts and  expenditures  before  new  supplies  should  be  granted.  The 
duke  of  Lancaster  bullied  and  blustered.  "What  do  these  base  and 
ignoble  knights  attempt?  Do  they  think  they  be  kings  or  princes 
of  the  land?  I  deem  they  know  not  what  power  I  be  of.  I  will 
therefore  in  the  morning  appear  unto  them  so  glorious,  and  will 
show  such  power  among  them,  and  with  such  vigor  will  terrify 
them,  that  neither  they  nor  theirs  shall  dare  henceforth  to  provoke 
me  to  wrath."  But  de  la  Mare  was  supported  by  men  who  were 
not  to  be  dazzled  by  the  prince's  glory  or  frightened  by  his  blus- 
ter. A  new  council  was  organized ;  William  of  Wykeham  was 
restored  and  the  duke  of  Lancaster  was  sent  into  retirement. 
The  parliament  then  began  a  direct  attack  upon  three  mem- 
bers of  the  council,  Latimer,  Lyons,  and  Neville,  and  also  upon 
Alice  Ferrers.  ''Their  method  of  attack  was  almost  as  im- 
portant as  the  attack  itself,  for  the  Commons  proceeded  by 
impeaching  the  accused  before  the  House  of  Lords.  In  this 
method  of  procedure  the  House  of  Commons,  as  a  body,  appears 
as  prosecutors.  The  lords  act  as  judges;  hear  the  evidence 
brought  by  the  managers  before  the  Commons,  their  speeches  upon 
it,  and  the  answer  of  the  accused,  and  finally  pronounce  by  a 
majority  the  verdict  and  sentence."  Lyons  had  the  impudence  to 
attempt  to  save  himself  by  sending  to  the  Black  Prince  a  bribe 
of  £1,000,  done  up  in  a  cask  "us  if  it  had  been  a  barrel  of 
sturgeon."     Latimer  and  Lyons  were  found  guilty  of  robbing  the 


394  SECOND    STAGE    OF    HUNDRED    YEARS*    WAR       [edward  hi. 

king  under  the  guise  of  lending  him  money;  Neville  of  trading  in 
the  king's  debts;  but  strange  to  say,  the  most  serious  charge  they 
could  make  good  against  Alice  Ferrers  was  a  violation  of  an  ordi- 
nance which  forbade  a  woman  to  practice  in  a  court  of  law. 

Before  the  sitting  of  the  Good  Parliament  was  concluded  the 
Black  Prince  died.  His  death  at  once  brought  forwai'd  the  ques- 
tion of  the  succession.  The  parliament  greatly  feared 
Black  Prince,  the  ambition  of  John  of  Gaunt,  and,  believinsr  him  capa- 
ble  of  any  crime,  the  Commons  entreated  the  king  to 
bring  them  the  little  "Eichard  of  Bordeaux,"  the  son  of  the  Black 
Prince,  that  he  might  be  formally  honored  as  the  heir  to  the  crown. 
They  also  persuaded  the  king  to  strengthen  his  council  by  the 
addition  of  ten  more  members  representing  the  popular  party. 

•In  July  the  Good  Parliament  broke  up  with  the  feeling  that 
all  had  been  done  well ;  but  the  members  had  hardly  reached  their 
Return  of  ^omes  before  John  of  Gaunt  resumed  his  old  place, 
'oaunfto  Alice  Pcrrers  was  brought  back,  the  late  speaker  was 
power.  arrested  and  put  in  prison,  and  a  long  list  of  charges 

brought  against  William  of  Wykeham.  The  new  members  of  the 
council,  also,  were  denied  a  seat,  and  of  a  list  of  one  hundred  and 
forty  petitions,  embodying  the  grievances  for  which  the  Good 
Parliament  had  humbly  sought  redress,  not  one  received  the  assent 
of  the  crown.  In  January  1377  a  new  parliament  was  summoned, 
packed  to  suit  the  ideas  of  John  of  Gaunt,  and  the  work  of  the 
Good  Parliament  was  speedily  undone.  The  new  parliament  also 
wrestled  with  the  question  of  supplies,  and  signalized  itself  by  vot- 
ing a  poll  tax  of  4d.  on  all  persons,  male  or  female,  over  fourteen 
years  of  age,  a  kind  of  tax  "hitherto  unheard  of." 

While  the  party  of  John  of  Gaunt  were  thus  carrying  things 
with  a  high  hand  in  the  council  and  in  the  parliament,  convocation 
was  preparing  to  take  up  the  cudgels  in  defense 
Wym^i377  ^^  ^^^  church.  The  unjust  attack  upon  Wykeham, 
had  roused  the  churchmen  to  strike  back.  They  could 
not  reach  John  of  Gaunt  directly,  but  they  could  strike  him  by 
attacking  his  ally  and  supporter  John  Wyclif.  This  remarkable 
man  had  first  appeared  in  Oxford  as  a  student.  He  had  soon  made 
himself  master  of  the  existing  scholastic  system  and  won  a  reputa- 


1361-1376]  JOHN^   WYCLIF  395 

tion  among  the  distinguished  scholars  of  the  university.  He  was 
also  a  controversialist  of  rare  powers.  He  was  by  temperament 
witty  and  ever  inclined  to  give  a  humorous  turn  to  an  argument; 
his  mind  was  acute  and  well  sharpened  by  long  training  in  the 
methods  of  the  scholastic  philosophy.  His  personal  character, 
also,  was  beyond  reproach,  and  his  genial,  snnny  nature  had 
won  him  many  friends.  In  1361  he  had  become  master  of  Balliol. 
He  had  also  taken  a  prominent  part  in  a  conflict  which  had  been 
stirred  up  against  the  influence  of  the  mendicant  orders  at  the  uni- 
versity. In  13G6  he  had  boldly  assailed  the  pope's  claim  of  feudal 
supremacy  over  England,  publicly  defending  the  action  of  parlia- 
ment in  refusing  to  continue  the  annual  tribute.     Two  years  later 

he  had  more  formally  set  forth  his  views  in  his  ** Theory 
^iJiuri368    ^^  Dominion,"  the  famous  Be  Dominio  Divino^  in  which 

he  asserted  that  all  right  of  dominion  must  depend 
upon  true  relations  with  God,  the  supreme  suzerain  of  the  uni- 
verse; that  kings  are  vicars  of  God  as  truly  as  popes,  and  that  the 
state  is  as  sacred  as  the  church.  Such  views  had  naturally 
attracted  a  man  like  John  of  Gaunt,  who  was  not  over-shrewd  even 
for  a  politician,  who,  while  failing  to  comprehend  the  remote  logical 
application  of  Wyclif's  theories  in  establishing  the  responsibility 
of  the  individual  and  the  liberty  of  the  individual  conscience, 
thought  only  of  the  support  which  the  views  of  Wyclif  would  give 
to  a  party  built  up  ostensibly  upon  the  principle  of  opposition  to 
the  usurpations  of  churchmen  in  the  state.  Wyclif  on  his  part 
had  accepted  the  alliance,  apparently,  without  question.  Did  he 
know  the  real  character  of  the  man  whom  he  thus  supported? 
The  vicious  and  unscrupulous  baron,  who  ostentatiously  paraded  his 
principles  in  order  to  cloak  his  motives,  and  the  high-minded  and 
single-hearted  doctor  to  whom  double  dealing  was  an  impossibility, 
were  surely  a  strange  team  to  be  yoked  together.  Yet,  happily  or 
unhappily,  they  found  themselves  in  accord  upon  the  one  point, 
that  it  was  high  time  that  the  fine  feathers  of  the  church  should 
be  plucked  and  that  the  clergy  should  be  reduced  to  their  simple 
spiritual  functions.  John  of  Gaunt,  therefore,  had  found  in  Wyclif 
a  useful  ally,  and  had  takeiL  him  to  Bruges  in  1374  in  order  to 
negotiate  the  truce  with  France  and  also  to  bring  the  pope  to  agree 


39G  SECOND    STAGE    OF    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR     [edward  III. 

to  some  adjustment  of  the  matter  of  provisors,  as  well  as  to  argue 
in  general  the  relation  of  England  and  the  papacy. 

It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  Wyclif  should  share  in  the 
opprobrium  which  had  fallen  upon  John  of  Gaunt's  government, 

and  that  the  clerical  party  should  single  him  out  for 
'w^cuT^^^     attack  as  a  counter  to  the  attack  upon  Wykeham.     He 

was  accordingly  summoned  to  appear  before  a  commit- 
tee of  bishops  at  St.  Paul's  in  London.  John  of  Gaunt  assumed 
the  duty  of  protecting  him  and  seeing  fair  play.  The  people,  who 
were  deeply  interested  in  the  trial  because  of  its  political  bearing, 
also  came  in  great  numbers  and  packed  the  hall.  Wyclif  was  the 
last  to  enter,  and  when  the  judges  left  him  standing,  Henry 
Percy,  the  friend  of  Lancaster,  who  had  come  with  him  to  the 
trial,  ordered  a  seat  to  be  given  to  the  prisoner.  The  judges 
refused  and  a  bitter  altercation  followed  in  which  the  people  finally 
took  part;  the  whole  affair  ended  in  a  riot.  The  duke  of  Lan- 
caster fled  to  Kensington  where  he  was  protected  by  the  widow  of 
the  Black  Prince,  who  was  very  popular  with  the  Londoners. 
Although  the  duke  had  come  out  of  the  affair  without  much  dig- 
nity, he  had  perhaps  accomplished  his  purpose.  The  trial  had 
been  broken  up,  and  Wycliff  had  been  saved,  at  least  from  a 
formal  condemnation  by  the  ministers  of  the  church. 

The  attempted  trial  of  Wyclif  was  held  in  February.  On  June 
21  Edward  III.  breathed  his  last,  and  with  his  death  the  schemes 

of  John  of  Gaunt  for  the  time  came  to  an  end.  So 
DeamnfEd-  ended  in  its  fifty-first  year  the  long  reign  of  Edward  the 
imfortauT'^'  Little.  Its  features  of  greatest  importance,  if  not  of 
features^of      greatest  interest  to  the  ordinary  reader,  are  not  his 

dramatic  campaigning  and  his  brilliaijt  victories;  but 
first,  the  increasing  authority  of  parliament;  second,  the  beginnings 
of  social  and  religious  revolution ;  and  third,  a  genuine  revival  of 
national  feeling,  which  found  expression  in  a  new  English  liter- 
ature and  gave  new  importance  and  dignity  to  the  English  lan- 
guage. 

First,  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  is  marked  by  a  steady  increase 
in  the  authority  of  parliament  as  a  factor  in  the  government.  The 
Statute  of    York,  1322,  had    definitely  established  the   right   of 


1322-1377]        INCREA8IXG    AUTHORITY    OP    PARLIAMENT  397 

the    Commons   to   a  share    in    the   deliberations   of    parliament. 
During  the  early  part    of    Edward    III.'s  reign   the    knights   of 

tlie  shire  began  regularly  to  sit  with  the  representatives 
dignityofthe  of  the  towns  ^  and  thus  greatly  enhanced  the  dignity 

and  importance  of  the  inferior  house,  enabling  it  to 
claim  a  voice  in  the  government  of  the  nation  and  to  defend  the 
liberties  of  the  people  in  a  way  which  was  not  possible  as  long  as 
it  was  composed  of  simple  deputies  whose  sole  function  was  to 
consent  to  taxation  or  to  advise  upon  matters  of  trade. ^ 

The  advance  in  the  dignity  and  usefulness  of  the  Commons  was 
only  a  phase  of  a  general  increase  in  the  activity  and  authority  of 

parliament  as  a  whole,  largely  a  result  of  the  Hundred 
adfritTand  ^^^^'^^  Viiw.  Frequcut  sessions  were  necessary;  dur- 
paHUiinau.     ^'^^  ^^"^  periods  the  parliaments  were  virtually  annual.^ 

The  well-known  shiftiness  of  tho  king,  his  frequent 
attempts  to  secure  money  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  laws  as  con- 
firmed by  Edward  I.,  required  the  utmost  watchfulness  and  devel- 
oped a  clearness  of  vision  and  boldness,  as  well,  worthy  of  the  days 
of  Pym  and  Hampden.  As  a  result  of  this  faithful  persistence  in 
holding  the  king  to  the  paths  prescribed  by  the  laws,  three  very 
important  constitutional  principles,  all  bearing  directly  upon  the 
authority  of  parliament,  and  all  more  or  less  clearly  expressed  iij 
formal  law,  passed  into  definite  practice:  1.  No  legislation  could  be 
binding  upon  the  nation  witliout  the  concurrence  of  both  houses. 
2.  The  king  might  not  raise  money  by  taxes,  loans,  or  otherwise, 
without  the  consent  of  parliament;  any  such  attempt  on  the 
king's  part  was  henceforth  illegal,  and  it  was  within  the  right  of 
the  subject  to  resist  the  king's  officers  who  sought  thus  to  take  his 
property.  John  Hampden  could  not  go  farther.  3.  The  king's 
ministers  were  directly  responsible  to  parliament  and  might  be 
impeached.* 

^  This  change  must  have  taken  place  before  1347.  See  Taswell-Lang- 
mead,  p.  220. 

2  Taswell-Langmead,  pp.  220,  221. 

^  There  are  48  recorded  sessions  during  the  50  years  of  Edward  III.  's 
reign. 

*  For  summary  of  the  steps  by  which  these  principles  passed  into  prac- 
tice, see  Taswell-Langmead,  pp.  226-334. 


398  SECOKD    STAGE    OF    HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR       [edwabd  ill. 

Second,  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  witnessed  the  beginnings  of 

great  social  and  religious  movements  which  were  to  result  on  the 

one  hand  in  the  abolition  of  villainage  in  England  and 

religious         on  the  Other  in  the  complete  severance  of  England  from 

movements  of    , ,  ,    _  ^  ,11,1 

Edwardiii.'s  the  great  European  system  represented  by  the  papacy. 
Edward  and  his  ministers  had  little  to  do  with  the  first 
of  these  movements,  save  to  accelerate  it  by  their  foolish  Statute 
of  Labourers.  New  conditions  made  villainage  no  longer  a  paying 
institution  and  the  landlord  was  forced  to  accept  other  relations  to 
the  laboring  class.  With  the  second  of  these  movements  Edward 
had  much  to  do.  The  contiguity  of  the  papal  court  to  France, 
the  undoubted  French  influence  at  Avignon,  involved  the  popes 
even  against  their  will  in  the  hostility  which  a  generation  of  war 
had  bred  in  the  breasts  of  Englishmen  against  the  French  nation, 
teaching  them  to  look  upon  the  papacy  as  a  foreign  institution. 
The  continued  demands  of  the  papacy,  its  interference  in  the 
ecclesiastical  affairs  of  England,  also,  opened  the  eyes  of  English- 
men to  the  real  significance  of  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the 
pope's  court  and  the  claim  of  the  pope  to  appoint  to  English  liv- 
ings. The  Statute  of  Provisors  and  the  Statute  of  Praemunire 
are  the  first  paragraphs  of  the  English  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. It  was  impossible,  furthermore,  for  such  a  movement  to  stop 
simply  with  an  attack  upon  the  political  authority  of  the  pope. 
The  abuses  which  had  crept  into  the  church  were  too  widespread 
and  flagrant,  the  sufferings  of  the  people  were  too  acute.  Men 
were  not  lacking  who  dared  to  proceed  from  institutions  to 
doctrines,  and  question  the  foundations  of  the  entire  ecclesiastical 
system.  This  religious  revival,  however,  associated  with  the  name 
of  Wyclif,  really  belongs  to  the  next  generation  and  must  not  be 
confused  with  the  estrangement. of  the  English  government  and  the 
papacy,  which  began  with  Edward  III. 

Third,  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  is  marked  by  a  pronounced 
growth  of  the  national  spirit.  The  traits  of  nationality  had  begun 
to  develop  even  before  the  Norman  Conquest  and  had  continued 
in  a  steady  and  sturdy  growth.  Yet  some  elements  were  still 
lacking.  The  Englishman  had  a  language  of  his  own  and  the 
beginnings  of  a  literature,  but  he  had  not  learned  either  to  respect. 


1362-1393]  LANGLAND   AND    PIERS   PLOWMAN  399 

the  one  or  to  love  the  other.  The  Latin  had  never  yielded  its  place 
as  the  language  of  the  church  and  the  university.  The  pliant  and 
nimble  French  had  displaced  the  more  uncouth  English  in  the 
court  and  in  the  schools.  William  the  Conqueror  had  tried  to 
learn  English  but  with  poor  success.  Other  kings  had  not  made 
the  effort  at  all.  Even  Edward  III.  spoke  English  with  difficulty. 
Ralph  Iligden,  a  writer  of  the  times,  deplores  the  custom  of  com- 
pelling English  boys,  against  the  practice  of  all  other  nations,  to 
construe  their  lessons  in  French ;  a  practice,  which  he  declares, 
had  been  followed  since  the  Norman  Conquest.  The  French  had 
also  invaded  the  law  courts  and  the  parliaments.  It  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  shops  and  was  fast  becoming  the  language  of  trade 
and  commerce.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  however,  the 
hostility  of  the  English  toward  the  French  people  had  extended  to 
their  language  and  the  use  of  the  foreign  tongue  had  rapidly  fallen 
off.  In  1362  the  people  had  become  so  unaccustomed  to  the 
French  that  the  law  courts  were  ordered  by  statute  to  conduct 
their  proceedings  in  English.*  In  1363  for  the  first  time  the 
chancellor  opened  parliament  with  a  speech  in  English. 

The  vigor  with  which  the  English  were  turning  to  their  own 
tongue  again  is  also  shown  in  the  great  literary  creations  of  the 

next  reign  which  are  associated  with  the  names  of 
matiterpieces    Wyclif,  Langland,  and  Chaucer.     Wyclif  discarded  the 

ponderous  Latin  of  the  university  and  spoke  directly  to 
the  people  in  the  homely  speech  of  the  plowboy  and  the  village 
smith:  **Let  clerks  enditen  in  Latin,  and  let  Frenchmen 
in  their  French  also  enditen  their  quaint  terms,  for  it  is 
kindly  to  their  mouths,  but  let  us  show  our  fantaseys  in  such 
words  as  were  learnden  of  our  dames  tongue."  Innumerable 
tracts,  but  most  of  all  his  English  Bible,  masterpieces  all  of  the 
simple  chaste  English  of  the  people  in  their  best  moments,  show 
how  well  Wyclif  kept  to  his  purpose. 

Of  William  Langland  little  is  known  save  his  poem,  *'The 
Vision  of  Piers  Plowman."  The  poem  is  a  running  satire  of  the 
time,  presented  in  the  form  of  a  vision  or  dream,  in  which  in 
a  plain  "full  of  folk,"  the  dreamer  watches  the  mad  struggle  for 

*  The  records  were  still  kept  in  Latin. 


400  SECOKD    STAGE    OF   HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR       [edward  iii. 

place  and  pelf,  so  nnseemly  in  men  of  high  calling.      He  deplores 
the  evil  practices  of  the   church;   he  beholds  Lady  Mead, — re- 
ward or  bribery, — obtaining   bishoprics   for  fools;    he 
Langiand.      draws  droU  pictures  of  the  hunting  priest,  lazy,  ioviaL 

The  Vmon  of  ....    ^  .^  .  ,  ^      .  .         . 

Piers  hard  drinkmsr,  who  comes   to  church  lust  in  time  to 

Plowman.  .  •* 

hear  the  Ita  missa  est;  but  finds  only  severe  words 
for  the  professional  pardoners  and  the  herd  of  knaves  who  traffic  in 
holy  things.  Yet  he  has  no  thought  of  doing  away  with  the  church, 
the  hierarchy,  or  its  doctrines,  and  only  prays  for  its  amendment 
from  the  pope  down. 

The  same  wholesome  sense,  a  desire  for  reform  rather  than 
revolution,  is  revealed  in  Langland's  view  of  the  political  society  of 
his  day.  His  sympathies  are  with  the  people,  yet  there  is  place 
and  need  for  all  the  great  ones  in  the  well-ordered  England.  The 
king  is  necessary  as  the  head  of  the  state  to  rule  the  commons  and 
*'holy  kirke  and  clergy  fro  cursede  men  to  defende."  King  and 
parliament  are  the  law-makers ;  the  knights  defend  the  priest  and 
the  laborer;  the  merchant's  wealth  must  restore  the  broken  bridges 
and  support  the  scholars.  Even  lovely  ladies  with  their  ^'longe 
fyngres"  have  their  tasks  with  the  needle.  But  supporting  all, 
feeding  all,  is  the  humble  plowman.  Piers,  bending  to  his  daily 
toil,  patient  as  his  oxen.  The  teaching  of  the  poem  is  wholesome 
and  sound.  The  welfare  of  the  state  depends  upon  the  harmony 
and  mutual  support  of  all  classes.  The  great  have  their  tempta- 
tions which  they  may  avoid  by  marrying  Lady  Mead  to  Sir 
Knight  Conscience.  Piers  Plowman  is  not  to  be  despised. 
He  is  the  main  support  of  the  state.  In  his  humble,  unadorned, 
bat  honest  life,  free  from  the  elements  that  lead  other  men  astray, 
Truth  finds  a  congenial  home. 

Unlike  Langiand,  Chaucer  is  the  poet  of  the  court.  The  art 
and  elegance  of  the  French  love  poets  are  his,  in  marked  contrast 
with  the  unadorned  alliterations  of  Langiand.  His 
spirit,  moreover,  is  of  the  Eenaissance,  nor  does  he  hesi- 
tate to  draw  his  themes  from  Petrarch  or  Boccaccio.  His  sym- 
pathy is  with  the  upper  classes.  He  is  neither  religious  reformer, 
nor  social  reformer.  He  bears  no  burdens.  He  loves  life  for  its 
own  sake,  and  sees  in  the  foibles  of  those  about  him,  themes 


CHAUCER  401 

whereon  to  make  merry  rather  than  to  mourn.  His  days  were 
passed  in  the  midst  of  business  and  pleasure.  He  was  courtier, 
traveler,  office  holder,  and  pensioner;  nor  was  he  wanting  in  that 
variety  of  fortune  which  so  often  falls  to  one  who  is  dependent 
upon  the  smile  of  the  great  for  daily  bread.  His  pictures  of  life 
and  manners,  particularly  of  the  clergy,  are  not  therefore  always 
to  be  taken  in  full  confidence.  Like  Wyclif,  he  was  a  partisan  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  and  reflects  the  views  which  prevailed  among  the 
men  of  that  following.  He  had,  however,  none  of  the  reformer's 
sincerity  of  purpose.  Nor  can  we  avoid  suspecting  the  honesty 
of  a  man  who  could  thus  lament  the  downfall  of  Pedro  the 
Cruel,  the  passing  favorite  of  the  English  court: 

**0  noble,  O  worthy  Pedro,  glory  of  Spain, 
Whom  fortune  held  so  high  in  majesty." 

His  best  known  book  is  the  '^Canterbury  Tales,"  written  prob- 
ably in  the  later  years  of  his  life  and  left  incomplete.     He  brings 

together  at  the  Tabard  Inn  in  London,  a  company  of 
hury^Taiel'    "^^^  ^'^^  women  from  various  classes  of  society,  all  bound 

on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  of  the  popular  Thomas  jI 
Becket  of  Canterbury.  Here,  then,  in  the  stories  and  conversa- 
tions of  the  pilgrims,  as  they  lope  along  in  the  easy,  rocking  can- 
ter, the  favorite  Canterbury  gallop,  is  the  England  of  the 
fourteenth  century  in  miniature;  its  dress,  its  foibles,  its  heart 
songs  and  its  laughter,  its  meanness  and  its  weakness.  Here  is 
the  "very  perfect  gentle  knight,"  just  returned  from  his  battles 
and  adventures  in  the  wars,  accompanied  by  his  squire;  the  sturdy 
yeoman,  he  who  gave  such  good  account  of  himself  at  Crecy  and 
Poitiei-s,  who  with  professional  pride  keeps  his  good  bow  like  an 
experienced  archer.  There  is  also  the  hunting  monk,  who  cares 
not  a  groat  for  the  rules  of  his  order ;  the  mendicant  friar,  a  sturdy 
beggar,  "wanton  and  merry;"  the  summoner  whose  fiery  face  is  a 
terror  to  the  children ;  the  pardoner  with  his  wallet  "brimful  of 
pardons  come  from  Rome  all  hot,"  who  can  rake  in  more  money 
from  a  country  parish  than  the  parson  can  get  in  two  months,  an 
arrant  knave  who  knows  more  than  one  trick  of  wheedling  the 
coppers  out  of  the  purses  of  simple  country  folk.    Then,  too,  there 


402 


SECOND    STAGE    OF    HUNDRED   YEARS'    WAR       [edward  ill. 


is  the  brighter  side  of  church  life;  the  gentle,  dainty  prioress  is 
there  wilh  her  courtly  French  lisp,  her  refined  manners  and  tender 
heart;  the  earnest  parson,  poor,  loving,  and  self-sacrificing,  the 
salt  of  the  church  to  keep  it  all  from  rotting.  Of  the  learned 
classes,  the  physician,  the  lawyer,  and  the  Oxford  student  are  also 
there;  other  characters  also,  such  as  the  merchant,  the  miller,  the 
cook,  the  reeve,  and  finally  the  plowman,  suggesting  the  inspira- 
tion of  Langland,  as  the  parson  suggests  Wyclif.  These  characters 
are  not  allegories  or  mythical  creatures  of  the  past,  but  the  real 
men  and  women  of  the  England  of  the  fourteenth  century,  who 
bore  its  burdens  and  felt  its  sorrows;  the  men  who  fought  out  the 
Hundred  Years'  War,  who  caught  the  glow  of  the  morning  and 
made  merry  in  the  conscious  sense  of  the  new  life  which  was 
at  hand;  a  life  which  they  could  feel,  but  could  not  comprehend. 


CONTEMPORARIES  OF  EDWARD  III. 


KINGS  OP  FRANCE 

Philip  IV.,  d.  1314 
Louis  X.,  d.  1316 
Philip  v.,  d.  1322 
Chas.  IV.,  d.  1328 
Philip  VI.,  d.  1350 
John,  d.  1364 
Charles  V. 

POPES 


Era  of  Babylonian  Captivity, 
1309-1376 

Began  with  Clement  V.,  1305- 
1314,  and  ended  with  Greg- 
ory XI.,  1370-1378,  no  great 
popes. 

ARCHBISHOPS    OF 
CANTERBURY 

The  only  great  name  of  the 
era  is  tliat  of  Thomas 
Bradwardin,  the  theolo- 
gian and  mathematician, 
who  died  of  the  plague 
forty  days  after  his  con- 
secration, 1349. 


EMPERORS 

Henry  VII.,  d.  1313 
Louis  IV.,  d.  1347 
Charles  IV. 


KINGS  OF  CASTILE 

Ferdinand  IV.,  d.  1312 
Alplionso  XI.,  d.  1350 
Pedro,  d.  1368 
Henry  II. 


KINGS  OF  SCOT- 
LAND 

Robert  I.,  d.  1329 
David  II.,  d.  1370 
Robert  II. 


FAMOUS  MEN  NOT  SOVEREIGNS 


James  van  Arteveldt,  1285- 

1345. 
Thomas  Bradwardin,  1290- 

1349. 
Cola  di  Rienzi,  1313-1354 
Stephen  Marcel,  d.  13.58 
Francesco  Petrarch,  1304- 

1374 
Giovanni  Boccaccio,  1313- 

1375 


Edward  Prince  of  Wales. 

"the   Black    Prince," 

1330-1376 
Bertrand   du  Guesclin, 

13-iO?-1380 
John  Wyclif,  1324-1384 
AVilliam   Langland,  1330?- 

1400? 
Geoffrey  Chaucer,  1340?-1400 
Jean  Froissart,  1337-1410 


CHAPTER    V 

THE    PEASANT   REVOLT.      THE    ATTACK    OF   THE   KING 
UPON   THE   CONSTITUTION 

RICHARD  II.  1377-1.199 

Upon  the  death  of  Edward,  John  of  Gannt  made  no  attempt  to 

continue  his  control  of  the  government.     Possibly  he  thought  that 

as  the  eldest  living  uncle  of  the  child  king  his  influence 

reign  of  Rich-  WU8  assuredi  for  although  the  barons  manifested  no  a\s- 

nrdll.    Rec-  .   .  '         .        ,  .  •   i 

nnciiiatwn  position  to  appoint  liim  either  regent  or  protector,  and 
at  once  vested  Kichard  with  the  full  rights  of  a  sover- 
eign, yet  as  long  as  the  period  of  the  minority  continued,  the 
powerful  duke  must  naturally  remain  the  first  among  the  little 
king's  political  tutors.  The  enemies  of  John  of  Gaunt  on  their 
part  were  apparently  as  reluctant  as  he  to  push  the  quarrel  farther, 
and  in  the  presence  of  the  distractions  which  confronted  the  state 
were  ready  to  abandon  partisan  strife  in  the  interests  of  the  new 
reign.  The  accession  of  Richard,  therefore,  was  the  signal  for  a 
general  reconciliation  of  all  parties.  Peter  de  la  Mare  was  released 
from  prison.  The  charges  against  William  of  Wykeham  were 
dropped,  and  the  prelate  and  the  duke  were  formally  reconciled. 

When  the  new  parliament  met  in  October,  although  the  mood 
of  the  members  on  the  whole  was  likewise  conciliatory,  they  had 
no  thought  of  dropping  the  work  which  the  Good  Par- 
GmSpariki-  ^^^^^^^  had  begun.  They  were  still  suspicious  of  John 
umid^  of  Gaunt  and  would  allow  neither  him  nor  his  brothers 
a  place  in  the  royal  council;  yet  they  did  not  object  to 
his  friend,  Richard  Fitz-Alan  Earl  of  Arundel.  The  Commons 
again  made  de  la  Mare  their  speaker  as  a  matter  of  course. 
They  also  demanded  that  annual  parliaments  be  required  by  law; 
that  statutes  once  sanctioned  by  the  crown  be  enrolled  without 

403 


404  THE    PEASANT    REVOLT  [richakd  ii. 

change  or  amendment  by  the  council ;  that  the  evil  counsellors  of 
Edward  be  removed;  that  the  lords  name  the  chancellor,  treasurer, 
and  barons  of  the  exchequer,  and  that  during  the  king's  minority 
these  ministers  be  not  removed  without  the  advice  of  the  lords. 
They  also  voted  a  subsidy  for  the  war,  but  demanded  that  the 
control  of  the  funds  be  put  in  the  hands  of  two  treasurers  who 
should  be  responsible  to  parliament.  The  men  chosen  were  Wil- 
liam Walworth  and  John  Philipot,  prominent  citizens  of  Loudon. 
It  was  high  time  that  the  advisers  of  the  young  king  awoke  to 
the  serious  nature  of  the  troubles  which  threatened   the   state. 

The  skv  was  portentous  with  coming  storm.  The  war 
oftrouUes  with  France  had  not  only  long  since  ceased  to  be  profit- 
frontedncw    able  but  had   inflicted  upon  the  people  a   constantly 

increasing  burden  of  taxation.  The  great  peasant  class, 
who  numbered  one  half  the  population  of  England,  upon  whom,  as 
Langland  had  tried  to  show,  the  whole  superstructure  of  state  and 
society  rested,  no  longer  bore  their  load  with  the  old-time  ox-like 
patience.  It  is  not  likely  that  their  terrible  strength  was  more 
than  dimly  understood  either  by  themselves  or  their  masters,  or 
that  an  actual  rising  was  apprehended.  Yet  there  was  certainly 
reason  for  disquiet  in  the  minds  of  tliose  who  were  directing  the 
government.  The  endless  taxes  were  collected  with  ever-increas- 
ing difficnlty  and  the  returns  were  as  unsatisfactory.^  The  pro- 
prietary classes,  instead  of  rallying  to  the  support  of  the  state,  with 
customary  shortsightedness  were  inclined  to  unload  their  own 
burdens  upon  the  people.  The  tide  of  war,  also,  which  had  so  long 
desolated  France  was  now  at  last  approaching  England.  The  very, 
week  after  Edward's  death  the  French  burned  Rye;  and  in  the 
snmmer  following  they  continued  their  depredations,  striking 
various  exposed  points  on  the  southern  coast.  The  Scots  also 
were  restless  and  active,  and  the  condition  of  the  borders  added 
not  a  little  to  the  anxiety  of  the  ministry. 

The  French  war  was  directly  responsible  for  the  beginning  of 

^  The  failure  of  the  several  levies  of  this  period  to  realize  the  amounts 
expected,  was  probably  due  to  the  success  of  a  disloyal  people  in  cheating 
the  collectors  quite  as  much  as  to  the  blunders  of  the  ministers  in  making 
their  estimates. 


1379,  1380]  THE    POLL    TAX  405 

the  troubles  of  Eicliard's  reign,  as  it  was  for  most  of  the  trouble 
of  this  era.  John  of  Gaunt  had  persuaded  the  council  to  entrust 
him  with  the  money,  which  had  been  recently  granted  by  parlia- 
Beginnirw  ™®^^>  i^  Order  that  he  might  fit  out  a  fleet  and  clear 
%hepw^'  ^^®  Channel.  The  attempt  was  a  failure  as  might  be 
m^liaso.  expected  of  any  thing  committed  to  the  care  of  John  of 
Gaunt.  He  then  crossed  to  Brittany  and  attacked  St. 
Malo,  but,  baffled  by  the  obstinate  courage  of  the  burghers,  was  again 
forced  to  return  without  results.  The  ministry  had  now  spent  their 
money,  and  they  hesitated  to  ask  parliament  for  another  subsidy. 
In  their  strait  they  turned  to  the  new  plan  of  taxing  people  by  the 
head ;  a  scheme  which  commended  itself  to  the  proprietary  classes 
because  it  promised  to  relieve  them  somewhat  by  compelling  the 
landless  poor  and  the  clergy  to  bear  a  part  of  the  burden  of  taxa- 
tion. The  measure  had  been  resorted  to  by  John  of  Gaunt's  parlia- 
ment of  1377,  but  the  levy  of  a  groat  a  head  had  failed  to  return 
a  sum  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  state.  It  was  determined, 
therefore,  to  increase  the  net  sum,  at  the  same  time  relieving  the 
measure  of  the  charge  of  injustice  by  grading  the  tax  according 
to  rank.  A  duke  was  to  pay  £6  13s.  4d. ;  an  earl  £4;  and  so 
down  to  the  villain  who  paid  his  groat  as  before.  The  clergy  also 
paid  by  a  similar  scale.  The  amount,  however,  owing  to  a  very 
simple  blunder  of  the  financiers,  fell  short  of  the  estimate  by  about 
one-half,  and  in  1380  parliament  levied  a  third  poll  tax,  but  with 
no  such  just  graduation '  as  in  the  previous  year.  The  humblest 
villain  had  now  to  pay  a  shilling  for  each  member  of  his  family  of 
fifteen  years  of  age  and  upward,  while  the  richest  man  in  the  king- 
dom paid  only  a  pound. 

The  tax  was  a  fatal  blunder.  Inflammatory  elements  were  scat- 
tered everywhere ;  the  strife  of  landlord  and  villain  was  increasing 
^.,  ,   in  bitterness  daily;  the  free  laborer  and  the  wandering 

Wide-spread  •  t  ,       ^ 

inflammatnnj  artisan,  under  the  Statute  of  Labourers,  were  treated  as 

elements.  .  . 

vagrants;  disbanded  soldiers  from  the  wars,  broken  in 
fortune  and  swelling  with  pride  and  mischief,  wandered  every- 
where; begging  friars,  the  newsmongers  and  gossips  of  the  times, 
brought  the  news  of  the  day  to  the  humblest  and  added  their  own 
flery   editorials;     incendiary   priests,    like    John    Ball   of    Kent, 


406  THE    PEASANT    REVOLT  [richard  ll. 

preached  the  rights  of  man  to  eager  multitudes,  and  even  dared  to 
question  the  whole  existing  social  order. 

When,  therefore,  the  third  poll  tax  was  announced,  it  needed 
only  the  irritation  caused  by  the  attempt  of  the  officials  to  enforce 
The  rising  Collection  to  cause  the  seething  waters  to  overflow. 
peasants,  "^^^  ^^^^  Outbreak  occurred  near  Tilbury  in  Essex 
1381.  about  the  last  week  in  May.     A  few  days  later  trouble 

began  in  Kent.  By  June  10,  the  counties  of  the  lower  Thames 
were  up  from  end  to  end;  manors  were  burned,  manor  rolls 
destroyed,  and  bailiffs,  lawyers,  and  particularly  obnoxious  land- 
lords, hunted  down  and  murdered  in  cold  blood.  Everywhere  the 
same  scenes* of  violence  were  enacted,  though  with  ever  changing 
variety  in  the  grim  details.  Then,  when  the  special  objects  which 
had  roused  the  wrath  of  the  people  in  their  home  districts  had  been 
destroyed,  the  mobs,  maddened  by  their  very  successes  and  still 
unsated,  from  all  the  *^home  counties"  began  marching  upon 
London.  The  insurrection  in  the  meanwhile  continued  to  spread. 
By  the  19th  of  June  it  had  reached  Somerset  and  on  the  23d  it 
had  reached  Yorkshire.  There  were  echoes  even  in  distant  Devon 
and  Cornwall  and  in  remote  Chester,  though  the  extent  of  the  out- 
breaks here  is  not  known. 

The  government  was  helpless  to  protect  its  subjects  or  even  to 
defend  itself.  At  the  first  break  of  the  storm  an  expedition  lay  at 
Plymouth  ready  for  the  French  wars,  but,  not  realizing 
Helplessness  ^^^  importance  of  the  crisis,  the  leaders  had  put  out  to 
government.  ^^^^  rpj^^  ^^^  other  force  of  any  importance  in  the 
kingdom  was  with  Percy  on  the  Scottish  border.  The  nobles  and 
their  retainers  were  scattered  over  the  kingdom  and  owing  to  the 
rapid  spread  of  the  insurrection  it  was  impossible  for  them  to 
gather  in  any  force  sufficient  to  disperse  or  overawe  the  gathering 
mobs.  Without  any  trained  police  force  at  command,  without 
any  standing  army,  the  government  could  only  look  on  and  await 
developments. 

On  the  12th  of  June  an  army  of  Kentish  insurgents  lay 
encamped  on  Black  Heath,  within  five  miles  of  the  Southwark  end 
of  London  Bridge.  All  day  long  their  ranks  were  swelled  by  other 
arrivals  from  the  towns  and  villages  of  Surrey  and  even  from  the 


1381]  LOKDOi^    IN    THE    HANDS    OF   THE    MOB  407 

distant  wolds  of  Sussex.  William  Walworth,  now  mayor  of  London, 
had  no  sympathy  with  the  risings  and  had  fully  determined  to  keep 
the  insurgents  out  of  the  city,  but  he  was  overborne 
ter'uSmT  by  the  advice  of  some  of  his  aldermen  who  were 
Jumi2.  supported  by  the  city  populace,  and  on  the  13th  the 
great  drawbridge  which  cut  off  London  from  the  Southwark  side 
was  lowered  and  the  peasants  from  the  southern  counties  were 
allowed  to  stream  across  the  bridge  into  the  city.  The  same  even- 
ing another  horde  which  had  been  advancing  from  Essex  encamped 
at  Mile  End,  while  the  northern  heights  were  occupied  by  still 
other  insurgents  who  had  come  down  from  Hertford  and  St. 
Albans.  Here  also  the  city  authorities,  more  than  half  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  rebels,  failed  to  keep  the  gates  closed,  and  in  a  short 
time  these  new  streams  were  allowed  to  swell  the  tide  of  riot  and 
lawlessness  that  was  already  roaring  through  the  streets  of  the  city. 

A  wild  afternoon  and  night  followed.  John  of  Gaunt,  fortu- 
nately for  himself,  had  been  called  north  by  threat  of  new  trouble 
with  Scotland,  but  his  beautiful  palace,  the  Savoy,  was  at 
Vie  mis  in  ^and  and  upon  this  the  people  first  vented  their  wrath. 
j^mZ:  '^^^  Temple,  the  Inns  of  Court,  and  other  buildings 
associated  in  the  popular  mind  with  the  hateful  laws 
which  they  hoped  to  overturn,  were  fired  and  all  legal  records 
destroyed  that  could  be  found.  The  jails,  also,  were  opened  and 
their  populations  turned  loose  to  join  in  inaugurating  the  reign 
of  terror.  From  arson  and  plunder  the  rioters  soon  passed  to 
murder;  seizing  their  victims  in  church  and  sanctuary,  and  drag- 
ging them  forth  to  be  dispatched  in  the  presence  of  the  applauding* 
multitude. 

The  council  with  the  king  had  very  early  sought  refuge  behind 
the  strong  walls  of  the  Tower,  and  their  asylum  soon  became  the 
focus  towards  which  all  the  many  streams  of  rioters 
Miie'End,  began  to  converge  as  if  by  common  consent,  clamoring 
unei4.  i^j.  ^j^^  death  of  the  ministers  who  were  hiding  within. 
Through  a  sleepless  night  the  king  and  his  ministers  *'sat  with 
awful  eye,"  while  ever  and  again  ''the  most  horrible  of  all  sounds, 
the  roar  of  a  mob  howling  for  blood,  penetrated  the  grim  walls." 
The  council  in  despair  offered  to  parley  with  the  insurgents,  and 


408  THE    PEASAJ^T    REVOLT  [ 


ElCUAltD  II. 


it  was  finally  agreed  that  if  they  would  retire  to  Mile  End  the 
king  would  meefc  them  and  hear  their  grievances.  The  king  was 
as  good  as  his  word,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  14th  rode  out  to 
the  rendezvous  accompanied  by  a  group  of  nobles,  heard  the 
demand  of  the  peasants  for  freedom  and  graciously  granted  that 
they  should  never  again  "be  named  or  held  for  serfs."  A  general 
pardon  was  also  promised,  and  a  small  army  of  clerks  were  soon  at 
work  drawing  up  the  necessary  charters. 

Within  the  city  affairs  were  not  going  as  well.     Apparently 

only  a  part  of  the  rebels  had  kept  the  tryst  with  the  king,  and 

those    who  staid  behind,  in  some   unaccountable  way,^ 

The  masi<acre  -i     ,         -,     - ,     i  im 

nftherefa-  prevailed  upou  the  guards  to  admit  them  to  the  Tower. 
Tower,  June    A  frifflitful   massacre  followed  of  those  who  had  not 

14.  ^ 

dared  to  accompany  the  king  to  Mile  End.  Leg,  the 
man  who  had  farmed  the  poll  tax,  paid  for  his  unlucky  speculation 
with  his  life.  A  friar  who  was  unfortunately  recognized  as  a 
friend  of  John  of  Gaunt  was  torn  limb  from  limb.  But  the 
noblest  victims  were  Archbishop  Sudbury,  the  chancellor,  and  Sir 
Eobert  Hales,  the  treasurer,  who  were  dragged  out  to  Tower  Hill 
and  there  beheaded  to  the  delight  of  the  jeering  crowds. 

By  this  time  many  of  the  rebels  had  departed  for  their  homes, 
hastening  along  the  country  roads  with  their  precious  but  valueless 

charters  in  their  hands.  But  some  of  the  leaders 
Smithfleid,      apparently  were  not  satisfied  and  remained  behind  with 

many  of  their  people  in  hope  of  securing  some  more 
definite  guarantee  of  protection  than  that  offered  by  the  simple 
charters.     Among  these  was  the  famous  Walter  Tyler  ^  who  now 

^It  is  not  credible  that  the  king,  as  a  part  of  his  agreement  with 
those  whom  he  met  at  Mile  End,  himself  gave  the  order  to  deliver  the 
refugees  in  the  Tower  to  the  mob.  See  Trevelyan,  England  in  the  Age  of 
Wyclif,  pp.  235,  236. 

2  Familiarly  called  Wat  Tyler.  Little  is  really  known  of  this  man 
whose  name  it  has  been  the  fashion  to  give  to  the  rising.  Most  of  the 
stories  associated  with  his  name  are  unknown  to  contemporary  writers, 
especially  the  tradition  which  begins  the  revolt  with  the  murder  of  the 
royal  collector,  who  had  insulted  Tyler's  daughter.  ''The  story  .  .  . 
must  go  the  way  of  William  Tell's  shot."  Trevelyan,  Age  of  Wyclif, 
p.  210. 


1381]  WALTER   TYLER  409 

for  a  moment  becomes  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  revolt.  The 
mobs  in  the  meanwhile  through  the  night  of  the  14th  continued 
their  burning  and  slaughtering,  guided  no  longer  by  any  motive  save 
the  lust  for  plunder  and  wild  delight  in  rioting.  The  council  saw 
that  another  effort  must  be  made  to  rid  the  city  of  the  lawless 
multitude  and  arranged  for  a  second  parley  by  which  the  king  was 
to  meet  the  rebels  at  Smithfield  on  Saturday  the  loth.  Here,  how- 
ever, the  business  did  not  move  as  smoothly  as  at  Mile  End,  pos- 
sibly because  the  demands  of  Tyler,  who  acted  as  spokesman  for 
his  fellows,  were  more  to  the  point  and  could  not  so  easily  be  put 
off.  Hot  words  passed.  Mayor  Walworth  drew  his  sword  and  cut 
down  the  peasant  leader.  A  moment  of  uncertainty  followed. 
Cries  for  vengeance  arose  and  arrows  were  set  to  bow-strings,  when 
Kichard  boldly  spurred  his  horse  into  the  thick  of  the  press,  shout- 
ing, ''What  need  you  my  masters?  Would  you  shoot  your  king? 
I  will  be  your  captain."  The  multitude  closed  around  the  hand- 
some boy  whom  they  had  not  yet  learned  to  distrust,  and  in  tri- 
umph bore  him  off  with  them  to  Clerkenwell  Fields.  The  mayor 
and  his  party  in  the  meanwhile  dashed  back  to  the  city  to  gather 
the  loyal  citizens  in  order  to  rescue  the  king,  for  whose  safety  tliey 
had  just  cause  of  alarm.  What  happened  during  these  few  hours 
when  the  little  king  sat  among  his  humble  subjects,  what  promises 
were  made,  will  never  be  known.  Certain  it  is  that  the  people 
regarded  him  with  touching  reverence,  nor  is  it  likely  that  he 
received  other  than  the  kindest  and  most  respectful  treatment. 
They,  on  their  part,  apparently  were  well  satisfied  with  their  closer 
acquaintance  with  royalty,  and,  when  at  last  the  armed  bands 
approached  from  the  city,  they  made  no  attempt  at  resistance  but 
gave  up  their  hostage  and  were  peaceably  dismissed  to  their  homes. 
With  the  collapse  of  the  revolt  in  London,  the  excitement  in 
other  places  also  rapidly  subsided.  Then  followed  the  reaction,  as 
stronff  and  bitter  as  the  risinff.      Terrible    was    the 

TTi6  rcciction 

vengeance  which  the  masters  took  upon  their  former 
serfs  for  all  the  terrors  which  the  few  days  of  rioting  and  blood- 
shed had  inspired.  The  boy  king's  counsellors  easily  persuaded 
liim  that  he  had  no  right  to  grant  the  charters  of  emancipation, 
and  he  forthwith  revoked  them.     Those  who  still  kept  the  field 


410  THE    PEASANT   REVOLT  [richard  ii. 

were  ruthlessly  ridden  down  by  the  king's  men-at-arms,  or  the 
retainers  who  followed  their  lords.  Then  the  agents  of  the  law 
went  to  work,  and  those  who  had  in  any  way  borne  a  conspicuous 
part  in  the  recent  rising,  were  hunted  out  by  the  hundreds  and 
punished  with  that  pitiless  brutality  whicli  has  always  marked  the 
dealings  of  the  master  with  the  serf,  when  the  serf  has  dared  to 
turn.  Parliament  also  lent  its  aid  to  the  work  of  repression  and 
passed  still  more  severe  and  unjust  laws  against  the  villain. 

Such  measures,  however,  were  futile.  Villainage  was  no  longer 
a  paying  institution.  The  enlightened  conscience  of  the  nation, 
moreover,  had  begun  to  rest  uneasy  under  a  sense  of 
'^'iiai^^%  wrong  done,  of  unjust  burdens  imposed.  The  land- 
lords had  for  once  gazed  into  the  abyss;  they  had 
learned  the  latent  strength  of  the  landless;  they  did  not  care  to 
provoke  a  second  rising.  Old  forms  of  servitude  were  gradually 
allowed  to  lapse.  The  severer  laws  became  a  dead  letter.  Eman- 
cipation went  on  again  in  the  natural  order;  service  was  constantly 
commuted  for  money  payments.  The  smaller  freeholders  steadily 
increased;  wages  kept  rising,  and  with  the  rising  wages  the  com- 
forts of  the  laboring  class  also  increased.  At  the  outbreak  of  the 
Reformation  villainage  continued  to  exist  in  England,  if  at  all, 
only  in  the  more  remote  corners  which  had  not  yet  felt  the  touch 
of  the  new  life  of  the  nation. 

Thus  began  and  ended  the  famous  Peasant  Revolt  which  for  a 
moment  threatened  to  sweep  away  not  only  king,  lords,  and  com- 
mons, but  the  entire  social  system  of  the  fourteenth 
Came  of  the  century.  In  general  the  poll  tax  seems  to  have  been 
the  immediate  occasion  of  the  rising;  but  back  of  the 
poll  tax  was  the  Statute  of  Labourers,  and  back  of  that  was  a  long 
story  of  unrequited  wrongs,  differing  in  detail  in  each  locality,  but 
common  to  all  in  the  hatred  which  it  breathed  for  the  great  proprie- 
tors, whether  priest  or  noble.  Beyond  the  special  grievances  which 
the  people  cherished  against  their  landlords,  there  seems  also  to  have 
taken  shape  in  the  popular  mind  some  sort  of  confused  belief  that 
the  counsellors  of  the  king  and  particularly  John  of  Gaunt  were 
responsible  for  the  mismanagement  of  the  government,  the  Statute 
of  Labourers,  the  poll  tax,  and  all  the  troubles  which  had  ensued. 


138l]  NATURE   OF   THE   RISING  411 

Their  first  cry  for  vengeance,  therefore,  soon  passed  to  a  very 
definite  programme  of  political  and  social  reform.  The  poll  tax 
was  to  be  suppressed ;  the  Statute  of  Labourers  repealed ;  the  boy 
king,  to  whom  the  people  were  touchingly  loyal  throughout,  must 
be  rescued  from  the  hands  of  his  evil  counsellors  and  better 
government  secured;  and  finally  villainage  was  to  be  abolished  by 
the  granting  of  complete  economic  and  personal  freedom. 

The  rising  took  hold  of  the  lower  classes,  but  was  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  serfs.  In  Kent  there  were  no  villains  and  yet  the 
Kentish  rising  was  the  most  serious  and  destructive  of 
tfie^rZing  ^^^^  "^^^  populace  of  the  citics  were  deeply  interested 
and  at  the  first  many  of  the  city  officials,  as  in  London, 
were  in  more  or  less  sympathy  with  the  insurgents.  In  East  Anglia, 
for  reasons  unknown,  even  gentlemen  were  to  be  found  in  their 
ranks.  The  animus  of  the  rising,  moreover,  was  not  directed  against 
the  nobility  or  even  against  the  proprietors  as  a  class.  In  marked 
contrast  with  the  horrible  atrocities  committed  by  the  Jacquerie  in 
France,  the  women  and  children  of  the  nobles  were  not  molested. 
Even  the  men  who  suffered  were  mostly  those  who  had  won  an 
unenviable  reputation  for  cruelty  in  a  local  way  or  had  come  to 
represent  to  the  people  the  system  which  they  hated.  The  bailiffs, 
the  stewards,  the  lawyers,  and  the  ministers  of  the  crown  were  the 
objects  of  vengeance  quite  as  much  as  the  nobles  and  the  abbots. 
The  manor  houses,  barns,  and  granaries,  and  particularly  the  manor 
rolls,  which  were  associated  in  the  minds  of  the  people  directly 
with  all  that  they  had  suffered,  were  also  marked  for  destruction. 
It  was  inevitable  that  the  reaction  which  followed  the  Peasant 
Revolt  should  affect  seriously  the  religious  reform  which  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  name  of  Wyclif.  Soon  after  the  death 
Wyclif  H  of  Edward,  a  papal  bull  had  been  received  in  England, 
directing  the  trial  of  Wyclif  for  ''holding  opinions  sub- 
versive of  church  and  state."  But  John  of  Gaunt's  influence 
was  still  strong  enough  to  protect  his  old  ally,  and  the  proceedings 
had  been  stopped  by  the  direct  interference  of  the  government. 
Wyclif,  however,  had  thought  it  best  to  retire  to  Lutterworth 
where  the  crown  had  presented  him  with  a  living.  Here  he  had 
devoted  himself  to  the  work  of  disseminating  his  religious  views, 


412  THE    PEASANT    REVOLT  [richabd  II. 

beginning  the  famous  series  of  tracts  in  the  simple  homely 
English  of  the  people.  It  was  in  connection  with  this  work 
also  that  he  began  that  other  greater  work,  his  translation 
of  the  Scriptures,  ^Hhe  first  specimen  of  literary  English 
prose  written  since  the  cessation  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chron- 
icle." Wyclif's  views  of  Christian  doctrine,  also,  advanced  rapidly. 
He  was  no  longer  content  to  attack  simply  the  abuses  of 
the  church,  but  began  to  assail  its  fundamental  doctrines.  He 
not  only  accepted  the  Bible  as  the  sole  authority  in  the  church, 
but  also  declared  the  right  of  the  individual  to  interpret  it  for 
himself,  even  against  the  authority  of  the  fathers  or  the  councils. 
He  denied,  also,  the  miracle  of  the  mass,  seeing  in  the  Lord's  sup- 
per merely  a  memorial  service,  the  only  merit  of  which  lay  in  the 
spiritual  frame  engendered  by  its  sacred  associations.  In  this  he 
even  went  beyond  Luther  even  anticipating  some  of  the  advanced 
views  of  the  later  reformers. 

The  promulgation  of  these  views  of  Wyclif  was  contem 
porary  with  the  insurrection  of  the  peasants,  and  men  in 
their  excitement  failed  to  distinguish  between  the  mis- 
antRevoft^^^'  sionaries  of  Wyclif  and  such  fiery  agitators  as  John 
laru^of^'  ^^^^'  They  accused  them  of  sympathizing  with  the 
Schmgs  Peasants,  and  made  the  teachings  of  Wyclif  respon- 
sible for  the  excesses  of  the  insurrection.  Thus  the 
proprietary  classes,  who  had  heretofore  favored  Wyclif,  began  to 
confound  the  cry  for  church  reform  with  the  cry  for  social  and 
political  reform.  Even  John  of  Gaunt  stigmatized  Wyclif's  fol- 
lowers as  *' heretics  against  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,"  and  bade 
Wyclif  be  silent.  The  enemies  of  Wyclif,  taking  advantage  of  the 
reaction,  in  a  synod  held  in  1382,  known  as  the  ''Council  of  the 
Earthquake,"  succeeded  in  branding  as  heretical  twenty-four  con- 
clusions taken  from  his  writings,  and  drove  his  adherents  out  of 
Oxford.  Further  than  this  they  could  not  go.  England  had  no 
law  yet  for  the  burning  of  heretics.  They  tried,  however,  to  get 
Wyclif  to  Eome,  and  brought  a  summons  from  the  pope;  but 
Wyclif's  prudence,  his  interest  in  his  great  work  as  well  as  his  fail- 
ing health,  kept  him  quietly  at  Lutterworth  where  he  died  in  1384. 
After  his  death  his  doctrines  continued  to  spread,  and  many  of  the 


1377,  1378]  THE    GREAT    SCHISM  413 

nobility  embraced  his  views,  the  young  wife  of  the  king,  Anne 
of  Bohemia,  being  among  the  number.  When  she  died  her 
people  carried  home  Wyclif's  books  to  become  the  seed  of  the 
Hussite  movement  of  the  next  generation.  In  London  partic- 
ularly, the  Lollards,  as  the  followers  of  Wyclif  were  now  called  for 
reasons  unknown,  increased  so  rapidly  that  it  was  said  when  five 
men  met  on  the  street  corner  three  of  them  were  sure  to  be  Lol- 
lards. Men  like  Courtenay,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  archie- 
piscopal  office  after  the  murder  of  Sudbury,  would  have  undertaken 
severe  measures  for  the  suppression  of  the  dangerous  heresy,  bnt 
the  Commons  would  not  take  the  preliminary  steps  in  proposing 
the  necessary  laws,  and  the  sheriffs  bluntly  refused  to  assist  the 
bishops  in  the  execution  of  existing  laws. 

The  council  in  the  meantime  was  wrestling  with  its  own  prob- 
lems. The  French,  having  driven  the  English  out  of  Aquitaine, 
had  turned  their  attention  to  the  overthrow  of  English 
o/SJ^'cZ^i.  "ifl^^ence  in  the  Low  Countries.  The  burghers  of 
go|becque.  '  Flanders  under  Philip  van  Arteveldt,  the  son  of 
Edward's  old  ally,  were  again  at  war  with  their  count. 
But  the  English  council  moved  so  slowly  that  they  allowed  van 
Arteveldt  to  be  beaten  in  three  successive  engagements ;  in  the  last 
of  which  at  Rosbecque,  he  was  slain.  When  the  news  reached  Eng- 
land the  consternation  was  great.  The  vast  commercial  interests 
of  England  in  Flanders  were  in  jeopardy  and  the  loss  of  Calais  was 
imminent.  All  parties  were  disgusted  with  the  laggard  council 
and  openly  denounced  its  sluggishness  and  incapacity  as  the  sole 
cause  of  this  new  misfortune.  The  members  of  the  council  saw 
that  if  they  would  retain  what  little  prestige  they  had  left,  they 
must  bestir  themselves  to  regain  the  lost  ground  and  save  the 
English  influence  in  Flanders  if  possible.  In  their  extremity  they 
turned  to  a  strange  quarter  for  help. 

In  1376  Gregory  XL  had  removed  the  papal  residence  from 
Avignon  to  Eome.  Upon  his  death  in  March  1378  the  college 
of  cardinals  had  elected  as  his  successor  the  Italian 
Schisnh^'^  Urban  VI.  The  election  had  been  held  in  the  midst 
^^'^'  of   a  pandemonium   in  which   a  howling  mob   played 

a  conspicuous  part,  who  were  determined  that  the  new  pope  should 


414  THE   PEASANT   REVOLT  [richahd  il 

be  an  Italian,  if  not  a  Roman.  The  choice  had  been  nomin-ally  at 
least  unanimous,  but  the  imprudent  zeal,  the  imperious  nature, 
and  the  ungovernable  temper  "of  Urban  soon  turned  his  cardinals 
against  him,  so  that  taking  advantage  of  the  irregularity  of  the 
election  by  advancing  the  plea  of  intimidation,  they  retired  to 
Fondi  and  elected  Eobert  of  Geneva  under  the  title  of  Clement  YII. 
The  college  of  cardinals  was  fully  represented  at  Fondi,  and, 
although  the  three  Italian  members^  refused  to  give  their  assent  to 
the  choice  of  Clement,  Urban  was  virtually  left  alone.  The 
political  animosities  of  Europe  were  running  too  high  to  allow  the 
various  governments  to  form  an  impartial  judgment  of  the  merits  of 
the  controversy  within  the  church.  France  was  interested  because 
Clement  was  not  only  pronounced  in  his  French  sympathies,  but 
had  been  chosen  virtually  by  the  French  cardinals.  Soon  after 
his  election,  also,  Clement  retired  to  Avignon,  which  thus  once 
more  became  a  papal  residence,  thereby  committing  his  court 
irrevocably  to  the  French  influence.  England  and  the  Flemings, 
therefore,  naturally  supported  Urban,  and  Scotland  and  Spain  as 
naturally  supported  Clement.  The  other  states  of  Europe,  also 
influenced  by  political  reasons  of  one  kind  or  another,  took  sides 
accordingly.  Thus  began  the  '*  Great  Schism"  which  was  to  divide 
western  Christendom  for  thirty-eight  years. 

The  rival  popes  soon  wearied  of  the  simple  spiritual  weapons 
which  became  their  office,  and  resorted  to  the  methods  of  violence 
so  congenial  to  the  age.  Here  was  the  opportunity  of 
Norwich's  the  Eufflish  council.  At  the  very  time  when  the  news 
*  reached  England  of  the  fatal  turn  of  affairs  in  the  Low 
Countries,  Urban  had  authorized  the  warlike  bishop  of  Norwich, 
Henry  de  Spencer,  to  undertake  a  crusade  against  the  French  sup- 
porters of  Clement.  The  English  council  encouraged  the  enter- 
prise and  in  a  way  adopted  the  crusade,  proposing  to  turn  the  dis- 
tractions of  the  church  to  their  own  advantage  in  the  war  with 
France.  Parliament  also  gave  its  sanction  and  from  all  sides 
recruits  flocked  to  the  holy  war.     De  Spencer  and  his  crusaders 

1  Sixteen  cardinals  had  been  present  at  the  election  of  Urban,  of 
whom  eleven  were  French,  one,  a  Spaniard,  and  four,  Italians.  The  car- 
dinal of  St.  Peter's  died  soon  after  the  election. 


1383-1385]  THE    ROYAL   FAVORITES  415 

crossed  to  Calais  and  began  their  onslaught  upon  the  cities  of 
Count  Louis  in  Flanders,  although  the  Flemings  were  Urbanites, 
a  fact  which  reveals  the  real  animus  of  the  enterprise.  The  expedi- 
tion, however,  accomplished  nothing  of  moment.  The  captains 
were  bribed  by  the  enemy  and  de  Spencer  was  obliged  to  return 
home,  greatly  increasing  the  humiliation  and  confusion  of  the 
council.  For  the  people  were  quick  to  ascribe  the  failure,  not 
to  the  popular  bishop  of  Norwich,  but  to  the  council  and  most 
to  the  unlucky  John  of  Gaunt,  of  whom  they  were  as  unwilling 
to  believe  anything  good  as  in  the  days  before  the  Peasant 
Eevolt. 

Flanders  now  fell  under  the. direct  control  of  the  French,  and 

the  English  merchants  were  compelled  to  witness  the  ruin  of  their 

,    fine  trade  with  the  Flemings.     More  trouble,  also,  was 

The  Scottish     .  .  i        r,  •  i 

campaign  of  brewing  on  the  Scottish  border.  In  1385  Richard  in 
oauntand  company  with  John  of  Gaunt,  who  in  spite  of  his  long 
*  series  of  failures  still  thought  himself  something  of  a 
general,  crossed  the  borders  and  attempted  to  punish  the  Scots. 
But  it  was  the  old  experience  over  again;  the  Scots  retired,  leav- 
ing their  fields  and  their  cities  to  be  destroyed.  The  English 
advanced  as  far  as  the  Forth  and  even  burned  Edinburgh,  but 
finding  no  army  to  fight  were  compelled  to  retire  at  last,  not 
beaten,  but  baffled,  an  outcome  which,  so  far  as  the  influence  of  tlie 
council  was  concerned,  amounted  to  the  same  thing. 

Richard  was  now  in  his  nineteenth  year  and  beginning  to  fret 
under  the  imperious  ways  of  John  of  Gaunt,  who,  while  not  per- 
sonally a  member  of  the  royal  council,  was  nevertheless 
famSf  represehted  by  powerful  friends,  and  had  never  hesi- 
tated to  exert  his  influence.  The  widow  of  the  Black 
Prince  died  the  year  of  Richard's  Scottish  expedition  and  the  king 
sadly  missed  her  wise  counsels.  As  an  offset  to  the  duke  of  Lan- 
caster, he  had  raised  his  two  uncles  Edmund  Earl  of  Cambridge 
and  Thomas  Earl  of  Buckingham  to  ducal  rank,  making  one  Duke 
of  York  and  the  other  Duke  of  Gloucester.  He  also  surrounded 
himself  with  friends,  the  companions  of  his  pleasures,  whose 
worthlessness  only  increased  the  suspicion  and  contempt  which  the 
people  were  beginning  to  feel  for  the  king.     Of  these  his  half- 


416  THE    PEASANT    REVOLT  [richardII. 

brothers,^  the  Hollands,  Thomas  Earl  of  Kent  and  John  Earl  of 
Huntingdon,  were  the  kind  of  men  to  make  trouble  sooner  or 
later;  they  were  violent  and  lawless,  with  little  respect  for  dignity 
or  sympathy  with  the  new  traditions  which  the  constitution  had 
thrown  around  the  crown.  Another  close  friend  of  the  young  king 
was  Michael  de  la  Pole,  the  son  of  a  wealthy  London  merchant, 
who  had  made  himself  very  useful  to  Edward  III.  at  one  of  those 
intervals,  all  too  frequent,  when  the  treasury  was  low  and  the  king 
needed  money.  The  son  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  consider- 
able merit,  and  had  won  his  way  to  distinction  very  early  in  the 
reign  of  Richard.  In  1378  he  had  been  made  an  admiral  and 
had  accompanied  John  of  Gaunt  on  one  of  his  luckless  expeditions. 
In  1383  he  had  been  appointed  chancellor.  Richard  took  to  the 
man,  and  finding  in  him  a  useful  instrument  in  carrying  out  his 
plans,  made  him  Earl  of  Suffolk.  The  nobles,  however, 
did  not  regard  the  elevation  of  the  burgher's  son  kindly ; 
while  the  commons  also  turned  against  him  as  a  renegade  to  their 
class.  But  the  person  who  stood  highest  in  the  royal  affection  was 
Robert  de  Vere,  the  earl  of  Oxford,  young,  gay,  and  reckless,  and 
the  boon  companion  of  the  king  in  his  pleasures.  Richard  showered 
upon  him  honors  and  preferment;  he  made  him  Marquis  of  Dublin, 
the  first  to  bear  the  title  of  marquis  in  England,  ranking  in  pre- 
cedence all  other  nobles  not  of  the  royal  family.  Not  satisfied  with , 
this  Richard  finally  created  him  Duke  of  Ireland;  the  ducal  title 
heretofore  having  been  reserved  for  those  of  royal  blood. 

The  failure  of  John  of  Gaunt's  Scottish  campaign,  and  his  con- 
stant quarreling  with  the  king  had  destroyed  what  little  respect 
John  of  ^^^  ^^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^®  powerful  noble.  Leading 
EmiandC^^  members  of  the  council  regarded  his  influence  as  a 
1386.  menace  to  the  prospects  of  their  favorite,  Roger  Mor- 

timer, and  determined  to  expel  the  friends  of  Duke  John.  John 
of  Northampton,  the  mayor  of  London,  head  of  the  duke's  party 
in  the  Commons,  was  imprisoned,  and  the  duke  himself  was  threat- 
ened with  arrest  on  a  charge  of  treason.  It  was  evident  to  all,  to 
none  more  than  to  the  duke  himself,  that  his  game  of  politics  at  home 

^  The  Black  Prince  had  married  Joan,  daughter  of  the  earl  of  Kent, 
and  widow  of  Sir  Thomas  Holland. 


1386]  THE   ATTACK    UPON^   THE    COUNCIL  417 

was  up  for  the  present,  at  least,  and  he  determined  to  set  out  on 
a  madcap  errand  to  secure  the  crown  of  Castile.  He  had  married 
for  his  second  wife  the  eldest  daughter  of  Pedro  the  Cruel  and 
now  proposed  in  his  wife's  name  to  unseat  the  successful  rival 
dynasty.  He  left  England,  therefore,  in  1386  and  did  not  return 
again  for  three  years. 

If  Richard  and  his  council  thought  to  strengthen  their  position 

by  the  expulsion  of  John  of  Gaunt's  friends,  they  soon  found  that 

they  were  seriously  mistaken.     For  two  new  men  were 

The  forming  ''  ,        .  , .  .  t^    , 

of  anew  now  brought  into  solitary  prominence:  Thomas  Duke 
of  Gloucester,  John  of  Gaunt's  youngest  brother,  a  man 
fully  as  unscrupulous  and  even  more  dangerous,  who  had  no  ugly 
memories  back  of  him;  and  John  of  Gauut's  son,  Henry  of  Boling- 
broke,  the  earl  of  Derby.  The  withdrawal  of  John  of  Gaunt 
made  possible,  also,  a  union  of  the  old  Lancastrians  with  the  old 
clerical  party.  A  new  party  was  thus  formed,  composed  of  the  vari- 
ous dissatisfied  elements  of  the  upper  classes,  who  now  affected  to 
pose  as  the  defenders  of  the  rights  of  parliament  against  the  king 
and  the  council. 

An  opportunity  was  soon  afforded  the  new  party  for  a  direct 

attack  upon  the  hated  favorites  of  the  king.     In  the  early  part  of 

138G,  the  people  were  thrown  into  a  spasm  of  alarm  by 

Attach  uptm  '  r     t  r  j 

ttunmncn,  a  genuine  war  scare,  due  to  the  gathering  of  an  arma- 
ment in  the  harbor  of  Sluys  for  the  purpose  of  a  descent 
upon  England.  Although  the  French  soon  abandoned  the  plan, 
[•opnlar  apprehension  had  been  wrought  to  fever  heat,  and  when 
])arliament  met  the  leaders  were  inclined  to  make  the  government, 
particularly  de  la  Pole,  the  chancellor,  responsible  for  all  the 
reverses  of  the  past  ten  years.  The  recent  promotion  of  de  Vere 
was  also  a  source  of  irritation.  The  new  parliament,  therefore, 
was  in  anything  but  a  tractable  mood,  and  soon  gave  evidence  of 
its  spirit  by  demanding  the  dismissal  of  the  chancellor.  The 
king,  whose  head  had  always  been  befogged  more  or  less  by  pecul- 
iar ideas  of  prerogative,  insolently  replied  that  he  would  not 
dismiss  the  meanest  scullion  in  his  kitchen  for  such  a  request, 
and  bade  parliament  keep  to  its  own  business.  But  the  members 
stubbornly  refused  to  consider  any  other  question  until  the  obnox- 


418  THE    PEASAI^T    REVOLT  [richard  ii. 

ious  de  la  Pole  had  been  removed,  and  Eichard,  who  was  not  proof 
against  their  determined  spirit,  yielded.  The  minister  was  then 
impeached,  fined,  and  imprisoned.  The  removal  of  the  chancellor 
was  only  the  first  step  in  the  program  of  the  opposition.  In  imi- 
tation of  the  Good  Parliament,  on  the  plea  that  the  revenues  were 
squandered  and  mismanaged  generally,  the  lords  proceeded  to 
appoint  a  commission  of  regency  to  control  the  administration, 
thus  practically  depriving  the  king  of  his  authority  altogether. 
They,  further,  called  up  the  bogy  of  Edward  II.  by  sending  for  the 
statute  under  which  he  had  been  deposed,  at  the  same  time  dis- 
patching a  friend  of  Gloucester  to  remind  the  king  of  the  fate  of 
that  unhappy  monarch. 

Eichard  yielded  for  the  moment  but  the  old  Plantagenet  spirit 
was  now  fairly  aroused.  After  parliament  had  adjourned  he 
released  Suffolk  and  summoned  a  meeting  of  the  sheriffs 
defies pariia-  and  justices  of  the  kingdom  to  meet  him  at  Notting- 
ham. He  urged  the  sheriffs  to  allow  no  knight  to  be  sent 
to  parliament  '*save  one  whom  the  king  and  the  council  chose." 
He  asked  a  committee  of  judges,  also,  to  pass  upon  the  legality  of 
the  acts  of  the  last  parliament,  and  without  a  dissenting  voice, 
apparently,  they  declared  that  the  removal  of  the  chancellor  and 
the  appointment  of  the  commission  were  unlawful,  and  that  those 
who  had  forced  the  king  to  yield  against  his  will  were  liable  to  the 
charge  of  treason. 

The   leaders   of    the   opposition   now   in   their   turn    became 

alarmed,  and  answered  the  charge  of  the  judges  by  appearing  at  the 

head  of  an  army  of  40,000  men.     Eichard  thought  of 

The  ^^Lords  .  .  .  . 

Appellant."  resistance,  but  the  prompt  action  of  his  enemies  entirely 
Bridge,  Dec.  disconcerted  him.  London  opened  its  gates,  and  five 
lords,  Gloucester,  Derby,  Arundel,  Thomas  Beauchamp 
Earl  of  Warwick,  and  Thomas  Mowbray  Earl  of  Nottingham, 
entered  the  king's  presence  and  ''appealed  of  treason"  five  of  his 
late  councillors :  de  Vere,  de  la  Pole,  Eobert  Tresilian  the  chief 
justice,  Sir  Nicholas  Bramber,  and  George  Neville  Archbishop  of 
York.  In  the  meanwhile  the  enemies  of  Gloucester  had  fied  from 
the  city  in  various  disguises.  De  Yerewent  into  Chester  and  suc- 
ceeded  in   raising   an   army    of    5,000    men.      In   December   he 


1387-1390]  THE   WONDERFUL   PARLIAMENT  419 

approached  London,  bnt  was  met  at  Radcot  Bridge  on  the  Thames 
by  Derby  and  Gloucester,  and  his  little  army  dispersed.  He  him- 
self escaped  by  swimming  the  river  and  finally  got  away  to  Ireland. 
The  parliament,  known  sometimes  as  the  **  Wonderful  Parlia- 
ment," and  sometimes  as  the  *' Merciless  Parliament,"  met  in 
February,  1388,  and  in  a  session  of  122  days  devoted 

The  TVondeV'  j  t  ^  j 

luiFarixa-      itself  to  riddiuff  the  country  of  the  enemies  of  Glou- 

Tneiit  1388 

cester.  The  four  lay  councillors  of  the  king  were  con- 
demned to  be  hanged,  but  only  Tresilian  and  Bramber  suffered, 
since  de  Vere  and  de  la  Pole  were  safe  on  the  continent.  Neville, 
the  ecclesiastical  member  of  the  council,  could  not  be  condemned 
to  death,  being  a  churchman,  but  his  temporalities  were  seized. 
Of  other  supporters  of  the  king,  many  were  banished,  and  some 
including  his  old  tutor  Sir  Simon  Burley  were  sent  to  the  block. 
Then  after  Kichard  had  been  stripped  of  all  his  earlier  advisers 
even  to  his  private  confessor,  the  parliament  broke  up  and  left  the 
government  in  the  hands  of  Gloucester  and  his  friends. 

For  some  months  Richard  quietly  submitted  to  the  new  order, 
but  at  a  council  meeting  held  in  the  following  May,  he  suddenly 

propounded  to  the  duke  of  Gloucester  the  question  of 
aHmmSthe  ^^^  ^^®*  ''Your  highness,"  replied  the  duke,  *'is  in  your 
oovernmcnt,    twenty-second  year."     *'Then,"  replied  the  king,   **I 

must  be  old  enough  to  manage  my  own  affairs.  I  thank 
you  my  lords,  for  the  trouble  you  have  taken  in  my  behalf 
hitherto,  but  I  shall  not  require  your  services  any  longer."  He 
then  demanded  the  Great  Seal  and  the  keys  of  the  Exchequer. 
Yet  Richard  apparently  had  really  learned  something  from  his 
earlier  misfortunes,  for  he  adopted  a  policy  which  was  surely 
moderate  for  a  man  of  his  character.  He  refused  to  recall  de 
Vere  or  the  exiled  judges.  He  installed  William  of  Wykeham  in 
his  old  position  as  chancellor.  York  and  Derby,  also,  were  retained. 
But  Gloucester  and  the  other  members  of  the  council  were  sum- 
marily dismissed.  Richard  was  still  further  strengthened  by  the 
return  of  John  of  Gaunt  the  same  year,  who,  although  as  unpop- 
ular as  ever,  had  been  apparently  sobered  somewhat  by  his  many 
failures  and  now  sincerely  tried  to  serve  his  young  sovereign.  In 
1390  Henry  of  Derby  left  England  for  three  years,  to  assist  the 


420  THE    PEASANT    REVOLT  [ Richard  II. 

German  kniglits  in  their  wars  against  the  Lithuanians.  Other  lords 
conspicuous  in  the  earlier  troubles  also  found  occupation  far  from 
the  court. 

The  new  reign  was  now  fairly  lannched.     There  had  been  much 
quarreling  of  politicians  for  the  control  of  the  government;   but 

experience  had  taught  England  to  expect  this  as  an  inci- 
personai         dent  of  the  rule  of    a  nonaged   king.     Now  that  the 

king  had  asserted  himself,  this  quarreling  might  be 
expected  to  stop.  The  young  king  was  not  without  elements  of 
popularity.  The  people  still  cherished  the  memory  of  the  Black 
Prince  and  the  *'fair  Joan,"  and  were  ready  to  open  their  hearts 
to  the  son.  He  was  clever,  handsome,  and  cultivated.  He  had 
proved  himself  capable  of  meeting  an  emergency  in  the  trying 
days  of  the  Peasant  Revolt,  and  by  his  recent  moderation  he  had 
also  proved  that  he  could  learn  from  experience.  Hence  confi- 
dence rapidly  returned  and  for  eight  years  Richard  fully  justified 
the  hopes  of  his  people;  no  king  could  have  done  better.  A  new 
series  of  truces  gave  some  respite  from  the  burdens  of  the  war,  and 
enabled  the  ministers  to  reduce  taxation.  Wages  continued  good 
and  prices  steady.  New  safeguards  also  were  added  to  the  Statutes 
of  Provisors  and  Pra3munire.  The  Statute  of  Mortmain  was 
enlarged  to  forbid  the  granting  of  estates  to  laymen  in  trust  for 
religious  houses, — a  practice  by  which  the  older  statute  had  been 
virtually  rendered  a  dead  letter. 

Richard   while   quite   young   had   been    married   to   Anne   of 
Bohemia.     He  seems  to  have  loved  her  devotedly  and  even  to  have 

allowed  her  considerable  influence  when  once  he  was  his 

The 

marrimeof  own  master.  But  in  1394  Anne  died,  and  as  Richard 
was  still  childless,  Roger  Mortimer  Earl  of  March  was 
formally  recognized  as  heir  to  the  throne.  The  year  of  the 
queen's  death  also  saw  the  death  of  Constance  of  Castile,  the 
second  wife  of  John  of  Gaunt.  He  at  once  married  Catharine 
Swynford,  a  sister-in-law  of  Chaucer,  who  had  already  born  him 
several  children.  These  children  and  their  descendants,  known  as 
the  Beauforts,  will  bear  their  full  share  in  the  dynastic  struggles 
of  the  next  century.  In  1396  Richard  succeeded  in  making  a 
truce  of  twenty-eight  years  with  France.     He  then  went  to  Paris 


1396]  FALL    OF   THE    LORDS    APPELLANT  421 

and  amid  great  pomp  married  Isabella,  the  eight-year-old  daughter 
of  Charles  VI. 

The  marriage  was  not  a  happy  one  for  king  or  people.     For 
two  generations  Englishmen  had  known  little  of  the  French  court 

and  its  ways ;  but  now  its  splendors,  great  even  when 
French  emanating  from  so  feeble  a  personality  as  Charles  VI., 

burst  upon  this  young  king,  who  saw  at  last  a  realiza- 
tion of  his  early  dreams  of  kingly  power  and  could  not  but  com- 
pare his  own  slavery  to  insolent  parliaments  and  obstinate 
ministers,  with  the  freedom  and  magnificence  which  tradition  and 
custom  assigned  to  a  French  monarch.  It  was  a  dangerous 
dream,  for  Richard's  temper  was  none  of  the  steadiest  and  had 
already  led  him  into  unseemly  outbreaks.  He  loved  not  con- 
straint, and  as  England  was  then  constituted,  he  could  not  king 
it  long  after  his  new  ideal,  before  he  would  run  up  against  obduracy 
sufficient  to  try  a  far  more  placid  soul. 

The   first  effects  of   these  new   ideas  of  kingly  dignity  were 
noticeable  in  a  very  marked  increase  in  the  magnificence  of  the 

trappings  of  court  life.  Richard,  like  his  grandfather, 
commomy*^  set  the  pace  in  foppish  extravagance,  paying,  it  is  said, 

as  much  as  £10,000  for  a  single  coat.     The  sober  minded 

burghers  who  were  taxing  themselves  to  keep  up  this  show  of 

kingly  magnificence  did  not  take  to  it  kindly,  and  in  1397  the 

Commons  presented  to  the  Lords  a  formal  complaint  against  the 

extravagance  of  the  royal  household.     The  Lords  were  more  than 

lialf  inclined  to  report  upon  the  matter  favorably,  when  news  of  it 

reached  the  king.      Before  his  violent  outburst  of   wrath   both 

Lords  and  Commons  gave  way  and  humbly  apologized,  while  Sir 

Thomas  Haxey,  the  mover  of  the  motion,  narrowly  escaped  death 

as  a  traitor. 

Richard  thought  he  had  learned  his  strength  and  determined 

to  follow  up  his  advantage.     He  was  upon  good  terms  with  John 

of  Gaunt;    he   was    sure  of  the   support  of  his  half- 
Fa??  of  the  ^^ 
Lords  Appei-  brothers,  the  Hollands,  of  Edward,  the  son  of  the  duke 

lant. 

of  York,  and  of  Thomas  Mowbray,  the  earl  of  Notting- 
ham. In  July,  therefore,  he  suddenly  arrested  Gloucester,  Arundel, 
and  Warwick  and  threw  them  into  prison.     In  September  he  called 


422  THE    PEASANT    REVOLT  [richard  II. 

at  Westminster  a  parliament  composed  of  his  partisans.  He  was 
also  careful  to  see  that  no  attempt  at  armed  interference  should 
be  made  and  stationed  a  band  of  4,000  Cheshire  archers  in  Palace 
Yard.  The  old  acts  of  1387  and  1388  were  raked  up  against  the 
three  ^^Lords  Appellant. "  Arundel  was  tried,  convicted  of  treason, 
and  executed  the  same  day ;  the  duke  of  Lancaster  as  Lord  High 
Steward  pronouncing  the  sentence  upon  his  old  friend.  Gloucester 
died  in  prison  at  Calais  under  circumstances  which  suggest  foul 
play.  Warwick  was  sentenced  to  a  life  imprisonment  on  the 
Isle  of  Man;  Archbishop  Thomas  Fitz-Alan,  brother  of  Arundel, 
was  banished.  The  king's  supporters  were  then  rewarded  with 
grants  of  lands  and  titles,  and  the  parliament  adjourned  to  meet 
at  Shrewsbury  in  January.  The  Cheshire  archers  were  again  called 
out,  and  Richard's  friends  continued  their  work.  The  acts  of 
the  Wonderful  Parliament  were  annulled.  Older  measures  were 
called  up,  as  the  statutes  against  the  Despensers,  and  wherever  they 
abridged  the  king's  authority  they  were  repealed.  Not  content 
with  this,  as  though  they  would  put  from  themselves  the  tempta- 
tion of  ever  pulling  down  the  fine  structure  which  they  were  rais- 
ing, the  parliament  granted  Richard  the  customs  on  wool  and 
leather  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Then  by  a  rare  act  of  suicide  the 
parliament  delegated  its  authority  to  a  committee  of  eighteen  of 
the  king's  partisans,  with  John  of  Gaunt  as  president.  The  revo- 
lution was  complete.  All  that  England  had  won  by  the  struggle 
of  two  centuries  had  been  swept  away  in  a  single  year.  One  can 
hardly  believe  that  this  was  the  work  of  a  single  madman.  More- 
over, if  Richard  were  mad,  the  men  who  acted  with  him  and  shared 
the  rewards  of  his  treason  to  the  constitution,  certainly  were  not. 
The  entire  affair  appears  rather  like  a  diabolical  plot  of  a  group  of 
cunning  politicians  to  overthrow  the  safeguards  of  the  constitution 
for  selfish  ends.  Richard  himself  was  entirely  capable  of  leading 
such  a  conspiracy.  He  was  bold  and  daring,  and  possessed  an 
utter  contempt  for  established  principles,  coupled  with  an 
unbounded  estimate  of  the  royal  prerogative,  an  inheritance  from 
his  old  tutor  Simon  Burley.  If  he  failed,  it  was  not  because  the 
times  were  not  ripe  for  such  a  revolution,  but  simply  because  he 
overshot  the  mark ;  for  in  sweeping  away  all  the  guarantees  of  law, 


1397]  TYRANNIES    OF    RICHARD  423 

he  compelled  the  very  men  who  had  supported  him  to  undo  their 
work  in  self-defense. 

Here  was  Eichard's  weakness.     He  could  not  inspire  confidence 
in  his  followers.     He  had  liberally  rewarded  the  men  who  sup- 
ported him  but  still  they  did  not  trust  him.     Men  like 

Banishment     .  .  •       tt  •    -rx     i  i    i  i.  tt        /•      i 

of  Baling-       his  cousin,  Henry  of  Derby,  now  duke  of  Hereford,  or 

tfVOJiC. 

Thomas  of  Nottingham,  now  duke  of  Norfolk,  knew 
that  the  king  could  not  forget  the  part  which  they  had  once  taken 
in  "appealing"  the  favorites  de  Vere  and  Suffolk  of  treason. 
Moreover  as  they  distrusted  the  king  they  feared  each  other.  Some 
hot  words  of  Norfolk,  in  which  the  king's  veracity  was  questioned, 
were  reported  by  Hereford,  but  denied  by  Norfolk.  The  per- 
manent committee  to  which  parliament  had  delegated  its  powers 
ordered  the  two  to  settle  the  question  by  single  combat.  But 
Richard,  who  thought  it  was  a  good  opportunity  to  get  rid  of  both 
men,  at  the  last  moment  forbade  the  combat  and  banished  Norfolk 
for  life  and  Hereford  for  ten  years.  The  act  was  not  only  one  of 
great  injustice  on  Richard's  part  but  a  serious  mistake  as  well;  for 
Hereford  was  deeply  loved  by  the  people  and  they  now  looked  upon 
him  as  a  martyr.  AVhen  he  left  London,  the  gathered  crowds  shed 
tears,  and  some  of  the  people  in  their  devotion  followed  him  as  far 
as  the  coast. 

But,  as  if  this  were  not  enough,  Richard  proceeded  to  build  up 
a  party  for  the  duke  of  Hereford,  should  the  time  come  when  a 
party  would  be  needed.  He  assembled  his  bodyguard 
^ichard^  ""^  ^^  Cheshire  archers  and  rode  through  the  country,  com- 
pelling the  nobles  and  gentry  to  take  an  oath  to  support 
the  acts  of  the  last  parliament.  He  compelled  his  merchants,  also, 
to  make  him  loans.  He  placed  blank  charters  before  men  who 
were  known  to  possess  fortunes  and  forced  them  to  fix  their  seals, 
leaving  him  to  write  in  the  charter  what  he  pleased.  He  levied 
blackmail  upon  the  panic  stricken  remnant  of  Gloucester's  friends 
by  compelling  them  to  buy  their  pardons.  He  even  levied  upon 
the  shires  as  a  whole,  compelling  seventeen  counties  to  redeem 
themselves  from  the  charge  of  assisting  the  enemies  of  the  crown. 
In  February  1399,  John  of  Gaunt  died,  and  the  king  added  yet 
another  grievance   to  Hereford's   growing  list,  by  declaring   all 


424  THE    PEASANT    REVOLT  [kichabd  ii. 

the  vast  Lancastrian  estates  forfeited,  and  seizing  them  for  his 
own  use. 

The  king,  of  course,  was  not  without  some  specious  plea  by 
which  he  sought  to  justify  these  acts  of  despotic  power.     For  more 
than  two  hundred  years  England  had  been  wrestling  with 
/rSa?^^"  ^^   ^^^  Irish  problem,  and  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury could  show  only  a  few  districts  about  Dublin,  *'the 
English   Pale"   so  called,  as  the  sole  result  of  her  endeavors  to 
secure  a  footing  in  Ireland  for  English  law.     Neither  English  nor 
Irish  could  gain  upon  the  other.      Marauding  forays,  midnight 
alarm  and  slaughter,  were  events  of  daily  life  in  this  unfortunate 
land,  and  even  when  the  two  races  showed  a  tendency  to  live  on 
better  terms,  it  was  the  policy  of  the  government  to  keep  them 
asunder   by   foolish    laws.     Edward  III.   had    made   it   a    crime 
for  an  Englishman  to  acquire  the  Irish  lano^uaffe,  or  to 

The  statute  .^^  t       ^      j.        -i  a-xxt,       i  ?x 

of  Kilkenny,   marrv  into  an  Irish  lamily.      let  the  laws  of  nature 

1HfS7 

had  proved  stronger  than  the  statute  laws  of  England, 
and  the  change  which  had  once  taken  place  in  Normandy,  and  had 
again  taken  place  in  England,  was  steadily  progressing  within  the 
boundaries  of  English  Ireland.  The  descendants  of  the  men  who 
had  come  with  Strongbow  were  merging  in  the  subject  race  and 
becoming  almost  more  Irish  than  the  Irish  themselves.  In  1386 
Kichard  had  sent  Robert  de  Yere  to  Ireland,  commissioned  to  com- 
plete the  conquest  and  bring  the  Irish  troubles  to  a  close.  But  the 
Lords  Appellant  had  defeated  this  scheme.  Then  the  truce  with 
France  had  enabled  the  king  to  turn  his  personal  attention  to  Ire- 
land. Little,  however,  had  been  accomplished  because  the  English 
lords  made  as  much  trouble  as  the  Irish  princes,  and  the  king  could 
find  no  loyal  party  to  make  the  foundation  of  an  English  rule.  In 
1398,  the  earl  of  March,  who  had  been  left  in  charge  as  lieutenant 
of  the  crown,  was  killed  in  battle,  and  Ricliard  determined  again 
to  go  to  Ireland  in  person  to  avenge  the  fall  of  the  heir  to  the 
crown,  and  try  once  more  to  bring  order  out  of  this  wretched  chaos. 
It  was  upon  the  plea  of  raising  a  force  sufficient  for  this  war  that 
Richard  had  entered  into  the  course  of  spoliations  and  confisca- 
tions that  culminated  in  robbing  Henry  of  Hereford  of  his  family 
estates. 


1399]  DEPOSITION   OF   RICHARD  425 

Soon  after  Whitsuntide  Richard  sailed  for  Ireland,  leaving  the 
kingdom  to  the  care  of  his  uncle,  Edmund  of  York,  as  regent.    But 

on  July  4,  Duke  Henry  landed  at  Ravenspur,  accom- 
Henrij,Juiy    panied  by  a  band  of  exiles  as  desperate  and  determined 

as  himself.  He  moved  with  the  caution  of  a  man  who 
knew  well  the  nature  of  the  dangerous  game  which  he  was  playing. 
He  came,  he  announced,  to  claim  the  Lancastrian  inheritance  and 
nothing  more.  The  barons  of  the  north,  led  by  the  powerful 
Percies,  were  the  first  to  join  him.  As  he  proceeded  south  the 
latent  discontent  of  the  kingdom  everywhere  found  voice;  the 
shires  rose;  London  went  mad  in  its  enthusiasm.  On  the  27th 
Edmund  of  York  also  abandoned  the  cause  of  Richard.  On  the 
29th  three  of  Richard's  councillors,  Scrope,  Bushy,  and  Green,  were 
taken  at  Bristol  and  put  to  death. 

Richard's  kingdom  was  now  lost.     He  hurried  back  with  the 
army  which  he  had  taken  with  him  to  Ireland,  only  to  have  it 

dwindle  in  a  single  day  from  30,000  men  to  G,000. 
irf  Richard,     Salisbury  had  attempted  to  raise  an  army  for  him  in 

Wales,  but  it  had  speedily  dispersed  under  the  influence 
of  the  general  panic  which  had  seized  upon  all  the  king's  friends. 
Henry,  who  had  continued  to  disguise  his  real  purpose,  persuaded 
Richard  to  meet  him  at  Flint  for  a  conference,  and  Richard,  who 
still  tliought  that  the  most  that  awaited  him  was  a  new  council  of 
regency,  walked  into  the  trap.  But  his  illusion  was  soon  dispelled. 
He  was  taken  to  London  and  thrown  into  the  Tower,  and  on  the 
29th  of  September,  the  day  before  the  time  set  for  the  meeting  of 
parliament,  was  compelled  to  set  his  seal  to  a  formal  abdication, 
declaring  himself  incapable  of  governing  and  willing  to  be  deposed. 
When  parliament  came  together  on  the  30th  Henry  had  the  abdi- 
cation ready  and  at  once  secured  a  formal  sentence  of  deposition. 
Thirty-three  charges  were  brought  against  the  king;  all  serious 
and  weighty,  and  bearing  directly  upon  the  great  constitutional 
principles  which  for  two  hundred  years  had  been  struggling  for 
utterance  and  now  were  at  last  to  be  heard.  In  the  IGth  article 
it  was  alleged  that  the  king  had  declared  "that  his  laws  were  in  his 
own  mouth  and  that  he  alone  could  change  and  frame  the  laws  of 
the  land."     In  the  26th,  *'that  the  life  of  every  liegeman,  his 


426  THE    PEASANT    REVOLT  [richabd  ll. 

lands,  goods,  and  chattels,  lay  at  his  royal  will  without  sentence  of 
forfeiture." 

Then  Henry  stepped  forward,  and  crossing  himself,  solemnly 
claimed  the  vacant  throne:  "In  the  name  of  God,  I,  Henry  of 
Lancaster,  challenge  this  realm  and  the  crown  with  all 
Lancaster  ^^^  appurtenances,  as  I  am  descended  by  right  line  of 
^J^(S}^^  blood,  from  the  good  King  Henry  III.,  and  through 
that  right,  that  God  of  his  grace  hath  sent  me  with 
help  of  my  kin  and  my  friends  to  receive  it;  the  which  realm  was 
in  point  to  be  undone  by  default  of  governance  and  undoing  of  good 
laws."  The  plea  was  accepted  without  a  dissenting  voice,  and  the 
two  archbishops  led  the  champion  to  the  vacant  throne.  A  great 
revolution  had  been  carried  out,  and,  an  unusual  thing  in  those 
days,  no  blood  had  been  shed  save  of  the  three  who  were  slain  at 
Bristol. 

Edward  II.  had  failed  because  he  had  not  taken  his  crown  seri- 
ously. Eichard  II.  failed  because  he  had  taken  his  crown  too 
seriously.  He  had  been  brought  up  in  the  atmosphere  breathed 
by  the  degenerate  court  of  Edward  III.  Its  hollow  magnificence, 
its  pride,  its  extravagance  in  life  and  thought  were  to  the  boy  mind 
realities.  Simon  Burley  had  taught  him  to  regard  himself  as 
superior  to  men  and  to  institutions.  Ambitious  and  crafty  uncles 
had  played  upon  his  weakness  to  further  their  own  ends,  and  at 
last  persuaded  him  to  try  his  hand  at  high  prerogative ;  and  when 
he  found  himself  confronted  by  wills  every  whit  as  imperious  as 
his  own,  his  temper,  which  was  never  under  safe  control,  broke 
forth  in  a  frenzy  of  despotic  violence.  Then  it  became  necessary 
for  the  very  men  whose  shortsightedness  had  made  this  exhibition 
of  tyranny  possible,  to  unmake  their  Caesar  in  self-defense.  But  in 
order  to  secure  themselves  and  justify  their  treason,  they  were 
obliged  to  fall  back  upon  the  "good  laws"  which  Richard  had 
repudiated,  and  call  the  nation  to  their  support.  Thus  what  had 
begun  in  a  miserable  quarrel  of  politicians,  ended  in  a  revolution  of 
the  gravest  constitutional  significance. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE     CONSTITUTIONAL     KINGS     OF    THE     HOUSE     OF     LANCASTER 
THE   THIRD   STAGE   OF  THE   HUNDRED   YEARS'    WAR 

HENRY  IV.,  1399-1413 
HENRY  v.,  1413-1122 

THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER 

Henry  III. 

Edmund  "  Croiichback," 
1st  earl  of  I^ncaster 

I 


Thomas  2d  earl  of  Lancaster  Henry    3d   earl  of  Lancaster, 

Beheaded   at   I'ontefract  d.  1345 

after  Boroughbrldge,  1322  | 

Henry  4th  earl  of  I^ncaster; 
1352   1st  duke  of  I^ncaster 

Blanche  of  J^ncaster  =  John  of 
(iaunt,  who  by  right  of  wife 
became  2d  duke  of  Lancas- 
ter in  1360 

Henry  of  Bolingbroke  disinher- 
ited by  Richard  IL,  recovers 
estates  and  becomes  King  of 
England  as  Henry  IV.,  1399 

Henry  v.,  1413-1422         Thomas  John  Humphrey 

I  Duke  of  Clarence,       Duke  of  Bedford,      Duke  of  Gloucester, 

Henry  VI.,  1422-14G1  killed  1421  d.  1435  d.  1447 

The  greatness  of  the  House  of  Lancaster  dates  back  to  the  thir- 
teenth century ;  and,  in  a  way,  may  be  regarded  as  a  remote  result 

of  the  loss  of  the  Angevin  possessions.  It  had  been  the 
Jngopthe  policy  of  the  Norman  and  early  Angevin  kings  to  pro- 
^rwaliler       ^^^®  ^^^^  ^^^  younger  members  of  the  royal  family  out 

of  their  numerous  foreign  dependencies;  but  Henry 
III.,  in  consequence  of  John's  misfortunes,  was  compelled  to  make 
provision  for  the  princes  of  the  royal  family  at  home.  Accord- 
ingly, he  made  his  brother  Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall ;  his  eldest 
son  Edward,  Earl  of  Chester,  and  upon  his  second  son  Edmund 
Crouchback  he  conferred  the  earldoms  of  Lancaster,  Derby,  and 
Leicester.     To  these  vast  estates  of  the  new  House  of  Lancaster, 

427 


428  LANCASTEE   AKD   THE   CONSTITUTION  [henbyiv. 

Thomas,  the  second  earl,  added  by  marriage  Lincoln  and  Salisbury. 
In  1352  Edward  III.  still  further  exalted  the  family  by  conferring 
the  ducal  title  upon  Henry,  the  fourth  earl,  as  a  reward  for  his 
services  in  Aquitaine;  a  title  which  had  been  first  introduced  in 
England  in  1337,  when  the  Black  Prince  was  made  Duke  of  Corn- 
wall. The  daughter  and  heiress  of  this  Duke  Henry  once  more 
linked  the  fortunes  of  her  house  directly  with  the  royal  family  by 
marrying  Edward's  fourth  son,  John  of  Gaunt;  and  upon  the 
death  of  Henry,  by  feudal  law,  all  the  vast  possessions  of  the  Lan- 
castrian House,  as  well  as  the  new  ducal  title,  passed  to  the  hus- 
band of  Blanche.  The  son  of  this  rnarriage  was  Henry  of 
Bolingbroke,  the  successor  of  Richard  II. 

In  France  where  a  similar  practice  of  building  up  the  younger 

branches  of  the  royal  family  had  also  prevailed  since  the  thirteenth 

century,  the  policy  miffht  be  iustified  by  the  desire  of 

Disastrous         '  sr         j         ts  j  j 

resuiui  of  the  crown  to  surround  itself  by  a  powerful  nobility  of  the 
great  ducal  blood  royal  as  a  balance  to  the  influence  of  the  old 
feudal  nobility.  In  England,  however,  where  the  power 
of  the  older  baronage  had  long  since  been  broken,  and  where  the 
crown  had  developed  powerful  administrative  and  judicial  systems 
sufficient  to  check  any  revival  of  feudal  forms,  no  such  plea  could 
be  advanced.  But  in  either  case  the  policy  was  a  serious  blunder. 
The  royal  dukes  were  too  powerful  to  remain  loyal  subjects;  and, 
more  turbulent  and  troublesome  than  the  older  baronage,  more 
dangerous  also  because  of  their  nearness  to  the  crown,  were  certain, 
whenever  an  issue  came  to  open  quarrel,  to  furnish  a  rallying  point 
for  all  the  disaffected  elements  of  the  nation.  In  France  the  rival- 
ries of  the  two  ducal  houses  of  Burgundy  and  Orleans  distracted 
the  kingdom  for  a  generation,  and  after  all  but  placing  the  crown  in 
the  hands  of  the  English,  transferred  the  quarrel  to  the  larger 
arena  of  the  great  Hapsburg-Valois  struggle  which  desolated  west- 
ern Europe  for  a  century.  In  England  the  dncal  House  of  Lan- 
caster, after  undermining  the  throne  of  Edward  II.,  and  bringing 
shame  and  confusion  upon  the  declining  years  of  Edward  III., 
finally  put  itself  at  the  head  of  an  armed  protest  against  the 
usurpations  of  Richard  II.,  and  succeeded  in  supplanting  the  elder 
line  of  Plantagenet  altogether. 


1399]  POSITION   OF   NEW   DYNASTY  429 

The  position  of  the  new  dynasty  had  both  its  strength  and  its 
weakness.  Henry  IV.  posed  as  the  defender  of  '*the  good  laws  of 
Thestrerwth  ^^^  land,"  or,  in  the  language  of  the  modern  politician, 
fv^41i)oii-  ^^  ^^®  constitution.  He  was,  moreover,  astute  enough 
tion.  iq  see  ^]2e  value  of  this  position  as  a  political  program, 

and  consciously  adopted  as  the  threefold  policy  of  the  Lancastrian 
House,  obedience  to  the  laws,  respect  for  parliament,  and  an  alli- 
ance with  the  conservative  elements  of  the  nation,  represented  by 
the  church  and  the  nobility.  During  the  reigns  of  the  first  two 
Lancastrians  the  wisdom  of  this  policy  was  fully  justified  by  the 
results.  The  nobility  regarded  the  Lancastrian  king  as  one  of 
themselves ;  there  were  revolts  of  nobles  but  not  of  the  nobility. 
The  commons  also  trusted  the  king  and  in  the  main  supported  him 
loyally.  The  church  saw  in  him  the  defender  of  its  privileges  and 
the  champion  of  its  doctrines ;  gave  to  his  needs  without  grudging 
and  made  his  quarrels  its  own. 

The  weakness  of  the  Lancastrians'  position  lay  in  the  fact  that 

they  had  been  borne  to  the  throne  by  a  revolution,  and  not  by 

strict   hereditary   right.      In   a  legal   age,   when   the 

Its  weO/ltness.  jo  o  o   ? 

authority  of  parliament  to  break  the  iron  law  of  custom 
was  hardly  yet  recognized,  this  flaw  in  the  Lancastrian  title  was  a 
serious  matter  and  was  certain  to  be  challenged  by  the  elder  branch 
of  the  royal  house,  as  soon  as  the  immediate  issue  which  had 
brought  Henry  to  the  throne  had  been  forgotten.  Henry  appar- 
ently was  fully  conscious  that  his  legal  title  to  the  crown  would  not 
bear  serious  scrutiny.  Hence  in  the  claim  which  he  so  dramatically 
advanced  in  the  parliament  of  1399,  he  had  ingeniously  mixed  up 
three  distinct  claims,  no  one  of  which  could  stand  alone  in  an  ordi- 
nary court  of  law.*     Yet  the  nation  was  favorable  to  Henry;  all 

*  In  the  claim  by  descent  from  Henry  III.  he  sought  apparently  to 
take  advantage  of  a  foolish  story  which  had  been  set  afloat  by  the  flat- 
terers of  John  of  Gaunt :  that  Edmund  Crouchback  was  the  elder  son  of 
Henry  III.  and  had  been  set  aside  by  reason  of  a  physical  deformity.  It 
was  well  known  that  Edward  I.  was  six  years  the  senior  of  Edmund,  and 
also  that  Edmund  had  won  his  nickname  not  on  account  of  any  actual 
deformity ,  but  by  reason  of  the  Crusaders'  cross  which  he  ever  wore  on 
his  back. 


430  LANCASTER   AND   THE    CONSTITUTION  [ Henry  i v. 

classes  needed  him,  and  no  one  was  disposed  to  inquire  too  carefully 
into  the  question  of  birthright. 

If  Henry's  position  had  any  foundation  at  all  in  law,  it  lay 
in  the  right  of  parliament  to  determine  the  royal  succession. 
This  had  been  undoubtedly  an  ancient  right  of  the 
^m-iiament  S^^^^  council,  but  it  had  been  seldom  used,  and  then 
sion^^^^'  ^^^y  ^^  sanction  a  revolution  already  accomplished.  In 
a  day,  moreover,  when  parliaments  represented  not  the 
nation  but  the  faction  of  the  baronage  who  for  the  moment  con- 
trolled the  machinery  of  election,  its  right  to  make  kings  was  a 
dangerous  doctrine  to  revive,  and  none  understood  better  than 
Henry  himself,  how  easily  it  might  be  wrested  to  his  own  undoing. 
To  admit  it,  was  to  strike  at  the  very  stability  of  the  government ; 
hence  the  shrewd  cunning  with  which  Henry,  while  accepting  the 
crown  at  the  hands  of  parliament,  yet  ignored  parliament  in  mak- 
ing his  claim. 

Thus  after  all  the  subterfuges  of  the  politician  have  been  brushed 
away,  it  will  be  seen  that  Henry's  real  title  rested  npon  the  right 
of  successful  revolution,  and  was  strong  because  sup- 
of  Henry's  ported  by  the  voice  of  the  nation  represented  in  the  parlia- 
ment of  1399.  A  precedent  had  been  established  which 
was  to  mean  much  in  future  centuries  when  the  Commons  should 
constitute  the  controlling  element  in  the  parliament;  but  in  the 
early  fifteenth  century  the  nobles  and  not  the  Commons  gave  dig- 
nity and  force  to  the  voice  of  parliament.  Hence  the  revolution 
of  1399  was  after  all  a  victory  of  the  later  day  barons  over  the 
crown.  That  it  was  accomplished  in  the  name  of  the  law,  must 
not  obscure  its  real  character.  Only  so  can  we  understand  the 
real  weakness  of  the  so-called  constitutional  rule  of  the  House  of 
Lancaster  or  explain  the  pit  of  anarchy  into  which  it  finally  plunged 
the  English  state. 

Henry  was  a  man  of  fair  abilities,  naturally  religious,  temperate 

in  habits,  well  balanced  in  temper.     He  was  not  cruel  by  choice; 

but  he  did  not  hesitate  to  shed  blood  if  he  could  not 

atonj  policy    gain  his  end  by  milder  measures.     He  was  too  good  a 

politician,  moreover,  not  to  see  that  the  party  in  power 

could  afford  to  be  generous  and  that  excessive  cruelty  was  certain 


1399,   1400]  THE    LAST   OF   THE   FAVORITES  431 

to  breed  reaction.  Hence  the  first  acts  of  Henry's  reign  are,  for 
the  times,  remarkable  for  self-restraint.  The  lords  who  had  stood 
by  Richard  and  abetted  his  usurpations  and  shared  in  the  plunder, 
were  compelled  to  forfeit  all  that  they  had  received  from  him  in  the 
way  of  titles  and  lands  since  the  fall  of  Gloucester  in  1397.  Some 
called  for  their  blood,  but  it  was  not  in  accord  with  Henry's  policy 
to  push  the  fallen  to  extremes.  Appeals  of  treason  in  parliament, 
the  ''cause  of  so  many  revolutions"  in  the  past,  were  forbidden. 
A  man  charged  with  treason  was  henceforth  to  be  tried  in  a  reg- 
ular court  of  law,  and  the  crime  limited  to  offenses  specified  by 
statute. 

A  deputation  of  lords,  headed  by  Archbishop  Arundel  and  the 
duke  of  York,  urged  Henry  to  put  Richard  to  death.  This  cer- 
tainly could  be  done  under  the  forms  of  law ;  for  Rich- 
mcfuird  "^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^^  ^  subject  and  also  resting  under  serious 
charges  preferred  by  parliament.  But  Henry  probably 
saw  that  to  destroy  Richard  would  only  transfer  Richard's  claim  to 
the  powerful  family  of  the  Mortimers  who,  with  their  connections 
among  the  Percies,  would  be  far  more  dangerous  rivals  than  the 
lonely  man  now  shut  up  safely  in  the  Lancastrian  stronghold  of 
Pontefract  in  Yorkshire. 

The  immediate  friends  and  kinsmen  of  Richard,  however,  had 

neither  been  conciliated  nor  awed  by  the  judgments  of  Henry  and 

took  advantage  of   his  leniency  to  plot  for  a  counter  revolution. 

They  proposed  to  surprise  Henry  at  Windsor,  cut  him 

voitJanu-      off  from  the  support  of  London  and  proclaim  Richard. 

d'Pl/    1400, 

A  priest  named  Maudelyn,  who  was  the  ex-king's  double, 
was  to  play  Richard's  part  until  the  conspirators  could  find  Rich- 
ard himself,  whose  place  of  confinement  seems  to  have  been  a 
secret.  At  the  last  moment  the  earl  of  Rutland  let  his  father  into 
the  plot  and  York  without  a  moment's  delay  warned  Henry. 
Henry  by  a  memorable  night  ride  hastened  to  London,  roused  the 
populace,  and  within  twenty -four  hours  took  the  field  at  the  head 
of  twenty  thousand  men.  The  conspirators  fled  westward  to 
Cirencester,  proclaiming  Richard  as  they  passed  along.  The  coun- 
try people  rose  at  the  name,  but  not  as  the  plotters  had  designed. 
They  flocked  into  Cirencester  and,  with  the  mayor  leading  them, 


432  LANCASTER    AND    THE    CONSTITUTION  [hesuy  iv. 

attacked  the  house  of  the  conspirators  and  compelled  them  to  sur- 
render. Kent  and  Salisbury  were  at  once  put  to  death.  Hunt- 
ingdon was  in  London  but  fled  into  Essex  where  he  was  straightway 
taken  and  dispatched  by  the  populace.  Lord  Spenser  met  a  like 
fate  at  Bristol,  and  Eichard's  double  was  ingloriously  hanged  at 
the  Elms. 

The  effect  of  the  plot  was  threefold.  It  revealed  the  popularity 
of  Henry  among  the  people,  and  determined  the  uselessness  of 
attempting  a  counter  revolution.  It  gave  proof  of  the 
f£tl*.vi£!^  hatred  of  the  populace  for  the  friends  of  Richard,  and 
Richard  revealed  to  the  survivors  how  little  they  had  to  expect 
if  they  once  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  mob.  It  also 
sealed  the  fate  of  Richard.  The  date  and  manner  of  his  death, 
however,  are  unknown.  A  month  after  the  conspiracy  had  col- 
lapsed, a  body  supposed  to  be  that  of  the  late  king  was  exhibited 
and  buried  at  Langley. 

Henry  had  now  triumphed  over  the  friends  of  Richard  but  his 

troubles  had  only  begun.      Since  the  recognition   of   David   by 

Edward  III.  in  1357,  the  English  and  Scottish  kinsrs 

Henry  IV.  70  o 

and  the  '  had  been  generally  on  terms  of  peace ;  but  it  was  impos- 
sible for  either  king  to  restrain  his  fiery  border  lords, 
and  their  ceaseless  raids  had  kept  the  neighboring  lands  in  constant 
alarm.  The  battle  of  Otterburn,  better  known  as  "Chevy  Chase," 
belongs  to  this  period.  The  truce  which  Richard  had  made  had 
expired  in  1399,  and  it  was  very  important  for  Henry  that  it  be 
renewed.  The  French  court  was  not  in  any  kindly  mood  toward 
the  new  English  king,  who  had  dethroned  Charles  VI. 's  son-in-law, 
and  had  not  only  refused  to  recognize  Henry,  but  had  promptly 
demanded  that  Richard's  child  widow  be  sent  home  with  her 
dowry.  This  Henry  was  not  prepared  to  do,  and  a  renewal  of  the 
French  war  was  one  of  the  probabilities  of  the  near  future.  It 
was  of  great  importance,  therefore,  for  Henry  to  secure  a  pledge 
of  neutrality  from  the  Scots,  and  when  the  Scots  hesitated,  he 
determined  to  bring  the  matter  to  an  issue  and  crossed  the  border. 
But  the  Scots  declined  to  give  battle,  and,  although  Henry  burned 
Leith  and  harried  much  country,  he  was  forced  to  return  without 
securing  the  object  of  his  expedition. 


1400-1402]  OWEN   GLENDOWER  433 

The  failure  of  the  attempt  to  overawe  Scotland  was  humiliat- 
ing enough,  but  the  campaign  had  not  yet  ended  when  a  new  storm 
broke  on  the  Welsh  border.  From  the  time  of  Edward 
The  rising  I. 's  conquest,  the  Welsh  had  remained  fairly  peaceful 
Giendower  and  were  learning  to  consider  themselves  a  part  of  the 
English  kingdom.  But  the  same  lawless  spirit  which 
had  made  English  nobles  so  hard  to  restrain  east  of  the  Severn, 
had  asserted  itself  with  even  greater  license  among  the  wild  glens 
of  the  west  and  was  borne  with  no  good  grace  by  a  people  naturally 
excitable  and  quick  to  requite  wrongs.  Collisions  between  the 
Welsh  and  their  English  lords  were  matters  of  daily  occurrence. 
In  these  petty  conflicts  a  Welsh  landowner,  Owen  Giendower, 
managed  to  gather  a  band  of  desperate  men  and  soon  developed  a 
genius  for  the  irregular  warfare  of  the  hills,  and  assuming  the  title 
of  Prince  of  Wales  gave  to  the  insurrection  the  dignity  of  a 
national  rising.  All  Henry's  efforts  to  reduce  him  proved 
futile.  Giendower  retired  into  the  mountains,  and  from  inacces- 
sible crags  defied  the  English  until  the  approach  of  winter  com- 
pelled them  to  withdraw.  Then  Henry  turned  the  borders  over 
to  Henry  Percy,  whose  experience  and  success  in  this  kind  of  war- 
fare in  the  north,  where  he  had  won  the  name  of  "Hotspur," 
peculiarly  qualified  him  for  such  work.  But  Hotspur  found  his 
match  in  Giendower.  He  could  not  protect  the  open  country  and 
held  even  his  castles  with  difficulty.  In  1402  Giendower  defeated 
Edmund  Mortimer,  brother  of  the  late  earl  of  March,  at  Brynglas 
and  took  Mortimer  himself  prisoner.  Henry  again  took  the  field, 
but  after  an  inglorious  campaign  of  three  weeks,  completely  baffled 
by  his  wily  foe,  he  was  glad  to  get  his  famished  army  out  of  the 
wretched  country. 

In  the  meanwhile,  in  marked  contrast  with  these  humiliating 
experiences  of  Henry,  the  Percies  had  won  a  brilliant  victory  over 
the  Scots  at  Homildon  Hill,  capturing  Douglas  and 
Hiitl^.  Murdoch  Stuart,  the  earl  of  Fife.  This  victory  deliv- 
ered the  northern  border,  but  soon  brought  fresh  trouble 
for  Henry.  The  wars  which  had  been  thrust  upon  him  had  pre- 
vented the  reduction  of  taxation.  The  people,  moreover,  could  not 
forgive  his  repeated  failures;   it  mattered  little  to  them  that  his 


434  LANCASTER   AKD   THE    CONSTITUTION  [heney  IV. 

poverty,  the  result  of  the  niggardliness  of  parliament  on  the  one 
hand  and  of  his  own  scrupulous  observance  of  the  laws  on  the 
other,  was  largely  responsible ;  Henry  had  failed  and  the  glory  of 
the  popular  idol  was  dimmed. 

The  storm    broke   where  Henry  perhaps   had  least  reason  to 
expect  it.     The  Percies  had  been  among  his  staunchest  supporters. 

They  had  been  the  first  to  rally  to  his  standard  after 
The  first  ris-  the  landing  at  Ravenspur.  For  two  years  they  had 
Percies,  i402.   borne  the  brunt  of  the  border  wars;    they  had  fought 

Henry's  battles  with  their  own  retainers  and  had  poured 
out  their  treasure  to  the  extent  of  £60,000.  Henry  had  repaid 
two-thirds  of  this  debt  but  the  balance  of  £20,000  still  remained, 
and  although  the  condition  in  which  parliament  kept  the  royal 
treasury  made  a  further  payment  impossible,  the  Percies  were 
inclined  to  hold  the  king  responsible,  aud  ascribed  his  backwardness 
to  the  fact  that  he  did  not  appreciate  their  services.  Homildon  Hill, 
also,  had  turned  the  Percy  head  somewhat,  and  when  the  king  refused 
to  allow  Hotspur  to  ransom  Edmund  Mortimer,  who  was  his  wife's 
brother,  the  Percies  in  their  anger  entered  into  a  widely  extended 
conspiracy  for  the  overthrow  of  Henry,  in  which  Douglas,  Morti- 
mer, and  Glendower,  were  all  to  take  part.  Under  the  pretext  of 
invading  Wales,  Hotspur  led  his  border  raiders  into  Cheshire  where 
he  at  once  raised  his  standard,  publicly  charging  Henry  with  the 
murder  of  Richard  and  further  accusing  him  of  breaking  his  word 
in  collecting  taxes  contrary  to  law  and  of  interfering  in  the  elec- 
tion of  the  parliament;  he  also  proposed  to  make  his  little  nephew, 
the  earl  of  March,  king.     The  Cheshire  men,  who  had  always  been 

loyal  to  Richard,  rallied  at  Hotspur's  call  and 
Shrewsbury    enabled    him    to    march    upon     Shrewsbury    at     the 

head  of  14,000  men.  Here  Prince  Henry,  the 
king's  eldest  son,  was  stationed,  and  Hotspur  laid  siege  to  the 
place  thinking  that  Glendower  would  join  him.  But  the  approach 
of  the  king  compelled  him  to  retire  to  a  position  three  miles  north 
of  the  city  where  some  high  ground  offered  an  advantage  to  his 
Cheshire  archers.  The  king  attacked  him,  July  21,  1403,  and 
gained  a  complete  victory.  The  battle  began  at  midday  and  did 
not  end  until  night.     It  was  one  of  the  most  obstinately  contested 


1405-1407]  THE    RISI^^G    OF   THE    PERCIES  435 

battles  fought  in  England  in  two  centuries.  Hotspur  fell;  his 
uncle,  Thomas  Percy  the  earl  of  Worcester,  and  Douglas  were 
taken.  Two  days  later  Thomas  Percy  was  put  to  death ;  Hotspur's 
head  was  set  up  on  London  Bridge  and  the  people  were  allowed 
the  satisfaction  of  gazing  at  the  ghastly  trophy  for  a  month. 
Hotspur's  father,  the  old  earl  of  Northumberland,  surrendered  at 
York  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  results  of  Shrewsbury. 

Henry's  troubles   with   his  barons  were  by  no  means  ended. 
The  experience  of  Hotspur  had  taught  them  caution,  but  they  were 

more  dangerous  because  they  worked  in  secret.  Henry, 
rMng^fTtiie  li<5wever,  was  on  his  guard  and  in  1405  foiled  an 
P^cies,  1405-  attempt  to  carry  off  the  earl  of  March,  whom  he  was 

safeguarding  at  Windsor.  This  attempt  was  speedily 
followed  by  a  second  rising  of  the  earl  of  Northumberland,  whom 
Henry  had  not  only  pardoned  but  restored  to  his  estates.  He  was 
supported  by  Thomas  Mowbray  Earl  of  Nottingham,  the  son  of  the 
late  duke  of  Norfolk,  and  Richard  le  Scrope,  Archbishop  of  York. 
Henry  determined  to  show  that  his  magnanimity  hitherto  had  not 
been  dictated  by  any  fear  of  his  barons  and  when  Mowbray  and 
Scrope  fell  into  his  power,  he  at  once  hurried  them  to  tlie  block. 
It  was  a  wholesome  lesson;  for  up  to  this  time,  a  bishop's  person, 
it  had  been  supposed,  was  sacred,  and  kings  had  hesitated  to  shed 
a  bishop's  bloocl,  although  more  than  one  had  richly  deserved  it. 
Englishmen  heard  of  the  deed  with  the  horror  which  they  had 
once  felt  at  the  assassination  of  Becket;  and  like  Becket,  Scrope 
was  raised  into  a  sort  of  popular  sanctity ;  miracles  were  reported 
at  his  tomb,  and  the  failing  health  of  the  king,  really  due  to  the 
strain  of  so  many  cares  and  so  much  anxiety,  was  popularly 
ascribed  to  the  sacrilege  of  sending  a  bishop  to  public  execution. 
Percy  fled  to  France,  and  secured  a  promise  of  French  aid.  In 
1407  he  returned  by  way  of  Scotland  and  invaded  his  old  terri- 
tories at  the  head  of  a  Scottish  force.     But  the  Northumberland 

strongholds  were  now  all  in  the  hands  of  the  king 
Mow^'iX      ^^^  ^^^^y  ^  ^^^  ^^  Percy's  old  tenants  rallied   at   his 

call.  Then  he  tried  his  fortunes  in  Yorkshire,  but 
the  people  here  also  were  weary  of  these  profitless  risings,  and  left 
him  to  be  overcome  and  slain  by  the  sheriff  at  Bramham  Moor. 


436  LANCASTER    AND    THE    CONSTITUTION  [heney  IV. 

With  the  fall  of  Northumberland  Henry's  troubles  with  his 
barons  ended. 

The  tide  was  now  tarning  fast  in  the  new  king's  favor.  The 
expectation  of  succor  from  France  had  done  much  to  keep  alive 
the  AYelsh  insurrection.  In  1406  a  French  force  finally 
Wd/irMng.  landed  at  Milford  Haven;  but  the  poverty  of  the 
Welsh,  the  meagerness  of  their  wild  mountain  fare, 
filled  the  Frenchmen  with  disgust,  and  they  speedily  returned 
home  again,  leaving  their  humble  allies  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
The  Welshmen  saw  the  hopelessness  of  further  struggle  and 
laid  down  their  arms.  Glendower,  however,  fared  better  at  the 
hands  of  his  countrymen  than  Wallace ;  for  they  refused  to  betray 
him,  and  he  was  left  to  die  a  free  man. 

About  the  same  time  fortune  placed  the  key  to  the  Scottish 
situation  also  in  the  king's  hands.  In  1390  Eobert  III.  had  come 
to  the  Scottish  throne.  He  was  a  weak  man;  and  had 
James  left  liis  despotic  brother,  the  duke  of  Albany,  to  con- 

duct the  administration  as  it  suited  him.  But  Albany 
had  gone  so  far  in  his  tyrannies  as  to  seize  Robert's  eldest  son  and 
throw  him  into  Rothesay  Castle,  where  he  had  starved  him  to 
death.  The  poor  king  was  in  despair;  in  his  terror  he  souglit  to 
save  his  second  son  James,  then  a  lad  of  twelve  years,  by  sending 
him  to  France  ostensibly  for  his  education.  But  the  ship  was 
taken  by  some  English  seamen  off  Flamborough  Head  and  the 
young  prince  was  turned  over  to  King  Henry.  Henry  was 
delighted  to  hold  so  good  a  pledge  for  the  future  conduct  of  the 
Scots,  and,  naively  remarking  that  he  thought  he  could  educate  the 
boy  as  well  as  his  cousin  of  France,  for  he  knew  the  French  tongne 
quite  as  well  as  he,  retained  the  lad  in  a  sort  of  honorable  captivity 
at  Windsor.  The  love  of  this  excellent  young  prince  and  Lady  Jane 
Beaufort,  whom  he  afterward  married  and  took  back  with  him  to 
share  the  honors  and  perils  of  his  Scottish  throne,  forms  one  of  the 
finest  chapters  in  the  domestic  history  of  the  English  court. ^ 

There  had  been  various  rumors  of  a  renewal  of  the  French  war 
and    Henry   at   one    time   no    doubt    regarded    it   as    imminent. 

^  On  the  tragic  death  of  James  see  Rossetti's  fine  ballad,  The  King's 
Tragedy. 


1405-1411]  LAST   DAYS   OF   HENRY  IV.  437 

But  the  growing  imbecility  of  Charles  VI.   had  left  France  a  prey 

to  the  rivalries  of  the  two  branches  of  the  royal  family,  headed 

the  one  by  Louis  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  kind's  brother, 

Henry^s  '  o  7 

French  and  the  other  by  John  Dnke  of  Bnrejundy,  his  cousin. 

As  the  quarrel  developed  and'  the  nation  was  again 
plunged  into  civil  war,  it  became  more  and  more  evident  that  the 
war  with  England  would  not  be  renewed  unless  the  English  assumed 
the  offensive.  But  for  this  Henry  had  no  mind;  he  proposed 
rather  to  watch  the  turn  of  events  and  support  the  weaker  party. 
At  first  he  favored  the  Burgnndians  and  even  sent  a  force  to 
support  them  in  1411;  but  when  the  murder  of  Duke  Louis  of 
Orleans  and  the  further  successes  of  the  Burgnndians,  threatened 
to  overwhelm  the  Armagnacs,  as  the  rival  party  were  called,^  Henry 
threw  all  his  support  on  their  side.  It  was  a  thoroughly  selfish 
policy,  but  justified  perhaps  from  a  statesman's  point  of  view. 

Constant  anxiety  had  very  early  begun  to  tell  upon  the  strength 
of  the  king,  and  after  1405,  he  threw  the  burden  of  the  administra- 
tion more  and  more  upon  his  eldest  son,  the  gay  and  bril- 
ofHmru.''^^  liaut  "Princc  Hal."  Next  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the 
most  influential  man  in  the  kingdom  was  Thomas 
Arundel,  the  archbishop,  who  became  chancellor  in  1407.  In  the 
anomalous  relation  of  Prince  Henry  to  the  government,  who  as 
president  of  the  council  was  virtually  regent  during  his  father's  ill- 
ness, it  was  inevitable  that  differences  of  opinion  should  arise,  and 
in  1411  father  and  son  came  to  an  open  rupture.  In  these  jars 
Archbishop  Thomas  stood  staunchly  by  the  king;  his  opponent 
was  Henry  Beaufort,  the  king's  half-brother,  who  on  the  death 
of  William  of  Wykeham  in  1404  had  been  raised  to  the  see  of 
Winchester.  Beaufort  was  the  close  friend  of  Prince  Henry.  In 
1409  the  archbishop  issued  a  series  of  constitutions  which  for- 
bade not  only  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  without  the  approval 
of  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  but  all  disputes  as  well  upon  the  doc- 
trines which  the  church  regarded  as  established.  The  constitu- 
tions were  aimed  at  Lollardry ;  but  they  brought  Thomas  into  a 
quarrel  with  Oxford  University,  whose  faculty  objected  to  the 

^  Named  from  Count  Bernard  of  Armagnac,  the  leader  of  the  Orlean- 
ist  party. 


438  LANCASTER   AND   THE    CONSTITUTION  [henry  iv. 

restrictions  which  the  archbishop  proposed  to  put  upon  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  the-institution.  In  the  quarrel  the  university,  which 
was  not  without  powerful  friends,  won,  and  the  archbishop  was 
forced  to  yield  his  place  in  the  council  to  Thomas  Beaufort,  the 
youngest  of  Catharine  Swynford's  children.  For  three  years 
Thomas  Beaufort  held  the  chancellorship.  But  in  1412  the  king 
reasserted  himself;  the  prince  and.  his  ministers  were  dismissed 
and  Arundel  came  back  to  power.  The  presidency  of  the  council 
was  committed  to  the  king's  second  son,  Thomas  Diike  of 
Clarence. 

The  next  year  Henry  IV.  died.  The  real  interest  of  his  reign 
centers  in  the  fact  that  with  him,  for  the  first  time,  England  had 
1413  im-  ^  sovereign  who  accepted  the  English  constitution  as  an 
reign^o/^'^  established  fact  and  honestly  tried  to  conduct  the 
Henry  IV.  administration  within  the  guarantees  which  the  quarrels 
of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  had  transmitted  to 
the  fifteenth.  His  difficulties  were  real  and  serious.  His  income, 
about  £100,000  all  told,  was  entirely  inadequate  to  the  numerous 
needs  of  the  government.  The  first  year  of  his  reign,  his  minis- 
ters could  show  a  balance  of  £243;  but  with  the  outbreak  of  new 
wars,  and  the  constant  demand  made  upon  the  treasury  in  order  to 
support  numerous  garrisons  in  Wales,  in  Ireland,  and  in  Gnienne, 
it  was  no  longer  possible  to  return  a  favorable  balance ;  and  year 
after  year  the  ministers  were  compelled  to  remind  parliament  of 
the  empty  treasury  and  the  ever  increasing  burden  of  debt.  The 
wars,  moreover,  which  the  ministers  were  called  upon  to  face,  were 
not  of  the  popular  kind,  and  parliament  never  responded  with  that 
enthusiastic  alacrity  with  which  it  had  come  to  the  help  of  Edward 
I.  in  1295,  or  had  plunged  into  the  French  war  in  1337.  It 
doled  out  money  by  driblets,  insisting  always  upon  granting  sup- 
plies for  specific  objects;  annoyed  the  ministers  by  inquisitive 
auditing  committees;  and  that  it  might  be  sure  that  its 
eternal  grievances  received  the  proper  attention,  it  waited  until 
the  last  moment  before  it  proceeded  to  grant  supplies  at  all. 
Yet  Henry  bravely  faced  the  conditions  under  which  he  had 
accepted  the  crown;  took  his  stand  squarely  upon  the  laws,  and 
steadily  refrained  from  .using  illegal  methods  in  raising  money,  or  in 


1404-1410]  HENRY    IV.    AND    PARLIAMENT  439 

securing  the  ends  of  administration.  When  his  Welsh  campaign 
of  1400  failed,  simply  because  parliament  would  not  grant  funds 
sufficient  to  keep  an  army  in  the  field,  he  retired,  baffled  and 
beaten,  to  lay  the  responsibility  where  it  belonged.  It  was  bitter 
for  the  high  spirited  king;  but  it  was  wise.  Only  so  could  he 
teach  parliament  that  its  responsibilities  were  equal  to  its 
rights,  and  that  if  it  would  insist  upon  the  one,  it  must  shoulder 
the  other.  It  was  also  a  part  of  Henry's  policy  to  accept  the  prin- 
ciple, so  distasteful  to  men  of  the  imperious  type  of  his  predeces- 
sors, that  his  ministers  must  possess  the  confidence  of  parliament. 
In  1404  at  the  request  of  the  Commons  he  named  twenty-two 
members  of  parliament  as  his  continual  council;  and  then,  when 
two  years  later  the  Commons  declared  that  they  had  lost  confidence 
in  certain  members  of  the  committee,  the  king  called  for  the  resig- 
nation of  the  obnoxious  ministers.  In  other  ways  also  Henry  fully 
recognized  the  new  principles  which  the  revolutions  of  the  14th 
century  had  introduced  into  the  constitution.  He  allowed  parlia- 
ment to  regulate  the  expenses  of  his  household.  In  1407  lie 
accepted  the  principle  that  money  grants  should  originate  in  the 
lower  house,  in  order  that  the  representatives  of  the  smaller  prop- 
erty holders  might  fix  the  maximum.  The  right  of  conference  of 
the  two  houses  was  also  recognized,  and  the  principle  further  con- 
ceded that  neither  house  should  report  to  the  king  until  they  had 
come  to  an  agreement,  and  then  only  through  the  speaker  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  Thus  principles  which  had  been  sometimes 
recognized  in  formal  law,  and  again  as  formally  denied,  came  at 
last  to  secure  the  sanction  of  established  precedent. 

The  same  spirit    which  directed  Henry  in  his  dealings  with 

parliament,  directed  him  also  in  his  relations  to  the  church.     The 

leaders  of  the  church  felt  the  insecurity  of  the  existing 

Henry  IV. 

and  the  '  establishment  before  the  combined  onslaught  of  the  Lol- 
lards and  those  thrifty  Commoners  who  could  not  under- 
stand why  the  people  should  be  so  heavily  taxed,  when  so  much 
property,  unproductive  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  state,  lay  in 
the  hands  of  the  church.  In  1410,  it  was  proposed  to  confiscate 
all  the  property  of  the  bishops  and  the  religious  corporations,  and 
apply  the  money  in  part  to  the  endowment  of  new  earls,  knights, 


440  LANCASTER   AND    THE    CONSTITUTION  [iicnry  IV. 

and  squires,  and  in  part  to  piecing  out  the  yearly  revenues  of  the 
crown.  The  plan  failed,  not  because  of  any  feeling  of  tenderness 
toward  the  church,  but  because  the  Commons  hesitated  to  increase 
the  number  of  the  baronage.  The  bishops,  therefore,  needed  a 
friend,  and  they  found  one  in  the  orthodox  and  law-abiding 
Henry,  who  not  only  protected  them  against  the  schemes  of  the 
Commons,  but  also  took  steps  for  the  extirpation  of  the  dangerous 
heresies  which  the  clergy  might  well  regard  as  responsible  for  the 
statute  de  hostile  attitude  of  the  people.  In  1401,  Archbishop 
comburendo  ^^^^^^^^  sccured  the  passage  of  the  famous  Statute  de 
^^^'  Haeretico  Comburendo,  by  which  the  bishop  was  given 

* 'authority  to  arrest,  imprison,  and  try  within  three  months"  a  per- 
son accused  of  heresy,  "and  to  call  in  the  sheriff  to  burn  him." 
So  fully  was  Henry  in  sympathy  with  this  measure,  that  he  did 
not  wait  for  the  act  to  become  law,  but  on  February  2G  had  al- 
ready sent  orders  to  the  mayor  and  sheriffs  of  London  directing 
them  to  burn  alive  William  Sautre,  on  that  day  convicted  of  heresy 
by  the  Convocation  of  Canterbury.^  The  burning  of  Sautre  was 
the  beginning  of  that  sad  series  of  executions,  which  were  to  be- 
come so  common  during  the  religious  controversies  of  the  next 
century,  and  which  are  to  be  ascribed  not  to  Christianity  but  to 
the  savagery  of  the  age. 

The  new  king  had  long  been  the  favorite  of  the  people.     He 

was  tall,  handsome,  active,  and  delighted  in  feats  of  agility  and 

strength.     He  was  so  swift  of  foot  that  men  told  how 

Henry  V. 

1413-1422."  he  could  run  down  and  capture  a  deer  without  dog  or 
weapon.  He  loved  music ;  he  was  quick  and  sprightly 
in  conversation.  He  loved  his  frolic  and  was  the  hero  of  many  a 
wild  escapade  in  which  some  late  returning  burgher  or  the  night 
watch  was  the  victim.  His  pranks  had  caused  his  father  many 
anxious  moments,  and  some  of  the  wise  shook  their  heads  in 
solemn  apprehension  of  what  might  happen  when  this  scapegrace 
of  eighteen  should  become  king ;  but  the  burdens  of  state,  to  which 
the  young  man  had  been  called  before  his  father's  death,  had  appar- 

^For  the  act  and  the  royal  writ  for  burning  Sautre,  see  Gee  and 
Hardy,  pp.  133  and  138.  For  the  irregularity  of  Henry's  commission  see 
Stubbs,  C.  iT.,  in,  375. 


1414]  POLICY    OF    HEXKY    V.  441 

ently  sobered  him;    Archbishop  Thomas  himself  could  not  display 
more  becoming  dignity  under  the  cares  of  office  than  he. 

Henry  V.  adopted  heartily  the  wise  policy  of  magnanimous  con- 
ciliation which  had  contributed  so  markedly  to  the  success  of  his 

father's  reign.  He  even  ignored  the  recent  quarrels 
^enru%        which  had  divided  the  council  board  during  his  own 

presidency,  and  invited  Arundel  as  well  as  the  Beau- 
forts  into  his  council.  He  honored  the  memory  of  Richard  by 
bringing  his  supposed  body  from  Langley  to  Westminster  and  giv- 
ing it  burial  among  the  kings  of  England ;  he  restored  the  sons  of 
Hotspur  and  Huntingdon  to  their  estates,  and  made  the  earl  of 
March  his  personal  friend.  He  also  continued  his  father's  vigorous 
support  of  Archbishop  Arundel  in  the  suppression  of  heresy,  tak- 
ing an  active  interest  in  the  arrest  and  final  execution  of  fine  old 
John  Oldcastle,  Lord  Cobham,  whose  influence  as  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Lords  and  whose  widely  extended  popularity  had  all  but 
raised  Lollardisni  to  the  dignity  of  a  political  party. 

The  new  king,  also,  continued  to  humor  parliament.  He 
allowed  the  Commons  to  complete  the  valuable  group  of  privileges 

which  they  had  already  secured,  by  granting  the  right 
andthe  '       of  final  engrossment.     Heretofore  the  text  of  the  laws 

had  been  left  to  the  royal  council  to  frames  and  parlia- 
ment had  often  found  itself  defeated  after  it  had  secured  the  con- 
sent of  the  king,  by  some  cunning  framing  of  clauses  by  the  king's 
ministers.  This  trick  of  the  council  had  been  the  frequent  sub- 
ject of  complaint  and  various  remedies  had  been  sought,  but  under 
kings  like  Edward  III.  or  Richard  11. ,  every  expedient  had  proved 
futile.  In  1414,  however,  the  Commons  successfully  petitioned 
**that  there  never  be  no  law  made  and  engrossed  as  statute  law, 
neither  by  addition  or  by  diminution,  by  no  manner  of  term  or 
terms,  the  which  should  change  the  meaning  and  the  intent 
asked." 

The  granting  of  this  petition  marks  a  very  important  develop- 
ment in  the  functions  of  parliament.  In  the  thirteenth  century  its 
powers  were  somewhat  similar  to  those  of  the  States-General  of 
France,  and  were  it  not  for  its  continuous  history  in  witen- 
agemot  and    magnum   concilium,  we  might  call  it  at  that  time 


442  LANCASTER    AND    THE    CONSTITUTION  [ Henry  V. 

simply  a  States-General.  Its  legislative  function  was  exercised 
largely  in  making  money  grants  and  in  "humbly  petitioning"  the 
impm-tance  ^^^^^  ^^  redress  grievances ;  that  is,  to  make  a  law  which 
cessian'of  should  cover  the  case  in  hand.  The  petitioners  merely 
1414.  suggested   the    legislation ;    the   king   made    the   law. 

But  now  after  1414,  although  the  form  of  a  "humble  petition"  was 
still  retained,  these  petitions  in  fact  became  real  legislative  enact- 
ments and  the  king  retained  only  the  right  of  veto. 

The  establishment  of  this  important  principle,  embodying  the 
true  relation  of  the  executive  and  the  legislative  branches  of  the 
government  in  legislation,  may  be  regarded  as  completing  the 
formative  period  of  the  English  Constitution.  Under  the  Norman 
and  Angevin  kings  the  national  judicial  system  had  been  slowly 
elaborated  and  the  principle  established  that  all  classes,  the  noble 
and  at  last  even  the  king,  were  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  land.  In 
the  thirteenth  century  the  privilege  of  representation  in  the  national 
council  had  been  extended  to  the  commons,  but  it  was  not  until 
1322,  in  the  council  of  York,  that  their  representatives  were  recog- 
nized as  a  constituent  part  of  that  body,  and  their  cooperation 
necessary  in  legislation;  a  few  years  later  their  dignity  and  influ- 
ence were  still  further  enhanced  by  the  accession  of  the  knights  of 
the  shire.  In  the  meantime  the  voluntary  withdrawal  of  the 
church  as  a  separate  estate  from  the  national  council  had  left 
parliament  to  consist  of  two  houses  rather  than  three;  while  the 
efforts  of  parliament  to  secure  the  obedience  of  the  crown  to  the 
laws,  still  further  developed  and  defined  its  powers,  until  from  a 
simple  gathering  of  estates  it  had  become  a  national  parliament. 

In  this  struggle  parliament  had  first  forced  from  the  king  a 

full  concession  of  the  right  of  taxation;   a  most  important  right 

because  by  the  simple  expedient  of  refusing  supplies,  it 

Guarantees,    was  possible  for  parliament  to  exact  any  other  conces- 

The  "rto/it 

ofthepurse."  sions  which  might  be  needed  to  complete  the  guarantees 
of  the  constitution.  The  next  step  after  securing  the 
"right  of  the  purse,"  was  to  secure  the  right  of  controlling  the 
king  in  the  administration  of  the  laws  made  by  parliament.  In  the 
thirteenth  century  the  best  that  the  barons  could  devise  was  to  cre- 
ate a  committee  of  virtual  regency,  who  were  to  overrule  the  king 


THE   PRIKCIPLE    OF   CABINET   GOVERNMENT  443 

and  set  him  aside  if  necessary,  as  in  the  case  of  John  Lackland,  or 
to  rule  in  his  name,  as  in  the  case  of  Henry  III.     Even  in  the  early 

fourteenth  century  Earl  Thomas  and  the  Lords 
vrSSi^of^  Ordainers  apparently  had  nothing  better  to  oifer.  The 
government,    struggle  had  gradually  shifted,  however,  from  an  attempt 

to  control  the  king,  to  an  attempt  to  control  the  king's 
ministers.  The  denial  of  this  right  of  control  was  one  chief  cause 
of  the  troubles  of  Edward  II.  By  the  close  of  Edward  III.'s  reign 
the  relations  of  king  and  parliament  in  the  making  of  the  royal 
council  had  been  somewhat  definitely  worked  out,  and  upon  lines 
which  subsequent  experience  has  fully  justified.  The  king  might 
appoint,  but  the  Lords  must  confirm,  while  the  right  of  impeach- 
ment lay  with  the  Commons.  Edward,  however,  had  never  heartily 
accepted  these  principles,  and  Richard,  though  for  a  time  appalled 
by  the  rough  justice  of  the  Lords  Appellant,  had  finally  denied  them 
altogether  and  attempted  to  establish  tlie  complete  autocracy  of 
the  crown.  But  Henry  IV.  admitted  fully  the  responsibility  of  his 
ministers  to  parliament,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  allow  parlia- 
ment to  name  them.  It  needed,  therefore,  only  the  full  recogni- 
tion of  the  legislative  function  of  parliament  by  Henry  to  complete 
the  work  which  had  been  begun  at  Runnymede. 

Thus  by  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  English  constitution  had  been  established  in  the 
formal  recognition  of  the  supremacy  of  the  laws.  By  the  close  of 
the  fourteenth  century  the  forms  of  the  governing  bodies  had  been 
determined.  In  the  fifteenth  century  the  functions  and  powers  of 
these  bodies  were  definitely  fixed  and  limited,  sometimes  by 
statute,  sometimes  by  precedent.  All  subsequent  constitutional 
progress  has  been  simply  in  the  direction  of  clearer  statement  or 
reaffirmation.  New  applications  have  been  found  in  the  ever 
widening  sphere  of  English  life,  but  no  new  element  has  been 
added.  The  fifteenth  century  saw  the  English  constitution  com- 
plete in  all  its  parts. 

English  domestic  troubles  apparently  were  now  at  last  settled. 
All  parties  had  accepted  the  present  order  as  final,  and  under  its 
popular  young  king,  the  nation,  united  and  prosperous,  once 
more  turned  its  face  to  the   future.     The  truce   which  Richard 


444  LANCASTER   AND   THE   CONSTITUTION  [hbnbyV. 

had  made  with  France,  had  not  yet  expired,  and  there  was  no 
particular  reason  for    renewing  the    war;  but    unfortunately  for 

both  countries,  the  English  kiner  had  the  failing  fre- 
the  French     quently  noticed  m  men  oi  brilliant  mind,  who  are  prone 

to  become  victims  of  their  own  imagination,  of  chasing 
visions  which  are  not  worth  the  catching.  Henry  believed  sincerely 
in  his  right  to  the  French  crown.  Ambitious,  bold  to  a  fault,  with  a 
distinct  taste  for  military  enterprise,  with  a  young  nobility  grow- 
ing up  about  him,  restless  and  warlike,  with  England  again  united, 
strong  and  hopeful  as  in  the  early  days  of  Edward  III.,  with 
France  ruled  by  an  imbecile  king,  and  shattered  by  the  quarrels  of 
her  nobles,  Henry  V.  was  the  man  to  court  temptation  rather  than 
put  it  from  him.  He  was,  therefore,  hardly  seated  on  his  throne 
before  he  sent  a  demand  to  the  king  of  France  for  the  restoration 
of  Normandy,  Anjou,  Maine,  and  the  parts  of  Gascony  which  the 
French  still  held.  This  was  followed  in  April  by  a  second  demand 
in  which  he  revived  the  English  claim  upon  the  French  crown. 
Evidently  from  the  first  Henry  meant  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  his 
sore  beset  neighbors,  and  had  no  idea  that  his  preposterous  demands 
would  be  granted ;  for  without  waiting  for  an  answer  he  began  to 
prepare  for  war,  calling  upon  his  parliament  for  aid,  and  at  tlie 
same  time  entering  into  communication  with  the  duke  of  Bur- 
gundy. Parliament  responded  generously  and  heartily.  Its 
enthusiasm  reminds  us  of  the  year  1337.  It  voted  a  tax  of  two 
tenths  and  two  fifteenths  and  made  over  to  the  king  the  **alien 
priories,"  that  is  the  lands  held  in  England  by  foreign  monas- 
teries. With  these  funds  Henry  began  to  collect  a  mercenary 
army.  The  ordinary  pay  of  a  day  laborer  in  England  was  4d. ;  but 
Henry  offered  to  his  rank  and  file,  the  archers,  6d. ;  to  a  knight  2s. 
a  day,  but  to  a  knight  who  brought  other  knights  in  his  train, 
that  is  an  ordinary  baron,  4s. ;  to  an  earl  6s.  8d.,  and  to  a  duke  13s. 
4d.  In  addition  to  this  scale,  munificent  for  the  time,  he  further 
promised  that  two-thirds  of  all  booty  should  be  divided  among  the 
common  soldiery.  The  bounty  offered,  the  popularity  of  Henry,  the 
general  conviction  of  the  weakness  of  France  and  the  assurance  of  suc- 
cess, brought  to  his  ranks  "the  very  pride  of  the  country."  A  finer 
body  of  soldiers  have  rarely  departed  from  the  shores  of  England. 


Edward  in  to  Crtejf,  1346 
to  Pari!  ,  1359 

Blaek  Prinet  up  tin  Qarvnru,  1356 
to  PbitUrt ,  1356 
into  Spain ,  1367 

Ihike  of  Laneatter  1373 

Henry  T  to  Agineourt     1416 

Joan  of  Art ,  1429-30 


X 


a    <:>    >■    /k'"'?f 


■fi  ;%!,'■'  I    LP  A^iMAM 


1415]  THE   CAMPAIGN   OF   AGINCOURT  445 

The  troops  were  already  gathering  at  Northampton,  when 
rumor  was  brought  to  Henry  of  a  conspiracy  to  carry  off  the  earl 
of  March  to  Wales  and  there  proclaim  him  king.  The 
Y<^kisi  lot  P^^^  ^^^^  ^^  ^®  sprung  after  Henry  had  left  England, 
while  he  was  involved  in  the  toils  of  a  distant  campaign 
in  the  interior  of  France.  The  chief  plotter  was  Richard  Earl  of 
Cambridge,  who  had  married  Anne  Mortimer  and  represented  his 
wife's  interests  as  heir  to  the  throne  next  after  the  earl  of  March. 
Cambridge  and  his  fellow  conspirators  were  arrested  and,  upon 
confession  of  their  guilt,  executed.  The  affair  made  no  difference 
in  the  friendship  of  Henry  for  the  earl  of  March,  who  apparently 
was  not  a  party  to  the  plot  and  had  been  the  first  to  warn  the 
king,  nor  for  Edward  the  new  diike  of  York,  the  elder  brother  of 
Cambridge.  The  affair,  *s  it  turned  out,  was  of  little  importance 
of  itself,  yet  it  served  to  keep  Henry  in  mind  of  the  shadows 
which  ever  lurked  about  the  Lancastrian  throne. 

On  the  10th  of  August  Henry  began  the  crossing  of  the  Chan- 
nel, and  landing  at  Chef  de  Caux  advanced  to  the  siege  of  Harfleur 
Thecam-  ^^  ^^®  17th.  Unlike  Edward  III.,  he  knew  how  to 
^jincmirt  "a^ke  the  most  of  an  advantage.  Instead  of  wasting 
^^^^-  time  in  burning  hayricks  and  slaughtering   cattle,  he 

fixed  upon  certain  strategic  points  and  bent  all  his  energies  upon 
securing  these  as  a  new  basis  of  attack  upon  the  enemy.  The  fall 
of  Harfleur,  after  a  heroic  defense  of  more  than  thirty  days,  at 
once  gave  him  control  of  the  valley  of  the  lower  Seine.  His  army, 
however,  had  been  so  wasted  that  he  dared  not  attack  Paris ;  he 
therefore  retired  toward  Calais  with  the  idea  of  joining  forces  with 
the  duke  of  Burgundy.  His  experience  was  much  that  of  Edward 
in  134(5 ;  the  bridges  were  broken  down  before  him ;  the  country 
was  hostile,  the  inhabitants  removing  everything  that  his  army 
might  subsist  on.  Weary  and  famished,  the  English  approached 
the  Somme  at  Edward  III.'s  old  ford  of  Blanche-Tache,  only  to  be 
compelled  to  retrace  its  banks  as  far  as  Amiens  before  they  could 
secure  a  crossing.  At  last  they  neared  Calais  to  find  near  the 
castle  of  Agincourt  the  French  blocking  their  way  in  overwhelm- 
ing numbers. 

The  English  now^  had  hardly  6,000  available  men.     Yet  they 


446 


LANCASTER   AND  THE   CONSTITUTION 


[henbtV. 


The  battle, 
Oct  25,  1415. 


were  buoyed  up  by  the  memory  of  former  victories  and  by  the  mar- 
velous spirit  of  their  leader.  ''I  would  not  have  a  single  man 
more,"  he  cried;  "if  God  give  us  victory  it  will  be  plain 
that  we  owe  it  to  his  grace ;  if  not,  the  fewer  we  are, 
the  less  loss  for  England."  The  French,  outnum- 
bering the  English  six  to  one  and  therefore  overconfident,  allowed 
Henry  to  select  his  ground,  a  narrow  plowed  field  flanked  by 
hedges  and  thickets.  The  archers  were  placed  in  front,  each  man 
protected  from  the  rush  of  cavalry  by  a  six-foot  stake  sharpened  at 

the  ends  and 
so  set  in  the 
ground  as  to 
receive  upon 
its  slant- 
ing point 
the  breast 
of  a  charging 
horse.  The 
field  was  sod- 
den with  re- 
cent rains  and 
so  soft  that  the 
men-at-arms 
sank  to  the 
ankle  in  the 
moist  earth. 
It  was  almost 
impassable  for  horse.  The  French  accordingly  refused  to  advance, 
and  drawing  up  their  men-at-arms,  the  most  of  them  on  foot  as  at 
Poitiers,  stood  so  wedged  together  that  the  knights  could  with 
difficulty  use  their  swords.  Two  bodies  of  horse  were  marshalled 
on  the  wings  of  the  first  rank,  designed  to  charge  the  English 
archers. 

Henry  waited  in  his  position  for  hours ;  but  the  French  refused 
to  move.  The  English  were  without  food  and  fight  they  must  or 
surrender.  When  it  became  evident  that  the  French  were  not  to 
be  lured  into  making  the  attack,  Henry  ordered  forward  his  bow- 


1415-1419]  RESULTS   OF   AGINCOURT  447 

men,  who  advanced  lightly  over  the  soft  ground  until  they  came 
within  range  of  the  enemy,  and  then  with  a  hearty  English  cheer, 
sent  their  arrow-flight  into  the  dense  ranks  before  them.  The 
French  horsemen  attempted  to  sweep  down  upon  the  flanks,  but 
only  to  flounder  and  wallow  in  the  soft  earth,  while  the  English 
men-at-arms  advanced  and  closed  in  upon  the  first  line.  For  a  few 
minutes  the  press  was  terrible,  when  a  well  timed  attack  of 
the  English  horse  on  the  flanks  threw  the  French  into  confusion. 
The  second  line  was  broken  in  the  same  way  and  then  the  English 
advanced  to  attack  the  third.  It  was  at  this  moment  that  Henry 
gave  his  order  for  the  massacre  of  the  prisoners.  The  deed,  so 
out  of  keeping  with  all  that  we  know  of  Henry's  character,  can  be 
explained  only  by  the  supposition  that  he  thought  at  the  moment 
that  the  enemy  were  about  to  attack  him  from  the  rear,  and  he 
feared  that  the  prisoners  of  whom  the  English  had  taken  a  great 
many  might  also  turn  upon  him.  Then  he  attacked  the  third  line 
and  the  battle  was  won. 

The  immediate  effect  of  Agincourt  was  to  turn  upon  Henry  the 
eyes  of  Europe  as  its  most  brilliant  captain,  its  most  glorious 
Remiu  of  ^^"S-  England  went  wild  with  enthusiasm ;  his  return 
Agincourt,  ^^s  a  triumph.  No  one  thought  of  the  flaw  in  his  title 
to  the  English  throne,  or  the  double  flaw  in  his  title  to  the  French 
throne.  The  Emperor  Sigismund,  fresh  from  the  triumph  of  the 
Council  of  Constance,  where  the  great  schism  of  the  church  had 
finally  been  closed,  came  to  visit  him,  in  order  that  here  too  he 
might  play  out  his  little  farce  of  peacemaking.  But  with  the  eyes 
of  England  dazzled  by  the  glories  of  Agincourt,  and  parliament 
lavishly  voting  supplies  to  Henry  for  life,  peace  even  after  the  order 
of  Sigismund  was  not  to  be  thought  of ;  and  the  emperor  departed 
as  he  came,  having  first  been  allowed  to  salve  his  pride  by  entering 
into  an  alliance  with  the  conqueror  of  France. 

Henry  in  the  meanwhile  was  preparing  to  take  full  advantage 
of  his  victory.  He  raised  the  royal  navy  once  more  to  its  old 
The  cam-  efficiency,  and  while  the  Burgundians  and  Armagnacs 
Normandy  ^^®^'®  fighting  before  Paris,  began  a  campaign  for  the 
1417-1419.  conquest  of  Normandy.  His  treatment  of  the  con- 
quered country  was  firm  but  conciliatory.     He  came,  he  announced, 


448  LANCASTER    AND   THE    CONSTITUTION  [hknuyV. 

to  give  peace  to  the  land  and  save  the  people  from  the  curse  of 
civil  strife.  He  forbade  his  men  to  pillage,  or  to  abuse  the 
peasantry.  As  city  after  city  fell  into  his  hands,  it  was  a  part  of  his 
regular  program  to  establish  in  each  place  an  orderly  govern- 
ment, and  to  assure  the  burghers  of  his  purpose  to  give  them  a 
better  protection  than  the  French. 

The  steady  advance  of  the  English  finally  brought  the  French 

nobles  to  their  senses  and  led  to  an  attempt  to  bring  the  duke  of 

Burgundy  and  the  court  party  together.     A  meeting 

Hon  of  Duke    was  arranged  to  take  place  upon  the  bridge  at  Montereau 

John  of  Bur- 

gundij,Aug.,   between  Duke  John  and  the  Dauphin  Charles  who  now 

1419.  ■  .  . 

represented  the  stricken  king.  But  the  hatred  of  the 
Armagnac  for  the  Burgundian  was  deep  seated;  the  blood  of  the 
duke  of  Orleans  was  still  unavenged,  and  as  the  traitorous  Burgun- 
dian knelt  before  the  Dauphin  in  the  act  of  renewing  his  oath  of 
homage,  an  old  servant  of  the  duke  of  Orleans  rushed  upon  him 
and  smote  him  to  death.  The  breach  between  Burgundy  and 
Armagnac  was  now  irreparable;  the  duke's  son  Philip,  with  all 
his  following,  including  the  great  city  of  Paris  where  Duke  John 
was  very  popular,  again  went  over  to  the  English,  and  the 
Armagnac  court  were  compelled  to  accept  such  peace  as  Henry  was 
willing  to  give  them. 

The  peace  was-  concluded  at  Troyes,  May  21,  1420.     By  it  the 

Dauphin  was  excluded  from  the  succession.     Charles  YI.  was  to 

remain  kins:  in  name  until  his  death ;    Henry  was  to 

Treaty  of  .  . 

TroyeH,May  marry  his  daughter  Catharine,  be  recognized  as  ''heir 
of  France,"  and  govern  the  kingdom  as  regent. 
Henry  now  returned  to  England  to  crown  his  new  queen  at 
AVestminster  and  enjoy  his  triumph  in  the  midst  of  his  people. 
He  had  succeeded  where  Edward  III.  had  failed.  The  crown  of 
France  was  won;  his  son  after  him  should  wear  the  crown  of  both 
nations.  But  Henry  was  about  to  commit  the  same  blunder  which 
Edward  I.  had  made  in  dealing  with  the  Scots;  he  forgot  the 
people.  If  the  French  crown  was  won,  France  was  not.  The 
Dauphin  Charles,  who  was  by  no  means  inclined  to  sub- 
mit to  the  disinheritance  prescribed  by  the  Treaty  of  Troyes,  had 
retired  south  of  the  Loire,  whither  in  time  flocked  all  the  discon- 


1421,  1422]  DEATH   OF   HENRY   V.  449 

tented  elements  of  the  nation.  The  Dauphin,  frivolous,  dissipated, 
and  unworthy  of  the  people's  trust,  was  a  poor  leader  for  such  a 
forlorn  hope;  yet  the  people  clung  to  him  as  their  last  refuge.  lie 
was  thus  strong  in  the  very  desperateness  of  his  cause,  nor  were 
Henry's  lieutenants  a  match  for  the  seasoned  warriors  whom  the 
Prince  now  pitted  against  them.  His  brother  Thomas 
March  22,       Duke  of  Clarence  was  defeated  and  slain  at  Bauge  and 

1421.  ^  . 

Henry  himself  was  forced  to  hasten  from  Westminster  to 
enter  the  field  again  in  defense  of  his  new  crown.  He  drove  the 
Dauphin  south  of  the  Loire  and  then  turned  upon  Meaux.  Here  he 
was  compelled  to  sit  down  and  wait  seven  months,  while  dysentery, 
Rirthnf  ^^®  scourgc  of  the  armics  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
Da-llLhere  ^^™^^  off  his  men.  The  only  ray  to  brighten  the  tedi- 
^^^'  ous  waiting  of  that  long  and  fatal  winter,  was  the  news 

of  the  birth  of  a  son,  who  was  straightway  christened  Henry.  On 
the  10th  of  May  1422,  Meaux  surrendered ;  but  Henry  had  little 
opportunity  to  rest  and  was  at  once  called  north  again  by  the 
renewed  activity  of  the  Dauphin.  On  the  way  he  was  overtaken 
by  the  fell  disease  which  had  already  laid  low  so  many  of  his 
people.     He  died  at  Vincennes  near  Paris  August  31,  1422. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE    LAST   STAGE    OF   THE    HUNDRED   YEAES'    WAR. 
RIVALRY    OF    LANCASTER   AND    YORK 


THE 


HENRY  VI.,  1^2-1461 


THE  DESCENT  OF  THE  RIVAL  HOUSE  OF  YORK 


Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence,  3d  son  of  Edward  IIL, 
I     d.  1368 

Philippa= Edmund  Mortimer.  Earl  of  March, 
great-grandson  of  Roger  Mortimer  of  Edward 
II. 's  reign 

I 


Roger,  Earl  of 
March,  killed 
in  Ireland 


Edmund  taken    Elizabeth  m. 
by  Glendower    Henry  Percy, 
at  Brynglas,       "Hotspur" 
m,  (xlendower's 
daughter 


Edmund,  Earl  of  March, 

1398-1424 


Edmund,  Duke  of  York, 
son  of  Edward  III., 
(1.  1401 


5th 


Edward,  Earl  of 
Rutland,  Duke 
of  York,  killed 
at  Agincourt 
1415 


Anne  =  Richard,  Earl  of  Cam- 
I    bridge  executed  1415 

Richard,  Duke  of  =  Cicely  Neville 
York,  killed  at 
Wakefield  1460 

\ 


Edward  IV. 
1461-1483 


Edmund,  Earl  of 
Rutland  slain 
at  Wakefield 
1460 


i 
(Jeorge.  Duke  of 
(Marence,  mur- 
dered in  prison 

1478 


I 
Richard  III., 
1483-1485 


Edward  v.,  cl.l483 


I 
Richard,  Duke  of  York  d.  1483 


Elizabeth  =  Henry  VIL 


The  death  of  Henry  V.  left  his  two  realms  to  a  child  eight 
months  old.     His  brother  John,  Duke  of  Bedford,  a  man  of  ster- 
ling worth   and  ability   of   hiffh  order,  was  appointed 

Siwcessionof  .  ^  -, 

Henry  VL,  regent  of  France  and  protector  of  England,  w  hen  the 
duties  of  the  regency  carried  Bedford  to  France,  a 
second  brother  Humphrey  Duke  of  Gloucester,  was  to  have  the 
title  and  assume  the  duties  of  protector.  The  arrangement  was 
unfortunate.  Duke  Humphrey  was  a  very  different  man  from  John 
of  Bedford;  he  had  a  certain  kind  of  showy  ability;  but  he  was 
also  insanely  ambitious,  restless  and  reckless;   the  kind  of  man  to 

450 


1422-1428]  PROTECTORATE    OP    BEDFORD  451 

make  trouble  unless  held  in  by  a  strong  hand.  Henry  Beaufort 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  the  great-uncle  of  the  little  king,  was 
appointed  to  the  chancellorship,  where  his  personal  worth  and  repu- 
tation for  sound  judgment  did  much  to  outweigh  the  mischievous 
influence  of  Duke  Humphrey. 

Two  months  after  the  death  of  Henry  V.,  poor  Charles  VL, 
forlorn  and  unattended,  passed  away  at  his  palace  of  St.  Paul  in 
Paris.  His  death,  however,  changed  in  little  the  out- 
uiinries  vti.,  look  for  the  Dauphin,  who  possessed  neither  the  men 
nor  the  resources  to  enable  him  to  compete  successfully 
with  the  English  regent.  Yet  he  assumed  the  title  of  Charles  VII. 
and  kept  up  a  court  as  gaily  as  he  could  at  Bourges. 

The  first  step  of  Bedford  in  strengthening  the  English  hold 
upon  the  French  crown  was  to  form  an  active  alliance  with  his  two 
great  vassals  of  Burgundy  and  Brittany,  based  upon  a 
operawrm  ^^^^ble  marriage.  He  thus  held  control  of  almost 
cimrus  VII  ^^®  entire  seacoast  of  France,  and  also  secured  a 
fine  base  for  operations  in  the  regions  east  and  west  of 
Paris.  He  then  began  a  series  of  campaigns  designed  to  wrest 
from  Charles  his  last  hold  north  of  the  Loire.  In  1423  his  able 
lieutenant,  Thomas  Montague,  Earl  of  Salisbury,  won  a  decisive 
victory  at  Crevant,  and  the  next  year  at  Verneuil  Bedford  himself 
almost  eclipsed  the  victory  of  his  late  brother  at  Agincourt.  In 
two  years  nearly  all  the  strongholds  of  Charles  north  of  the  Loire 
were  taken.  Bedford  also  still  further  weakened  Charles  by 
persuading  the  council  to  release  James  Stuart  and  enter  into  a 
league  with  him,  in  order  to  withdraw  the  Scots  from  the  French 
alliance.     The  prince  had  been  held  in  England  for  eighteen  years. 

During  the  four  years  which  followed  the  victory  of  Verneuil, 
the  thoughtless  ambition  of  Duke  Humphrey  did  much  to 
Reactum  neutralize  the  results  of  Bedford's  successes.  He  scan- 
1424-1428!  dalized  good  people,  and  offended  the  duke  of  Burgundy, 
by  marrying  Jacqueline  of  Hainault,  the  wife  of  the  duke  of 
Brabant,  whose  divorce  was  still  in  question  and  whose  dominions 
were  expected  to  fall  to  Duke  Philip.  At  home,  also,  Humphrey 
quarreled  with  his  fellow  councillors,  and  the  duke  of  Bedford  had 
to  cross  the  Channel  in  order  to  quiet  the  storm.      The  French 


452  RIVALRY   OF  LANCASTER   AND   YORK  [henryVL 

people,  who  had  been  somewhat  confused  at  first  by  the  marriage 
of  Henry  V.  and  the  Princess  Catharine  and  hardly  knew  which 
was  the  real  national  party,  were  now  beginning  to  see  the  path  of 
duty,  if  not  of  interest,  more  clearly  and  to  regard  the  Dauphin  as 
the  champion  of  national  independence.  His  misfortunes,  also, 
appealed  to  them,  if  his  character  did  not.  Charles,  moreover, 
had  the  experience  of  the  past  to  draw  from.  Like  Charles  V., 
he  sought  to  replace  his  feudal  army  by  a  professional  soldiery,  and 
even  found  another  du  Guesclin  in  the  scarcely  less  famous  Dunois. 
In  other  ways  also  the  tide  was  turning  against  the  English.  Ten 
years  had  elapsed  since  the  renewal  of  the  war,  and  the  first  flush 
of  enthusiasm  had  long  since  ebbed  in  England;  it  was  no  longer 
an  easy  matter  to  persuade  parliaments  to  make  annual  grants,  or 
to  enlist  men  for  endless  campaigns  against  stone  walls,  where 
dysentery  and  camp  fever  were  far  more  to  be  feared  than  French 
bombards. 

In  1428,  it  was  determined  by  Bedford  and  his  councillors  to 
make  one  supreme  effort  to  drive  the  Dauphin  wholly  south  of  the 

Loire,  and  to  secure  the  great  town  of  Orleans,  the 
arimm^i428   strategic   value  of    which  in  carrying  on    subsequent 

operations  south  of  the  river  was  well  understood.  It 
was  a  serious  undertaking;  the  city  was  well  manned  and  well  pro- 
visioned; its  position  also  was  one  of  great  natural  strength.  The 
English  by  the  utmost  endeavor  could  marshal  an  army  of  only 
10,000  men,  and  this  was  still  further  weakened  by  the  temporary 
withdrawal  of  the  duke  of  Burgundy.  Yet  with  this  force,  in  Octo- 
ber 1428,  they  proceeded  to  invest  the  city.  Early  in  the  siege 
Salisbury,  the  hero  of  Crevant,  who  commanded  the  little  English 
army,  was  killed  by  a  cannon  shot.  This  was  a  serious  loss  to  the 
English;  yet  the  garrison  were  so  completely  demoralized  that  for 
the  most  part  they  simply  looked  on  while  the  little  army  of  Eng- 
lishmen continued  to  build  forts  and  plant  batteries  about  the  city. 
In  the  spring  the  French  outside  of  the  city  plucked  up  courage 
suificient  to  attack  a  supply  train,  which  Sir  John  Fastolf  was  con- 
voying to  the  English  camp,  but  were  beaten  off  with  great 
slaughter.  The  supplies  were  mostly  salt  fish,  hence  the  camp 
wits  facetiously  dubbed  the  encounter  the  *' Battle  of  the  Her- 


1428]  JOAN  OP  ARC  453 

rings. "  This  was  the  only  serious  attempt  made  by  the  French  to 
interfere  with  the  English  during  the  first  six  months  of  the  siege. 
The  court  was  in  despair;  Charles  gave  up  hope,  and  thought 
seriously  of  leaving  Aquitaine  altogether  and  seeking  refuge  in 
Dauphine  or  possibly  even  in  Spain  or  Scotland. 

A  great  nation,  like  Balaam's  ass,  sometimes  requires  a  vigorous 
drubbing  to  give  it  voice,  and  when  it  finds  utterance  at  last,  it 

is  likely  to  speak  in  strange  and  startling  ways.  The 
natumai         French  people,  not  the  titled  nobility,  had  suffered  long 

and  sadly  under  the  war.  Generations  had  come  and 
gone,  and  still  the  fire  smouldered  on.  Frenchmen  without  num- 
ber had  fallen  in  battle;  died  of  wounds  and  mutilation;  died  of 
pestilence  and  famine.  Thousands  of  French  homes  had  been 
destroyed ;  the  children  scattered ;  wives  and  mothers  had  perished 
of  hunger  and  exhaustion;  still  the  dreadful  war  raged  on.  And 
now  at  last  the  end  of  all  this  suffering  apparently  was  at  hand ; 
and  what  had  it  all  been  for?  Only  that  the  foreigner  might  pos- 
sess the  land,  and  that  the  last  of  the  French  native  kings  might 
die  in  exile.  Whatever  men  might  say  of  the  chief  actors,  the 
cause  was  holy.  Would  not  God  himself  interfere  to  save  his 
people? 

It  was  this  spirit  of  pure  patriotism,  very  different  from  the 
self-seeking  of  noble  and  churchman,  which  found  incarnation  at 

last  in  a  simple  peasant  girl  of  Domremy,  Joan  of  Arc. 

Joan  of  Arc.    ^,       ,      ,  i         i    i  ^  \   ^ 

She  had  pondered  long  upon  the  woes  of  her  people, 
until  the  iron  had  entered  her  soul.  Possibly  her  simple  mind  bent 
under  the  strain, — in  the  language  of  a  modern  materialistic  age 
became  deranged.  But  then  all  unselfish  enthusiasm  is  of  the 
nature  of  insanity.  She  believed  in  God  and  his  saints;  she 
believed  in  the  destiny  of  her  country;  the  simple  creed  of  all  true 
patriotism.  She  saw  visions  and  heard  voices.  She  had  no  choice 
but  obedience.  Her  sacred  enthusiasm  inspired  those  about  her 
with  confidence,  and  with  them  she  went  forth  to  meet  dangers, 
the  real  nature  of  which  her  rustic  mind  but  dimly  comprehended. 
On  the  12th  of  February,  1429,  Joan  set  out  from  Vaucouleurs, 
a  king's  town  some  thirteen  miles  from  Domremy,  to  present  her- 
self at  the  court  of  Charles  VII.     She  was  dressed  and  armed 


454  EIVALRY    OF   LANCASTER   AND    YORK  [henbt  VI. 

like  a  man;  by  her  side  rode  a  few  friends  whom  she  had  convinced 

of  the  reality  of  her  visions  and  who  were  embued  with  her  spirit. 

From  Vaucouleurs  on  the  borders  of  Lorraine  to  Chinon 

from  Dom-     where  Charles  was  then  holding  his  court,  the  distance 

remy. 

was  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles;  the  country  was 
infested  by  wandering  bands  of  freebooters;  every  step  was  fraught 
with  danger.     Yet  she  made  the  journey  without  incident. 

At  Chinon  Joan  met  her  first  serious  difiBculty  in  gaining  an 
audience  from  the  king  and  explaining  her  mission.  Here  she 
Joan  and  found  characters  to  deal  with  very  different  from  the 
charUs  VII.  simple  peasant  folk  of  her  home.  Yet  the  age  was  full 
of  superstition;  men  lived  with  the  spirit  world  ever  at  their 
elbows.  Something  about  the  strange  maid  in  man's  attire,  her 
eyes  lightened  with  holy  enthusiasm,  or  possibly  some  crude  tests 
devised  by  the  churchmen  in  the  royal  suite,  laid  hold  upon  the 
young  king's  imagination.  He  and  those  about  him  were  satisfied 
that  she  was  sent  either  by  Cod  or  the  devil, — as  men  regarded 
such  things  then,  about  equally  powerful  and  equally  desirable  as 
allies. 

Accordingly  it  was  determined  to  give  the  ''wondrous  maid"  a 
trial  and  put  her  mission  to  the  test.     At  Blois  she  came  into 

direct  contact  with  the  wild  and  dissolute  life  of  a 
pearanceof     medieval   army.     She  felt  the  contradiction  with   her 

Joan. 

own  pure  nature,  and  began  her  work  by  purging  the 
camp.  She  inspired  the  rough  soldiery  with  her  religious  enthu- 
siasm and  brought  grizzled  warriors  like  children  to  the  confes- 
sional, which  most  of  them  had  neglected  for  years.  The  army 
from  the  depths  of  despair  rose  at  once  to  the  height  of  enthu- 
siasm; they  believed  that  at  last  God  had  come  to  fight  for  them. 
The  English  on  the  other  hand  had  their  own  explanation  of  the 
wonderful  power  of  this  new  ally  of  the  French;  they  saw  in  her  a 
witch  without  question,  an  ally  of  the  devil,  and  their  courage 
melted  accordingly.  Their  leaders  could  no  longer  bring  them  to 
face  the  dreadful  champion  of  Charles. 

Joan  entered  Orleans  without  difficulty  and  at  once  began  a  series 
of  vigorous  sallies  upon  the  forts  with  which  the  English  had 
blocked  the  ways  into  the  city.     The  besiegers,  whose  numbers 


1429-1431]  DEATH    OF   JOAN    OF   ARC  455 

from  the  first  had  been  inferior  to  the  French,  were  swept  from 
position  after  position,  until  on  Sunday  morning,  the  8th  of  May, 
Success  of  1^^9,  they  formally  raised  the  siege  and  retired  from 
Joan.  before  the  city.    A  few  days  later  the  earl  of  Suffolk  was 

defeated  and  captured  at  Jargeau ;  then  Sir  John  Talbot  was  over- 
whelmed at  Patay;  and  at  last  on  the  17th  of  July,  Joan  stood  by 
the  altar  in  the  great  Cathedral  of  Rheims,  the  ancient  coronation 
city  of  the  French  kings,  and  saw  Charles  VII.  crowned. 

The  mission  of  the  maid  was  now  accomplished;  but  the  king, 
against  her  judgment,  persuaded  her  to  remain  with  the  army. 

She  won  no  more  successes;  her  simple  soul  was  no 
Joan  of  Arc's  match  for  the  mean  intrigues  and   jealousies  of   the 

camp,  and  in  1430  she  was  captured  by  the  Burgundians 
at  Compiegne,  betrayed  it  is  said  by  her  former  companions  in  arms, 
and  then  sold  to  the  English,  The  English,  who  still  cherished 
their  old  theory,  thought,  no  doubt,  to  break  the  spell  and 
restore  the  morale  of  their  troops  by  destroying  the  alleged  witch 
and  thus  vindicating  the  righteousness  of  their  own  cause.  Joan 
was  accordingly  tried  before  a  court  of  Norman  and  Biirgundian 
prelates  who  were  determined  to  force  from  her  the  confession 
of  witchcraft  or  to  destroy  her,  or  to  do  both.  She  was  con- 
victed and  sentenced  to  death  by  fire.  The  cruel  command  of  the 
court  was  carried  out  at  Rouen,  May  30,  1431.  The  execution 
was  a  lasting  disgrace  to  the  English  leaders  and  to  their  tools  the 
French  churchmen  who  authorized  it;  to  King  Charles  and  the 
French  court  who  lifted  not  a  finger  to  save  the  poor  girl  who 
gave  her  life  for  France. 

While  English  interests  on  the  continent  were  passing  through 
these  trying  vicissitudes,  the  council  and  parliament  at  home  were 

more  or  less  distracted  by  the  continual  quarreling  of 
affairs  at        Gloucester  and  Henry  Beaufort.     In  1426  so  intense 

was  the  feeling  that  their  partisans  almost  came  to 
blows;  the  parliament  of  the  year  is  known  as  the  ''Parliament  of 
Bats"  because  each  member  came  armed  with  a  bludgeon.  In 
1427  Beaufort  made  the  serious  mistake  of  allowing  the  pope  to 
raise  him  to  the  rank  of  cardinal,  which,  while  it  opened  a  larger 
arena  for  his  commanding  genius  in  the  field  of  European  politics, 


456  RIVALRY    OF    LANCASTER   AND    YORK  [hexry  vi. 

put  a  new  weapon  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies  at  home  by  ena- 
bling them  to  attack  him  directly  as  a  friend  of  the  pope,  sold  to 
the  papal  interests.  Gloucester  insisted  that  he  should 
Temporary  give  up  not  Only  his  English  bishopric  but  the  chancel - 
Beaufort.  lorship  as  well.  But  before  the  question  could  be  set- 
tled, a  service  which  Beaufort  rendered  the  English 
army  in  the  field  .after  the  relief  of  Orleans,  satisfied  the  waver- 
ing, and  for  the  moment  shamed  even  his  enemies  into  silence. 
Yet  he  was  glad  to  escape  the  hornets  which  Gloucester  kept  ever 
buzzing  about  his  ears,  and  after  the  French  coronation  of  the 
English  king  in  1431  he  kept  away  from  England  for  two  years. 

On  the  continent  in  the  six  years  which  followed  the  death  of 
Joan  of  Arc  neither  party  was  able  to  gain  on  the  other.  Yet  in 
any  prolonged  struggle,  time  is  always  on  the  side  of 
of^B^r^nT  ^^ose  who  are  fighting  the  defensive  war.  In  1433  the 
enthusiasm  of  parliament  for  the  war  had  ebbed  alto- 
gether; a  debt  of  £160,000  had  accumulated,  enormous  for  the 
times,  and,  do  what  the  ministers  would,  it  continued  to  mount 
upwards  at  the  rat^  of  £20,000  a  year.  Exclusive  of  the  troops 
detailed  for  garrison  duty,  Bedford  could  command  barely  8,500 
men  for  field  duty.  It  was  evident,  therefore,  that  if  the  conquest 
were  to  be  completed,  it  must  be  by  the  vigorous  support  of  the 
duke  of  Burgundy.  But  unfortunately  Bedford  had  managed  to 
offend  his  powerful  ally  by  marrying  the  sister  of  the  Count  of  St. 
Pol,  Burgundy's  old  time  enemy.  Burgundy  had  never  been 
happy  in  the  British  alliance,  and  nothing  but  the  fierceness  of  his 
desire  for  revenge  upon  the  men  who  had  so  foully  slain  his  father 
on  the  bridge  of  Montereau,  had  held  him  to  the  uncongenial  task 
of  making  war  for  the  glorification  of  a  foreign  king.  The  old 
wound,  however,  was  now  somewhat  closed,  and,  smarting  under 
the  new  offense  inflicted  by  Bedford's  marriage,  the  duke  entered 
into  secret  negotiations  with  Charles  VII.  Pope  Eugenius  IV.  in 
the  meantime  had  summoned  a  congress  at  Arras  in  the 
of  Arras,  hopc  of  finding  some  ground  upon  which  the  peace  of 
Europe  might  be  restored.  The  peace  congress  met  in 
August  1435,  and  the  French  were  ready  with  a  proposal  which 
had  been  secretly  agreed  upon  beforehand  with  Burgundy;   they 


1436-1440]         INCREASING    STRENGTH    OF    PEACE    PARTY  457 

offered  to  cede  to  the  English  Normandy  and  Aqiiitaine  on  con- 
dition that  the  English  renounce  their  claims  to  the  French  crown. 
The  English,  as  was  expected,  promptly  rejected  the  proposal, 
and  four  weeks  later  Burgundy  renounced  the  English  alliance  and 
made  a  formal  treaty  with  the  French  king.  He  car- 
Parisde/!iares  ried  with  him  also  the  city  of  Paris.     Her  population, 

for  Charles,  r    i  ^ 

April,  14861  ahvays  turbulent,  and  devoted  to  Burgundy  rather  than 
to  the  English,  rose  against  the  meager  garrison  which 
Bedford  had  left  in  the  city  and  opened  the  gates  to  their  king. 
For  the  first  time  in  eighteen  years,  the  French  national  party  held 
the  capital.  But  a  still  more  serious  misfortune  had  already 
befallen  the  English  in  the  death  of  Bedford  himself,  who,  worn 
out  by  the  long  struggle,  and  broken-hearted  over  the  failure  of  all 
his  plans,  had  survived  the  Congress  of  Arras  barely  three 
weeks. 

The  peace  party  in  England  now  had  ample  ^material  for  a 

vigorous  campaign  in  favor  of  putting  an  end  to  the  useless  war. 

New  leaders  were  brought  forward  in  hope  of  finding  a 

Growth  of      man  who  could  fill  Bedford's  place  and  lead  English 

peace  part}/  .  ,         -    .  x.     .  ^      ^  i        •        i 

in  England,  armies  oucc  more  to  victory,  but  only  to  emphasize  by 
their  repeated  failure  the  hopelessness  of  the  struggle. 
First,  Richard  Duke  of  York,  the  son  of  that  earl  of  Cambridge 
who  had  been  executed  in  1415,  was  sent  over  as  regent;  then 
Richard  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  then  the  duke  of  York 
again;  finally  John  Beaufort,  the  nephew  of  the  cardinal,  tried  his 
fortune  in  conducting  the  losing  cause.  Some  paltry  advantages 
were  secured;  but  the  conviction  was  steadily  gaining  ground  in 
England  that  it  was  impossible  to  build  up  an  English  monarchy 
on  French  soil  in  defiance  of  the  wishes  of  the  French  people. 

Gloucester  had  done  his  best  to  embarrass  the  ministers  in 
prosecuting  the  war  when  it  was  successful.  He  now  did  his  best 
to  stir  up  popular  feeling  against  the  peacemakers.  The 
oum^&r  candid  mind  of  Cardinal  Beaufort  recognized  the  use- 
warparty^  lessness  of  Continuing  the  war,  and  he  bravely  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  the  peace  party.  In  this  he  also  had 
the  active  support  of  the  young  king,  whose  gentle  and  kindly 
spirit  had  no  desire  to  see  the  aimless  waste  of  life  continue.     The 


458  RIVALRY    OP    LANCASTER    AND    YORK  [hexuy  vi. 

two  found  an  ally  in  the  duke  of  Orleans,  who  had  been  taken  at 

Agincourt  and  had  passed  the  intervening  twenty-five  years  as  a 

prisoner  of  war.      He  was  now  released  on  condition 

1440. 

that  he  pay  a  ransom  of  £60,000  and  pledge  himself 
never  again  to  bear  arms  against  England.  He  was  also  to  use  his 
influence  to  secure  a  permanent  peace ;  if  he  succeeded,  the  ransom 
was  to  be  remitted.  Gloucester  was  furious;  he  raged  and 
stormed,  and  openly  accused  Beaufort  of  treason. 

Two  years  later  Henry  VI.  came  of  age.  He  was  singularly 
pure  in  spirit,  amiable,  devout,  and  above  all  anxious  to  please. 
The  hearts  of  the  people  turned  to  him  with  hope  and 
Character,  confidence ;  yet  they  were  doomed  to  bitter  disappoint- 
ment. A  more  unfortunate  king  never  reigned.  With 
all  his  goodness,  he  lacked  the  sterling  mental  qualities  necessary 
for  a  ruler  of  men.  He  had  been  most  carefully  trained,  too  care- 
fully perhaps;  for  his  tutors,  encouraged  by  his  eagerness,  his  con- 
scientious devotion  to  duty,  had  laid  tasks  upon  the  young  prince 
which  his  feeble  strength  could  not  sustain;  possibly  also  there 
lurked  in  the  lad's  constitution  some  germs  of  hereditary  insanity, 
the  tainted  blood  of  his  French  mother,  which  required  ©nly  the 
heart-breaking  cares  of  the  next  few  years  to  develop. 

During  his  minority  the  young  king  with  the  desperate  tenacity 
of  one  who  knew  his  own  incompetence  for  independent  action,  had 
clung  to  the  venerable  Cardinal  Beaufort,  and  when  fail- 
the  king's  ing  health  forced  the  cardinal  to  retire  from  public  life, 
Henry  had  found  a  new  support  in  William  de  la  Pole, 
the  earl  of  Suffolk.  This  de  la  Pole  was  the  grandson  of  the  old 
chancellor  of  Richard  II;  his  father  had  fallen  at  Harfleur  in  1415. 
Suffolk,  with  the  real  interests  of  the  House  of  Lancaster  at  heart, 
urged  upon  the  king  the  policy  of  an  early  marriage,  and  selected  for 
him  Margaret,  the  daughter  of  Rene  Duke  of  Anjou,  Count  of  Prov- 
ence, and  titular  King  of  Naples  and  Jerusalem.  But  what  influ- 
enced Henry  more  than  the  father's  titles,  was  the  fact  that 
the  proposed  bride  was  a  niece  of  Charles  YII.'s  queen,  and 
hence  the  marriage  might  prove  a  step  towards  a  permanent 
peace.  In  1 445  Suffolk  managed  to  secure  a  truce  for  ten  years. 
The  English  agreed  to  withdraw  the  few  garrisons  which  were  still 


1445  1447]  THE   WAR   RENEWED  459 

left  in  Anjou  and  Maine,  and  Margaret  was  sent  over  to  England. 
The  peace  party  was  now  in  the  ascendant.  Parliament  voted  its 
thanks.  Suffolk  was  made  a  marquis,  and  four  years  later  a  duke. 
The  marriage,  as  might  be  expected,  was  bitterly  opposed  by 
Duke  Humphrey  ajid  the  war  party;  first  because  they  were 
opposed   to   makinff  any  concessions   to  France;    and 

Death  of  ^^      T    ,  TT  1  1  .  lii  L  •  L 

Gloucester,  second  becausc  Humphrey  himself  was  not  anxious  to 
see  his  own  hopes  of  securing  the  crown  destroyed  by 
the  birth  of  an  heir  to  Henry.  But  Humphrey's  influence  had 
been  on  the  wane  of  late,  owing  largely  to  the  over-eagerness  of  his 
wife  Eleanor  Cobham,  whom  he  had  married  after  the  pope  had  rid 
him  of  the  fair  Jacqueline,  and  who  had  been  thoughtless  enough 
to  consult  a  famous  witch  about  the  future  of  her  house.  In  a  day 
when  men  serionsly  believed  in  the  black  art  such  an  act  approached 
dangerously  near  to  treason,  and  the  good  dame  soon  found  herself 
in  sore  trouble.  Some  believed  that  she  had  actually  sought  to 
compass  the  young  king's  death.  Gloucester,  however,  was  still 
not  without  some  following  and  kept  up  his  opposition  until  even 
Henry's  patiejice  was  exhausted,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1447,  the  king  gave  his  councillors  permission  to  arrest  the  trouble- 
some nobleman.     Five  days  later  Gloucester  was  dead. 

With  the  death  of  Gloucester,  the  last  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a 
permanent  peace  was  removed.  Cardinal  Beaufort  had  survived 
him  only  six  weeks;  but  his  declining  health  had  for 
renewed,  some  time  back  prevented  him  from  exercising  his  old 
influence  in  politics,  and  his  loss  was  hardly  missed  by 
the  peace  party.  The  real  leader  was  now  the  new  made  marquis 
of  Suffolk,  who  proceeded  in  good  faith  to  carry  out  the  agreement 
made  at  the  time  of  the  marriage  contract.  Here,  however,  he 
met  a  new  obstacle  in  the  English  garrisons  who  felt  the  soldiers' 
reluctance  to  withdraw  from  a  country  which  had  once  been  won 
by  the  blood  of  their  comrades  in  arms.  Their  commander 
Edmund  Beaufort,  Duke  of  Somerset,^  was  too  much  in  sympathy 
with  their  mood  to  restrain  them,  and  allowed  them  to  vent  their 
ill  humor  upon  the  helpless  inhabitants  of  Fougeres.     This  act  of 

^John  Beaufort  had  killed  himself  in  1444,  and  Edmund  had  suc- 
ceeded to  his  titles  and  also  to  his  command  in  France. 


460  RIVALRY    OF    LANCASTER   AND    YORK  [henry  VL 

wanton  savagery,  by  which  a  peaceful  city  of  France  was  turned 
over  to  a  band  of  armed  ruffians  who  called  themselves  English 
soldiers,  to  be  sacked  as  though  it  had  been  taken  by  the  sword, 
could  have  but  one  result.  The  two  nations  were  again 
plunged  into  war,  and  all  the  planning  of  Suffolk  came  to 
naught. 

The  council  were  now  in  worse  trouble  than  if  there  had  been 
no  attempt  to  secure  peace.  The  war  party  were  not  appeased  by 
^    ,_  the  failure  of  Suffolk's  plans;    the  peace  party  were 

English  re-       .  iii.  -tj 

verses,  inclined    to   hold    him    responsible,    all    parties    were 

1448,1449.  r  5  r 

angry  because  he  had  surrendered  the  citadels  of  Anjou. 
The  French  were  well  prepared  for  a  renewal  of  the  struggle ;  they 
had  entirely  reorganized  their  military  system,  and  were  able  to 
take  the  field  with  a  standing  army  of  paid  soldiers.  The  English 
were  correspondingly  unprepared.  Somerset  could  not  hold  his 
ground  with  the  meager  garrisons  under  his  command,  and  Suffolk 
could  not  strengthen  him.  One  by  one  his  citadels  were  wrested 
from  him.  In  1448  Le  Mans  fell,  and  in  1449  the  great  citadel 
of  Rouen  also  passed  into  French  hands.  The  recovery  of  Nor- 
mandy by  the  French  was  now  assured. 

In  England  all  control  was  rapidly  slipping  from  the  feeble 
hands  of  the  council,  whose  misfortunes  had  long  since  lost  them 

the  confidence  of  the  people.  The  government  was 
anarchy  in     virtually  bankrupt,^  and  without  funds  it  could  neither 

reward  its  servants  nor  awe  its  foes.  Confusion  reigned 
everywhere.  The  barons  despised  the  threats  of  the  council, 
defied  the  courts,  and,  with  the  feeling  that  troublous  times  were 
at  hand,  began  hiring  and  arming  retainers^  and  forming  military 

^  The  debt  had  reached  the  unprecedented  sum  of  £370,000. 

2  The  custom  of  keeping  hired  bands  of  liveried  retainers,  known  as 
livery  of  company,  had  been  introduced  soon  after  Edward  I.  by  the  statute 
Quia  Emptores  had  put  a  stop  to  subinfeudation.  The  support  of  such 
a  band  was  always  a  temptation  to  a  baron  to  engage  in  acts  of  unlaw- 
ful violence  or  to  interfere  with  the  courts  of  justice  by  "upholding  or 
maintaining  (\u2iXYQ\B  not  his  own."  Edward  I.  had  forbidden  mainte- 
nance and  Richard  II.  and  Henry  IV.  had  attempted  to  check  livery  of  com- 
pany ;  but  the  barons  apparently  had  paid  little  attention  to  the  laws, 
and  in  the  era  of  anarchy  now  at  hand  the  evil  soon  assumed  alarming 


1450]  THE    CADE    REBELLION  461 

leagues  with  neighboring  freeholders  and  knights;  nor  was  it  long 
before  swords  were  drawn  and  blood  was  flowing.  The  north  was 
in  an  uproar  where  the  two  rival  branches  of  the  Nevilles  were 
already  fighting;  experiences  such  as  those  of  John  Paston, 
whose  home  at  Gresham  was  stormed  by  Lord  Moleyns  at  the  head 
of  a  thousand  men,  soon  became  the  order  of  the  day.  Here  was 
soil  prepared  for  fresh  trouble;  it  needed  only  a  leader  to  plunge 
the  nation  into  all  the  horrors  of  prolonged  civil  war. 

At  last  the  year  1450  opened;  destined  to  be  a  year  of  national 

humiliation,  disorder,  and  much  shedding  of  blood.     In  January 

the  council  sent  Bishop  Moleyns  down  to  Portsmouth 

Opening  of  .  •  -i         i         «.     •  i 

fataiyear,  to  quiet  some  mutinous  sailors  by  offering  them  partial 
payment  on  account  of  money  due  them  from  the  gov- 
ernment. They  turned  upon  Moleyns  and  murdered  him.  Two 
weeks  later  parliament  met  and  opened  the  second  tragedy  of  the 
year  with  a  direct  attack  upon  Suffolk.  Since  the  fall  of  Rouen  in 
the  preceding  October,  tlie  populace  had  turned  all  its  wrath  upon 
the  now  doomed  minister.  He  had  been  made  the  target  of  a 
fusillade  of  popular  ballads,  noteworthy  as  affording  the  first  use  of 
the  word  * 'Jackanapes."  Henry  attempted  to  save  his  old  friend 
and  servant  by  sending  him  out  of  the  kingdom  for  five  years. 
Suffolk  left  London  with  a  howling  mob  at  his  heels,  and  reaching 
the  seaboard  in  safety  set  sail  April  30,  only  to  be  overhauled, 
dragged  out  into  a  small  boat,  and  murdered  under  circumstances 
of  peculiar  barbarity;  the  headless  trunk  was  cast  out  upon  the 
sands  of  Dover. 

The  government  of  Henry  VI.,  now  without  a  helmsman, 
was  left  to  drift  aimlessly  under  the  shadow  of  the  next  great  crisis 
of  the  year, — the  Cade  Rebellion.  Kent  and  Sussex  had 
Rebeiuan  ^^^^^  ^^®  most  stirred  by  the  loss  of  the  French  posses- 
jiau^i45o  sions;  the  population  were  given  either  to  maritime 
pursuits  or  manufacturing  and  had  profited  directly  by 
the  war.  Their  enmity,  therefore,  had  been  specially  bitter 
against  Suffolk  and  when  a  rumor  reached  them  that  they  were 
to  be  held  responsible  for  the  murder,  it  was  enough  to  set  fire  to 

proportions.  The  existence  of  these  small  private  standing  armies  made 
such  a  struggle  as  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  possible. 


462  RIVALRY    OF    LANCASTER    AND    YORK  [henry  Vi. 

the  combustibles  with  which  this  part  of  the  country  particularly 
abounded.  Once  started,  the  movement  gathered  strength  rapidly 
and  soon  all  southern  England  was  ablaze.  Unlike  the  Peasant 
Revolt,  this  was  an  uprising  of  the  middle  classes.  The  lesser 
gentry  and  the  free  yeomanry  turned  out  with  the  unanimity  and 
order  of  an  ordinary  military  muster.  At  Sevenoaks  they  were 
set  upon  by  a  body  of  the  king's  men,  but  made  so  good  a  defense 
that  they  beat  off  the  troops,  slaying  their  captain.  Sir  Humphrey 
Stafford.  A  leader  now  for  the  first  time  appears,  one  Jack  Cade, 
who  called  himself  John  Mortimer,  professing  to  be  a  son  of  the 
late  earl  of  March  and  to  be  acting  in  the  interests  of  his  alleged 
cousin,  Richard  the  duke  of  York. 

Henry  had  already  found  that  he  could  not  depend  upon  the 
mutinous  troops,  and  after  allowing  his  treasurer  Lord  Saye,  a  sup- 
porter of  Suffolk,  to  be  cast  into  prison,  abandoned  his 
tiS^rebfis^  capital  and  fled  to  Coventry.  Cade  at  once  advanced 
upon  London,  proclaiming  as  the  grievances  which  had 
called  the  people  to  arms  the  loss  of  France,  the  heavy  taxation, 
the  extortion  of  the  king's  officers,  the  corruption  of  the  courts, 
the  exclusion  of  the  king's  kinsmen  from  the  council,  and  the  inter- 
ference of  the  ministers  with  the  election  of  the  knights  of  the 
shire.  On  the  30th  of  July  the  rebels  were  allowed  by  the  citi- 
zens to  enter  the  city.  At  first  their  conduct  was  orderly  and 
businesslike.  The  hated  treasurer.  Lord  Saye,  and  Crowmer,  the 
sheriff  of  Kent,  whose  exactions  in  his  county  had  been  a  chief 
occasion  of  local  irritation,  were  drawn  out  of  prison  and  put  to 
death.  At  night  the  insurgents  returned  to  Southwark.  But  on 
the  5th,  their  cupidity  got  the  better  of  their  judgment,  and  they 
began  plundering  the  homes  of  the  burghers.  The  Londoners, 
who  up  to  this  point  had  shown  only  good  will,  were  roused  against 
the  rioters  and  after  a  severe  battle  on  the  night  following  finally 
got  possession  of  the  bridge,  opened  the  draw,  and  closed  the 
gates.  The  rioters  were  now  thoroughly  discouraged;  the  more 
shrewd  began  to  slink  home,  those  who  could,  getting  pardons. 
Cade,  however,  kept  a  small  band  about  him  and  retired  into 
Kent,  where  he  was  soon  after  overtaken  and  slain  by  the  new 
sheriff.     Outbreaks  had  also  occurred  in  other  eastern  counties, 


1450]  RETURN   OF   YORK  463 

as  well  as  in  the  west  in  Wiltshire  and  Gloucestershire.  But  with 
the  death  of  Cade  aud  the  collapse  of  the  Kentish  rising,  the  other 
disturbances  also  soon  subsided. 

The  duke  of  York,  the  representative  of  the  Mortimer  claims 
to  the  crown,  had  been  in  the  meanwhile  quietly  biding  his  time 
in  Ireland,  whither  Suffolk  had  sent  him  to  get  him  out 
Ym^k^^^  of  the  way.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  hud  been  impli- 
cated in  any  of  the  recent  risings.  He  was  altogether 
too  shrewd  a  politician  to  trust  his  cause  to  such  agents  as  Cade 
and  the  undisciplined  mob  who  followed  him.  Yet  any  movement 
which  helped  to  impress  upon  the  people  the  complete  failure  of 
the  present  administration,  advanced  by  so  much  the  day  when  he 
should  be  called  upon  to  interfere  and  save  the  state.  Reverses 
also  were  crowding  upon  each  other  in  France.  On  April  15  an 
English  army  had  been  cut  to  pieces  at  Formigny,  three  thousand 
Englishmen  slain,  and  the  last  hope  of  saving  Normandy  shattered. 
The  fall  of  Bayeux  and  Caen  followed.  It  was  full  time,  therefore, 
for  a  strong  hand  and  a  clear  head  to  assume  control  at  the  council 
board. 

In  September  York  crossed  from  Ireland,  and  collecting  a  band 
of  4,000  retainers  from  the  Mortimer  estates,  advanced  upon  Lon- 
don. This  did  not  mean  civil  war  necessarily,  for  it 
rSr^'ec-  ^^^  ihen  no  uncommon  thing  for  gentlemen  of  high 
S^^^^'  rank  to  parade  the  country  attended  by  a  small  private 
army.  He  proposed  simply  to  force  himself  upon  the 
council  and  secure  the  controlling  influence  in  the  administration 
which  was  due  his  high  rank.  Yet  this  was  not  an  easy  task;  the 
old  Beaufort-Suffolk  party  had  rallied  around  Queen  Margaret, 
who  in  the  general  breakdown  of  her  husband's  government 
justly  feared  Duke  Richard  on  account  of  his  nearness  to  the 
crown  and  was  industriously  spreading  rumors  which  made  him 
responsible  for  the  late  risings.  Margaret's  chief  supporter  was 
Edmund  Beaufort,  the  duke  of  Somerset,  whose  unfortunate  ill 
humor  in  1447  had  been  largely  responsible  for  the  renewal  of  the 
war  in  France,  but  who  had  returned  home  to  ally  himself  with 
Margaret,  now  that  the  Lancastrian  throne  itself  was  in  danger, 
and,  although  Richard  of  York  succeeded  in  forcing  a  declaration 


464  RIVALRY    OP   LANCASTER   AND    YORK  [henuy  vi. 

of  confidence  from  the  king,  Margaret  and  Beaufort  managed  to 
keep  him  out  of  the  council  for  three  years. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  court  party  were   sinking   under   the 

opprobrium  of  having  wrecked  the  English  cause  in  France ;    the 

people  could  not  forget  that  Margaret  was  a  French - 

Vl-il^^f^L-,    woman,  and  saw  in  the  continued  reverses  of  English 

1 1  ance,  i4oi.  '  <^ 

arms  only  so  many  evidences  of  friendship  for  her 
native  country  and  of  treacherous  betrayal  of  the  land  of  her 
adoption;  they  believed  her  capable  of  any  villainy.  Edmund 
Beaufort  could  not  help  her;  he  had  lost  France,  the  best  that 
could  be  made  of  his  conduct  of  the  war,  and  to  him  passed  all 
the  odium  which  had  once  been  heaped  upon  poor  Suffolk. 
Affairs,  moreover,  were  rapidly  passing  from  bad  to  worse  in 
France.  Cherbourg,  the  very  last  English  stronghold  in  Nor- 
mandy, had  fallen  just  before  the  return  of  Richard  of  York.     The 

next  year  Bordeaux  and  Bayonne  also  fell,  and  thus  was 

completed  the  ruin  of  the  lucrative  trade  which  English 
merchants  had  spent  three  hundred  years  in  building  up  in  the  south- 
ern duchy.  The  Gascons  were  not  French ;  they  had  obeyed  Eng- 
lish kings  as  overlords  since  the  days  of  Henry  II.  and  regarded 
themselves  almost  as  a  piece  of  England.  Their  appeal  for  help 
roused  the  government  to  new  activity,  and  for  a  moment  the  skill 
and  energy  of  John  Talbot  promised  to  restore  the  English  hold 
on  the  lands  south  of  the  Garonne.  But  in  an  unfortunate  and 
ill-judged  attack  upon  Castillon  in  1453,  Talbot  managed  not  only 
to  lose  his  own  life  but  to  wreck  his  army  and  prepare  the  way  for 
the  reentry  of  the  French  into  Bordeaux  three  months  later. 
With  the  second  fall  of  Bordeaux,  of  all  England's  conquests  on 
the  continent,  only  Calais  and  the  outlying  lands  remained. 

The    news  of    Castillon  very  perceptibly  deepened  the  gloom 
which  had  been  of  late  overspreading  the  kingdom.     The  king  was 

completely  unnerved;  the  strain  of  insanity  in  his  blood 

Effects  upon     ,         ^     ^     "^  x  -^     iJ  j  x  ^    j 

parties  at  began  to  assert  itself,  and  to  rumors  of  deepening  mis- 
fortunes abroad  was  added  yet  this  of  the  hopeless  col- 
lapse of  the  king.  It  was  evident  that  a  protector  must  be 
appointed;  but  upon  whom  should  the  council  thrust  the  thankless 
burden?     Edmund  Beaufort  might  under  ordinary  circumstances 


1453]  FIRST    PROTECTORATE    OF    YORK  465 

be  selected  for  such  a  task;  but  the  news  from  Castillon,  which 
had  played  so  sorrily  with  the  king's  wits,  had  also  dissipated  the 
last  remaining  influence  of  Somerset.  Just  then  he  was  the  most 
generally  hated  man  in  England.  Charges  of  peculation,  cow- 
ardice, incompetency,  and  darkest  treachery  were  in  the  air. 
There  was  no  man  of  all  the  council,  therefore,  who  dared  face  the 
opprobrium  of  naming  him  as  protector.  Richard  Duke  of  York  was 
the  only  other  possible  candidate.  He  had  proved  himself  cautious 
and  wise ;  neither  could  his  nearest  friends  say  that  he  had  any 
designs  upon  the  crown,  or  had  other  motives  in  seeking  prefer- 
ment than  to  serve  the  king  and  the  state.  His  prominence 
among  the  princes  of  the  blood  naturally  gave  him  great  personal 
influence.  He  had,  moreover,  married  into  the  powerful  Neville 
family,  who  in  the  fifteenth  century  controlled  one-third  of  the 
peerages  of  England,  and,  although  at  the  time  a  bitter  feud  existed 
between  the  elder  branch  of  the  Nevilles  and  the  younger,  the 
younger  branch,  to  which  Richard's  wife  Cicely  Neville  belonged, 
was  the  more  powerful.  The  birth  of  Prince  Edward,  October  13, 
1453,  also  strengthened  the  duke's  position,  since,  now  that 
Henry  VI.  had  an  heir,  the  enemies  of  York  need  no  longer  fear 
him  as  a  future  sovereign.  All  parties,  therefore,  looked  to  Rich- 
ard as  the  one  man  who  could  save  the  state. 

In  December  Somerset  was  seized  and  thrown  into  prison ;  York 
then  assumed  control  of  the  government,  replacing  the  friends  of 

Somerset  and  Margaret  with  his  own  supporters.  A  few 
amtrou^the  "^^nths  later,  in  consequence  of  the  continued  illness  of 
wmernment,    the  king,  he  was  formally  appointed  pro tector.     York's 

position  apparently  was  now  very  strong.  Richard,  the 
brother  of  Cicely  Neville,  was  not  only  the  head  of  the  younger  branch 
of  the  Nevilles,  he  had  also  married  the  daughter  of  Thomas  Mon- 
tague, Earl  of  Salisbury,  the  famous  captain  of  Henry  V.  who  had 
been  killed  before  Orleans  in  1428,  and  through  her  had  succeeded 
to  Montague's  titles.  His  son,  also  a  Richard,  had  married  the 
heiress  of  the  Beau  champs,  and  had  likewise  succeeded  to  the 
important  earldom  of  Warwick,  and  had  become  the  greatest  land- 
owner in  England,  controlling  the  accumulated  estates  of  the 
Beauchamps  and  the  Despensers.     He  was  an  energetic,  restless 


46G  RIVALRY    OF    LAXCASTER    AND    YORK  [henry  vi. 

spirit,  and,  combining  with  great  wealth,  personal  talent,  and  en- 
ergy of  high  order,  the  nature  of  an  adventurer,  was  altogether  a 
rare  lieutenant;  he  was  the  man  to  devise  the  most  stupendous 
projects  and  carry  them  to  a  successful  issue.  AYith  such  sup- 
porters in  the  high  places  of  state  York  was  able  to  begin  a 
vigorous  administration,  and  soon  imparted  a  more  hopeful  aspect 
to  everything  that  pertained  to  public  affairs.  Ilis  influence 
was  strong  enough  to  stop  a  private  war  which  had  broken  out 
between  the  Nevilles  and  the  Percies  in  the  north.  Everywhere  the 
government  was  winning  respect ;  an  era  of  confidence  and  peace  ap- 
parently was  at  hand,  when  the  recovery  of  the  king,  in  January,  1455, 
released  Somerset,  expelled  York  and  the  Nevilles  from  the  council, 
and  brought  back  Margaret  and  her  friends  once  more  to  power. 

Thus  far  the  Yorkists  had  conducted  themselves  with  remark- 
able moderation  and  self-restraint  for  the  times,  and,  although 
the  lines  separating  them  from  the  court  or  Lancastrian 
The  Wars  of  party  Were  already  very  definitely  drawn,  although  party 
hegun.  May,  feeling  was  bitter  and  the  tension  severe,  there  was  no 

1455.  ° 

reason  why  the  counter  revolution,  which  had  placed 
Margaret  and  Edmund  Beaufort  once  more  in  control  of  the 
council,  should  be  marked  by  any  more  serious  step  than  the  dis- 
missal of  the  Nevilles.  Here,  however,  the  anxiety  of  Margaret 
for  the  future  of  her  little  son  and  her  suspicions  of  the  ultimate 
purpose  of  York,  led  her  to  take  a  most  unfortunate  step,  which  at 
once  imparted  a  new  and  far  more  serious  aspect  to  the  rivalry  of 
the  two  parties.  The  new  council  had  hardly  established  them- 
selves, when  they  summoned  a  parliament  to  meet  at  Leicester, 
an  old  Lancastrian  town,  "for  the  purpose  of  providijig  for  the 
safety  of  the  king's  person  against  his  enemies."  The  form  of 
the  unfortunate  call,  as  well  as  the  place  designated  for  the  meet- 
ing, was  taken  by  York  as  a  threat.  He  at  once  called  upon 
Salisbury  and  Warwick  to  arm  themselves,  and  the  three  Richards 
marched  upon  London,  *'coming"  as  they  proclaimed,  *'to  con- 
vince the  king  of  the  sinister,  malicious,  and  fraudulent  reports  of 
their  enemies."     The  Wars  of  the  Roses ^  had  begun. 

1  The  badge  of  York  was  a  white  rose ;  the  red  rose  of  Lancaster  was 
not  adopted  until  the  last  stage  of  the  \var. 


1455] 


THE    SECOND    PKOTECTOKATE    OF   YORK 


467 


The  sword  was  now  drawn,  and  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  return 
it  again   to  the    scabbard,  although  both  sides  shrank  from  the 
issue.     Somerset  hastily  gathered  a  force  of  3,000  men. 


The  first 
hattie  of 
Alharia,  May 


hattie  of  St.     ^ud,  With  the  king  in  his  train,  advanced  to  St.  Albans 


22,1455.  and  took  up  his  station  within  the  city.     The  three 

Eic hards  lay 
without  the  city. 
The  king  still 
hoped  to  end  the 
matter  without 
bloodshed  and 
opened  a  parley 
with  the  rebels; 
but  York  sternly 
demanded  as  the 
first  condition  of 
truce  that  his 
enemies  be  de- 
livered to  him, 
*Hobe  dealt  with 
as  theyde- 
served."  The 
king  refused, 
and  the  Yorkists 
at  once  attacked 
the  town.  Som- 
erset was  slain 
and  his  troops 
routed;  the  king 
was  powerless  to 
make  further 
resistance,  and, 
upon  the  return 
of  his  malady 
tec tor. 

The  recovery  of  the  king  in  January  put  an  end  to  the  second 
protectorate  of  York;  but  the  king's  part  in  public  affairs  was  only 


in    the    fall,    York    was    again    appointed   pro- 


468  RIVALRY    OF    LANCASTER    AND    YORK  [hevry  vi. 

nominal  and  York's  influence  still  remained  dominant  in  the  coun- 
cil. Warwick  was  made  captain  of  Calais,  a  most  important  posi- 
tion, because  it  gave  him  virtually  the  command  of  the  Channel.    He 

made  use  of  his  position  to  carry  on  a  vigorous  course 
protectorate    of  privateering  against  Spanish,  French,  and  Hanseatic 

merchantmen,  and  soon  became  the  idol  of  the  sail- 
ors and  the  merchants  of  the  southern  ports.  The  nation  felt 
that  the  troubles  were  now  over,  and  that  the  vigorous  hand  at 
the  helm  was  a  permanent  guarantee  of  peace.  Even  the  poor 
king  tried  to  see  things  in  a  more  hopeful  light  and  proposed  a 
great  feast  of  reconciliation.  The  idea  pleased  such  wily  poli- 
ticians as  York  and  Margaret,  who  were  only  waiting  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  secure  some  new  advantage  in  the  quarrel,  which  had 
lost  nothing  of  its  bitterness  in  the  three  years  of  quiet  which  had 

followed   St.    Albans.      A   procession    marched  to  St. 

1458. 

Panl's,  friend  and  foe  walking  hand  in  hand,  Margaret 
and  the  duke  of  York  following  the  king.  The  victors  of  St. 
Albans  paid  for  masses  for  the  souls  of  the  men  whom  they  had 
slain,  and  oaths  of  friendship  were  exchanged. 

The  farce  of  the  reconciliation  probably  deceived  no  one  save 
the  kind-hearted  king,  whose  generous  nature  failed  to  fathom  the 
bitterness  which  separated  Margaret  and  her  enemies. 
renewsmi  ^^^  ^^^  might  again  have  gone  well  had  Margaret  been 
Yor^i&T  content  to  let  her  quarrel  rest.  But  the  improved  con- 
dition of  the  king  gave  her  new  courage  and  she  once 
more  laid  her  plans  to  destroy  York.  Early  in  1459  she  secured 
the  dismissal  of  the  duke  and  his  supporters  from  the  council.  In 
September  she  assembled  an  army  in  the  king's  name  and  sum- 
moned Salisbury  to  London.  Although  the  attack  was  thus 
directed  at  the  Nevilles,  York  understood  its  real  object  and  at 
once  took  the  field.  In  September  an  attempt  of  Lord  Audley  to 
prevent  the  junction  of  Salisbury  and  York  at  Bloreheath,  resulted 
in  a  victory  for  Salisbury ;  but  at  Ludlow  the  Yorkists  broke  up  in 
a  panic  when  they  found  themselves  confronted  by  overwhelming 
numbers.  York  fled  to  Ireland;  his  son  Edward  Earl  of  March, 
Salisbury,  and  Warwick  managed  to  reach  Dover  and  get  away  to 
Calais. 


1459,  1460]  THE    ACTS   OF   ATTAI]S^DER  469 

Margaret's  triumph  could  hardly  have  been  more  complete  had 
she  won  a  pitched  battle.  Her  enemies  Avere  now  scattered  and 
the  leaders  driven  out  of  England.  The  Lancastrians 
mentof  accordingly  assembled  in  a  parliament  at  Coventry  and 

Novemher,  under  Margaret's  direction  took  measures,  as  they 
thought,  to  make  permanent  the  results  of  their  vic- 
tory. For  the  first  time  an  English  parliament  passed  an  act  of 
attainder;  a  far  more  terrible  weapon  than  the  old  appeal  of 
treason,  which  the  first  parliament  of  Henry  IV.  had  forbidden. 
By  it  the  property  of  the  condemned,  as  well  as  his  life,  was  for- 
feited; furthermore,  unlike  the  decree  of  an  ordinary  court  of  law, 
the  king  could  not  reverse  such  an  act;  only  the  power  which  had 
passed  an  act  of  attainder  could  undo  it.  Such  bills  were  now 
brought  forward  against  York,  Salisbury,  and  Warwick. 

The  acts  of  attainder  were  a  serious  mistake.  Margaret  in 
thus  abusing  her  victory  in  a  way  that  could  not  be  undone,  was 
virtually  forcing  the  revolution.  York  and  the  Nevilles 
the  acL^  of  had  been  fighting  heretofore  simply  for  the  control  of 
the  government;  Margaret  now  compelled  them  to  fight 
for  their  lives  and  for  the  rights  of  their  children.  They  were, 
moreover,  by  no  means  so  reduced  that  they  could  not  strike  back. 
An  army  of  20,000  men  had  broken  up  and  slunk  away  at  Lud- 
low; but  Margaret,  by  taking  no  steps  to  win  over  the  scattered 
followers  of  Richard,  had  left  them  to  be  drawn  together  again, 
the  moment  the  leaders  should  have  recovered  heart.  The  ram- 
ifications of  Neville  influence  were  many.  There  were  ten  thousand 
secret  channels  under  the  control  of  the  three  Eichards  which  they 
would  not  fail  to  operate  in  furthering  discontent  and  reaction. 
Warwick  was  still  captain  of  Calais ;  the  fleet  was  at  his  disposal, 
and  the  seaport  towns  of  southern  England,  now  thoroughly  dis- 
affected, inclined  to  his  support. 

The  winter  of  1459  and  1460  the  exiles  spent  in  preparing  for  a 
descent  upon  England.  Early  in  June  the  preparations  were  all 
De^cenfof  ^eady.  Salisbury  and  Warwick  landed  in  Kent  and 
uwmKent^    moved  boldly  upon  London.     Later  York  crossed  from 

1460.  L'eland  to  Wales  and  entered  England  from  the  west, 
where  he   could  always   count  upon   the  support   of   tlie  Morti- 


470  RIVALRY   OF   LA Js^C ASTER   AND   YORK  [henby  VI. 

mer  tenants.  The  evil  effects  of  Margaret's  severity  were  fully 
apparent.  The  Nevilles  of  the  south  flocked  to  the  standards 
of  Salisbury  and  Warwick.  The  king  retired  to  Coventry.  Lou- 
don, whose  people  had  no  love  to  waste  on  the  French  queen, 
opened  her  gates  to  the  rebels ;  assured,  however,  by  the  declara- 
tion of  Salisbury  and  Warwick  that  they  had  no  quarrel  with  the 
king,  and  came  only  to  restore  good  government  to  the  realm.  The 
wavering  now  flocked  in  from  middle  and  eastern  England,  and, 
early  in  July,  Salisbury  and  Warwick  advanced  to  Northampton 
where  the  Lancastrians  were  marshalled  in  force.  The  battle  was 
fought  on  the  10th;  the  Lancastrians  were  routed  and  the  king 
again  taken. 

From  Northampton  the  Yorkist  army  returned  to  London.     In 

the  person  of  the  king,  they  held  the  key  to  the  whole  situation, 

and  could  cast  the  onus  of  treason  and  rebellion  against 

J.  he  jiOTKists      1  1        •       T 

again  in         the  authorized  government  upon  their  enemies.     Their 

power.  ^  ^  .       ^ 

tirst  step  was  to  reorganize  the  council  in  the  king's 
name  and  issue  a  call  for  a  parliament,  which  met  at  Westminster 
in  October.  The  new  parliament,  as  a  matter  of  course,  was  as 
thoroughly  Yorkist  in  its  sympathies,  as  the  parliament  which  had 
met  the  November  before  at  Coventry  had  been  Lancastrian,  and 
its  first  act  was  naturally  to  undo  the  work  of  its  predecessor. 
While  parliament  was  in  session,  York  reached  London, 
marching  from  the  west.  The  successes  of  his  friends  had  appar- 
ently turned  his  head;  his  actions  are  in  marked  con- 
ThTcrowfi!^  trast  with  the  shrewd  caution  which  had  up  to  this 
'm£e.^^^^'  P^i^^t  marked  his  progress.  He  at  once  assumed  the 
airs  of  royalty ;  turned  the  king  out  of  his  palace,  and 
appearing  before  the  astonished  Lords,  laid  his  hand  upon  the 
throne  and  claimed  it  as  his  by  right  of  birth.  Kichard  found, 
however,  that  he  had  men  to  deal  with.  The  Lords  remained 
silent,  and  Warwick  openly  declared  his  surprise  and  his  disap- 
proval; he  would  not  violate  his  oath  to  the  stricken  king;  he 
would  not  give  the  lie  to  every  pledge  which  he  and  his  father  had 
made  to  the  people.  Then  York's  better  sense  revived.  He  saw 
that  he  had  gone  too  far;  and  graciously  accepted  a  compromise. 
The  king  was  restored  to  his  palace  and  his  honors;  but  York  was 


1460]  WAKEFIELD  471 

to  be  designated  as  his  heir  in  the  place  of  Margaret's  son;  he  was 
also  to  be  given  the  title  of  Prince  of  Wales  and  granted  an  income 
of  10,000  marks;  the  law  against  treason  was  to  be  extended  to 
include  all  plots  against  his  person  or  authority.  Parliament 
sanctioned  the  arrangement  by  a  formal  act  and  the  king 
acquiesced. 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  Margaret  to  be  roused  to  acta  of  desper- 
ation.    The  disinheritance  of  her  son  had  transferred  the  war 

from  a  strife  of  rival  political  factions  to  a  war  of  rival 
trlum^h^  royal  houses.  In  the  months  which  had  followed 
Margaret,      Northampton  she  had  wandered  with  her  little  son,  at 

times  almost  alone  and  always  in  imminent  peril,  to 
reach  the  land  of  the  Scots  at  last,  where  she  found  refuge  at  the 
court  of  her  husband's  kinsman,  the  youthful  James  III.,  grand- 
son of  Jane  Beaufort.  Here  Margaret  received  encouragement  and 
assistance,  and  was  soon  able  to  take  the  field  again  at  the  head  of 
an  army  recruited  from  the  borders;  simple  farmer  lads,  the  most 
j)art  drawn  from  Lancastrian  and  Percy  lands,  clad  in  rusty  armor 
and  mounted  upon  lean  steeds,  but  glad  to  follow  their  queen  in 
hope  of  avenging  her  wrongs  and  plundering  the  rich  homes  of  the 
south.  York  and  Salisbury  with  a  small  band -of  six  thousand  men 
advanced  to  Sandal  Castle  near  the  town  of  Wakefield;  their  pur- 
pose was  to  watch  the  marauding  bands  of  Margaret  until  March 
and  Warwick  could  bring  up  their  men.  A  well  contrived  ruse, 
however,  lured  York  into  hazarding  a  battle  at  Wakefield,  Decem- 
ber 29,  14G0.  York's  little  army  was  cut  to  pieces;  he  himself 
was  slain  in  battle;  his  second  son,  Edmund  the  earl  of  Rutland, 
a  fine  lad,  just  approaching  manhood,  was  dispatched  in  cold 
blood  by  Lord  Clifford,  in  revenge  for  the  death  of  his  own  fatlier 
who  had  fallen  at  St.  Albans.  The  earl  of  Salisbury  was  taken 
and  beheaded  the  next  day  at  Pontefract.  The  heads  of  the 
fallen  chiefs  were  borne  to  York  and  there  set  up  over  the  gates; 
the  head  of  York  adorned  in  derision  with  a  paper  crown. 

The  rumor  of  Margaret's  victory  rapidly  spread  through  the 
north  and  soon  brought  other  recruits  flocking  to  her  banners 
from  both  sides  of  the  border  to  the  number  of  40,000.  But  her 
success  was  again  to  prove  her  undoing.     She  had   never  appre- 


472  RIVALRY    OF    LANCASTER    AND    YORK  [hexry  VI. 

ciated  the  national  sentiment  which  her  foreign  birth  had  arrayed 
against  her.     This  sentiment  was  now  doubly  quickened  over  all 

middle  and  southern  England  by  rumors  of  the  barbar- 
'cross^nd^  ities  perpetrated  by  the  horde  of  border  ruffians  who  fol- 
st  Albany,     lowed  at  her  heels.     The  formal  alliance  with  the  Scots, 

moreover,  had  still  farther  alienated  the  English,  so 
that  for  the  first  time  the  war  began  to  assume  a  really  national 
character.  Four  armies  were  in  the  field;  the  earl  of  Warwick 
with  30,000  men  lay  at  St.  Albans,  waiting  the  approach  of  Mar- 
garet who  was  advancing  upon  London  by  the  Ermine  Street, 
burning  the  cities  and  laying  waste  the  fields  in  her  path;  York's 
son,  Edward  the  earl  of  March,  lay  in  the  Severn  valley  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  10,000  men  of  the  Marches;  while  Owen  Tudor 
who  had  married  Catharine,  Henry  Y.'s  widow,  and  his  son  Jasper, 
Earl  of  Pembroke,  were  advancing  with  a  Welsh  army  and  threat- 
ened March's  rear.  Edward  was  only  in  his  nineteenth  year,  but 
at  such  times  lads  become  men  in  a  day.  He  knew  it  was  useless 
to  attempt  to  join  W^arwick  with  the  Tudor  force  intact  behind 
him,  and  accordingly  turned  upon  the  Tudors,  and  on  February 
3,  1461  beat  them  at  Mortimer's  Cross,  slaying  Owen  Tudor. 
Two  weeks  after  this  brilliant  victory,  February  17,  1461,  Mar- 
garet came  upon  Warwick  at  St.  Albans,  drove  the  Yorkists  out 
of  the  town  and  regained  possession  of  the  king. 

The  withdrawal  of  W^arwick  from  St.  Albans  left  the  road  to 
London  open.     Here  at  last  was  Margaret's  opportunity.     Yet  for 

some  unaccountable  reason  she  delayed,  and  the  last  op- 

The  YovTiists  ./       '  ^ 

secure  portunity  of  saving  the  House  of  Lancaster  was  lost. 

Saturday,  The  Londoners  were  hourly  expecting  the  arrival  of  the 
northern  horde,  and,  trembling  for  the  safety  of  their 
city,  had  already  sent  "certain  aldermen  and  commissioners  .  .  .to 
speak  with  the  queen's  council,  to  entreat  that  the  northern  men  be 
sent  home  to  their  country.  For  the  city  of  London  did  dread 
sore  to  be  robbed  and  spoiled."  But  Warwick  and  Edward,  hav- 
ing now  joined  forces  at  Chipping-Norton,  had  learned  of  Mar- 
garet's blunder,  and  were  hastening  by  forced  marches  to  throw 
themselves  between  her  and  the  capital.  On  March  7,  the  Lon- 
doners heard  of  their  approach  and  at  once  stopped  the  supply 


1461]  EDWARD    IV.    PROCLAIMED  473 

vans  which  Henry  had  ordered  to  be  sent  to  St.  Albans.  The 
next  day,  amid  great  rejoicing  on  the  part  of  the  populace,  the 
Yorkists  marched  through  the  gates  into  the  city. 

Only  four  months  had  passed  since  Richard  of  York's  proposal 
to  assume  the  crown  had  been  met  by  the  silence  of  his  lords  and 
Edward  IV.  the  Open  protest  of  his  great  captain.  But  these  four 
Siarc/i'Jf^*  months  had  made  a  complete  change  in  the  sentiments 
^"^^^  of  men  like  Warwick  whose  kinsmen  had  been  slain  at 

Wakefield  and  St.  Albans.  The  nation  also  could  not  forgive  the 
ferocious  French  woman  who  had  brought  a  horde  of  wild  Scotch- 
men into  the  heart  of  England,  burning  their  cities  and  plunder- 
ing their  homes.  They  had  nothing  against  the  gentle  Henry, 
but  they  knew  that  to  be  loyal  to  Henry  meant  to  be  loyal  to  his 
French  wife.  The  Yorkist  leaders,  therefore,  had  no  doubt 
already  accepted  the  deposition  of  Henry  and  the  elevation  of  the 
earl  of  March  as  forced  upon  them  by  the  logic  of  their  position. 
Accordingly,  the  next  morning  after  the  entry  into  the  city, 
Edward  called  together  a  council  of  lords  and  went  through  the 
form  of  declaring  his  right  to  the  crown,  and  they  in  response 
declared  Henry  deposed  and  proclaimed  Edward  king.  At  Clerk- 
enwell  Fields,  George  Neville,  the  bishop  of  Exeter,  addressed  the 
soldiers  and  explained  Edward's  claim  to  the  throne.  A  great 
meeting  of  the  populace  was  also  held  at  St.  John's  Guild  and 
when  the  question  was  formally  put  to  the  people,  *' Shall  Edward 
be  your  king?"  the  assembly  shouted  in  tumultuous  approval 
*'Yea,  yea,  King  Edward!"  A  deputation  then  waited  upon  the 
new  king  and  formally  notified  him  of  the  choice  of  the  people. 
The  reign  of  Edward  IV.  had  begun. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE   FALL   OF  YOEK  AND   THE  CLOSE  OF   THE  DYNASTIC    STKUGGLB 

EDWARD  IV.,  1461-14ii3 
EDWARD  V.,14S3 
RICHARD  III..  14ti3-1485 

THE  BEAUFOKTS 
John  of  Gaunt  =  (3)  Catharine  Swynford 


John  Beaufort, 

Earl  of  Somerset, 

d.  1410 


John  Beaufort, 
1st  Duke  of  Somer- 
set, d.  1444 


Owen  Tudor, 
killed  at  Morti- 
mer's Cross 
1461 

I 


Jasper     Edmund = Margaret 

Tudor        Tudor. 

Earl  of 

Eichmond, 

d.  1456 


Henry  Beaufort, 
Bishop  of  Winchester 
and  Cardinal, 
d.  1447 


I 

Edmund  Beaufort, 

Duke  of  Somerset, 

killed  at  1st  battle 

of  St.  Albans, 

1455 

I 


Henry  Beaufort, 
Duke  of  Som- 
erset, beheaded 
after  Hexham, 
1464 


Thomas  Beaufort 

Earl  of  Exeter, 

d.  1426 


Jane = James  L, 

of  Scotland, 

1423 


Edmund, 
Duke  of  Som- 
erset, be- 
headed after 
Tewkesbury, 
1471 


John, 
d.  1471 


Henby  VII.,  1485-1509i 


Margaret, 

m.  Humphrey, 

Earl  of 

Stratford 


Henry,  Duke  of 

Buckingham 

beheaded,  1483 


Character 
of  the  so- 
called  Parlia- 
mentary 
Government 
of  the  House 
of  Lancaster. 


The  weakness  of  the  House  of  Lancaster  lay  partly  in  the  fact 
that  its  kings  never  outgrew  their  defective  title;  partly  in  the 
fact  that  they  had  accepted  a  crown  encumbered  with 
enormous  debts,  a  result  of  the  extravagant  wars  and 
extravagant  living  of  their  predecessors.  They  were 
thus  compelled  to  throw  themselves  without  reservation 
upon  the  support  of  parliament.  This  dependence 
upon  parliament,  however,  was  not  an  element  of  strength,  for  the 
parliaments  of  the  fifteenth  century  represented,  not  the  nation, 
but  a  coterie  of  nobles,  who  possessed  more  land  than  the  crown  and 
the  rest  of  the  nation  combined,  whose  numbers  had  diminished, 
but  whose  wealth  and  selfishness  had  increased,  and  who,  in  spite 
of  laws  against  livery  and  maintenance,  had  continued  to  augment 

474 


1406-1445]  LAKCASTRIAK  ELECTION  LAWS  475 

their  retinues  of  armed   retainers,  overawe  the  local  courts,  and 
defy  justice. 

The  House  of  Commons  as  yet  exerted  very  little  independent 
influence  as  an  instrument  of  government.    In  the  fifteenth  century 
in  particular  it  was  completely  dominated  by  the  House 
of  the  of  Lords;  nor  had  the  nobles  m  power  any  difficulty  in 

getting  a  House  to  their  liking  whenever  they  had 
impeachments  to  secure,  bills  of  attainder  to  pass,  or  confiscations 
to  be  approved.  It  was  an  easy  matter  to  overawe  she^-iffs  by 
packing  the  county  courts  with  their  **bullies;"  still  easier  to 
bribe  sheriffs  to  send  in  false  returns  or  to  spring'an  election  upon 
the  people  before  sufficient  notice  had  been  given  in  the  shires. 

The  Lancastrian  kings  had  recognized  the  evil  and  sought  a 
remedy  in  a  series  of  laws  designed  to  secure  the  independence  of 
elections.  Thus  in  1406  it  was  prescribed  that  a  parlia- 
EZ'-'^laUonnf  i^entary  election  should  be  held  always  at  the  regular 
kiiigiiT^'^^^^  meeting  of  the  county  court  next  succeeding  the  recep- 
tion of  a  writ.  But  only  a  few  regularly  attended  these 
courts,  and  it  was  still  possible  for  the  sheriff  by  passing  the 
notice  quietly  to  his  friends,  to  pack  the  court  with  an  irrespon- 
sible crowd  of  retainers  and  carry  the  election  in  some  such  way  as 
primaries  used  to  be  carried  in  some  of  the  American  cities.  It 
was  therefore  necessary  to  follow  the  law  of  1406  by  another  law  in 
1430  which  limited  the  right  of  election  to  freeholders  whose  lands 
were  worth  at  least  40  shillings  a  year;  and  when  the  sheriffs  began 
to  bring  in  freeholders  from  neighboring  counties,  two  years 
later  the  right  was  still  further  limited  to  residents.  An  act  of 
1445  further  prescribed  that  each  sheriff  should  send  the  notice  of 
an  election  to  those  cities  or  boroughs  in  his  county  which  were 
entitled  to  return  members,  and  that  a  deputation  should  report 
the  results  at  the  court  of  the  shire  and  see  that  the  sheriff  regu- 
larly attached  the  returns  of  the  boroughs  to  his  return  of  the 
election  for  the  shire. 

These  laws  were  the  result  of  a  brave  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
government  to  rescue  the  Commons  from  the  control  of  the  noble 
born  politicians  who  were  playing  fast  and  loose  in  order  to  control 
the  patronage  of  the  government ;  but  the  great  lords  paid  little 


476  THE    FALL    OF    YORK  [edwabd  IV. 

more  attention  to  laws  for  the  regulation  of  parliamentary  elec- 
tions than  they  did  to  the  laws  against  livery  and  maintenance, 
and  the  party  in  power  continued  to  get  up  parliaments 
theEiections  to  Order  as  before.  Moreover  these  very  laws,  insti- 
of  Lancas-  tuted  no  doubt  with  the  best  of  intentions,  by  disfran- 
chising  the  free  copyholder  and  the  villain,  separated 
the  Commons  still  farther  from  the  body  of  the  people  and  com- 
mitted it  for  the  next  four  hundred  years  to  the  control  of  the 
lords  of  the  soil.  It  is  no  marvel,  therefore,  that  the  House  of 
Commons  soon  lost  the  respect  of  the  nation  and  was  left  entirely 
to  the  control  of  the  politicians,  or  that  the  so-called  parliamen- 
tary government  of  the  House  of  Lancaster,  valuable  as  it  was 
in  furnishing  precedents  for  a  later  day,  when  the  terms  Lords  and 
Commons  should  come  to  have  a  very  different  meaning,  during 
the  reign  of  Henry  YI.  rapidly  developed  into  a  tyranny  of  certain 
great  families  over  the  crown.  Here  was  the  basis  of  the  dynastic 
revolution  which  followed.  Here  also  is  the  explanation  of  the 
readiness  with  which  the  people  submitted  to  the  complete  over- 
throw of  the  whole  flimsy  Lancastrian  structure. 

The  reign  of  Edward  IV.  began  with  the  proclamation  of 
March  9,  1461.  On  the  same  day  the  horde  at  St.  Albans  broke 
up  and  began  its  homeward  march,  apparently  dissatis- 
reignof  ^^^  because  Henry  would  not  allow  them  to  continue 
^Si^^''  ^^®i^'  plundering.  Edward  without  stopping  for  a  coro- 
nation followed  the  retiring  horde  with  the  energy 
which  was  characteristic  of  him  in  supreme  moments,  and  over- 
taking them  at  Towton  near  York,  on  the  28th  and  29th  of  March, 
successfully  fought  the  most  obstinate  and  bloody  battle  of  the 
war.  The  heralds  counted  the  slain  to  the  number  of  twenty- 
eight  thousand.  Edward  entered  York  in  triumph,  while  Mar- 
garet and  Henry  sought  safety  beyond  the  northern  border. 

From  Towton  Edward  returned  to  London  to  be  crowned,  June 

28th ;  his  brothers  George  and  Eichard,  also,  were  created  dukes 

respectively  of  Clarence  and  Gloucester.     In  November 

Tw£i^^       parliament  met  and  as  its  first  duty  passed  an  act  which 

confirmed  all  that  had  been  done  by  Edward ;   it  then 

declared    the    Lancastrian  kings  usurpers,   those  who  had  been 


1461-1464]  EDWARD    IV.  477 

active  in  supporting  them  attainted  and  their  possessions  forfeited, 
and  Henry  and  Queen  Margaret  traitors. 

Edward  was  by  no  means  an  ideal  king,  thongh  he  possessed 

many  good  qualities.     He  had  a  fine  presence;  was  tall,  muscular, 

and  handsome,  and  possessed  a  fearless  eye.     He  had 

Edward!^.   S^^^^     ^^^^^    ^^^   ^^^   ^^^^    ^^^    uniformly    successful. 

He  loved  field  sports  but  he  loved  also  less  worthy 
amusements,  and  knew  no  self-restraint  when  once  his  appetite 
was  aroused.  He  was  cruel,  yet  not  more  cruel  than  the 
age  when  all  public  men  had  been  hardened  and  embittered 
by  ten  years  of  civil  strife.  In  politics  Edward's  abilities 
were  not  as  conspicuous  as  in  war;  he  was  careless  in  mat- 
ters of  business,  trustful  to  simplicity  and  altogether  lacking 
in  foresight.  Yet  he  saw  clearly  the  causes  of  the  failure  of 
the  Lancastrian  government  and  made  no  secret  of  his  hostility 
to  the  nobles. 

When  Edward  returned  to  London,  ho  had  left  Warwick  and 
his  brother,  John  Neville,  the  newly  made  earl  of  Montague,  to 

carry  on  the  struggle  in  the  north.  They  reduced  the 
Continuance  great  Percy  strongholds,  but  were  compelled  to  take 
in  the  north,    and  retake  them  several  times  in  the  course  of  a  few 

months.  Margaret  in  her  desperation  had  given  up 
Berwick  to  the  Scots  in  return  for  their  aid;  she  had  also  prom- 
ised to  give  up  Calais  for  the  support  of  Louis  XL  Both  gave  her 
some  assistance;  Louis  actually  sent  her  2,000  men.  But  an 
invasion  of  Scotland  in  14G2  compelled  the  Scots  to  abandon  Mar- 
garet's cause  and  expel  Henry  VI.  from  the  country.  Still  the 
fires  of  this  fatal  war,  which  in  the  ferocious  vindictiveness  of 
both  parties  has  had  few  equals  in  the  history  of  civilized  nations, 
smouldered  on.  Li  April  14G4  Montague  defeated  Henry  of 
Somerset  at  Hedgeley  Moor  and  a  few  weeks  later  again  at  Hex- 
ham. At  Hexham  Somerset  was  taken  and  at  once  put  to  death. 
A  year  later  Henry  VI.  was  also  taken  at  Waddington  Hall  on  the 
Lancastrian  estates  whither  he  had  gone  when  the  Scots  had 
turned  him  out  of  Scotland.  A  few  castles  still  held  out  in 
Wales,  but  the  throne  of  Edward  was  secure  so  far  as  the  House 
of  Lancaster  was  concerned. 


478 


THE    FALL    OF    YORK 


Tedward  IV. 


Since  the  battle  of  Towton  Edward  had  given  himself  up  to  the 
gayeties  of  a  luxurious  court,  leaving  the  cares  of  government  to 

Warwick.  Yet  he  was  not  so  steeped  in  his  life  of 
and  War-       indolence  that  he  could  not  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon 

his  minister.  Thus  when  he  found  that  Warwick  was 
wife  hunting  for  him  in  the  courts  of  the  continent  he  quietly 
slipped  off  to  Grafton  and  secretly  married  Elizabeth  Woodville,  the 
widow  of  Sir  John  Gray,  a  Lancastrian  who  had  fallen  at  the 
second  battle  of  St.  Albans.^  The  high  spirited  minister  in  the 
meantime  was  left  to  go  on  with  his  negotiations  until  the  last 
moment,  when  Edward  cut  short  his  fine  plans  by  announcing  his 
marriage.  Warwick  plainly  had  been  duped,  and  in  a  way  that  could 
not  be  easily  forgotten.  Other  events  followed  which  still  further 
widened  the  opening  breach  between  Edward  and  the  great  Neville. 
In  connection  with  his  marriage  scheme,  Warwick  had  also 
developed  a  policy  of  alliance  with  France  as  the  best  security  for 

Edward's  throne.  But  Edward  was  quite  disposed  to 
hummatimh  ^^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^  traditional  policy  of  his  predecessors  and 
of^arwicu,    j^e^p   France   humble   by  building  up    Burgundy;    its 

magnificent  court  was  far  more  to  his  taste  than  the 
mean  surroundings  of  the  niggardly  and  spiderlike  Louis  XI.  In 
1467,  therefore,  while  Warwick  was  maturing  his  plans  and  was 
apparently  about  to  secure  the  long  hoped  for  treaty  with  Louis 
XL,    Edward    was    entertaining    Burgundian    ambassadors    and 


^THE  WOODVILLES 

Richard,  =  Jacquetta  of  Luxembourg, 
1st  Earl  I        widow  of  Jolin  of 
Rivers,  Bedford 

d.  1469    I 


Anthony 

Lord  Scales, 

2d  Earl  Rivers, 

d.  1483 


John, 
d.  1469 


Lionel, 
Bishop  of 
Salisbury 


I 
Richard, 
3d  Earl 
Rivers 


Elizabeth 


(other  daughters) 


1  m.  John  Grey,  d.  1455 


2  m.  Edward  IV. 


Thomas, 
1st  Marquis 
of  Dorset, 

d.  1501, 
ancestor  of 
Lady  Jane 
Grey 


Richard, 
d,  1483 


Edward  v., 
d.  1483 


I 

Richard, 

Duke  of 

York, 

d.  1483 


Elizabeth 

m. 

Henry 

VII. 


Catharine 

TO.  WiUiam 

Courte- 

nay,  Earl 

of  Devon 


(other 
daugh- 
ters) 


FIRST    RISING    OF   THE    NEVILLES  479 

secretly  pledging  his  sister  Margaret  to  the  new  duke  Charles  the 
Rash.  In  the  meantime,  also,  with  shrewd  cunning  he  had  taken 
the  precaution  to  build  up  around  him  a  new  family  of  nobles  to 
offset  the  power  of  the  Nevilles.  He  made  his  father-in-law.  Sir 
Richard  Woodville,  treasurer,  then  raised  him  to  the  rank  of  earl 
as  Earl  Rivers,  and  finally  appointed  him  constable  of  England. 
He  also  found  husbands  among  the  peerage  for  his  wife's  sisters, 
of  whom  there  were  a  round  half  dozen.  Equally  distinguished 
marriages  were  found  for  the  queen's  brother,  also  a  Richard  Wood- 
ville,  and  for  Lord  Thomas  Grey,  the  elder  of  the  queen's  two  sons 
by  her  first  marriage ;  Anthony  Woodville,  another  brother  of  the 
queen  had  already  married  a  wealthy  heiress  and  in  her  right  had 
become  Lord  Scales. 

Thus  in  a  day  Edward  had  raised  at  his  side  a  worthy  rival  of 
the  Nevilles.    Warwick,  who  had  more  shrewdness  perhaps  than  the 

clever  young  king  gave  him  credit  for,  fully  comprehended 
MtxTig  of      the  object  of  the  king's  policy  and  began  to  counterplot, 

proposing  to  marry  his  own  daughter  Isabelle  to  the 
king's  brother,  George  Duke  of  Clarence.  Clarence  who  was  weak, 
inconstant,  and  vain,  jealous  of  the  Woodvilles  and  anxious  to  be 
considered  the  heir  to  the  throne,  readily  lent  himself  to  War- 
wick's schemes.  Edward  attempted  to  block  the  game  by  forbid- 
ding the  marriage,  but  Warwick  sent  his  family  off  to  Calais,  where 
Clarence  afterward  joined  them  and  the  marriage  ceremony  was 
duly  performed.  But  the  marriage  of  Clarence,  apparently,  was 
only  a  step  in  a  greater  plan  for  securing  the  hold  of  the  Nevilles 
upon  the  high  places  in  the  state.  The  surviving  Lancastrians 
had  suffered  much ;  the  bitter  memories  of  the  war  could  not  be 
forgotten.  The  Yorkists  also  were  growing  discontented  and 
jealous  of  the  preferment  of  the  Woodvilles.  Here  were  materials 
enough  for  the  organization  of  a  dangerous  plot. 

It  is  not  known  that  Warwick  was  implicated  in  the  first  rising 
of  the  year  14G9,  which  was  a  small  affair,  confined  to  the  neigh- 
FirstrMna  ^^^'^o^d  of  York  and,  apparently,  the  result  of  strictly 
^^eviiies  ^^^^^  causes.  It  was  soon  followed,  however,  by  a  more 
1469.  widely  extended  movement  which  was  joined  by  the 

Nevilles  and  assumed  such  proportions  as  to  defeat  a  royal  army  at 


480  THE    FALL   OF    YORK  [edward  iv. 

Edgecote  on  July  26,  and  a  few  days  later  again  at  Chepstow, 
where  Earl  Rivers  and  his  son  John  Woodville,  were  taken  and 
shortly  after  beheaded.  Warwick  and  his  new  son-in-law,  in  the 
meantime,  had  hurried  from  Calais  to  Kent  and,  calling  out  the 
southern  Kevilles,  were  marching  north,  not  to  assist  Edward,  but 
to  seize  him  before  he  could  rally  from  the  discomfiture  of  Edge- 
cote. Their  plans  were  entirely  successful.  Edward  was  taken  at 
Olney  near  Coventry  and  brought  to  Warwick  Castle.  • 

Warwick  was  now  master  of  the  situation ;  Edward  IV.  was  a 

prisoner  and  the  power  of  the  Woodvilles  broken.     Yet  Warwick's 

position  was  by  no  means  secure.     He  was  still  hated 

in  power,        and  feared  by  the  Lancastrians;    nor  could  he  contrive 

1469.  .  . 

to  hold  Edward  long  in  prison,  for  Edward's  despotic 
ways  had  won  the  confidence  of  the  great  middle  class,  the 
burghers,  who  were  weary  of  the  quarrels  of  the  nobles  and  wanted 
to  see  a  strong  government  once  more  established.  Warwick, 
therefore,  made  the  best  terms  he  could  for  himself  and  Clarence, 
and  Edward  was  set  at  liberty. 

Any  reconciliation,  however,  between  Edward  and  his  old  com- 
panion in  arms  could  neither  be  cordial  nor  lasting.     The  earl 

continued  his  policy  and  Edward  watched  for  his  oppor- 
Faiiureof  tunity.  It  Came  in  the  form  of  a  rising  in  Lincoln- 
Ckirenceand  shire,    apparently    stirred    up    by    Warwick    himself. 

1470.  '       Edward  met  the  insurgents  near  Stamford,  March  12, 

1470,  and  used  the  royal  artillery  with  such  effect  that 
they  speedily  fled.  The  battle  is  known  as  "Lose-coat  Field,"  from 
the  frantic  profusion  with  which  the  rebels  threw  away  their  coats 
which  were  decorated  with  the  fatal  badges  of  their  leaders,  hop- 
ing thereby  to  escape  recognition.  Sir  Robert  Welles  the  leader  of 
the  insurgents  was  captured  and  beheaded.  Before  his  death  he 
confessed  to  an  extensive  plot  in  which  Edward  was  to  be  dethroned 
and  Clarence  made  king.  Warwick  of  course  was  implicated  and, 
without  waiting  for  the  return  of  Edward,  took  his  son-in-law  and 
fled  the  kingdom.  Edward  after  his  release  in  1469  had  issued  a 
general  pardon,  but  now  he  had  no  reason  for  sparing  his  enemies, 
and,  contrary  to  his  custom  in  the  earlier  wars,  even  descended  to 
victims  of  humble  rank.     The  refugees  of  Lose-coat  Field  were 


1470]  THE    SECOND    RISING    OF   THE    NEVILLES  481 

hunted  across  the  kingdom,  and  the  hideous  penalty  which  the 
barbaric  laws  of  the  period  prescribed  for  treason,  exacted  for  great 
and  small;  even  the  luckless  sailors,  who  were  waiting  at  South- 
ampton to  take  Warwick  off,  were  seized  and  some  twenty  of  them 
executed.  In  this  instance,  so  thoroughly  was.  the  work  done, 
that  John  Tiptoft,  the  earl  of  Worcester,  who  had  the  grewsome 
matter  in  hand,  rose  above  the  merely  commonplace,  winning  for 
himself  the  nickname  of  "the  butcher."  It  is  also  to  be  noticed 
that  Tiptoft  had  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished scholars  of  the  times. 

It  was  now  evident  to  Warwick  that  his  only  chance  of  over- 
reaching the  Yorkist  king  was  by  making  common  cause  with  the 

exiled  Margaret  and  returning  to  England  under  the 
HMngofthe    Lancastrian  banners.     Louis  XL,  who  was  anxious  to 

break  up  the  Burgundian  alliance  of  England,  exerted 
his  influence  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  with  Margaret,  and 
furnished  Warwick  with  ships  and  men  and  money;  Warwick  was 
to  invade  England  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  Henry  VI.,  and 
Prince  Edward,  Margaret's  son,  now  a  lad  of  seventeen,  was  to 
marry  Warwick's  second  daughter  Anne.  In  England  Warwick 
was  not  without  his  secret  following,  and  in  a  few  months  the 
Nevilles  through  all  the  many  ramifications  of  the  family  were  ready 
for  the  rising.  So  secretly  and  so  successfully  were  their  plans 
carried  out,  so  swiftly  at  last  came  the  revolution,  that  within  two 
weeks  Edward's  power  had  collapsed,  and  he  himself  was  a 
fugitive  on  the  way  to  the  court  of  Louis's  rival  in  Burgundy. 
Henry  VI.  was  drawn  out  of  the  Tower  and  once  more  set  up  as 
the  figure  head  of  the  government,  but  the  real  power  lay  in  the 
hands  of  Warwick,  the  "  King-Maker,"  as  men  were  beginning  to 
call  the  ambitious  Neville. 

The  suddenness  of  Edward's  fall,  instead  of  discouraging  him, 
only  put  him  on  his  mettle  and  called  out  those  resources  of  energy 

and  skill,  the  possession  of  which  he  had  fully  revealed 
ofHmry^^i  ^^  Mortimer's  Cross  and  Tow  ton.  As  his  rival  had 
Marchim.    app^al^d  to  Louis  XL  of  France,  he  now  appealed  to 

Louis's  enemy,  Charles  of  Burgundy,  who  in  self-defense 
was  compelled  to  help  his  ally  back  again  to  his  throne.     Charles, 


482  THE    FALL   OF   YORK  [edward  iv. 

however,  was  too  sore  pressed  at  home  to  render  Edward  much 
aid,  and  left  him  largely  to  his  own  resources.  With  1,500  Eng- 
lishmen and  300  Germans  who  had  been  sent  to  him  by  Duke 
Charles,  on  March  14,  1471,  he  landed  at  Kavenspur,  the  very 
spot  where  Henry  of  Bolingbroke  had  landed  on  a  similar  errand 
seventy-two  years  before.  Like  Henry,  also,  Edward  declared  that 
he  came  simply  to  demand  the  lands  of  his  father.  At  York  he 
actually  took  an  oath  that  he  would  not  again  lay  claim  to  the 
crown  of  England.  At  the  head  of  the  little  band  of  adventurers, 
however,  he  marched  steadily  southward,  gathering  to  his  standard 
the  old  retainers  of  his  house  from  the  north  and  west,  and  when 
he  reached  Nottingham,  where  his  army  had  swelled  to 
five  thousand  men,  he  threw  off  all  disguise  and  once 
more  proclaimed  his  right  to  the  throne.  The  position  was  one 
which  would  have  delighted  a  Napoleon.  Back  of  Edward  lay  Lord 
Montague,  Warwick's  brother,  who  had  allowed  the  invaders  to 
pass  Pontefract  and  enter  the  Midlands;  to  the  east  lay  Oxford 
who  was  hurrying  up  from  Norfolk;  before  him  lay  Arch- 
bishop George  Neville,  another  brother  of  Warwick,  guarding 
London;  the  "King-Maker"  himself  lay  at  Warwick,  while  the 
duke  of  Clarence  was  advancing  by  forced  marches  from  Glou- 
cestershire in  the  west.  Thus  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  com- 
pass, as  many  armies  were  closing  in  upon  Edward  and  his  wild 
adventure  seemed  almost  run.  It  was  a  moment,  however,  to  rouse 
all  the  matchless  energy  and  courage  of  the  man ;  for  Edward  at 
times  had  flashes  of  real  military  genius  somewhat  akin  to  that 
of  the  great  modern  captain.  Suddenly  changing  his  line  of  march, 
he  made  a  swift  descent  upon  Oxford  and  drove  him  back ;  without 
following  his  fleeing  foes,  he  turned  again  to  the  south  and 
advanced  to  Leicester,  in  order  to  face  Warwick  who  had  reached 
Coventry.  A  battle  was  imminent;  it  was  W^arwick's  hour,  but 
in  an  unlucky  moment  he  determined  to  wait  for  the  arrival  of 
Montague  and  Clarence.  The  delay  gave  Edward  a  respite  and 
also  gave  some  who  wavered  time  to  decide.  Henry  Percy  of  the 
old  Northumberland  house,  whom  Edward  had  restored  to  his 
earldom,  had  already  joined  him;  but  on  April  4,  Edward's 
brother, — "false,    fleeting,  perjured    Clarence,"    who   had  been 


1471]  BARNET  483 

grieved  by  the  way  in  which  Warwick  had  thrown  him  over  in  the 
interests  of  Margaret's  son,  carried  out  a  project  long  meditated, 
and  went  over  to  Edward  with  his  following.  The  defection  of 
Clarence  compelled  Warwick  to  wait  for  Montague,  and  left 
Edward  and  Clarence  free  to  march  upon  London.  Archbishop 
George  Neville  had  had  little  success  in  rousing  the  Londoners, 
many  of  whom  were  creditors  of  Edward  and  saw  no  hope  of  pay- 
ment save  in  his  return  to  power.  Hence  Edward  was  allowed  to 
enter  the  city  without  resistance,  where  he  was  speedily  joined 
by  the  Yorkists  of  the  south  in  sufficient  number  to  give  him 
nearly  20,000  men. 

Edward  entered  London  on  Thursday,  April  10,  and  on  Sat- 
urday led  his  army  out  of  the  city  by  the  Watling  Street  to 
meet  Warwick  at  Barnet,  now  strengthened  by  the 
aIhim,  1471.  ^^^^^^1  ^^  Lords  Montague  and  Oxford.  On  the  night 
smiday.  ^^  April  13  the  armies  encamped  within  cannon  shot 
of  each  other.  The  Yorkists  began  the  attack  early  in 
the  morning,  advancing  under  cover  of  a  heavy  mist;  but  in  the 
obscurity  Edward  had  so  miscalculated  the  position  of  the  enemy 
that  his  left  wing  was  seriously  outflanked  by  Warwick's  right, 
commanded  by  the  earl  in  person,  and  borne  backward  by  over- 
whelming numbers  began  to  retire.  But  unfortunately  for  War- 
wick the  livery  of  Oxford  was  marked  by  a  star  with  beams,  which 
very  much  resembled  the  famous  badge  of  York,  the  sun  with 
rays,  and  his  men  pressing  forward  after  the  broken  left  wing  of 
Edward  and  possibly  losing  their  direction  in  the  confusion,  came 
suddenly  face  to  face  with  the  star  of  Oxford,  and,  in  the  fog  mis- 
taking it  for  the  Yorkist  badge,  began  to  fire  upon  their  friends. 
The  retainers  of  Oxford,  with  the  example  of  Clarence  in  mind, 
supposing  that  the  Nevilles  had  also  gone  over  to  the  enemy,  raised 
the  cry  of  treachery  and  fled.  The  men  of  Warwick  and  Mon- 
tague, however,  still  held  their  own,  and  left  the  field  at  last  only 
after  six  hours  of  desperate  fighting,  and  when  both  Warwick  and 
his  brother  had  been  slain. 

The  very  day  of  the  battle  of  Barnet,  Margaret,  who  had  been 
lield  off  for  nearly  three  weeks  by  contrary  winds,  landed  at  Wey- 
mouth ;  but  Barnet  had  removed  the  last  hope  of  rescuing  her  hus- 


484  THE    FALL   OF   YORK  [ 


Edward  IV. 


band,  and  as  soon  as  the  fatal  news  reached  her  she  turned  to 
fight  her  way  into  Wales  where  she  could  be  joined  by  the  Welsh 

supporters  of  her  house  and  possibly  provide  a  rallying 
May 4^1471^   point  for  the  defeated  Lancastrians  of  the  north.     But 

the  citizens  of  Gloucester  closed  their  gates  and  refused  to 
allow  her  to  cross  the  Severn.  She  then  hastened  on  to  the  next 
crossing  at  Tewkesbury;  but  Edward  was  by  this  time  close  upon 
her  track  and  her  men  reached  Tewkesbury  only  to  be  set  upon  by 
Edward  at  the  very  moment  when  they  were  ready  to  begin  the 
crossing.  The  Lancastrians  fought  as  desperate  men  fight,  but 
everywhere  they  were  routed  and  everywhere  the  fierce  Yorkists 
stained  their  victory  by  wholesale  slaughter.  Among  the  slain  was 
Henry's  son,  Prince  Edward,  according  to  tradition  murdered  after 
the  battle  in  cold  blood  in  the  presence  of  King  Edward  himself. 
Fifteen  great  earls  sought  sanctuary  in  the  abbey  church  of 
Tewkesbury;  Edward  promised  to  spare  their  lives  but  two  days 
later  sent  them  all  to  the  block.  Among  them  were  Edmund, 
Duke  of  Somerset,  and  his  youngest  brother  John,  the  last  of  the 
male  line  of  the  Beauforts.  From  Tewkesbury  Edward  returned 
to  London  to  continue  the  slaughter  of  his  foes;  on  the  night  that 
he  entered  the  city,  Henry  VI.  was  murdered  in  his  lonely  cell  in 
the  Tower;  how  was  never  known.  George  Neville,  the  church- 
man, was  cast  into  prison.  Others  less  conspicuous,  if  rich,  were 
allowed  to  buy  their  lives  by  heavy  ransoms ;  the  poor  were  hurried 
to  the  gallows  without  redress. 

The  four  years  which  followed  Tewkesbury  were  years  of  com- 
parative quiet.      Edward  continued    to  summon  parliaments  as 

before;  he  laid  important  measures  before  them  and 
reianof^^  appeared  to  seek  their  consent,  but  the  independence  of 
f^r-1^3         parliament  had  passed  away,  not  to  be  recovered  again 

until  the  men  of  the  seventeenth  century  should  wrest  it 
from  the  Stuarts.  The  nobles  of  England  were  by  no  means  exter- 
minated; but  the  strength  of  the  great  house  of  Neville,  which  had 
overthrown  the  House  of  Lancaster  and  raised  Edward  to  the 
throne,  had  been  entirely  shattered,  and  it  was  not  likely  that  any 
other  family  would  succeed  to  their  influence;  Edward  would  see 
to  that.     The  nearest  heir  of  John  of  Gannt,  the  son  of  Margaret 


1475]  PICQUIGKY  485 

Beaufort,  was  a  penniless  exile  in  hiding  in  a  foreign  land;  a  strip- 
ling youth,  without  money  and  without  friends,  of  whom  Edward 
had  little  to  fear.  The  people  were  weary  of  civil  war ;  the  cities, 
for  the  most  part  loyal  to  York,  were  well  pleased,  and  all  were 
willing  to  give  the  new  dynasty  a  trial. 

Instead,  however,  of  turning  his    mind  to  securing  the  solid 
advantages  of  peace,  Edward  must  first  try  his  hand  in  the  foreign 

game  of  politics  where  so  much  English  money  had 
faii^spart  already  been  sunk  and  where  so  many  English  lives  had 
^ivars^^       been  squandered.     He  allowed  Charles  to  draw  him  into 

an  alliance,  with  the  virtual  dismemberment  of  north- 
ern France  as  its  object.  Charles  was  to  extend  his  territories  at 
the  expense  of  the  eastern  domains  of  Louis,  and  Edward  was  to 
have  Normandy  and  Aquitaine.  In  1474,  Edward  began  active 
preparations  to  carry  out  his  part  of  the  engagement.  The  sub- 
servient parliament  voted  its  supplies,  and  the  next  year  Edward 
embarked,  taking  with  him,  it  is  said,  the  largest  and  best 
equipped  expedition  which  had  yet  set  sail  from  English  shores. 
His  plan  was  to  land  at  Calais  and  advance  directly  into  the  heart 
of  France,  while  Burgundy  and  Brittany  were  to  push  in  their 
armies  from  the  east  and  the  west.  The  plan  was  ably  conceived ; 
and  had  Edward's  allies  supported  him,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
Louis  XL  could  have  saved  himself.  But  Duke  Charles  was 
carrying  on  a  stubborn  campaign  against  the  little  town  of  Neuss 
across  the  Rhine,  in  which  he  so  wasted  his  strength  that  he  could 
bring  no  army  to  Edward's  assistance.  Edward,  who  was  no  man 
to  chase  a  chimera,  abandoned  his  allies  in  disgust  and  made  his 
own  terms  with  Louis.  Louis,  the  business  man  on  the  throne, 
who  always  preferred  fighting  his  battles  with  "words  and 
money,"  had  counted  the  cost  of  the  new  war,  and  coolly  deter- 
mined to  appropriate  the  money,  not  to  raising  soldiers,  but  to 

buying  up  his  enemies.  The  two  kings  met  on  a 
p^cquigny  bridge  of  the  Somme  at  Picquigny,  and  agreed  to  a  seven 
U75.' ^^'         years' truce;  Louis  also  agreed  to  pay  Edward  75,000 

crowns  down  and  a  further  sum  of  50,000  crowns  for 
the  ransom  of  the  unhappy  Margaret.^     He  also  had  magnificent 

^For  full  terms  of  treaty  see  Ramsay,  La7icasfera?idFor/j,  II,  pp.  412,  413. 


486  THE   FALL   OF   YORK  [ 


Edward  IV. 


pensions  for  Edward's  leading  nobles  and  a  grand  supper  for  the 
common  soldiers, — for  Louis  could  spend  money  like  water  when 
it  came  to  affairs  of  state.  The  affair  all  in  all  was  not  creditable 
and  Edward  suffered  in  the  popular  esteem;  but  for  this  he  cared 
very  little,  so  long  as  disapproval  spent  itself  in  grumbling  and  did 
not  lead  to  open  outbreak. 

The  lesson  which  Edward  had  learned  was  not  lost,  and  for  the 
rest  of  his  reign  he  remained  satisfied  with  the  military  laurels  of 
his  youth,  and  gave  himself  to  the  work  of  securing  the 
tyranny  of  foundations  of  his  throne.  He  was,  however,  far  from 
possessing  the  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  necessary 
to  make  the  most  of  his  position.  He  was  no  statesman  like  the 
first  Edward;  he  was  no  organizer  like  the  second  Henry;  he  was 
bold  and  clever,  but  he  possessed  none  of  that  farsighted  and 
patient  cunning  which  served  his  contemporary  Louis  XL  in  lieu 
of  more  kingly  qualities.  Hence  he  took  no  steps  to  organize  the 
results  of  his  victory,  or  to  justify  the  confidence  of  his  subjects  by 
leaving  an  efficient  public  service  behind  him,  and  much  of  his 
work  had  to  be  done  over  again.  He  was  a  strong  king;  but  his 
strength  was  founded  upon  ruthless  cruelty  and  injustice.  He 
had  never  forgotten  the  treachery  of  his  brother  Clarence,  and  in 
1478  appeared  in  person  before  the  House  of  Lords  to  accuse  him 
of  treason;  the  charge  was  sustained  and  a  few  weeks  later  the 
unfortunate  Clarence  was  secretly  murdered  in  the  Tower; 
drowned,  it  was  said,  in  a  butt  of  Malmsey.  The  king  who  spared 
not  his  own  brother  would  not  be  more  tender  of  lesser  folk.  He 
had  received  a  bankrupt  treasury  from  his  predecessors  and  he 
seized  every  means  within  his  power,  fair  or  foul,  to  bring  in  money. 
The  revolution  which  had  borne  him  to  the  throne,  had  put  within 
his  hands  ample  means  of  enriching  himself  by  simply  declaring 
forfeitures  against  his  unsuccessful  foes.  The  revolt  of  1470  in 
particular  had  placed  the  vast  wealth  of  the  Nevilles  at  his  disposal 
and  afforded  him  an  opportunity  for  new  and  still  more  extensive 
confiscations. 

The  courts  of  justice  also  took  advantage  of  the  prevailing 
suspicion  of  defection  and  conspiracy,  and  turned  in  a  never 
ceasing  stream  of   reveruues,   gathered  from  thousands   of  petty 


1483]  DEATH    OF    EDWARD    IV.  487 

fines  and  forfeitures.  Not  satisfied  with  the  old  forms  of  exaction, 
Edward's  genius  devised  a  new  method  of  extortion  known  as  a 
"benevolence."  Previous  kings  had  exacted ''forced  loans"  from 
their  subjects  which  might  or  might  not  be  repaid.  Edward  dis- 
carded the  fiction  of  a  loan  altogether  and  received  what  he  called 
"free  will  offerings"  from  his  loyal  subjects.  He  even  made  per- 
sonal solicitations  and  wrote  letters  in  his  own  hand  requesting 
gifts  from  those  who  dared  not  refuse  them.  There  is  ao  record 
of  any  protest  against  these  tyrannies  on  the  part  of  parliament  or 
of  any  complaint  from  the  people.  It  is  true  that  Edward  in  his 
later  years  called  few  parliaments,  nor  gave  the  nation  many 
opportunities  to  express  its  will  in  legal  form ;  and  yet  there  were 
times  in  the  past  when  barons  and  people  had  compelled  reluctant 
kings  to  summon  parliaments  that  the  nation  might  register  its 
disapproval  of  him  or  his  ministers.  Of  the  few  parliaments 
which  Edward  summoned,  none  saw  fit  to  question  his  measures 
or  to  bring  forth  the  old  cries  of  "privilege"  or  "liberty."  For 
the  first  time  since  the  day  of  John  Lackland,  the  reign  of  an  Eng- 
lish king  was  allowed  to  pass  without  a  single  enactment  inspired 
by  these  magic  words. 

And  yet  full  of  injustice  and  cruelty,   full  of  the  spirit  of 

tyranny  as  the  reign  of  Edward  was^  men  justified  it  because  all 

felt  that  a  strong  kin?  was  the  need  of  the  hour.     After 

The  desire 

for  a  strong  the  extreme  weakness  of  the  parliamentary  kings,  the 
unutterable  chaos  and  misery  which  attended  the  last 
administration,  the  nation  apparently  beheld  the  pendulum  swing- 
ing to  the  other  extreme,  not  only  without  regret,  but  with  posi- 
tive satisfaction. 

In  1483  Edward  died,  worn  out  by  dissipation  and  wild  living 
at  the  age  of  forty-two.  His  eldest  son,  known  as  Edward  V., 
was  a  lad  of  twelve  years;  and  although  Edward's 
Edward IV.,  despotic  policy  had  left  little  to  be  feared  from  the 
Lancastrian  sentiment  which  still  lingered  among  his 
nobles,  the  people  who  had  learned  to  dread  a  rule  of  protectors 
and  regents  received  with  a  new  foreboding  of  evil  the  news  of  the 
king's  death ;  nor  had  they  long  to  wait  before  their  worst  fears 
were  realized. 


488  THE   FALL   OF   YORK  [ei^ward  v. 

Eichard  Duke  of  Gloucester  had  been  commonly  recognized  as 

the  staunch  supporter  and  confidant  of  the  late  king.     He  had  won 

ffreat  credit  on  the  fields  of  Barnet  and  Tewkesbury, 

Richard,  ^,  ,       i      -,    -,.     .  •  •,      -,  i  .         ,«  ,  -.      . 

Duke  of  where  he  had  distinguished  himself  by  personal  daring, 
and  had  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  success  of  his 
brother's  arms.  He  was  popular,  for  the  people  dearly  love  a 
brave  man,  and  they  had  not  yet  had  an  opportunity  to  peer  into 
the  shadows  of  Eichard's  character,  although  some  grim  stories 
were  already  afloat.  Coming  to  man's  estate  in  an  age  when 
political  necessity  was  held  to  justify  the  utmost  savagery  in  the 
butchering  of  fallen  rivals,  under  a  thin  veneering  of  humanism, 
he  concealed  a  peculiarly  hard  and  cruel  nature,  which  was  capable 
of  the  blackest  crimes,  when  such  crimes  were  necessary  to  free 
him  from  the  presence  of  an  enemy,  or  to  clear  his  path  of  a  possi- 
ble rival. ^  Yet  he  was  not  devoid  of  natural  affection  and  was 
deeply  attached  to  wife  and  son,  and  his  spirits  were  visibly  affected 
by  their  early  death.  In  the  last  months  of  his  life,  particularly, 
the  sense  of  bereavement  weighed  upon  him  until  he  became  the 
victim  of  a  depressing  melancholy ;  a  feeling  of  utter  loneliness  took 
possession  of  him.  In  all  of  which  men  saw  the  judgment  of  God. 
No  sooner  had  Eichard  learned  of  his  brother's  death  than  he 
began  to  scheme  for  the  succession.  It  was  an  easy  matter,  com- 
paratively, to  get  rid  of  the  Woodvilles  and  secure  for 
woodviius,  himself  the  position  of  protector.  The  Woodvilles  had 
never  been  popular;  their  power  which  was  only  of 
yesterday,  had  not  yet  taken  sufficient  root  to  enable  them  to  stand 
without  the  support  of  royal  favor.  For  a  protectorate,  moreover, 
there  was  the  precedent  of  1422.  Hence  no  one  showed  any  par- 
ticular alarm  when  Eichard  seized  the  queen's  brother.  Earl  Eivers, 
and  her  son,  Sir  Eichard  Grey,  and  hurried  them  off  to  a  northern 
prison,  or  when  it  was  rumored  that  two  other  Woodvilles  had  fled 
the  country  or  that  the  queen   with  Edward  IV. 's  second  son 

^  In  a  later  day  he  was  represented  as  an  ugly  hunchback,  due  perhaps 
to  the  commendable  feeling  that  there  must  be  some  connection  between 
the  character  of  a  man  and  his  physical  appearance.  It  is  probable  that 
one  shoulder  was  higher  than  the  other ,  but  not  enough  to  amount  to 
deformity,  or  to  interfere  with  the  most  active  service  on  the  battle  field. 


1483]  RICHARD    OF    GLOUCESTER  489 

Richard  and  her  five  daughters  had  fled  to  sanctuary  at  West- 
minster. The  influence  of  the  iipstart  Woodvilles  was  ended;  that 
was  pretty  well  understood.  It  was  further  known  that  Richard 
had  the  sanction  of  the  council;  that  they  had  appointed  him  pro- 
tector and  that  the  twenty-second  of  June  was  fixed  for  the  coro- 
nation of  the  little  Edward  V. 

There  were  men  on  the  council,  however,  who  were  the  sworn 

friends  of  Edward  IV.,  and  who  were  devoted  to  his  children,  if 

not   to   his   queen.      Richard  knew    that  as    long  as 

Richard         these  men   remained   he   must   content   himself  with 

QfiXllS  COTlZTOt  ^^ 

'^  the  council,  ^he  oflfice  of  protcctor.  The  marked  men  were  Will- 
iam Lord  Hastings,  the  captain  of  Calais,  Thomas 
Rotherham,  the  archbishop  of  York,  and  John  Morton,  the 
bishop  of  Ely.  On  June  13  Richard  suddenly  presented  him- 
self before  the  council,  accused  Hastings  of  treason  and 
without  giving  him  any  chance  for  trial  or  even  reply  had  him 
dragged  out  into  the  castle  yard  and  executed.  Rotherham  and 
Morton  were  cast  into  prison.  This  summary  purging  of  the 
council  was  not  altogether  to  the  liking  of  the  people,  and  for  the 
moment  their  confidence  in  their  favorite  was  shaken.  Yet  sus- 
picion was  speedily  allayed  by  the  report  which  was  industriously 
circulated  by  Richard's  friends,  that  he  had  discovered  a  danger- 
ous conspiracy  and  that  these  measures  were  necessary  to  preserve 
the  government.  Three  days  later  by  the  aid  of  the  old  time- 
server.  Cardinal  Bourchier,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Richard 
persuaded  the  queen  to  send  Edward's  second  son  to  join  the  little 
king  who  had  been  put  into  the  Tower  ostensibly  for  his  own 
safety. 

With  everything  now  in  his  hands,  with  the  natural  protectors 
of  Edward  lY.'s  children  either  dead  or  in  prison,  Richard  pro- 
ceeded to  the  last  step.  On  Sunday  June  22  Dr. 
Richard's  Shaw,  the  brother  of  the  Lord  Mayor,  preached  a 
June  26, 1483.  remarkable  sermon  from  an  open  air  pulpit  in  St.  Paul's 
Churchyard,  in  which  he  attacked  the  marriage  of 
Edward  IV.  and  Elizabeth  W^oodville,  and  further  stated  that  the 
children  of  Duke  Clarence  could  not  inherit  the  throne  on  account 
of  their  father's  attainder,  and  that  Richard  of  Gloucester  was 


490  THE    FALL    OF   YORK  [richabdjii. 

therefore  the  rightful  heir.  Three  days  later  an  irregular  assembly 
of  Ei chard's  friends,  which  passed  for  a  parliament,  formally 
asserted  his  title  to  the  crown  and  petitioned  him  to  assume  his 
rightful  heritage.  Eichard,  after  a  fine  show  of  hesitation, 
accepted,  and  on  the  morning  of  June  26  proceeded  in  state  to 
Westminster  Hall. 

Eichard  was  fully  aware  of  the  precarious  nature  of  his  hold  on 
the  crown,  and  at  once  endeavored  by  an  ostentatious  show  of  jus- 
tice and  good  government  to  cause  men  to  forget  if  pos- 
DifflciiUies  sible  the  circumstances  by  which  he  had  come  to  the 
Richard.  throne.  His  danger,  however,  lay  not  in  the  revival  of 
the  shattered  power  of  the  Woodvilles  or  the  Nevilles 
or  the  Lancastrians,  but  in  the  disappointed  ambition  of  the  men 
who  had  helped  him  to  the  throne,  the  ring  of  politicians  who 
were  inspired  only  by  corrupt  motives  and  now  expected  to  be 
rewarded  by  enjoying  the  patronage  of  the  government.  The 
most  prominent  among  these  supporters  of  the  king  was  Henry 
Stafford,  the  duke  of  Buckingham.  He  was  a  son  of  Sir  Hum- 
phrey Stafford  and  a  second  Margaret  Beaufort,  daughter  of  that 
Edmund  duke  of  Somerset  who  had  been  so  unlucky  in  the  last 
stages  of  the  French  war,  and  had  been  killed  at  the  first  battle  of 
St.  Albans  in  1455.  When  therefore  Eichard  failed  to  reward 
Buckingham  as  he  thought  he  had  a  right  to  expect,  like  Warwick 
he  fell  into  a  mood  which  prepared  him  for  a  leading  part  in  a 
counter  revolution.  His  first  thought  was  of  pressing  his  own 
claim  to  the  crown ;  for  he  was  not  only  a  Beaufort  but  a  descend- 
ant of  Thomas  of  Gloucester  as  well,  but  at  Brecknock  Castle,  he 
was  brought  under  the  influence  of  Bishop  Morton,  his  prisoner; 
and  was  persuaded  to  waive  his  own  claim  and  unite  with  the  Lan- 
Risin  of  castrians  in  pushing  the  claim  of  Henry  Tudor  Earl  of 
Bucidng-        Eichmond.     The  rising  met  with  no  success.     The  earl 

ham.    First  ° 

attempt  of       Qf  Eichmond  set  out  from  Brittany  but  was  turned  back 

Richmond,  '' 

^^^^-  by  a  storm ;  swollen  streams  prevented  the  insurgents 

in  England  from  uniting  their  forces  and  Eichard  easily  crushed 
the  isolated  outbreaks,  taking  Buckingham  himself,  and  sending  him 
straight  to  the  block.  Yet  it  was  not  Eichard's  policy  now  to  shed 
blood  and  he  pardoned  the  most  of  Buckingham's  followers. 


1483-1485]  RICHARD'S   PARLIAMEI^T  491 

Some  time  during  the  late  insurrection,  or  just  before,  while 
Richard  was  humoring  the  people  of  York  by  going  through  the 

form  of  a  second  coronation  in  their  city,  the  two  princes 
themincL      ^^^  ^^^  heen  lost  sight  of  since  their  imprisonment  in 

the  Tower,  were  quietly  put  to  death,  and  their  bodies 
buried  under  a  stone  staircase,  where  their  bones  were  discovered 
two  centuries  later,  in  the  time  of  Charles  II. 

In  1483,  however,  the  dreadful  secret  was  locked  up  within  the 
grim,  shadows  of  the  Tower,  and  Richard's  popularity  was  still 

high.  In  January  the  new  king  assembled  a  parliament, 
parliament,  which  first  Confirmed  the  actipn  of  the  irregular  gather- 
*  ing  of  June,  and  then  passed  bills  of  attainder  against 
Buckingham,  Richmond,  Bishop  Morton,  and  nearly  a  hundred 
others.  But  Richard  displayed  little  eagerness  in  punishing  his 
enemies.  He  was  bent  rather  upon  saving  his  popularity  at  any 
price,  and  at  the  petition  of  parliament  hastened  to  con- 
demn some  of  the  despotic  practices  of  Edward  IV.,  especially 
his  trick  of  exacting  benevolences  and  the  custom  of  seizing  the 
goods  of  an  accused  man  before  conviction.  He  also  played  for 
the  support  of  the  cities  by  granting  greater  freedom  to  commerce ; 
while  a  statute,  specially  designed  to  encourage  literature,  forbade 
any  one  to  hinder  a  stranger  from  coming  into  the  country  to  sell 
books,  "written  or  printed." 

No  amount  of  generous  concession,  however,  could  dispel  the 
gloom  which  now  began  to  settle  over  the  new  reign.     Richard's 

popularity  was  fast  ebbing;  men  began  to  understand 
fimdmvsof  ^^^  ^^^^  character.  His  only  son  Edward  died  in  April, 
re^n^^^       shortly  after  the  parliament  had  declared  hiih  Richard's 

heir ;  the  death  of  his  wife  Anne  Neville  followed  in 
March  of  the  next  year.  The  question  of  the  succession  was 
thus  again  opened  and  a  rumor  that  Richard  proposed  to  marry 
Edward  IV. 's  daughter,  Elizabeth,  aroused  such  indignation  that 
he  was  obliged  to  make  a  public  declaration  that  such  a  step  had 
not  been  thought  of. 

In  the  meanwhile  Henry,  Earl  of  Richmond,  was  busily  laying 
his  plans  for  a  second  invasion  of  England.  Richard  had  used  his 
influence  to  get  him  expelled  from  Brittany,  but  the  French  court 


492  THE    FALL   OF   YORK  [ 


Richard  III. 


had  given  him  a  cordial  welcome.    Hither  had  come  the  exiled  lords 

who  had  been  attainted  by  Richard's  parliament,  and  by  July,  1485, 

Henry  had  gathered   a   small  fleet   at   Harfleur.     On 

Richmond  in  August  7  he  landed  at  Milf  ord  Haven  in  Pembroke  with 

England, 

about  2,000  men,  and  began  his  march  across  Wales  to 
the  Severn.  He  was  among  his  own  people  and  his  army  rapidly 
swelled  in  numbers  as  he  advanced.  Men  felt  that  the  blood- 
stained career  of  Richard  was  drawing  to  its  close  and  hastened  to 
Join  the  standard  of  Richmond.  One  of  Richard's  lieutenants, 
Lord  AYilliam  Stanley,  had  been  put  in  command  of  the  Marches, 
but  he  secretly  assured  Henry  of  his  support  and  allowed  him  to 
pass  on  toward  mid-England,  following  slowly  in  his  rear.  Rich- 
ard in  the  meanwhile  was  concentrating  his  strength,  and,  as 
Henry  drew  near,  advanced  to  Bosworth,  where  he  lay  encamped 
on  the  night  of  the  21st  of  August.  He  was  surrounded  by  treach- 
ery and  treason;  he  knew  not  whom  to  trust;  defection  was  in  the 
air.  The  night,  it  is  said,  he  passed  in  sleepless  wretchedness, 
haunted  by  terrifying  dreams  and  gloomy  foreboding  of  the  day  to 
come.  He  was  up,  however,  before  daybreak,  and  after  an  elo- 
quent harangue  to  his  troops,  with  his  crown  upon  his  head  led 
them  to  the  battle.  The  armies  met  on  Redmoor  plain  about 
three  miles  from  Bosworth.  Richard's  army  outnumbered 
Henry's  two  to  one,  and  his  men  apparently  were  fast  getting  the 
better  of   their  antagonists,  when  the   Stanleys  went  over  to  the 

side  of  Henry  and  at  once  turned  the  balance  in  his 

Bosworth,  T^.iT  -i     rt'       ' 

August  22,  favor.  Richard  saw  that  all  was  over,  and  flinging 
himself  into  the  press  was  cut  down  in  an  attempt  to 
reach  Richmond.  The  battered  crown,  which  had  been  struck 
from  his  head  by  a  sword  cut,  was  found  clinging  to  a  hawthorn 
bush  near  by,  and  was  placed  by  Sir  William  Stanley  upon  the 
head  of  the  victor.  Then  the  soldiers  took  up  the  shout  and 
hailed  Henry  king. 

So  fell  the  last  of  the  Plantagenets,  the  soldier  kings  of  Eng- 
land, to  give  place  to  a  new  race  who  were,  to  seek  the  ends  of 
End  of  Plan-  S^^^  government,  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  peo- 
tagenetera.  pj^^  j^q^  through  violence,  but  by  the  surer  methods  of 
statecraft.      The   national    estates  had  passed  almost   impercep- 


END    OF    PLAXTAGENET   EKA  493 

tibly  into  the  national  parliament;  but  the  long  struggle  for 
parliamentary  rights  had  so  weakened  and  undermined  the 
strength  of  the  crown,  that  it  was  no  longer  able  to  control  its 
great  subjects,  but  had  become  the  helpless  instrument  of  their 
quarrels,  used  first  by  one  faction  and  then  by  the  other,  in  order 
to  give  to  their  wholesale  butcheries  and  confiscations  the  cloak  of 
law.  In  time,  however,  the  strength  of  the  nobility  was  wasted, 
and  then  the  great  middle  class  was  left  to  assert  itself.  Its 
strength  had  remained  intact;  it  had  taken  little  part  in  the  wars 
of  the  barons  and  had  been  spared  by  both  sides  as  a  matter  of 
policy ;  yet  it  was  weary  of  the  ceaseless  anarchy  and  the  blood- 
shedding.  It  longed  for  peace  and  was  content  to  see  the  mon- 
archy grow  strong  again.  To  Edward  IV.  was  presented  the 
opportunity  of  ushering  in  this  new  day.  The  great  merchant 
class  were  loyal  to  the  House  of  York,  not  because  of  any  interest 
in  the  mere  abstraction  of  legal  succession,  but  because  they  saw  in 
it  a  pledge  of  better  government  and  better  personal  security.  But 
Edward  had  neither  the  moral  seriousness  nor  the  intellectual 
grasp  to  comprehend  his  opportunity;  he  was  too  much  of  an 
autocrat  by  nature  to  care  much  for  the  sympathy  of  the  nation ; 
he  thought  only  of  replacing  the  tyranny  of  the  nobles  by  the 
personal  rule  of  an  independent  king,  and  recklessly  squandered 
the  advantages  of  his  position  in  his  tyrannies  and  his  immoral- 
ities. Kichard  appreciated  the  full  value  of  what  his  predecessor 
had  thrown  away;  but  the  crimes  over  which  he  had  mounted  to 
the  throne,  were  even  more  fatal  than  Edward's  indifference. 
He  saw  the  new  era;  the  light  of  the  morning  of  national  renais- 
sance and  reformation  was  full  upon  his  face,  but  the  sins  which 
he  had  committed  prevented  him  from  entering  the  promised  land. 
This  was  reserved  for  his  successor,  when  the  monarchy,  sup- 
ported by  the  loyalty  of  the  nation  and  vindicated  in  the  peace 
which  it  wrought,  should  enter  upon  a  new  era  of  strength  and 
dignity. 


PART  III— NATIONAL  ENGLAND 

THE    EEA    OF    NATIONAL    AWAKENING 
BOOK  II— RELIGIOUS  REFORMATION 

FROM  1485  TO  1603 


CHAPTER  I 


THE    RESTORATION^    OF   THE    MOKARCHY 

HENRY  VIL,  085-1509 


THE  YOUNGER  BRANCH  OF  THE 
NEVILLES 

Richard,  Earl  of  Salisbury, 
killed  at  Wakefield,  14G0 


Richard,  Earl  of 
Warwick,  the 
"King-Maker," 
killed  at  Bar- 
net,  1471 

I 
I 


John,  George, 

Lord  Men-     Archbishop 
tague,  killed  of  York 
at  Towton, 
1461 


Isahelle 


George, 

Duke  of  Clar- 
ence, d.  in  the 
Tower,  1478 


I 
Anne, 
m.  Richard  III. 
killed  at  Bos- 
worth,  1485 


Edward  Plan- 
tagenet.  Earl 
of  Warwick, 
ex.  1499 


Margaret, 
Countess  of 
Salisbury, 
ex.  1541 


Edward, 
d.  1484 


THE  DE  LA  POLES 
William,  wealthy  merchant  of  Kingston, 

I     founder  of  family  in  time  of   Ed- 

I     ward  III. 
Michael,  made  earl  of  Suffolk  in  1383,  d. 

I     in  exile  at  Paris,  1388. 
Michael,  2d  earl  of   Suffolk,  d.  at  Har- 

I     ffeur,  1415. 


Michael,  William,  =  Alice, 

3d  earl  of  4tli  earl  grand- 

Suffolk,  d.  at     of  Suffolk,      daughter 
Agincourt,  1415  1448   1st 
duke  of 
Suffolk, 
murdered 
1450 

John,  =  Ehzabeth, 


of  Chaucer 


2d  duke 
of  Suffolk, 
d.  1491 


sister  of 
Edward 
IV. 


John,  Earl  of 
Lincoln,  killed 
at  Stoke,  1487 


Edmund, 
d.  1513 


I 
Richard, 
killed  at 
Pavia,  1525, 
m.  Mar- 
garet of 
Salisbury 


Henry,  Lord  Montague, 
ex.  1539 


Reginald, 
Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  d.  1558 


Geoffrey 


The  fifteenth  century  compared  with  the  fourteenth  had  been 
a  century  of  great  material  prosperity.  A  fortunate  succession  of 
favorable  seasons  had  brought  a  corresponding  succession  of  abun- 
dant harvests;  the  plague  had  ceased  its  ravages  and  the  French 

494 


PROSPERITY   OF   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY  495 

war  had  run  its  course.     The  civil  wars  of  the  later  period  had 
hardly  interfered  with  the  non-military  population;  the  towns  had 

been  spared,  and  the  slaughter  on  the  battlefield  had 
Prosperity  of  for  the  most  part  been  confined  to  the  nobles  and  their 
cm^ry!^^'^     retainers.     In  the  long  era  of  quiet  ^which   followed, 

under  the  beneficent  influence  of  lighter  taxation, 
abundant  food,  steady  prices,  and  good  wages,  the  population  had 
recovered  its  losses,  and  at  the  close  of  the  century  exceeded  possi- 
bly by  twenty-five  per  cent  the  population  of  the  England  of 
Richard  11.^ 

Commerce  was  particularly  vigorous  and  active ;  a  fact  attested 
by  a  long  series  of  commercial  treaties  which  extend  through  the 

whole  century,  by  which  English  traders  sought  to 
Entiiish         secure   markets  not  only  in  the  cities  of  their  neighbors 

commerce  tn  »'  ° 

thefifteenth     across  the  Channel,  but  also  in  the  Hanse  towns  of  the 

century.  ' 

Baltic,  in  Castile  and  Portugal,  and  even  in  distant 
Florence.  The  materials  of  this  trade  were '*  wool,  wheat,  lead, 
tin,  honey,  hides,  saddlery,  hardware,  and  even  guns."  The  return 
trade  brought  wine  from  Gascony,  wine  and  sugar  from  Greece, 
paper  from  Venice  and  Florence,  silks  and  stuffs  of  various  hues 
and  kinds,  turquoises  and  rubies,  from  the  Orient,  furs  and  strong, 
coarse  serges  and  friezes  from  Ireland,  while  even  distant  Iceland 
poured  its  stock-fish,  eiderdown,  and  brimstone  into  Bristol.  The 
dockyards  of  the  east  and  south  were  called  into  unwonted  activ- 
ity; shipbuilding  flourished,  and  the  keeping  up  of  a  fleet  became 
once  more  the  accepted  policy  of  English  kings.  For  much  of 
the  time  the  government  had  been  bankrupt  and  its  tenure  uncer- 
tain, to  say  nothing  of  the  presence  of  actual  civil  war;  Henry  V., 
Henry  VI.,  and  Edward  IV.  had  successively  debased  the  coinage, 
and  yet  in  spite  of  these  influences,  merchant  and  artisan  had  con- 
tinued   to    prosper.     The    seas    were    comparatively  safe.     The 

^  At  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century  the  population  of  England  was 
included  inabout  300, 000  families,  representing  possibly  2, 000, 000  souls.  At 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  population  had  advanced  to  4, 200, 000. 
Allowing  for  the  inroads  of  the  Black  Death  and  the  Hundred  Years'  War, 
it  is  fair  to  suppose  that  at  least  one-half  of  this  increase  was  due  to  the 
favorable  conditions  which  prevailed  during  the  fifteenth  century. 


496  THE    RESTORATION    OF   THE    MONARCHY  [henbyVII. 

merchants  left  the  government  pretty  much  to  the  nobles  and 
neither  bothered  themselves  nor  imperiled  their  interests  by  mix- 
ing up  their  ventures  with  affairs  of  state,  while  the  thrifty  con- 
dition of  the  craft-gilds,  who  maintained  the  quality  of  English 
goods  and  the  regularity  of  the  output  of  English  shops,  enabled 
them  to  secure  a  firm  hold  upon  the  markets  of  Europe. 

Architecture  also  felt  the  new  life,  although  it  is  indicative  of 
the    direction    in    which    the    currents  were    tending,   that  its 

triumphs  lay  not  so  much  in  the  erection  of  great  pub- 
Thl^^^^^^^'  ^^^  buildings  as  in  the  construction  of  better  and  more 
pendicuiar      commodious  dwellings  for  the  people.     Its  spirit  was 

practical,  materialistic;  its  right  angles  and  upright 
lines,  its  flat  arches,  square-headed  windows  and  broad  window- 
lights,  its  square-paneled  walling  and  elaborate  ceilings,  its  low 
pitched  roofs  and  towering  pinnacles,  features  of  the  so-called  ^jer- 
pendimilar  style,  are  in  marked  contrast  with  the  lofty  pointed 
arches,  flying  buttresses  and  vast  roof  spaces  of  the  era  which  had 
passed. 

The  change  in  the  style  of  architecture  was  not  more  marked 
than  the  changes  in  the  style  of  dress,  particularly  of  the  middle 

classes  who  were  developing  other  tastes  in  keeping 
Dress,  ^yitli  their  improved  dwellings ;  the  robes  of  churchmen 

alone  remained  as  they  had  been  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury,— emblem  of  the  unerring,  changeless  orthodoxy  of  the  wearer. 
Armor  also  had  changed  to  keep  pace  with  the  improvements  in 
offensive  warfare  which  had  followed  the  introduction  of  gun- 
powder. It  had  become  so  heavy,  so  elaborate,  and  so  cumbersome 
that  it  was  rapidly  approaching  the  limit  when  it  would  be  rio 
longer  possible  for  the  knight  to  move,  much  less  fight  to  advan- 
tage under  the  increasing  weight  of  steel.  It  was  no  unusual 
occurrence  for  '^ye  brave  knight,"  in  the  heat  and  dust  and  press 
of  battle,  to  die  without  mark  of  cut  or  thrust,  ignobly  smothered 
under  his  weight  of  armor.  On  the  other  hand  gunpowder  was 
coming  rapidly  into  use,  especially  on  the  continent.  The  Ger- 
mans on  the  Khine  developed  a  ''light,  well-bored  hand-gun,'  a 
weapon  which  was  quite  a  favorite  with  Charles  of  Burgundy, 
who  sent  300  of  his  "hand-gun  men"  to  accompany  Edward  IV. 


INTELLECTUAL    LIPE    OF    CEl^TURY  497 

in  his  descent  at  Ravenspur  in  1471.  In  England,  however,  the 
long  bow,  the  traditional  national  weapon  which  had  won  Crecy 
and  Poitiers,  still  maintained  its  popularity  and  prevented  the 
general  introduction  of^  hand  fire-arms ;  yet  heavy  ordnance  had 
been  adopted  very  early,  and  figured  in  all  the  important  sieges  of 
the  period,  particularly  at  Harfleur  in  1415,  when  the  three  great 
guns  of  Henry  V.,  "the  London,"  "the  Messagere,"  and  the 
"King's  Daughter,"  kept  up  such  a  continuous  cannonade  for 
thirty  days,  that  the  population  at  last  pronounced  it  "unen- 
durable" and  were  glad  to  capitulate.  The  eighteen-foot  pike, 
which  the  Swiss  had  used  to  such  advantage  against  the  chivalry 
of  Austria,  had  also  become  a  favorite  with  the  infantry.  The 
importance  of  drill  and  training  in  the  use  of  arms  was  generally 
recognized,  thus  making  the  military  life  a  distinct  profession, 
and  to  that  extent  robbing  the  old  feudal  nobility  of  their 
occupation. 

The  intellectual  life  of  England  had  remained  at  a  low  ebb  until 

the  close  of  the  century.     The  renaissance  was  in  full  tide  in  Italy, 

but  English  ears  were  so  filled  with  the  din  of  political 

The-intei-        strife  or  commercial  rivalries,  that  little  heed  was  paid 

lectiuil  life  i  •  •       i         i 

of  the  age.  to  the  quiet-voiced  scholar,  bent  upon  the  lore  of  a 
forgotten  world.  Within  the  seclusion  of  the  uni- 
versities where  the  atmosphere  was  freest  from  the  distracting 
influences  of  the  day,  and  where  much  might  have  been  accom- 
plished for  pure  learning,  the  restrictions  which  had  been  placed 
upon  discussion  since  the  days  of  Lollardism,  had  discouraged 
research  and  stifled  thought.  So  keen  was  the  scent  of  the 
authorities  for  heresy,  that  even  those  who  took  up  the  pen  to 
defend  the  church,  as  Bishop  Peacock  in  1459,  were  not  always 
happy  in  satisfying  the  ultraconservatism  of  their  party  and  got 
into  sore  trouble  for  their  pains.  The  wise,  therefore,  did  not 
try  to  write,  and  left  disputation  to  the  half  informed  enthusiast. 
Men  were  bent  upon  other  things,  more  engrossing  than  parch- 
ment scroll  or  panel ;  even  those  who  wrote  books,  as  the  private 
historiographers  of  the  nobles,  wrote  to  please  a  very  limited 
constituency  rather  than  to  give  utterance  to  great  thoughts. 
Volumes  of  correspondence,   as  the  famous  Paston  letters,  state 


498  THE    RESTORATIOK    OF   THE    MONARCHY  [henry  vil. 

papers,  chronicles,  diaries,  account  books,  have  survived,  but, 
valuable  as  they  are  for  the  purposes  of  the  historian,  they  are 
hardly  literature.  There  was  poetry,  and  much  of  it;  weak 
imitations  of  Chaucer,  imitations  also  of  the  French  ballads, 
and  the  popular  miracle  plays,  or  mysteries,  but,  although  some 
writers,  as  Eobert  Henryson,  still  labored  quite  in  the  old  spirit 
of  Chaucer,  in  general  "the  quality  of  the  verse  was  poor  and  the 
thought  lifeless." 

The  new  inspiration  which  the  century  was  to  contribute  to 
bookmaking  was  to  come,  not  from  the  closet  of  poet  or  historian 
or  philosopher,  but  from  the  shop  of  the  printer. 
s^^Sd*^  Block  printing  had  been  known  in  England  as  early  as 
1350;  but  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.,  William  Caxton, 
an  Englishman  who  had  formerly  settled  in  Bruges,  introduced 
the  new  art  of  printing  by  movable  type.  He  had  already  printed 
abroad  the  Game  and  Play  of  Chess;  but  at  Westminster,  where 
under  the  special  patronage  of  Edward  IV.,  he  set  up  his  press,  he 
attempted  far  more  ambitious  tasks :  Chaucer'' s  Works^  the  Morte 
d' Arthur  of  Sir  Thomas  Malory,  the  Polychronicon  of  Higden,  a 
history  of  England  to  which  Caxton  made  his  own  additions, 
bringing  the  work  down  to  date,  the  Sayings  of  the  Philosophers^ 
translated  by  Lord  Anthony  Kivers,  and  the  story  of  Reynard 
the  Fox,  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  among  Caxton's  patrons 
at  this  era  were  Tiptoft,  the  earl  of  Worcester,  the  same  who  won 
the  unpleasant  nickname  of  '*the  butcher"  by  the  scientific  way 
in  which  he  conducted  the  executions  of  1470,  and  Richard  of 
Gloucester  himself.  Caxton  and  his  helpers  did  much  to  influence 
the  present  form  of  the  English  language  by  fixing  upon  the  mid- 
land dialect  as  the  standard  book  English;  he  also  used  the  spelling 
and  inflections  of  the  late  thirteenth  and  early  fourteenth  cen- 
turies, thus  preserving  many  survivals  of  the  old  inflected 
Anglo-Saxon,  as  the  final  mute  e,  and  by  reason  of  the  over  slavish 
imitation  of  bookmakers  since,  committing  the  language  to  many 
of  the  eccentricities,  which  make  the  spelling  of  present-day 
English  so  hard  to  acquire. 

All  in  all  the  age  was  a  great  age,  although  it  abounded  in 
deep  shadows.     Its  springs  were  commercial  rather  than  spiritual 


THE    GREATER   ERA    AT    HAND  .  499 

or  intellectual,  and  like  every  commercial  age  it  was  also  material- 
istic. Its  materialism,  moreover,  had  invaded  the  high  places  of 
state  and  church ;  it  had  poisoned  the  motives  of  king 
theaac^  and  noblc,  and  had  turned  politics  into  a  bloody  scram- 
ble for  plunder;  it  had  obscured  the  vision  of  the 
people  and  weakened  their  grasp  upon  the  supreme  principles  of 
righteousness  and  liberty;  it  had  converted  bishops  and  abbots 
into  thrifty  landlords,  more  anxious  to  save  sheep  than  to  save 
souls;  to  extend  their  temporal  powers  than  to  develop  the 
Christian  graces  among  their  people.  The  influence  of  the 
church  had  declined  correspondingly,  and  a  spirit  of  irreligion 
pervaded  all  classes.  Yet  if  faith  in  God  were  less  active,  a  belief 
in  the  devil  and  his  works  was  never  so  vigorous ;  the  existence 
of  witchcraft  and  the  general  potency  of  the  black  art  were  com- 
monly accepted,  and  figured  in  more  than  one  great  state  trial  of 
the  century.^ 

At  the  opening  of  Henry  VII. 's  reign,  however,  all  conditions 
were  prophetic  of  a  greater  era  at  hand.  The  conditions  of  the 
older  political  life  were  passing  away.  The  old  theories 
dSands!'^^^  of  the  state  which  had  served  to  hold  the  medieval 
society  together,  strange  mingling  of  ideas  drawn  in 
part  from  the  ancient  Jewish  theocracy,  in  part  from  the  civil  law, 
and  in  part  from  feudalism,  were  steadily  yielding  to  new 
conceptions  of  the  relations  of  king  and  nation.*  New  ele- 
ments, also,  had  been  thrust  into  the  body  politic  as  a  result 
of  the  decline  of  villainage  and  the  development  of  the 
free  yeomanry.  The  wealth  of  the  nation  was  no  longer 
confined  to  the  manors  of  the  great  lords,  but  was  gravitat- 
ing to  the  cities  and  was  fully  represented  in  the  growing 
importance  of  the  merchant  class.  The  interests  of  the  people, 
also,  were  turning  them  less  to  politics  and  more  to  trade. 
The  traditions  of  recent  baronial  usurpation,  moreover,  had  com- 
pletely displaced  the  more  ancient  traditions  of  royal  encroach- 

'  For  the  trial  of  Joan  of  Arc,  see  Colby  Selections,  pp.  113-117.  For 
case  of  Eleanor  Cobliam,  see  Green  H.  E.  P.,  I,  560,  561. 

2  For  summary  of  theories  of  Fortescue,  the  venerable  jurist  of  Henry 
VI.  and  Edward  IV.,  see  Stubbs  C.  H.,  vol.  III.  pp.  247-253. 


500  THE      RESTORATION    OF   THE    MONARCHY  [henrt  vil. 

merit  upon  the  constitution.  Englishmen  feared  civil  strife  more 
than  all  other  evils  and  were  willing  to  concede  almost  any  powers 
to  the  crown,  if  only  they  might  secure  the  peace  for  which  they 
longed.  The  demand  of  the  hour,  therefore,  was  for  protection 
against  the  lawlessness  of  subjects  rather  than  against  the  possi- 
ble encroachments  of  the  crown ;  for  a  crowned  constable  to  appre- 
hend and  punish  influential  criminals,  rather  than  for  pugnacious 
parliaments;  for  new  markets  rather  than  for  foreign  conquests ; 
for  the  substantial  favors  of  great  commercial  treaties  rather  than 
the  enforcement  of  the  claims  of  the  English  crown  over  France. 
The  new  king  in  appearance  was  spare ;  his  face  was  intellec- 
tual, secretive,  cold  and  severe,  suggesting  the  ascetic.  In  diplo- 
macy he  was  cunning,  patient,  farsighted,  and  prac- 
Hmr^vii^  tical.  He  had  proved  himself  no  mean  soldier;  yet  like 
all  the  great  kings  of  England,  he  was  not  fond  of  war. 
He  was  a  miser  not  because  he  loved  gold,  but  by  policy;  he  saw 
that  money  was  the  first  condition  of  a  strong  government.  To 
him  a  penny  saved  was  far  more  satisfactory  than  a  penny  coaxed 
from  a  refractory  parliament.  Hence  his  habits  were  frugal,  and 
hig  court  presented  but  a  shabby  appearance  to  those  who  remem- 
bered the  days  of  the  gay,  the  magnificent,  the  voluptuous  Edward. 
The  policy  which  Henry  adopted  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign 
and  persistently  followed  out,  is  itself  the  best  illustration  of  the 
character  of  the  man.  He  proposed  to  win  the  hered- 
^oiiml^'^^  itary  foes  of  his  house  by  generous  treatment,  yet  to 
hold  them  with  a  strong  hand ;  to  strengthen  the  royal 
authority  by  reducing  the  power  of  the  nobles  and  courting  the 
sympathy  of  the  people,  at  the  same  time  making  his  administra- 
tion independent  of  the  whims  of  parliament  by  a  business-like 
management  of  the  public  treasury.  To  carry  out  this  policy  he 
must  eschew  war;  yet  he  did  not  propose  for  that  reason  to  allow 
England's  prestige  to  suffer  abroad;  he  would  win  his  share  in  the 
perpetual  scramble  of  continental  politicians  by  the  gentler  and  less 
expensive  method  of  matrimonial  alliance.  This  policy  Henry 
followed  through  his  own  reign  and  transmitted  to  his  successors, 
and  although  adopted  by  no  one  of  them  in  full,  although  varied 
by  each  to  meet  the  ever  shifting  needs  of  national  or  foreign 


1485,  I486]  _  LAMBERT   SIMXEL  501 

politics,   in  its  essential  features,  it  remained  the  characteristic 
Tudor  policy. 

Henry  called  his  first  parliament  together  November  7,  1485. 
He  informed  them  that  he  held  the  crown  "by  just  right  of  inher- 
itance and  by  the  judgment  of  God."  They  accepted 
llTdktmcnt^  his  statement  of  fact,  and,  without  raising  the  question 
Nnvemhcr?,  ^f  right,  declared  "that  the  inheritance  of  the  crown 
of  England  and  France  be,  rest,  remain  and  abide  in 
the  person  of  our  sovereign  lord.  King  Henry  VII.,  and  in  the 
heirs  of  his  body."  They  also  declared  the  late  King  Eichard  an 
usurper,  his  followers  traitors,  and  then,  thinking  they  had 
sufficiently  vindicated  the  position  of  Henry,  extended  a  general 
pardon  to  the  survivors.  It  was  a  politic  act  and  did  much  to 
inspire  confidence.  Then  they  still  further  voiced  the  earnest* 
desire  of  the  nation  for  peace  by  humbly  petitioning  the  king  to 
"deign  to  marry  the  Lady  Elizabeth  York,"  the  daughter  of 
Edward  IV.  Henry  consented,  and  the  marriage  was  set  for 
January  18,  148G.  Thus  at  last  the  claims  of  the  two  lines  of 
York  and  Lancaster  were  merged  in  the  one  House  of  Tudor. 

The  new  monarchy  was  hardly  established  before  its  strength 

was  put  to  the  test  by  a  series  of  risings  due  to  the  restlessness  of 

the  deposed  Yorkists.     In   1486  Lord  Lovel,  a  York- 

YorTcist  ris- 

ings.  Lovel,    shire  nobleman,   raised  the  people  of  Yorkshire  in  the 
Yorkist  interest.      But    the    middle  class  everywhere 

hurried  to  the  king's  assistance.     A  "marvelous  great  number  of 

esquires,   gentlemen,   and  yeomen"  gathered    about  Henry,  and 

Lovel  and  his  insurgents  were  speedily  routed. 

The  same  year  a  second  attempt  was  set  on  foot  in  Ireland. 

The  great  nobles  of  the  Geraldine  line  took  up  Lambert  Simnel, 
the  son  of  an  Oxford  tradesman,  and  proclaimed  him 

simnciim-   to  be  "Edward  Plantagenet, "  Earl   of  Warwick,  the 
son  of  Duke  Clarence  and  Isabelle  Neville,  although  the 

real  Edward  was  at  the  time  safe  in  Henry's  keeping  in  the  Tower. 

It  seems  strange   that   men  should  have  believed  Simnel's  story; 

but  it  must  be  remembered  that  news   spread  slowly,  and  that 

it  was   very  difficult   to  set   the   popular  mind  right  when   once 

misled.     The  people,  moreover,  were  ignorant  and  credulous,  and 


502  THE    RESTORATION    OF   THE    MONARCHY  [henry  Vil. 

delighted  in  the  marvelous  and  the  improbable.  Margaret  of 
Burgundy,  Edward  IV. 's  sister,  acknowledged  Simnel  as  her 
nephew,  while  John  de  la  Pole,  the  earl  of  Lincoln,  son  of  a 
second  sister,  openly  joined  Simnel,  together  with  Lovel  who 
had  fled  to  Flanders  after  his  previous  failure.  The  expedition, 
composed  of  a  motley  crowd  of  soldiers  and  adventurers,  tfermans, 
Flemings,  and  Irish,  set  sail  from  Dublin  in  the  early  summer  of 
1487,  and  soon  made  a  landing  in  Lancashire.  In  June  Henry 
met  them  at  Stoke;  Lovel  and  Lincoln  were  slain;  but  Simnel 
was  captured  and  set  to  work  as  a  turnspit  in  the  royal  kitchen. 
He  was  not  worth  the  hanging. 

The  rising  bore  immediate  fruit  in  the  revival  of  the  old  custom 
of  calling  together  members  of  the  king's  council  as  a  court  of 

special  criminal  judicature  in  cases  which  the  ordinary 
The  Court  of  courts  could  not  reach.  Henry's  primary  object  was  to 
b^%4^^     put  a  stop  to  the  long  established  abuses  of  livery  of 

company,  which  made  such  risings  as  those  of  Lovel 
and  Simnel  possible.  Parliaments  had  frequently  petitioned 
against  the  evil  and  kings  had  promulgated  laws  in  response,  but 
in  the  weakness  of  the  ordinary  courts  offenders  had  gone 
*'unwhipped  of  justice;"  the  poor  had  been  oppressed;  the  courts 
despised,  and  the  king  defied.  The  evil,  therefore,  lay  not  in  the 
law,  but  in  the  nerveless  arm  which  wielded  the  law.  What  was 
needed  was  a  court  which  would  be  beyond  private  control,  and  not 
subject  to  packing  or  intimidation ;  and  to  meet  this  need  a  special 
committee  of  the  king's  council,  composed  of  the  chancellor,  the 
treasurer,  the  keeper  of  the  privy  seal,  a  bishop,  and  a  lord  of  the 
council,  to  which  were  added  the  two  chief  justices,  was  empow- 
ered by  special  act  of  parliament  to  deal  with  '^such  offenses  as 
livery  and  maintenance,  jury  packing,  incitement  to  riot,"  and,  in 
general,  with  all  offenses  where  the  ordinary  courts  failed  to  give 
justice.  Cases  of  serious  complaint,  where  no  redress  was  offered 
in  the  ordinary  courts,  had  frequently  been  addressed  to  the  king 
in  council,  and  such  matters  were  commonly  transacted  in  the 
room  in  the  royal  palace  known  as  the  Star  Chamber  where  the 
council  ordinarily  held  its  business  sittings.  What  was  new,  there- 
fore, w^as  not  a  court  of  Star  Chamber,  but  the  creation  of  a  special 


1487]  THE    COURT   OF    STAR    CHAMBER  503 

committee  of  the  council,  strengthened  by  the'  addition  of  the  two 
royal  judges  and  empowered  to  deal  with  particular  classes  of 
offenders.*  Henceforth  when  a  great  noble  violated  the  laws,  the 
king's  officers  seized  him,  brought  him  to  Westminster,  and 
presented  him  to  the  Court  of  Star  Chamber  where  he  was  tried 
and  condemned  without  jury  and  by  secret  session,  and  sometimes 
it  might  be  even  without  a  hearing.  Henry's  old  friend,  the  earl 
of  Oxford,  was  among  the  first  to  suffer  under  the  new  law;  he  was 
fined  £10,000.^ 

Another  act  no  less  conducive  to  the  permanence  of  the  present 
peace  prescribed  that  the  service  of  a  de  facto  king  should  not  be 
construed  as  high  treason  by  act  of  parliament  or  any 
suihS^%95.  pr<>cess  of  law.  A  parliament  could  not  bind  its  suc- 
cessors, and  yet  the  effect  of  the  law  was  to  remove  an 
incentive  to  joining  Yorkists'  plots.  Another  law,  also  servicea- 
ble to  the  same  end,  prescribed  that  if  a  decision  in  case  of  a  con- 
fiscated estate  had  been  once  given  and  a  fine  levied  with  proclama- 
tion in  a  public  court  of  justice,  then  after  five  years  no  further 
claims  could  be  made. 

While  Henry  was  thus  laying  anew  the  foundations  of  order  at 
home,  the  managers  of  the  young  French  sovereign,  Charles 
VIII.  had  been  steadily  reducing  the  remaining  feu- 
Vranceover  ^atories  of  the  French  allegiance  and  consolidating  the 
^jtoni/,  strength  of  the  crown.  Henry  was  not  blind  to  the 
significance  of  these  steps;  England  was  deeply  inter- 
ested, and  when  in  1490  the  advance  of  the  French  arms  promised 
the  speedy  reduction  of  Brittany,  the  English  saw  themselves 
threatened  not  only  with  the  loss  of  an  old  and  useful  ally  but 
also  with  the  destruction  of  their  trade  with  the  Bretons,  for  the 
lords  of  Brittany  had  given  special  privileges  to  English  merchants. 
Henry's  merchants,  therefore,  were  eager  to  prevent  the  absorption 
of  Brittany  by  the  French  crown  even  at  the  expense  of  war. 
Henry,  however,  felt  that  his  position  at  home  was  by  no  means 

^See  Prothero,  Select  Statutes,  pp.  xcviii-cvii.  For  some  novel  and 
interesting  facts  concerning  this  famous  court,  see  also  Miss  Scofield's 
Study  of  the  Court  of  Star  Chamber. 

*  For  the  well-known  story,  see  Green  II,  p.  70. 


504  THE    RESTOKATIOK    OF   THE    MONARCHY  [henry  vii. 

SO  secure,  that  he 'could  afford  to  plunge  into  war  with  the  now 
powerful  French  monarchy.  Yet  the  nation  insisted  and 
through  parliament  virtually  forced  the  king  to  interfere. 
Still  Henry  entered  into  the  war  with  anything  but  a  whole 
heart,  and  sent  over  an  army  of  only  6,000  men,  entirely 
inadequate  to  hold  the  duchy.  The  English  people  were  not 
satisfied;  the  clamor  for  war  increased,  and  in  October  1492 
Henry  invaded  France  in  person.  He  only  pretended  to  make 
war,  however,  and  was  content  to  allow  Charles  to  buy  him  off, 
as    Louis   XI.  had  once  bought  off    Edward  IV.     This   way  of 

making  '%ar  pay  at  both  ends,"  for  parliament  had 
Treaty  of  already  voted  enormous  subsidies,  peculiarly  appealed  to 
Augmt!i492.   Henry's   thrifty  nature.     The    nation    was  chagrined 

and  angry,  but  had  to  accept  the  result. 
One  reason  why  Henry  had  hesitated  to  plunge  into  a  foreign 
war  was  the  fear  that  such  a  war  would  offer  a  new  opportunity 

for  the  Yorkists  to  make  trouble,  and  so  it  turned  out. 
wafbeck        Another  pretender  was  found  the  moment  the  king  had 

become  involved  in  a  foreign  campaign.  This  new 
claimant  was  the  famous  Perkin  Warbeck,  who  asserted  that  he 
was  Eichard  of  York,  the  younger  of  the  two  princes  who  were 
supposed  to  have  been  murdered  in  the  Tower  in  1483.  As  in  the 
case  of  Simnel,  Margaret  of  Burgundy  accepted  this  pretender  also 
as  her  nephew,  and  rendered  him  all  possible  assistance;  while  the 
king  of  France  welcomed  him  in  hope  of  gaining  some  new  advan- 
tage over  his  enemy.  Warbeck  was  a  Fleming  of  Tournay,  hand- 
some, fascinating,  well  educated,  of  kingly  bearing  and  noble 
manners,  and  so  well  tutored  in  his  part  that  some  readily  believed 
in  him.  He  appeared  first  in  Ireland  some  time  in  1492,  where 
he  was  greeted  by  the  Irish,  and  acknowledged  by  the  deputy  of 
the  king,  the  earl  of  Kildare.  From  Ireland  he  passed  to  France, 
and  in  1493  appeared  at  the  court  of  Margaret. 

The  fact  that  two  pretenders  could  so  readily  get  the  support 
of  the  representative  of  Henry  in  Ireland,  shows  how  little  control 
he  had  in  this  part  of  his  realms,  and  how  little  respect  the  earl  of 
Kildare  had  for  his  chief.  Henry  determined  therefore  to  replace 
the  turbulent  earl  of  Kildare  by  a  more  responsible  deputy.     The 


1494,  1495]  POYNIKGS'S  LAW  505 

man  whom  he  selected  was  Sir  Edward  Poynings,  his  old  compan- 
ion in  exile,  as  devoted  to  his  interests  as  he  was  able  and  deter- 
mined. Poynings  began  his  work  by  getting  possession 
Ireland.  of  the  Pale.  He  then  compelled  the  Irish  parliament  to 
Law!^49i.  pass  a  series  of  acts,  by  which  it  was  declared :  first  that 
the  consent  of  the  English  king  and  council  was  neces- 
sary to  the  summoning  of  an  Irish  parliament ;  second,  that  all 
bills  considered  by  the  Irish  parliament  must  "first  be  considered 
by  the  English  parliament ;  and  thirds  that  the  recent  laws  of  the 
English  parliament  were  binding  upon  Ireland.  Here  was  a  fit- 
ting close  of  that  century  and  a  half  of  English  legislation  for 
Ireland  w^hich  began  with  the  Statute  of  Kilkenny  of  1367,  **which 
made  it  high  treason  for  an  English  settler  to  adopt  Irish  customs, 
to  speak  the  Irish  tongue,  or  to  marry  an  Irish  woman;''  which 
in  1465  made  it  lawful  for  a  freeman  to  kill  a  thief  on  sight,  or 
even  one  whom  he  suspected  of  being  a  thief;  and  which  now  in 
1494  deprived  the  Irish  parliament  of  all  power  to  make  its  own 
laws.  This  action  effectually  robbed  Warbeck  of  the  chance  of 
further  assistance  from  Ireland. 

In  the  meantime  Henry's  agents  had  also  ferreted  out  a  number 
of  men  at  home,  who  were  charged  with  being  in  sympathy  with 
Warbeck  and  engaged  in  securing  for  him  a  secret  fol- 
DeathofSir  lowing  in  England.  At  the  head  of  these  suspects  was 
starS,i495'  Si^  William  Stanley,  his  chamberlain,  the  man  who  had 
made  Henry's  success  at  Bosworth  possible,  and  who 
had  crowned  him  on  the  field  of  battle.  Like  Warwick,  the  King- 
Maker,  Stanley  also  had  come  to  lament  his  successful  treason, 
and  was  now  plotting  to  undo  his  work.  By  order  of  Henry  he 
was  seized,  tried,  and  executed.  Whether  he  were  guilty,  or  not, 
will  probably  always  remain  a  question ;  but  the  summary  pro- 
ceedings, the  dignity  and  wide  influence  of  the  victim,  were  a 
warning  to  the  politicians,  and  effectually  intimidated  the  secret 
adherents  of  Warbeck  in  England. 

After  purging  his  own  court  Henry  determined  to  force  the 
Flemings  to  expel  his  enemy.  The  task  was  not  difficult;  for 
although  Margaret  persisted  in  befriending  her  spurious  nephew, 
Henry  knew  that  the  policy  of  Flanders  was  determined  in  the 


506  THE    RESTORATION    OF   THE    MONARCHY  [ Henry  Vli. 

long  run  by  the    burghers.     Upon  the  burghers,   therefore,   he 
brought    his    displeasure  to  bear,  proclaiming  an  embargo  upon 
all  goods  shipped  to  England  from  the  Flemish  ports. 
upon  Flemish  As  in  the  casB  of  the  American  embargo  against  Eng- 
lish goods  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  people  enforcing  the  act  suffered  quite  as  much  as  those  against 
whom  the  act  was  directed.     In  Henry's  case,  however,  the  pres- 
sure upon  the  Flemish  burghers  was  sufficient  to  raise  such  an  out- 
cry that  Margaret  was  compelled  to  let  Warbeck  go;  and  Duke 
Philip,  Margaret's  grandson,   secured  for  his  compliance  a  com- 
mercial treaty  with  England  known  as  the  Magnus  Inter  cur  sus, 
which  guaranteed  freedom  of  trade  between  England 
intercursus,    and  a  number  of  Flemish  cities  and  was  of  great  benefit 

1496m  - 

to  both  countries.  The  success  of  Henry's  embargo 
reveals  the  growing  influence  of  commerce  and  the  commercial 
classes  in  shaping  the  foreign  policy  of  European  nations. 

From  Flanders  Warbeck  attempted  to  make  a  descent  on  the 
coast  of  Kent,  but  was  easily  beaten  off,  and  finally  by  way  of 
Ireland  reached  Scotland.  James  IV.  gave  the  adven- 
Scotland,  turer  a  generous  welcome,  acknowledged  him  as  Edward 
IV. 's  son,  and  found  a  wife  for  him  in  his  own  kins- 
woman Catharine  Gordon.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  cross  the 
border  with  his  protege,  and  begin  the  harrying  of  the  Northum- 
brian peasants;  but  Warbeck  sickened  of  this  kind  of  work  and 
returned  to  Scotland  in  disgust.  Then  James  grew  weary  of  his 
high-toned  guest  who  took  no  pleasure  in  making  war  on  simple 
peasant  folk  and  after  two  years  saw  him  and  his  wife  leave  the 
kingdom  without  regret. 

The  threat  of  northern    invasion    had  roused  parliament  to 

unusual  effort.     It  granted  the    king    the    enormous  subsidy  of 

£120,000;  and  also  empowered  him  to  borrow  an  addi- 

The  visiTiQ  of 

the  Cornish  tional  sum  of  £40,000.  When,  however,  the  ministers 
attempted  to  collect  the  money,  there  was  great  dissat- 
isfaction throughout  England,  where  resistance  to  taxation  was 
coming  to  be  almost  a  national  tradition.  In  Cornwall  the  discon- 
tent expressed  itself  in  armed  revolt;  a  dangerous  band  of  insur- 
gents began  the  usual  march  upon  London  and  were  not  stopped 


1497-1499]  END    OF   WARBECK'S   CAREER  507 

until  they  reached  Blackheath.  The  leaders,  among  whom  was 
Lord  Audley,  were  executed,  but  the  common  people  were  spared. 

Warbeck,  who  had  found  little  sympathy  in  Ireland,  landed 
in  Cornwall  some  three  months  after  Blackheath,  and  taking 
The  end  of  advantage  of  the  continued  dissatisfaction  of  the  peo- 
mrea\%J7-  P^®'  ^^^ouraged  them  once  more  to  take  up  arms.  He 
^^^^-  attacked  Exeter  but    was  driven  off  by  the    earl    of 

Devonshire,  and  retired  to  Taunton.  Here  his  courage  forsook 
him  altogether  and  he  fled  to  sanctuary  at  Beaulieu  in  the  New 
Forest.  He  was  taken  and  brought  before  Henry  at  Exeter  and 
humbly  confessed  all  the  pitiable  fraud.  Henry  sent  him  to  the 
Tower  and  for  a  time  treated  him  fairly  well;  but  an  unsuccess- 
ful attempt  to  escape  in  which  he  tried  to  take  with  him  Edward 
Plantagenet,  the  genuine  earl  of  Warwick,  brought  both  the  unfor- 
tunate young  men  to  the  block.  The  execution  of  Warwick  was 
hardly  justifiable;  the  poor  young  man  had  been  shut  up  in  the 
Tower  since  he  was  a  child  of  ten,  and  had  never  done  harm  to 
any  one.     His  death  removed  the  last  Yorkist  of  the  male  line. 

The  creation  of  the  Court  of  Star  Chamber  was  only  one  of 
many  indications  of  the  despotic  tendency  of  Henry's  administra- 
_    ,      ^      tion.     Certain   very    definite  checks    upon    the  royal 

The  (Jcapot-  i        •       i      t  i 

ism  of  Henry  authority  had  been  clearly  recognized  both  in  custom  and 
in  formal  law  before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
These  checks  may  be  thus  enumerated:  1.  A  grant  of  parliament 
was  in  all  cases  necessary  to  legal  taxation;  2.  The  king  might 
promulgate  no  new  law  without  the  assent  of  parliament;  3.  He 
might  imprison  no  subject  without  legal  warrant  and  every  arrest 
must  also  be  followed  by  speedy  trial ;  4.  Officers  and  servants  of 
the  crown  were  liable  for  every  violation  of  the  rights  of  subjects ; 
the  command  of  a  superior,  even  of  the  king,  might  not  be 
advanced  in  defense ;  5.  The  Commons  had  the  right  to  impeach 
any  of  the  king's  ministers  for  malfeasance  or  other  misconduct.^ 
Theoretically,  therefore,  the  liberties  of  the  nation  were  secure, 
but  in  the  application  of  law  in  individual  cases  there  was  still  wide 
opportunity  for  abuse.  Unfortunately  also  the  conditions  under 
which  Henry  held  the  crown,  frequently  justified  such  evasions 
*Cf.  Hallam,  Constitutional  Hist,  of  England,  ed.  1880,  I,  p.  18. 


508  THE    RESTORATION    OF   THE    MONARCHY  [he.vry  vii. 

in  the  interests  of  peace  and  order.  Thus  in  time  a  series  of 
precedents  were  gradually  established,  which  practically  annulled 
the  law  of  liberty,  just  when  the  subject  most  needed  its  protec- 
tion. Parliament,  moreover,  not  only  regarded  such  usurpations 
with  favor,  but  supported  the  king  in  measures  which  a  hundred 
years  before  would  have  called  the  nation  to  arms.  This  is  not 
to  be  explained  simply  by  the  weakness  of  parliament,  or  by  the 
fact  that  the  nobles  no  longer  had  within  their  grasp  the  means 
of  forcing  the  demands  of  parliament  upon  the  king,  but  rather 
by  the  fact  that  Henry  YII.  and  his  successor  really  represented 
the  policy  of  the  great  body  of  yeomanry  and  gentry  who  controlled 
the  parliaments  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

It  was  in  keeping  with  this  same  tendency  that  towards  the 
end  of  his  reign  Henry  dispensed  with  the  services  of  parliament 

altogether.  The  outcry  which  had  been  raised  against 
imces''(k        the  grants  of  1497,  had  proved  to  him  that  even  for 

the  raising  of  subsidies  parliament  was  useless,  and  that 
its  authority  was  not  sufficient  to  outweigh  the  increasing  opposi- 
tion of  the  nation  to  taxation.  Edward  IV. 's  method  of  raising 
money  by  benevolences  was  far  more  convenient.  Henry  found  it 
useful,  however,  in  levying  his  benevolences  to  respect  the  sem- 
blance of  law,  sometimes  by  securing  the  sanction  of  a  council  of 
notables  summoned  for  this  purpose,  and  sometimes  by  securing 
an  authorization  by  parliament.  For  the  most  part  his  rich  sub- 
jects responded  without  protest,  accepting  the  burden  as  a  sort  of 
price  which  they  were  paying  for  the  much  desired  peace  and  for 
protection  against  other  and  worse  kinds  of  spoliation. 

In  other  ways  also  Henry's  agents  contrived  not  only  to  replen- 
ish his  treasury  as  he  needed  funds  but  to  accumulate  a  hoard 

which  at  his  death  was  estimated  at  £1,800,000.  At 
tfw  barons  ^^^  beginning  of  his  reign  confiscations  were  numerous, 
chequer'^       and   when  these  began  to  fail,  the  two  barons  of   the 

Exchequer,  Empson  and  Dudley,  proposed  to  hold  all 
those  who  had  wittingly  or  unwittingly  infringed  upon  ancient 
feudal  rights  of  the  crown,  customs  most  of  them  obsolete, 
and  fine  the  offenders.  Fines  were  also  levied  without  mercy 
upon  all    criminals  and    rebels.      Even  the  Cornishmen,    whose 


1494]  THE    LEAGUE    AGAINST    FRANCE  509 

poverty  was  proverbial,  were  compelled  to  pay  each  his  shilling 
fine  in  order  to  secure  a  pardon  after  the  rising  of  1497.  Offend- 
ers who  were  so  unhappy  as  to  be  conspicuous  for  their  wealth, 
were  fined  proportionately. 

In  the  later  years  of  Henry  the  nations  of  western  Europe 

began  the  long  struggle  to  set  bounds  to  the  ambition  of  French 

kings.     The  recent  rapid  advance  of  France  had  roused 

FovcioTi  ' 

alliances  of  the  apprehension  and  jealousy  of  her  neighbors,  and 
when  in  1494  the  visionary  Charles  VIII.  entered  upon 
his  famous  Italian  campaign  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing  the 
Aragonose  princes  of  Naples  in  the  interest  of  his  own  shadowy 
claims  to  the  Neapolitan  crown,  his  first  startling  successes  led  at 
once  to  a  formal  counter-league  of  the  western  powers,  in  which 
Ferdinand  of  Spain*  and  the  Hapsburg  emperor,  Maximilian, 
bore  a  leading  part.  England  was  hardly  concerned  in  the  issue, 
for  it  really  mattered  little  to  her  who  controlled  Italy  or  how  it 
was  ultimately  to  be  divided.  But  English  statesmen  did  not 
yet  comprehend  the  advantages  of  England's  insular  position, 
or  the  wisdom  of  holding  aloof  from  continental  entangle- 
ments, in  which  she  had  no  real  interest;  to  be  without  an 
alliance  was  regarded  as  a  position  of  great  weakness,  and  hence 
Henry  VII.  sought  for  a  place  in  the  new  continental  system. 
That  this  place  should  be  by  the  side  of  Hapsburg  and  Spain  was 
natural.  The  marriage  of  Mary  of  Burgundy  and  Maximilian 
had  made  the  princes  of  this  powerful  honse  heirs  to 
the  traditional  friendships  and  enmities  of  Burgundy, 
and  although  the  alliance  of  Charles  the  Rash  with  the  Yorkists 
had  led  him  to  oppose  the  Lancastrians,  as  it  had  also  led  the 
French  king  to  support  Henry  at  first,  the  fact  that  the  Yorkist- 
Lancastrian  quarrel  was  now  virtually  settled  and  that  Henry 
himself  had  recently  broken  with  France,  the  fact  that  it  was  in 
every  way  important  for  Henry  to  maintain  England's  profitable 

^  Aragon  and  Castile  had  been  united  under  the  joint  sovereignty  of 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in  1479.  To  this  Ferdinand  had  recently  added 
Granada  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors,  1482-1492.  Navarre,  the  last  of 
the  four  original  Spanish  kingdoms,  was  still  independent  in  1494.  It  was 
added  by  conquest  in  1512. 


510  THE    RESTORATION    OF   THE    MOJ^ARCHY  [hknky  vii. 

commercial  relations  with  Burgundy  and  that  an  alliance  with 
Hapsburg  would  put  a  stop  to  Margaret's  support  of  her  spurious 
nephews  and  save  Henry  from  further  annoyance  from  pretenders 
such  as  Simnel  and  Warbeck,  all  together  induced  him  to  join  the 
league  as  a  kind  of  silent  member. 

The  friendly  relations  of  Hapsburg,  Spain,  and  England  thus 
established  in  their  first  alliance  against  France,  were  to  have  the 
gravest  results  in  shaping  the  future  history  of  Europe, 
Thegrcat  and  of  England  in  particular.  In  1496  Jnana  of  Ara- 
aiuancesof  gon  the  second  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
Spain,  Eng-  was  married  to  Philip,  the  duke  of  Burgundy,  son  of 
Scotland.  Maximilian  and  Mary.  In  1501  Catharine,  another 
daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  was  married  to 
Arthur,  the  eldest  son  of  Henry  VII.,  and  after  Arthur's  death 
the  next  year,  she  was  pledged  to  Henry's  second  son,  afterward 
Henry  VIII.  An  attempt  to  detach  from  France  her  old  tradi- 
tional ally,  Scotland,  also  led  in  1502  to  the  marriage  of  James  IV. 
and  Margaret,  a  daughter  of  Henry  VII.  Of  these  marriages 
the  Hapsburg-Spanish  marriage  was  to  save  the  papal  supremacy 
in  southern  Europe;  but  the  English-Spanish  marriage  was  to 
force  the  severance  of  England  from  the  papal  system;  the  Scotch- 
English  marriage  was  to  result  in  the  final  union  of  England  and 
Scotland  under  a  king  of  the  Stuart  line.  At  the  time  such 
results  were  farthest  from  the  minds  of  the  chief  actors ;  Henry 
thought  only  of  securing  the  stability  of  his  throne  and  the  peace 
of  his  kingdom,  and  in  these  he  succeeded. 

Henry  died  in  1509.  He  had  done  much  for  England;  he  had 
restored  the  monarchy;  established  peace;  repressed  the  great 
nobles ;  and  compelled  all  classes  to  obey  the  laws.  He  was  not  a 
great  legislator;  but  he  was  a  great  peace-officer.  From  the  point 
of  view  of  the  constitution  his  administration  marks  the  beginning 
of  a  serious  retrogression;  he  had  little  use  for  parliament,  and 
greatly  strengthened  and  enlarged  the  authority  of  the  royal 
council  as  the  chief  instrument  of  government,  making  it  neces- 
sary, in  the  next  century,  to  fight  over  again  the  quarrel  between 
king  and  parliament,  shedding  much  blood  and  squandering  much 
wealth  in  order  to  secure  the  privileges  which  the  parliaments  of 


RESULTS    OF   HEXRY    VII.  *S    REIGK 


511 


Henry  IV.  and  Henry  V.  had  enjoyed.  And  yet  just  such  an 
administration  as  Henry  VII.  gave  his  people  was  needed  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century  to  prepare  England  for  the  great 
role  which  she  was  to  play  in  the  sixteenth  century. 


PROMINENT  CHARACTERS  OF  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


KINGS  OP  ENGLAND. 

Henry  IV.,  1399-1413 
Henry  V.,  1413-1422 
Henry  VI.,  1423-1461, 

and  1470  1471 
Edward  IV.,  1461-1483 
Richard  III.,  1483-I4S> 
Henry  VII.,  1485-1509 


KINGS  OF  FRANCE. 

Charles   VI.,  1380- 

1423 
Charles  VII.,  1423- 

1461 
Louis     XI.,     1461- 

1483 
Charles  VIIL,  1483- 

1498 
Louis    XII.,    1498- 

1515 


EMPEItORS. 

Siglsmond,   1410- 

1438 
Frederick  IIL, 

1440-1493 
Maximilian  L,  1493- 

1519 


SOVEREIGNS  OF 
SPAIN.  (CAS- 
TILE AND  ARA- 
GON). 

Ferdinand  the 
"Catholic,"  1479- 
1516 

Isabella,  joint  sov- 
ereign witli  Fer- 
dinand,  1479-1504 


FAMOUS  CHARACTERS  NOT  KINGS. 


John  Huss,  d.  1414 
.Joan  of  Arc,  d.  1431 
(iutenberg,  <l.  1468 

Ricliard  of  Warwick,  the  "King  Maker," 
d.  1471 


Charles  the  "Rash,"  d.  1477 
Caxton,  d.  1491 
IjOTenzo  de  Medici,  d.  1492 
Savonarola,  d.  1496 
Columbus,  d.  15U6 


CHAPTER  II 


THE     MONAECHY    SUPREME.      THE    ADMINISTRATION    OF     WOLSEY 

HENRY  VIII.,  1509-1530 

ROYAL  DESCENT  OF  THE  STAFFORDS 

Edmund  Stafford  =  Anne,  daughter  of  Thomas.  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
I  6th  son  of  Edward  III. 

Himiphrey,  Duke  of  Buckingham,   killed 
I        at  Northampton,  1460 


Humphrey,  Earl  of  Stafford 
killed  at  St.  Albans,  1455 


Margaret,  daughter  of  Edmund, 
Duke  of  Somerset  who  was  killed 
at  St  Albans,  1455 


Henry,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  executed  by 
I        Richard  III.,  148H 

Edward,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  executed 
I        by  Henry  VIII.,  1521 

Henry,  Lord  Stafford,  d.  1563 

The  accession  of  Henry  VIII.  was  hailed  by  all  classes  with 
confident  enthusiasm.     No    king  had  presented    himself  to  tlie 

nation  with  so  clear  a  title  since  the  accession  of  Rich- 
nSiruViii   ^^^  ^^'  '  "fierchants  and  petty  artisans,  great  nobles  and 

gentry,  freeholders  and  copyholders,  felt  that  in  this 
York-Lancastrian  king  the  peace  which  Henry  VII.  had  given 
was  finally  and  definitely  secured.  The  new  king,  moreover,  pos- 
sessed in  himself  many  elements  which  commended  him  to  his 
people.  He  was  a  fine  youth  of  eighteen,  tall,  broad-shouldered, 
handsome  in  form  and  feature,  a  champion  with  lance  or  long 
bow.  In  manners  he  was  courteous,  kindly,  and  affable,  and  with- 
out any  suggestion  of  the  cautious  thrift  of  his  father.  In  intel- 
lectual ability  and  training  he  was  far  superior  to  the  average  king 
of  his  day;  he  was  learned  in  history  and  theology;  versed  in  lit- 
erature, and  skilled  in  language  and  music.  The  men  of  the  new 
learning  regarded  him  as  one  of  themselves,  and  in  him  fondly 
looked  for  the  realization  of  their  ideals.  But  beneath  this  gloss  of 
refinement  and  culture,  back  of  the  debonaire  youth,  the  universal 
favorite  of  noble  and  simple,  there  lay  another  nature  of  which 

512 


CHARACTEK    OF   HENRY    VIII.  6l3 

Henry  himself  possibly  was  not  conscious  in  those  days  when  his 
will  had  not  yet  been  crossed,  or  his  vanity  had  not  yet  fed  on  the 
sweets  of  unlimited  power.  *'If  a  lion  know  his  strength,"  said 
Sir  Thomas  More,  who  knew  the  real  king  better  than  the  king 
knew  himself,  *'hard  were  it  for  any  man  to  rule  him."  When 
the  unhappy  Wolsey  lay  dying  in  1530,  long  after  men  had  dis- 
covered the  true  nature  of  their  Nero,  he  said  of  Henry:  **He  is 
a  prince  of  royal  courage  and  hath  a  princely  heart,  and  rather 
than  he  will  miss  or  want  part  of  his  appetite,  he  will  hazard  the 
loss  of  one  half  of  his  kingdom."  He  was  as  selfish,  as  fond  of 
display,  as  willful  as  Edward  IV;  he  could  be  as  ruthlessly  cruel. 
Yet  he  knew  nothing  of  Edward's  indolence;  he  loved  work,  and 
displayed  the  same  resistless  energy,  the  same  ruthless  will,  in 
pursuing  the  objects  of  state  as  the  less  worthy  purposes  of  pleasure. 
Henry  recognized  few  obligations  to  those  who  served  him. 
He  was  ''a  good  king"  but  a  hard  master.  He  knew  men,  read 
shrewdly  the  character  of  those  who  surrounded  him, 

A-ttitude 

towards  hu     and,  with  much  of  Louis  XI.  's  cynicism,  gave  them  little 

ministers.  t.      -         i  .  .  •  .mi 

credit  for  devotion  or  purity  of  motive.  They  were 
his  tools,  honored  in  the  using,  but  when  broken  and  worthless 
to  be  thrown  away.  Almost  his  first  act  was  to  cause  the  arrest 
of  Empson  and  Dudley,  his  father's  hated  barons  of  the  Exche- 
quer, whose  only  crime  had  been  an  over-faithful  service  of  the 
crown;  it  was  an  ominous  beginning  of  a  reign  to  be  proverbially 
disastrous  to  great  ministers. 

In  his  domestic  policy,  Henry  contemplated  no  serious  depar- 
ture from  his  father's  plans.     He  kept  the  great  nobles  out  of 

office,  and  surrounded  the  throne  with  a  new  nobility, 

The  domestic       ,.    '  ,.         ,^        .      -,    ..  ,  .-,-,,        ,  tt 

policy  of         which  he  himself  raised  from  the  middle  class.     He 

Henry. 

made  the  church  more  than  ever  dependent  upon  the 
royal  will. 

During  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  the  renaissance  was  in  full  tide 

in  Italy,  but  it  had  been  late  in  reaching  England.     The  new 

,....    king  began  at  once  to  show  favor  to  the  devotees  of  the 

Henry  VIII.  .  .  ■,  .  -,       -   ^       ^ 

and  the  new    new   leaniiniJ^;  he  was  charmed  with  the  conversation 

learning,  . 

of  men  like  More  and  Colet;  he  was  flattered  to  be 
counted  one  of  their  number,  and  no  doubt  thought  that  he  was 


514  THE    MONARCHY    SUPREME  [henky  Yiil. 

in  sympathy  with  their  ideals.  He  protected  Colet,  and  cordially 
welcomed  to  England  Erasmus,  the  learned  scholar  of  Rotterdam. 
He  encouraged  the  founding  of  grammar  schools  and  colleges,  and 
supported  Wolsey  in  his  plan  of  appropriating  the  wealth  of 
decayed  monasteries  to  securing  better  facilities  for  educating  the 
clergy. 

When  Henry  began  his  reign,  his  advisers  regarded  it  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  continue  the  foreign  policy  of  the  first 
Tudor.  In  1503  a  special  dispensation  of  Julius  II. 
The  foreign  had  authorized  the  marriage  of  Henry  with  Catharine 
Henry  VIII.  of  Aragon,  the  widow  of  his  brother  Arthur,  and  the 
June7,'i509.  union  had  been  duly  celebrated  soon  after  the  death 
of  Henry  VII.  to  the  great  delight  of  the  people, 
who  saw  in  it  a  visible  pledge  of  Henry's  purpose  to  continue 
his  father's  policy.  If,  however,  they  thought  that  their  ener- 
getic young  sovereign  would  be  content  to  accept  the  elder 
Henry's  passive  but  safe  policy  of  silent  partnership  with  Spain 
and  Hapsburg  they  soon  found  that  they  were  seriously  mistaken. 
The  anti-French  league  which  had  been  organized  upon  the  appear- 
ance of  the  French  in  Italy  in  1494,  had  degenerated 
ieag™  ioii  ^^^^^  ^  mere  scramble  of  the  great  powers  over  the  par- 
tition of  Italy,  in  which  Ferdinand  had  not  scrupled  to 
make  a  secret  league  with  Louis  XII.,  Charles  VIII. 's  successor,  in 
order  to  get  the  lion's  share  of  the  spoil.  But  the  successes  of  the 
French  had  again  alarmed  Ferdinand  and  his  ally.  Pope  Julius  II., 
so  that  in  1511  a  new  league  was  formed,  known  as  "The  Holy 
League,"  with  the  express  purpose  of  defending  the  papacy  and 
driving  the  French  out  of  Italy.  Henry  was  invited  to  join  this 
league  and  make  a  joint  attack  with  Ferdinand  upon  the  French 
territories  south  of  the  Garonne.  The  humanists  who  hated  war 
as  a  menace  to  civilization,  looked  on  with  dismay  as  they  beheld 
this  the  first  symptom  that  their  patron  and  champion  was  cast 
after  all  in  the  same  earthen  mould  as  the  other  kings  of  Europe,  his 
contemporaries;  but  the  opportunity  of  regaining  the  old  English 
foothold  in  Guienne,  which  had  been  held  before  Henry's  eyes  by  liis 
cunning  father-in-law  as  the  price  of  his  assistance,  was  a  tempta- 
tion which  the  headstrong  young  Tudor  had  no  thought  of  resist- 


1513,  1513]  flodde:?^  field  515 

iiig.  In  spite  of  many  protests,  therefore,  Henry  entered  into  an 
active  alliance  with  Ferdinand,  Maximilian,  Julius  II.,  and  the 
Kepublic  of  Venice,  in  order  to  cripple  France  and  put  a  stop  to 
her  aggressions. 

The  first  venture  of  Henry  was  not  assuring.  The  campaign  in 
Guienne  was  a  miserable  fiasco;  due  partly  to  the  failure  of  Ferdi- 
Henry'a first  ^^^^  ^^  render  the  assistance  which  he  had  promised, 
war^mi2^  and  partly  to  a  mutiny  of  the  English  soldiers,  who 
151.^.  under  the  discouragements  and  hardships  of  the  cam- 

[)aign  lost  heart  and  at  last  broke  camp  and  sailed  home  without 
orders.  Henry  was  furious  and  determined  the  next  year  to  lead 
an  army  into  France  in  person  in  order  to  retrieve  the  honor  of 
the  English  name.  This  expedition  was  more  successful.  Admiral 
Howard,  at  the  expense  of  his  own  life,  prevented  the  French 
from  interfering  with  the  passage  to  Calais.  The  king  advanced 
to  the  frontier  fortress-town  of  Terouenne,  where  he  was  joined 
by  the  emperor  Maximilian,  who  served  under  its  walls  as  a  volun- 
teer in  the  English  army.  A  French  force,  which  attempted  to 
throw  supplies  into  the  city,  was  beaten  off  at  Guinegate,  retiring 
so  precipitantly  that  the  action  was  called  the  **  Battle  of  the 
Spurs."  Terouenne  fell  and  then  Tournay.  In  the  meanwhile 
it  became  apparent  to  the  high-spirited  king  that  his  wily  allies 
were  using  him  for  their  own  purposes,  allowing  him  to  bear  the 
burden  of  the  war,  while  they  expected  to  share  the  spoil.  He 
drew  off,  therefore,  and  returned  home  in  a  mood  such  as  might 
be  expected  of  a  man  of  his  nature,  when  once  awakened  to  the  fact 
that  he  had  been  made  the  dupe  of  supposed  friends. 

The  ostensible  occasion  of  Henry's  withdrawal  was  an  attack 

upon  England  by  James  IV.  of  Scotland,  who,  irritated  by  some 

recent  grievances,  in  spite  of  his  marriage  to  a  Tudor 

Flodden  .  ,      ^       .    '      -,    T       ,         ,-,,-..., 

Field,  Sep-      princess  had  yielded  to  the  old  traditional  sympathies 

tembev  9  1513.  »>      j. 

'  of  the  Scots  with  the  French,  and  had  taken  advan- 
tage of  Henry's  absence  to  invade  Northumberland.  But  the  blow 
had  already  been  skillfully  evaded  by  Catharine  who  had  promptly 
roused  the  council  and  dispatched  an  army  to  the  north  under  the 
command  of  Thomas  Howard,  the  earl  of  Surrey,  and  his  son,  also 
Thomas  Howard,  the  brother  of  the  late  admiral.     The  Howards 


516  THE    MONARCHY    SUPREME  [henry  vm. 

had  met  the  Scots  on  Flodden  Field  not  far  from  the  border  and 
after  a  most  skillfully  conducted  battle  completely  routed  them ; 
James  himself  was  slain  and  his  bloodstained  plaid  sent  as  a 
trophy  to  Henry.  The  death  of  King  James  left  the  Scottish 
kingdom  to  the  distraction  of  a  regency  and  Henry  had  little  to 
fear  farther  from  this  source,  but  the  war  furnished  him  with  a 
pretext  and  at  the  close  of  the  season  he  withdrew  from  the 
continent. 

The  man  who  had  done  most  perhaps  to  bring  Henry  into  his 
present  frame  of  mind  was  Thomas  Wolsey,  who  since  1509  had 
been  attached  to  the  royal  chapel  and  had  attained  a 
wS^  great  influence  over  the  king.     This  remarkable  man, 

* 'perhaps  the  greatest  of  the  long  line  of  ecclesiastical 
statesmen  from  Lanfranc  to  Laud,"  was  the  son  of  a  merchant  of 
Ipswich.  He  had  entered  Oxford  when  a  mere  child  and  had 
been  made  a  Bachelor  of  Arts  at  fifteen.  He  had  risen  rapidly, 
his  unusual  gifts  having  early  attracted  the  attention  of  the  new 
king,  who  had  a  kindly  feeling  for  men  who  combined  with  phe- 
nomenal industry  and  energy  the  art  of  bringing  things  to  pass. 
Trained  as  a  churchman,  Wolsey  was  yet  a  man  of  surpassing 
worldly  wisdom,  a  politician  and  a  statesman.  *'In  penetration, 
in  aptitude  for  business  and  indefatigable  labor,  he  had  no  equal." 
The  preparation  for  the  French  war  had  been  largely  committed 
to  his  care,  and  although  at  heart  opposed  to  the  war,  he  had 
thrown  all  his  splendid  energy  into  the  work  of  equipping  the 
army,  thereby  contributing  not  a  little  to  its  successes.  He  had 
also  accompanied  the  expedition  to  the  continent,  had  shared  the 
hardships  of  the  camp  before  Terouenne,  and  had  become  the 
king's  chief  and  most  trusted  adviser. 

The  deep  humiliation  and  anger  which  Henry  felt  when  once 
it  dawned  upon  him  that  his  two  powerful  allies  were  only  playing 
upon  his  vanity  in  order  to  use  him  as  a  cat's-paw,  had 
diplomatic  g^^^n  Wolsey  his  opportunity.  He  had  long  believed 
Wohey^i5i4.  ^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^®  interests  of  England  as  well  as  her  dig- 
nity lay  on  the  side  of  a  French  alliance,  and  he  at  once 
gave  all  his  attention  to  securing  this  object,  with  the  result  that 
in  a  short  time  he  not  only  brought  about  an  advantageous  peace 


1514-1519]  THOMAS   WOLSEY  617 

but  had  further  secured  the  friendship  of  France  by  the  marriage 
of  Louis  XII.  and  Henry's  youngest  sister  Mary  Tudor.  Henry 
was  delighted  with  the  success  of  Wolsey's  plans,  and  showered 
upon  him  a  succession  of  honors  and  preferments  which  would 
have  turned  the  head  of  a  smaller  man;  in  1514  making  him 
bishop  of  Lincoln,^  and  in  1515  archbishop  of  York  and  chancel- 
lor. In  1517  he  also  used  his  influence  to  secure  for  his  favorite 
the  cardinal's  cap  and  had  him  appointed  papal  legate  for  England. 
Wolsey  now  had  a  free  hand,  and  for  the  next  fifteen  years  practi- 
cally shaped  and  directed  the  affairs  of  England  both  at  home  and 
abroad . 

Louis  XII.,  unfortunately,  did  not  long  survive  his  Tudor  mar- 
riage, and  his  death,  within  three  months,  brought  the  first  diplo- 
matic triumph  of  Wolsey  to  nought.  Francis  of 
dilfiom£  Angouleme  succeeded  to  the  French  throne,  January  1, 
Wouey!''^  1515;  a  man  fully  as  ambitious  as  Louis  and  with  all 
the  fire  and  energy  of  a  youth  of  twenty-two  in  addi- 
tion. His  first  exploit  was  to  recover  the  lost  ground  of  France  in 
northern  Italy,  winning  the  brilliant  victory  of  Marignano  over 
_    ^  the   Swiss   mercenaries  of   the   duke  of    Milan.     The 

Marignano. 

September,  great  powcrs  at  once  took  alarm;  but  the  death  of  Fer- 
dinand early  the  next  year  and  the  succession  of  Maxi- 
milian's grandson,  Charles  of  Burgundy,  to  the  Spanish  throne,  as 
well  as  the  approaching  reversion  of  the  Hapsburg  interests  in  the 
east,  more  than  offset  any  fear  of  France  which  may  have  arisen 
from  the  success  of  Francis  at  Marignano.  Wolsey,  true  to  his 
policy  of  favoring  the  weaker  party,  succeeded  in  bringing  about 
a  new  alliance  of  England  with  France,  arranging  that  Tournay 
^     ^    ^       should    be    restored    for    600,000    crowns,    and    that 

Treat}/  ^/  tt  • 

^don^  Henry's  infant  daughter  Mary  should  marry  the  infant 
son  of  Francis.  The  Scottish  allies  of  France,  also, 
were  not  forgotten,  and  finally  the  new  pope  Leo  X.,  the  emperor, 
and  Charles  of  Spain  were  persuaded  to  enter  the  peace.  It  was 
a  great  triumph  for  the  Ipswich  merchant's  son  who  thus  posed 
as  the  successful  peace-maker  of  Christendom. 

In  January  1519  all  the  plotting  and  sclieming  of  old  ''Kaiser 
*  The  year  before,  Henry  had  made  Wolsey  bishop  of  Tournay. 


518  THE    MONARCHY    SUPREME  [henry  VIIL 

Max"^  came  to  an  end,  and  he  followed  Ferdinand,  his  rival  and 
master  in  craft,  to  the  grave.  Who  should  succeed  him 
eiecttnF^^^^^  in  the  imperial  office?  The  imperial  title  was  not  hered- 
itary but  lay  partly  in  the  power  of  the  pope  to  grant, 
and  partly  in  the  power  of  seven  princes  of  the  empire,  called 
"electors."  These  electors  were  the  archbishops  of  Mainz, 
Cologne,  and  Treves,  the  elector  of  Saxony,  the  margrave  of  Bran- 
denburg, the  king  of  Bohemia,  and  the  count  palatine  of  the 
Rhine.  These  seven  might  present  a  candidate,  who  then  bore 
the  title  of  "King  of  the  Romans"  and  was  also  titular  king  of 
the  Germans ;  but  he  was  only  a  sort  of  de  facto  emperor  until  he 
had  been  duly  crowned  and  consecrated  by  the  pope.  The  papal 
coronation  was  not  a  mere  tribute  on  the  part  of  the  emperor  to 
the  position  of  the  pope  in  the  empire,  as  when  the  archbishop  of 
Canterbury  is  allowed  to  crown  a  king  of  England;  it  was  a 
confirmation  by  the  church  of  the  clioice  of  the  electors  and  was 
necessary  to  the  imperial  title.  Hence  popes  might  refuse  the 
honor,  though  emperors  elect  had  not  hesitated  in  such  cases  to 
invade  Italy  at  the  head  of  an  army  in  order  to  force  the  pope  to 
confer  the  title,  or  failing  in  that,  to  make  a  pope  of  their  own. 
Since  the  days  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  however,  the  candidates  as 
simply  titular  German  kings  had  commonly  possessed  so  little 
political  power,  that  they  were  content  to  wait  beyond  the  Alps 
and  secure  by  diplomacy  the  approval  of  an  obstinate  pope. 

Of   the  four  candidates  who  were  presented  to  the   electoral 
college  in  1519,  Frederick  the  elector  of  Saxony,  whose  pure  Ger- 
man blood  appealed  powerfully  to  the  national  sentiment  of  the 
people,  was  the  popular  candidate  and  probably  could 
Election  of      have  had  the  honor  if  he  would ;  Henry  VIII.  had  no 

Charles  V. 

June 28, 1519.  chance  at  all,  nor  did  any  one  but  himself  think  seri- 
ously of  his  candidacy;  Francis  I.  had  a  wide  reputa- 
tion as  a  soldier  which  greatly  commended  him  to  the  electors  as 
a  promising  champion  against  the  Turk,  whom  recent  successes 
had  brought  into  dangerous  proximity  to  eastern  Germany. 
Francis  also  possessed  unlimited  resources  for   bribery  which  he 

^  For  sketch  of  his  character,  see  Stubbs,  Lectures  on  Mediaeval  and 
Modern  History,  p.  385  and  following. 


1519-1521]  ELECTIOK   OF   CHARLES  V.  *  519 

was  perfectly  willing  to  use.  The  fourth  candidate  was  Charles 
of  Spain,  young,  yet  untried  and  without  credit  for  any  personal 
strength  of  character;  he  was  also  without  experience  in  war  and 
his  widely  scattered  dominions  promised  to  keep  him  so  busy  else- 
where that  he  could  give  little  attention  to  defending  Europe 
against  the  Turk.  He  was,  however,  greatly  feared  by  Pope 
Leo,  since  in  the  recent  scramble  of  the  powers  in  Italy  the  Span- 
ish-Hapsburg  princes  had  got  possession  of  Naples,  and-the  pope 
had  no  desire  to  see  their  influence  further  exalted  in  the  penin- 
sula. The  pope  was  also  averse  to  the  candidacy  of  Francis,  whose 
hold  upon  north  Italy  at  the  time  was  equally  menacing  to  papal 
independence,  and  in  his  heart  really  favored  a  third  candi.late, 
possibly  the  elector  Frederick,  but  in  an  attempt  to  play  off  the 
two  most  powerful  candidates  against  each  other  he  contrived  to 
rouse  the  national  sentiment  of  the  Germans  who  took  umbrage  at 
what  they  were  pleased  to  regard  as  a  papal  interference  with  the 
rights  of  the  German  electors.  The  pope  then  in  alarm  lest 
Charles  should  be  chosen  after  all,  took  up  the  candidacy  of  Francis, 
only  to  precipitate  the  catastrophe  which  be  most  feared.  On 
June  28,  1519,  Charles  was  elected  without  a  dissenting  voice. ^ 
The  pope  was  in  no  condition  to  resist;  the  religious  troubles 
of  Germany  were  becoming  every  day  more  serious;  with  the 
powerful  support  of  the  new  emperor,  he  might  check  them; 
but  if  Charles  were  driven  into  opposition,  no  one  could  fore- 
see the  outcome.  The  pope,  therefore,  abandoned  Francis 
and  secretly  allied  himself  with  Charles.  ''It  is  a  coinci- 
dence, remarkable  enough,  that  the  edict  of  Worms"  which 
formally  condemned  Martin  Luther  and  his  writings. 
Edict  of         "bears  the  same  date  as  the  day  on  which,  with  profound 

Worms,  May  i       /  ,  \  ^  ^ 

26, 1521.  secrecy,  he  (the  pope)  undertook  to  become  the  ally  of 

Charles  against  Francis."^ 

Francis  had  been  beaten ;    moreover  the  vast  increase  of  the 

power  of  the  Spanish-Hapsburg  prince  made  him  a  more  dangerous 

rival  of  France  than  ever,  and  the  alliance  of  Henry  of  England 

^  Upon  the  election  of  Charles  V.  see  Creighton,  History  of  the  Papacy 
during  the  Reformation,  V,  pp.  94-109. 
2  Creighton,  V,  p.  157. 


520  THE    MONAKCHY    SUPREME  [hexuy  viii. 

correspondingly  important  to  the  French  sovereign.     But  Charles 
also  realized  the  importance  of   the  friendship  of  England,  and 

just  as  eagerly  sought  for  an  alliance  with  Henry. 
woSiMth^  Wolsey,  however,  who  was  still  anxious  to  keep  the  peace 
Fmnti^"'^    of  Europe,  sought  by  holding  both  suitors  at  arms  length 

to  preserve  a  sort  of  balance  between  them  and  post- 
pone the  approaching  war  indefinitely.  Interviews  were  arranged 
for  Henry  with  each  monarch.  In  May  1520  Charles  visited 
Henry  at  Canterbury ;  and  shortly  after  Henry  and  Francis  met 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Calais,  where  in  a  continual  round  of 
tournaments,  feasts  and  pageants,  glitter  and  wastefulness,  known 
as  the  ^' Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,"  each  monarch  attempted  to 

outdo  the  other  in  giving  evidences  of  gracious  good 
Field  of  the  will  and  Confidence.  Yet  the  famous  meeting  had 
1520.  '  hardly  broken  up,  before  Henry  again  met  Charles  at 

Gravelines.  The  ingenuity  of  Wolsey,  however,  was 
not  equal  to  the  task  of  keeping  the  two  monarchs  from  flying  at 
each  other,  and  the  next  year,  April,  1521,  Francis  invaded  almost 
simultaneously  the  territories  of  Burgundy  and  Navarre.  When 
Charles  heard^that  Francis  had  at  last  broken  the  peace,  he  saw 
his  advantage  and  exclaimed,  "Thank  God  that  I  have  not  struck 
the  first  blow,  and  that  the  king  of  France  wishes  to  make  me  a 
greater  than  I  am !  Either  I  shall  become  a  poor  emperor,  or  he 
a  poor  king."  Wolsey's  policy  now  was  to  keep  England  out 
of  the  quarrel  as  long  as  possible.  But  the  commercial  inter- 
ests of  England  in  the  Netherlands  could  not  be  ignored,  and  a 
second  visit  of  Charles  to  England  resulted  in  a  formal  alliance 
with  Spain  and  Burgundy,  and  the  appearance  of  an  English 
army  in  France. 

It  was  during  this  alliance  with  Charles,  that  the  papacy  began 
to  loom  up    before  Wolsey  as  the  possible  goal  of  his  ambition. 

Both  Charles  and  Francis  had  sought  to  win  his  sup- 
Woiseyand  port  by  promising  a  friendly  influence  in  the  College  of 
honor.  Cardinals.     But  Wolsey  was  unwilling  to  put  himself 

into  the  hands  of  men  who  only  wanted  to  use  him,  in 
order  to  trick  his  master  into  a  course  which  his  own  judgment 
condemned.     There  is,  moreover,  no  reason  to  doubt  his  devotion 


1525-1527]  wolsey's  ukpopularity  521 

to    England    or    to    believe    that    he    sought    the    papacy   un- 
worthily. 

Wolsey,  at  heart,  had  never  been  in  sympathy  with  the  Span- 
ish alliance,  and  when  Francis  was  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  at 

Pavia  in  1525,  he  saw  with  alarm  the  growing  power  of 
SsCharioi    Charles  V.,  and  set  himself  to  work  to  persuade  Henry 

to  throw  his  weight  into  the  other  scale  for  the  purpose 
of  maintaining  the  balance  of  power.  This  was  not  a  difficult 
thing  to  do,  for  Henry's  arms  had  accomplished  little  or  nothing 
in  his  direct  attacks  upon  France,  and  the  people  were  growing 
restless  under  the  increasing  load  of  taxation.  Henry,  moreover, 
was  getting  tired  of  his  Spanish  wife  and  was  inclined  to  treat  all 
her  friends  as  his  enemies.  In  1527  the  troops  of  Cliarles  V. 
stormed  Rome,  captured  the  pope,  Clement  VII.,  and  after  an 
exhibition  of  lawless  violence  which  shocked  Europe,  threw  the 
venerable  head  of  the  Christian  church  into  prison.  Henry,  who 
was  still  a  zealous  Catholic,  resented  the  personal  indignity  to  the 
pope  and  sent  a  formal  protest  to  Charles.  He  was,  therefore, 
once  more  in  a  mood  to  listen  to  his  minister,  and  consented  for 
the  third  time  to  enter  into  a  French  alliance. 

The  third  alliance  with  France  greatly  increased  the  unpopu- 
larity of  Wolsey.     He  had  never  been  loved  by  the  people,  and 

had  always  been  more  or  less  hated  by  the  nobles  who 
^pu&u!^'  ^^^  ^^^^  irritated  by  his  pride  and  magnificence,  but 

feared  him  because  of  his  influence  with  the  king. 
There  was  also  a  lingering  hostility  to  France  among  the  nobles, 
who  cherished  the  old  traditions  of  the  ** Hundred  Years'  War" 
and  could  not  take  kindly  to  the  French  sympathies  of  the  court. 
The  Commons  also  had  their  grievances,  for  the  chancellor  had  lit- 
tle use  for  a  parliament  in  his  system.  He  believed  that  a  king 
ought  to  be  able  to  rule  without  the  aid  of  his'people  and  regarded 
the  calling  of  a  parliament  as  a  confession  of  weakness  on  the  part 
of  the  crown  and  a  source  of  annoyance  and  vexation.  For  the 
first  eight  years  of  his  chancellorship,  he  had  managed  to  get 
along  without  any  parliaments  at  all ;  but  the  burden  of  the  French 
war  had  forced  the  king  to  appeal  to  the  people,  and  Wolsey  in 
the  king's  name,  but  against  his  own  inclination,  had  asked  for 


522  THE    MONARCHY    SUPKEME  [henry  VliL 

t-he  enormous  grant  of  £800,000;  and  although  parliament  had 
given  him  only  about  one-quarter  of  the  amount,  the  increased 
burden  upon  the  people  was  sufficient  to  call  forth  a  storm  of 
satire  and  invective  against  the  unpopular  minister.  He  was 
called  the  ^'butcher's  dog,"  a  "mastiff  cur;"  he  was  described  in 
doggerel  verse  as  ugly  in  face  and  form;  it  was  said  that  he  had 
no  respect  for  God  or  man ;  that  he  took  bribes  of  the  French ; 
that  he  was  illiterate,  a  "poor  master  of  arts  whose  Latin  tongue 
doth  hobble;"  so  proud  and  haughty  that  none  of  the  great  lords 
durst  speak,  at  the  council  table  in  his  presence.  These  charges 
were  without  foundation,  and  yet  they  revealed  the  dangerous 
mood  of  the  people.  In  1525,  the  king  again  attempted  to  raise 
money  by  what   he  called  "an  amicable   loan"  which 

''The  ami-  n       - 1  i  i    i  i  ^       - 

cahieioan;'    was  really  the  old  benevolence,  only  in  a  new  guise. 

Englishmen  everywhere  objected;  in  many  places  their 
ill-humor  expressed  itself  in  rioting  and  acts  of  mob  violence. 
Even  Henry  at  last  saw  the  impossibility  of  collecting  the  money 
and  right  royally  remitted  any  further  payment.  Wolsey  it  seems 
had  opposed  both  the  tax  and  the  amicable  loan,  but  had  been 
overruled  by  the  king.  His  office,  however,  compelled  him  to 
superintend  the  levy,  and  thus  the  people  had  come  to  look  upon 
him  as  responsible  for  the  misdoing  of  their  king.  Yet  the 
chancellor  was  not  a  man  to  shrink  from  the  unpleasant  burdens 
of  his  office,  and  in  a  spirit  of  devotion  of  which  Henry  VIII.  was 
unworthy,  he  freely  accepted  his  unpopularity  as  one  of  the  inci- 
dents of  his  position.  "Because  every  man  layeth  the  burden 
from  him,"  he  said,  "I  am  content  to  take  it  on  me,  and  to  endure 
the  fame  and  worse  of  the  people,  for  my  good  will  towards  the 
king,  .   .   .  but  the  eternal  God  knoweth  all." 

With  the  church  over  which  the  position  of  papal  legate  gave 
Wolsey  great  power,  he  was  no  more  popular  than  with  barons 

and  commons.  He  saw  the  need  of  reform,  but  pro- 
mfcfm^ctf    posed  to  reform,  not  the  doctrines  of  the  church,  nor 

the  relations  of  the  church  to  the  papacy,  but  the  daily 
life  of  the  clergy.  He  was  also  in  sympathy  with  the  new  educa- 
tional ideals  which  had  been  brought  into  England  by  Colet  and 
others,  and  sought  to  convert  the  funds  of  useless  and  decayed 


1487-1525]  THE   SUCCESSION  523 

monasteries,  of  which  there  were  a  great  many  in  England  at  the 
time,  into  the  foundations  of  schools  and  colleges.  In  this  he 
had  the  full  sympathy  of  both  pope  and  king,  and  was  only  follow- 
ing the  policy  of  William  of  Wykeham  and  other  conservative 
churchmen  of  the  past,  who  saw  that  there  were  too  many  lazy 
monks  in  the  church  to  the  number  of  hard  students.  This  great 
work  was  fairly  begun  in  1524  in  the  founding  of  Cardinal  College 
at  Oxford^  and  a  grammar  school  at  Ipswich.  Like  everything 
else  that  Wolsey  touched  these  foundations  were  established  upon 
a  scale  of  magnificence  unprecedented;  but  unfortunately  Wolsey 
was  so  busily  occupied  in  many  things  that  he  had  time  to  carry 
forward  his  plans  of  reform  just  far  enough  to  alarm  tlie  short- 
sighted and  not  far  enough  to  win  the  confidence  of  those  who 
wished  for  more  sweeping  results. 

Thus  Wolsey  stood  in  the  unenviable  position  of  a  great  leader 

without  a  following,  who  is  feared  by  all,  but  trusted  by  none. 

It  required  only  a  sign  from  the  king  for  all  parties  to 

nfmnr^yS-     ^^^^^^^  for  his  overthrow.     This  sign  was  given  soon 

sihierivaJain  after  the  couclusion  of  the  third  alliance  with  France, 

the  successwii.  ' 

but  it  was  due  to  no  fault  of  Wolsey's.  One  by  one  the 
possible  Yorkist  claimants  of  the  throne  had  been  removed; 
Edward  Plantagenet  the  son  of  Clarence  had  been  executed  in 
1499;  of  the  sous  of  Elizabeth,  Edward  IV. 's  sister,  John  de  la 
Pole,,  the  earl  of  Lincoln,  had  been  killed  at  Stoke  in  1487; 
Edmund  de  la  Pole,  the  duke  of  Suffolk,  had  been  executed  by 
Henry's  order  in  1513,  and  Kichard  de  la  Pole,  the  husband  of 
Clarence's  daughter  Margaret,  had  been  killed  at  Pavia  in  1525. 
Even  the  collateral  branches  of  the  Beaufort  line  had  not  been 
safe  from  the  ruthless  jealousy  of  the  king,  when  once  the  succes- 
sion was  in  question.  Edward  Stafford  Duke  of  Buckingham  was 
the  son  of  that  Henry  Duke  of  Buckingham  who  had  been  put  to 
death  by  Richard  III.  in  1483,  and  hence  was  the  grandson  of  a 
Margaret  Beaufort.  But  he  was  also  by  direct  descent  from 
Anne,  daughter  of  Thomas  of  Gloucester,  a  representative  of  the 
youngest  son  of  Edward  III.,  and  if  the  legitimacy  of  the  Beau- 

^  Remodeled  and  refounded  by  Henry  VIII.  after  the  great  cardinal's 
fall,  as  Christ  Church,  the  name  which  it  still  bears. 


524  THE   MONARCHY    SUPREME  [henry  viil. 

forts  were  questioned,  had  even  a  better  right  to  the  crown  than 
Henry  VII.  He  was,  moreover,  wealthy  and  powerful,  and  had 
been  foolish  enough  to  talk  about  his  prospects  of  inheriting  the 
throne.  It  was  enough  to  rouse  the  suspicions  of  the  king,  and  in 
1521  Buckingham  was  tried  upon  a  charge  of  treason,  condemned, 
and  promptly  executed. 

The  succession,  however,  was  still  Henry's  sensitive  point;  and 
the  fatality  which  had  attended  the  children  of  Catharine  began 

to  prey  upon  a  conscience  which  had  had  at  best  but  a 
'pcmsthe        poor  training,  and  was  liable  to  the  morbid  sensitiveness 

of  a  superstitious  nature.  He  began,  therefore,  to  ques- 
tion the  validity  of  the  papal  dispensation  which  had  authorized 
him  to  marry  his  brother's  widow.  Henry's  tender  conscience, 
moreover,  was  greatly  reinforced  by  a  violent  passion  which  he  had 
formed  for  a  young  lady  of  the  court,  Anne  Boleyn,  a  grand- 
daughter of  the  earl  of  Surrey,  victor  of  Flodden.  The  new  fav- 
orite was  not  blind  to  the  significance  of  the  attentions  of  the  king 
but  had  steadfastly  refused  to  become  his  mistress.  The  unfor- 
tunate Catharine,  therefore,  was  plainly  in  the  way;  and,  although 
she  had  always  been  a  faithful  wife  and  most  unselfishly  devoted 
to  her  husband's  interests,  with  characteristic  willfulness,  Henry 
set  himself  to  get  rid  of  her  by  invoking  the  technicalities  of  the 
Canon  Law. 

The  matter  was  laid  before  Wolsey  who  naturally  opposed  a 
project  which  promised  complications  from  which  the  wisest  might 

shrink.     But  Henry  was  stubbornly  bent  upon  his  pur- 

Clement  VII.  j  r  r 

and  the  di-  '  posc  and  Wolscy,  against  Judgment  and  conscience,  con- 
sented to  serve  his  master.  In  1527  the  king  appealed 
directly  to  Pope  Clement,  asking  him  to  relieve  him  of  the  bond 
which  Julius  11.  had  sanctioned.  Clement,  however,  was  by  no 
means  free  to  act.  The  emperor  Charles  was  Catharine's  nephew 
and  he  had  clearly  indicated  his  purpose  to  support  her  interests 
and  resent  as  a  personal  affront  the  irreparable  wrong  which 
Henry  would  have  the  pope  commit  against  her  and  her  daughter. 
Charles,  moreover,  was  actually  in  possession  of  the  Holy  City, 
the  pope  was  a  captive,  and  his  political  power  in  Italy  trem- 
bling in  the  balance.    In  Germany,  also,  where  the  Reformation  was 


1529,  1530]  THE   FALL  OF   WOLSEY  525 

making  rapid  strides,  the  support  and  friendship  of  Charles  was 
more  necessary  to  tlie  pope  than  ever.  Yet  on  the  other  hand  the 
pope  feared  to  offend  Henry;  he  knew  the  character  of  the  man 
and  did  not  wish  to  make  him  an  enemy.  He,  therefore,  chose 
the  hardly  less  dangerous  plan  of  delay  and  non-committal. 

It  was  Wolsey's  policy,  however,  to  force  an  immediate  decision 
from  the  pope,  and  he  accordingly  pressed  for  permission  to  hear 
the  case  in  his  legatine  court.  Clement  could  not 
The  trial,  refuse  and  despatched  Cardinal  Campeggio  to  act  with 
Wolsey.  But  Campeggio 's  movements  were  so  dilatory 
that  the  trial  was  not  fairly  opened  until  June  1529.  AVhile  Cam- 
peggio was  thus  wearing  out  the  patience  of  Henry  by  his  policy  of 
obstruction  and  delay,  Catharine,  satisfied  that  she  was  not  to 
have  just  treatment  in  any  court  in  which  Wolsey  presided, 
appealed  directly  to  Rome  in  hope  of  securing  a  hearing  before  the 
pontiff  himself.  When,  therefore,  Clement  at  last  interfered  and 
summoned  the  whole  case  to  his  own  tribunal,  Henry's  disgust 
passed  to  angry  defiance.  He  knew  that  he  had  little  to  hope 
from  the  pope  and  took  his  action  as  equivalent  to  an  adverse 
decision. 

Up  to  this  point  Henry  had  regarded  himself  as  a  most  loyal 
son  of  the  church.  He  had  even  entered  the  lists  against  the  Ger- 
man Luther,  answering  Luther's  attack  on  the  seven 
Wotscl^'idso  sacraments  of  the  church  in  a  reply  characteristically 
violent  and  dogmatic,  called  the  ** Defense  of  the  Seven 
Sacraments,"  in  which  he  had  upheld  the  divine  origin  of  the 
papacy  and  the  authority  of  the  pope  in  matters  of  doctrine.  The 
pope,  Leo  X.,  pleased  by  the  high  quality  of  the  champion,  if  not 
by  the  quality  of  his  work,  had  bestowed  upon  him  the  title  of 
"Defender  of  the  Faith,"  thereby  much  elating  the  royal  theo- 
logian, since  now  he  had  a  title  as  high  sounding  as  that  of  the 
"most  Christian"  king  of  France  or  the  "Catholic"  king  of  Spain. 
But  all  was  now  forgotten  in  a  blaze  of  wrath  against  the  pope 
who  had  dared  to  thwart  his  plan  of  getting  rid  of  his  unwelcome 
wife.  His  first  step  was  to  attack  the  legate  of  his  own  making. 
Wolsey  was  in  no  way  responsible  for  what  had  taken  place ;  but 
he  was  the  nearest  and  most  conspicuous  representative  of  the 


526  THE    MONAKCHY    SUPREME  [ 


IlEMlY   VIII. 


papal  dignity.  The  instrument,  moreover,  which  Henry  selected 
Cor  making  the  attack  was  the  old  Statute  of  Praemunire^  which 
it  was  claimed  by  the  crown  advisers  Wolsey  had  violated  in  acting 
as  papal  legate.  The  attack  was  as  mean  as  the  method  was 
unjust  and  unfair;  for  Henry  himself  had  secured  the  appointment 
for  Wolsey  and  had  practically  thrust  it  upon  him.  Wolsey,  how- 
ever, knew  the  temper  of  the  king  too  well  to  think  of  resistance ;  he 
knew  also  the  temper  and  envy  of  those  who  surrounded  hini  too 
well  to  think  that  he  could  secure  a  fair  trial  in  any  court  of  the 
kingdom  and,  gracefully  accepting  his  fate,  confessed  his  fault  and 
acknowledged  himself  liable  to  the  full  penalties  of  the  law.  Henry 
was  somewhat  mollified  by  the  humble  spirit  of  his  once  splendid 
minister,  and  after  allowing  him  to  endure  many  petty  annoyances 
at  the  hands  of  obsequious  servants,  finally  issued  a  formal  pardon, 
restoring  with  it  a  part  of  Wolsey's  property  to  the  amount  of 
£6,000.  Wolsey  was  then  sent  north  to  resume  his  humbler 
duties  of  archbishop  of  York.  Here  he  spent  the  spring  and 
summer  of  1530,  but  his  spirit  was  broken  and  his  health  rapidly 
gave  way.  His  enemies,  chief  among  whom  was  Thomas  Howard, 
now  duke  of  Norfolk,  and  Anne  Boleyn,  who  made  Wolsey  respon- 
sible for  the  failure  of  the  divorce,  still  pursued  him  with  a  vindic- 
tiveness  which  was  to  be  satisfied  only  by  his  death.  Wolsey,  when 
the  first  note  of  alarm  had  been  sounded,  with  the  purest  motive 
had  sent  an  appeal  by  a  secret  agent  to  Francis,  asking  him  to 
intercede  in  his  behalf.  The  message,  however,  had  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  Thomas  Howard,  and  was  now  used  as  a  basis  for  a 
new  and  more  serious  charge,  that  of  treason.  The  fallen  chan- 
cellor was  at  once  seized  and  hurried  south  with  the  Tower  of 
London  as  his  destination.  On  the  way  his  friends,  for  he  still 
had  some,  tried  to  hearten  him,  but  he  sadly  responded:  "I  per- 
ceive more  than  you  can  imagine  or  know;  experience  of  old  hath 
taught  me."  He  was  already  a  dying  man.  When  he  reached 
Leicester  Abbey  his  strength  was  failing  so  rapidly  that  his 
captors  could  take  him  no  further.  He  died  on  the  29th  of 
November  1530,  worn  out  by  toil,  broken  by  the  sense  of  disgrace; 
*'a  very,  wretch  replete  with    misery."      In    his   last  breath    he 

iStubbs,  C.  H.,  Ill,  pp.  341,  342. 


1530]  THE    DEATH   OF   WOLSEY  527 

acknowledged  his  one  great  fault:  *'Had  I  but  served  God  as 
diligently  as  I  have  served  the  king,  he  would  not  have  given  me 
over  in  my  gray  hairs.  But  this  is  my  due  reward  for  my  pains 
and  study,  not  regarding  my  service  to  God,  but  only  my  duty  to 
my  prince. " 

So  fell  Thomas  Wolsey,  possibly  the  greatest,  "certainly  the 
most  magnificent  in  the  line  of  ecclesiastical  statesmen."  Appear- 
ing at  a  time  when  *'king  worship''  was  rapidly  becoming  a  sort 
of  religion  with  a  great  body  of  the  English  people,  he  could  be 
an  * 'absolutist,"  and  yet  a  patriot;  for  he  sincerely  believed  that 
the  exaltation  of  England  lay  in  the  exaltation  of  the  monarch. 
This  was  both  the  excuse  and  the  justification  of  that  marvelous 
magnificence  which  distinguishes  Wolsey  among  all  the  great  min- 
isters of  great  kings;  **his  palaces,  his  train  of  gentlemen  clad  in 
velvet  of  the  cardinal  color,  the  eight  antechambers  rich  with 
hangings,  through  which  suitors  passed  to  his  presence;  the  silver 
crosses,  the  pillars  and  pole-axes,  which  were  carried  before  him 
and  about  him  when  he  went  abroad,  the  prodigal  splendor  of  the 
entertainments  which  he  gave  to  king  and  court,"  all  were  justi- 
fied because  they  enhanced  the  glory  of  a  master  who  could  afford 
so  magnificent  a  subject.  His  history,  bis  remarkable  rise  and  no 
less  remarkable  fall,  reflects  both  the  greatness  and  the  meanness 
of  the  king  whom  he  served,  who  could  create  him,  shower  upon 
him  dignities  and  wealth,  who  could  allow  him  to  bear  the  burden 
of  the  unpopularity  which  he  himself  had  roused  by  his  own 
tyrannies  and  blunders,  and  then  fling  him  at  last  as  a  sacrifice  to 
the  vengeance  of  the  people.     It  was  the  Tudor  fashion. 


vH" 


CHAPTER    III 


J 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    REVOLT    OF    ENGLAl^D 

HENRY  VIII.,  1530-1539 

The  universal  recognition  of  the  authority  of  the  pope  by  the 

states  of  western  Europe,  is  a  marked  feature  of  the  later  middle 

ages.     The  lines,  however,  which  defined  the  limits  of 

recognition     that  authority,  had  never  been  clearly  drawn.     The 

authority  in    world  state  was  in  theorv  a  kind  of  theocracy,  of  which 

Euroue.  '^ 

the  real  sovereign  was  God,  or  Christ.  The  will  of 
the  world  sovereign  was  made  known  through  the  ministers 
,of  the  church,  expressed  in  the  decisions  of  councils  and  synods, 
but  most  directly  through  the  divinely  appointed  head  of  the 
church,  the  pope,  the  executor  of  its  decrees,  the  interpreter 
of  its  laws  and  doctrines,  and  the  vindicator  of  its  rights ;  and  in 
exercising  the  functions  of  this  high  office,  popes  had  not  hesi- 
tated to  rebuke  princes,  or  threaten  their  kingdoms  with  the 
interdict,  or  the  kings  themselves  with  excommunication  or  depo- 
sition. In  general  the  acts  which  brought  king  or  emperor  under 
the  papal  displeasure  were  either  offenses  against  the  moral  law 
of  Christendom  or  encroachments  upon  the  spiritual  authority  of 
the  church.  Yet  owing  to  the  hopeless  entanglement  of  church 
law  and  state  law,  the  pope  could  not  submit  the  representatives 
of  the  state  to  church  discipline  without  encroaching  upon  the 
independence  of  the  state.  Few,  moreover,  grasped  clearly  the 
idea  of  the  national  state ;  all  Christian  men  were  regarded  as 
members  of  one  common  society,  represented  in  the  one  visible 
church  and  united  in  the  one  supreme  visible  head;  and 
although  there  were  many  symptoms  of  independent  national  life 
so  far  as  the  relations  of  kings  to  each  other  were  concerned,  and 
though  there  had  been  from  time  to  time  vigorous  protests  against 
the  encroachments  of  individual  popes  upon  the  rights  of  nations, 
men  were  not  agreed  as  to  just  where  the  limits  of  papal  authority 
«nded  or  the  independent  rights  of  the  national  king  began. 

528 


rwMA 

>^'"o~-"»hr  T  0  LK 


OLAMOKO  AN"' M<MirHyyCrie*Wr 


^"^^  1  3  0  X  £^K  3  E  T  **»»*f'yo 


CuUhuUr 
•o.;  -Mtma  ;  E  3  3 

ygtrtftrrd  ClttCm»f<^rti 

TU^  WT  S  v    sftlREY        ,^~r      KENT 


:?^a. 


tAompfim  9  O  3  3  K  *ja<i«finfl« 


HAKZ-Chioaco 


GO\9\3^  HOQUT 


-^v-^ 


Vi 


H 


^- 


THE   PAPAL   AUTHORITY   OVER   ENGLAND  529 

In  England  the  rejection  of  the  pope's  claim  to  feudal  sover- 
eignty by  William  the  Conqueror  had  very  early  given  a  somewhat 
clearer  tone  to  the  perpetual  controversy  between  king 
kings  and  and  popc.  John,  however,  had  obscured  matters  some- 
what by  the  pledges  which  he  made  Innocent  III., 
and  Innocent's  successors  had  sought  to  rule  England  through  a 
resident  legate  as  a  province  of  the  papal  empire.  But  Edward  I. 
had  once  more  asserted  the  temporal  independence  of  England, 
denying  the  right  of  the  pope  to  homage  and  refusing  the  tribute, 
and  Edward  III.  had  formally  and  finally  repudiated  the  pledges  of 
John  altogether.  Thus  the  question  of  temporal  sovereignty  had 
been  definitely  settled,  but  up  to  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  the  gen- 
eral ecclesiastical  authority  of  the  pope  had  never  been  denied  by 
English  kings,  although  when  it  came  to  the  application  of  the 
principle  of  spiritual  lordship,  they  had  frequently  resented  the 
intrusion  of  the  papal  authority  as  an  unwarranted  interference 
in  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom. 

This  authority  was  expressed  in  certain  very  definite  claims, 

each  of  which,  at  some  time,  had  been  recognized  by  English 

kinffs  both  in  theory  and  in  practice.     These  claims 

Thepnpal  ^  „,.  ./        .      .    ,.      .  ,     ,  , 

claims  over     were:    1.  J  he  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  papal  court 

England.  .  ,..,''  ^    ^      ^       -,        -r^       , .  , 

over  the  ecclesiastical  courts  of  England.  English 
churchmen  had  often  abused  this  principle,  and  there  had  been 
some  grumbling  as  early  as  Henry  II. 's  time;  but  it  was  not  until 
the  reign  of  Edward  III.  that  an  appeal  to  the  pope  was  actually 
prohibited  by  parliament  in  the  famous  Statute  of  Praemunire. 
The  relations  between  the  English  church  and  the  great  ecclesias- 
tical system  of  the  continent,  however,  were  so  close  that  the 
practice  had  never  been  wholly  abandoned.  2.  A  certain  right  of 
taxation.  The  pope  had  since  the  tenth  century  regularly  levied 
a  penny  upon  each  hearth  in  the  kingdom,  the  famous  Peter's 
Pence.  ^  This  tax  which  England  had  paid  regularly  in  company 
with  other  of  the  northern  nations  of  Europe,  was  a  matter  of 
considerable  importance  to  the  papal  treasury.  Since  the  time 
of  John  XXII.  (1316-1334),  the  pope  had  also  claimed  from  each 

^For  the  origin  of  Peter's  Pence,  see  Stubbs,  C.  H.,  I,  pp.  250,  251. 
Cf.  with  Ramsay,  F.  E.,  I,  p.  238. 


530  THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    REVOLT   OF   ENGLAND       [henry  viil. 

ecclesiastical  holding  the  first  fruits,  or  annates,  that  is  the  whole 
or  a  certain  part  of  the  profit  of  the  living  for  one  year.  This 
was  ostensibly  a  tax  upon  ecclesiastics,  but  indirectly  it  was  felt 
by  the  whole  nation  and  was  generally  regarded  as  a  serious  drain 
upon  the  national  resources.^  3.  The  popes  also  claimed  the 
right  to  interfere  in  the  disposal  of  bishoprics  and  other  prefer- 
ments of  the  English  church.  The  free  way  in  which  they  had 
made  use  of  this  right,  frequently  appointing  to  English  livings 
foreigners  who  never  came  to  England  at  all,  had  brought  out 
the  Statute  of  Provisors  of  Edward  III.,  which  checked  but  did 
not  stop  the  custom.  4.  The  pope  from  the  days  of  Gregory 
the  Great  had  cherished  and  fostered  the  monastery,  and  by  the 
practice  of  granting  exemptions  from  the  jurisdiction  of  local 
bishops,  had  made  the  monks  directly  dependent  upon  himself 
and  thus  independent  of  the  national  church.  5.  The  pope,  also, 
exercised  the  right  of  appointing  a  special  legate,  or  minister,  to 
represent  his  interests  at  the  English  court.  This  right  English 
kings  had  recognized,  but  there  had  always  been  a  decided  opposi- 
tion to  the  appointment  of  foreigners,  and  the  popes  had  found  it 
greatly  to  their  interests  to  select  a  legate  from  the  ranks  of  resi- 
dent churchmen,  and  in  this  way  had  secured  the  services  of  a 
long  line  of  eminent  and  useful  men,  as  Henry  of  Winchester, 
Henry  Beaufort,  John  Morton,  and,  most  magnificent  of  all 
Thomas  Wolsey.  6.  There  was  also  besides  these  claims,  all  of 
which  the  popes  had  exercised  at  various  times,  an  important  body 
of  forms  and  doctrines,  which  the  English  church  held  in  com- 
mon with  the  rest  of  Christendom,  and  which  in  a  certain  way 
could  be  exemplified  and  justified  only  in  a  common  church 
subordinated  to  the  one  visible  head. 

Here  then  were  very  marked  and  very  tangible    lines  along 
which  the  papal  authority  had  been  accustomed  to  act  directly 

upon  English  life,  all  more  or  less  clearly  recognized  by 
E^ianT^^   the  English  government  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign 

of  Henry  VIII.     The  history  of  the  revolt  of  England 
from  the  papal  system  is  the  record  of  the  successive  steps  by 

^  In  the  act  of  1532  it  was  formally  alleged  that  since  the  second  year 
of  Henry  VII.,  the  annates  had  taken  out  of  the  kingdom  £160,000. 


PREPARATION    FOR    REVOLT  531 

which  Henry  VIII.  and  his  successor  sundered  these  ties  and 
advanced  hy  a  series  of  denials  and  repudiations  to  formal  and 
complete  independence. 

Many  events  had  prepared  England  for  this  step.     Since  the 

thirteenth  century  she  had  had  her  chronic  quarrel  with  the  papal 

idea,   especially  as  it  was  embodied  in  the  appellate 

Preparation     ..^.      .  -,  r^      •  ii  i'i.i 

forrevoitin  jurisdiction  of  the  Romau  Curia  and  the  claim  of  the 
pope  to  a  voice  in  the  disposal  of  English  livings. 
The  Hundred  Years'  War  which  had  strengthened  English 
national  life,  had  indirectly  affected  the  attitude  of  the  English 
people  toward  a  system  which  was  built  upon  the  older  imperial 
idea ;  an  idea  which  ignored,  if  it  did  not  directly  deny,  the  idea 
of  the  nation.  The  Great  Schism,  also,  which  for  so  many  years 
had  divided  the  Christian  world  against  itself,  had  seriously  weak- 
ened the  idea  of  the  one  family  of  Christian  men  united  in  the  one 
papal  head. 

Other  events  taking  place  far  remote  from  England  had  also 
prepared  her  people  for  the  same  result.  The  remarkable  series 
of  inventions  and  discoveries  which  mark  the  close  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  discovery  of  Schwarz,  the  invention  of  Gutenberg  and 
Fust,  the  successful  ventures  of  Columbus  and  de  Gama,  the  bold 
theories  of  Copernicus,  the  studies  of  Bracciolini,  Petrarch,  and 
a  host  of  others,  had  greatly  stimulated  and  enlarged  the  intellec- 
tual life  of  the  times.  A  second  universe  had  opened  to  the  here- 
tofore straitened  mind  of  Europe;  men  thought  in  lightning 
flashes ;  they  ffelt  the  conflict  of  this  new  cosmos  with  the  old 
order,  and  began  to  question  the  long  established  ideas  which  lay 
at  the  foundation  of  the  existing  organization  of  state  and  church 
and  society.  From  questioning  they  passed  to  formulation ;  novel 
and  startling  ideas  were  promulgated  about  science  and  art, 
about  theology,  about  God  and  nature  and  man;  a  revolt  against 
all  the  existing  order  found  voice,  took  form,  and  was  accepted  by 
an  ever  increasing  constituency. 

In  its  first  form  this  revolt  was  intellectual,  largely  negative, 
and  manifested  itself  mostly  in  a  desire  to  break  away  from  old 
canons  and  old  restraints ;  the  human  mind  faced  the  unknown 
3ea  and  in  the  wild,  fierce  joy  of  freedom  thought  only  of  throw- 


532  THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    REVOLT   OF    ENGLAND       [heney  viii. 

ing  overboard  chart  and  compass.  Then  men  began  to  seek  prac- 
tical results  in  newer  and  better  methods  of  education.  Yet  at 
the  close  of  the  first  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century 
otthe  revolt  ^^^^^  ^^^  ^^en  no  formal  break  with  the  old  system. 
Pope  Leo  himself  could  be  a  humanist  and  deeply  sym- 
pathize with  the  work  of  the  Italian  scholars  and  still  be  regarded 
as  worthy  to  be  a  pope. 

It  was  in  this  phase  that  the  new  learning  had  first  reached 
England  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  Neither  Grocyn,  nor 
First  phase  ^inacre,  nor  Dean  Colet,  nor  Erasmus,  nor  Sir  Thomas 
mninEng-  ^^^^?  thought  of  overthrowing  the  established  order. 
land.  They  looked  with  deep  grief   upon  the  rent  in  the 

seamless  robe ;  but  they  hoped  to  mend  it,  not  to  throw  it  away 
for  a  new  coat.  They  wanted  reformation,  not  revolution.  Hence 
they  gave  their  thought  to  founding  schools  and  colleges ;  they 
attacked  the  wealth  of  the  clergy,  the  useless  lives  of  the  monastic 
orders,  and  exposed  in  unanswerable  satire,  as  in  Erasmus's 
''Colloquy  on  Pilgrimages,"  the  violations  of  common  sense  which 
masqueraded  under  the  guise  of  religion  in  some  of  the  prevalent 
superstitions.  As  in  Italy,  intelligent  leaders  of  the  church,  men 
like  Cardinal  Morton  and  Cardinal  Wolsey,  gave  these  earnest 
men  their  support  and  sympathy,  openly  acknowledged  the  need 
of  reform,  and  used  their  influence  to  promote  it  in  a  moderate 
way. 

Such  reformers,  however,  moved  too  slowly  to  control  or  even 
direct  the  rapid  tide  of  events.  The  radicals  of  one  day  became 
the  conservatives  of  the  next.  It  was  now  no  longer  a 
The  rising  ^  f^^  scholars,  but  Europe  that  was  awakening.  Men 
had  wearied  of  trimming  off  dead  branches,  and  began 
to  lay  the  ax  at  the  roots  of  the  tree.  The  trumpet  had  been  put 
to  bolder  lips,  and  its  fierce  notes,  shattering  the  startled  air,  were 
rudely  dispelling  gentle  dreams  of  impossible  Utopias  by  the  call 
to  arms.  The  church  had  had  its  opportunity  of  reform;  it  had 
summoned  the  great  Council  of  Constance  for  that  purpose,  but 
had  signally  failed.  Everywhere  national  life  was  asserting  itself 
in  fierce  national  wars,  in  which  the  papacy  had  become  involved 
as  a  political  factor,  and  men  had  refused  to  distinguish  between 


SOCIAL   AND   ECONOMIC   CHANGES.  533 

the  head  of  Christendom  and  the  head  of  a  petty  Italian  state. 
The  result  was  inevitable;  the  great  European  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem was  everywhere  undermined  and  the  influence  of  its  repre- 
sentative head  weakened.  Its  ultimate  dissolution  apparently 
was  at  hand. 

Great  and  far-reaching  social    changes  also   were  preparing 
men's  minds  for  a  new  order.     From  the  new  world  which  had 

been  uncovered  beyond  the  seas  streams  of  precious 
chmwes         nietal  very  early  began  to  pour  into  Europe,  vastly 

increasing  the  volume  of  coin  in  circulation,  stimulat- 
ing all  forms  of  industry,  expanding  commerce,  and  appealing  to 
all  the  wild  adventurous  spirits  of  the  age  through  the  most 
ignoble  of  human  passions,  the  lust  for  gold.  Prices  rose  enor- 
mously ;  the  distress  and  actual  suffering  increased  proportionately 
of  those  who  were  still  held  under  the  older  social  forms,  who  by 
the  survival  of  feudal  law  were  shut  out  from  any  share  in  the 
increasing  prosperity ;  and  soon  vagrancy  and  all  the  other  accom- 
paniments of  economic  revolution  made  their  appearance.  Eng- 
land had  already  advanced  far  beyond  the  rest  of  Europe  in  the 
gradual  lapse  of  villainage  and  the  development  of  a  free  yeo- 
manry. But  she  was  handicapped  by  a  vast  population  of  free 
poor,  who  lived  as  tenants  upon  the  estates  of  the  great  landown- 
ers and  by  reason  of  their  very  freedom  were  now  exposed  to  the 
greed  of  rapacious  landlords  who  in  the  mad  rush  for  wealth  did 
not  hesitate  to  turn  their  tenants  adrift  by  thousands  in  order  to 
use  their  lands  for  more  remunerative  forms  of  production.  The 
wool  trade  particularly  had  rapidly  developed  during  the  century, 
and  when  the  rise  in  prices  began  to  unsettle  the  old  values,  the  fever 
of  speculation  struck  the  English  rural  landlords;  they  went  wild 
over  sheep  raising.  Vast  areas  were  taken  from  cultivation  for 
the  sheep  walk ;  the  old  cultivators  of  the  soil  were  not  needed 
and  were  everywhere  turned  into  the  highways  to  beg,  or  left  to 
drift  into  the  cities  to  join  the  swelling  population  of  the  slums. 
Here  then  was  soil  well  prepared ;  here  also  were  seeds  of  revolt 
against  the  old  order,  everywhere  scattered  broadcast.  This  was 
the  moment  which  Henry  selected  for  forcing  his  quarrel  upon 
the  pope. 


534  THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   REVOLT   OF   ENGLAND      [henky  vili. 

After  the  fall  of  Wolsey  Henry  adopted  a  new  policy  in  the 
treatment  of  the  nation.     Thus  far  Edward  IV.  could  not  have 

been  more  indifferent  to  public  opinion ;  for  like  him 
UiTveo^i!e^^  Henry  had  ignored  parliaments  and  defied  popular  dis- 
tdencf  ^^     approval.     This  had  been  without  doubt  largely  due 

to  Wolsey's  influence;  but  now  with  the  incoming  of 
the  new  chancellor,  Sir  Thomas  More,  Henry  deliberately  adopted 
the  policy  of  taking  the  people  into  his  confidence,  and  henceforth 
does  nothing  without  a  parliament. 

The  parliament  of  1529,  the  famous  *' Reform  Parliament," 
met  on  the  3d  of  November  and  continued  in  existence  through 

a  long  series  of  sessions  extending  over  seven  years. 
Parmimeivt     ^^^^  gave  the  body  some  sense  of  coherence ;   it  also 

gave  some  unity  and  continuity  to  its  work.  The 
Upper  House  consisted  of  about  eighty-eight  members,  fifty-eight 
of  whom  were  churchmen;  the  Lower  House  was  composed  of 
about  three  hundred  members,  of  whom  seventy-four  were  sent 
up  by  the  shires,  the  remainder  by  cities  and  boroughs.  The 
members  represented  fairly  the  ideas  of  the  governing  class,  the 
gentry,  burghers,  and  lawyers.  Henry  knew  that  from  such  a  par- 
liament he  had  nothing  to  fear.  The  laity  had  long  complained  of 
the  burdens  which  the  church  had  imposed  upon  them,  and  had 
looked  with  greedy  eyes  upon  the  vast  wealth  which  had  passed 
into  the  hands  of  monasteries  and  which  was  yielding  no  adequate 
return  in  any  visible  benefit  to  the  nation. 

The  Reform  Parliament  began  its  first  sitting  within  a.  week 
after  the  condemnation  of  Wolsey.     The  leaders  had  evidently 

been  well  tutored  in  the  part  which  they  were 
of  the  Re-  expected  to  play  and  at  once  began  the  attack.  They 
merit  upon      complained  that  the  laws  of  the  church  were  enacted 

without  reference  to  the  civil  authority;  they  com- 
plained of  the  money  which  men  had  to  pay  for  the  administration 
of  the  sacraments,  of  the  vexatious  annoyance  caused  by  the 
summoners  and  by  the  long  journeys  to  the  archbishops'  courts,  of 
the  way  in  which  the  episcopal  examiners  put  to  accused  persons 
cunningly  devised  questions  in  order  to  entrap  them  into  heretical 
admissions,  of  the  abuses  incident  to  conferring  benefices  upon 


1531]  henry's  first  victory  over  the  church  535 

children,  of  the  cost  of  obtaining  probate  of  wills,  and  of  the 
excessive  fees.*  Henry  in  reply  asked  the  parliament  to  frame 
acts  necessary  to  remedy  the  evils  of  which  it  complained,  and 
sent  the  petition  to  Archbishop  Warham.  Warham  laid  the 
paper  before  his  bishops,  and  elicited  a  reply  which  displayed  a 
singular  obtuseness  to  the  peril  of  the  church  and  an  equally 
singular  ignorance  of  English  institutions.  Summed  up  the  reply 
meant  that  the  churchmen  acknowledged  no  authority  in  the 
making  of  their  laws  save  the  Holy  Scripture  and  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  that  the  king  would  do  well  to  *' temper  his  own  laws 
into  conformity  with  these.  "^ 

Here  then  was  presented  a  very  definite  issue ;  but  an  issue  in 
which  all  the  advantages  lay  on  the  king's  side  because  he  was 

sure  to  have  the  parliament  and  the  nation  with  him. 
Hemry'8 first    Henry  saw  his  advantage,  and  proposed  to  put  the 

supremacy  of  state  law  over  church  law  to  a  definite 
test  by  declaring  that  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  who  had 
acknowledged  Wolsey's  legatine  authority,  had  been  guilty  of 
violating  the  Statute  of  Praemunire  and  were  thus  liable  to  the 
penalties  of  imprisonment  and  forfeiture.  The  convocation  had 
no  thought  of  resistance ;  they  too  had  now  learned  the  temper  of 
their  Nero ;  the  very  stupendousness  of  the  charge  amazed  and 
stunned;  smitten  with  panic  they  thought  only  of  submission  in 
order  to  avert  the  next  blow,  the  nature  of  which  they  might 
imagine.  On  the  24th  of  January  1531  convocation  voted  to  pay 
into  the  royal  treasury  the  sum  of  £118,000  as  a  penalty  for  the 
alleged  crime.  But  Henry  was  not  to  be  satisfied  with  a  half 
victory,  and  refused  to  accept  the  fine,  unless  the  church  should 
definitely  recognize  him  as  its  supreme  head.  Two  weeks  later, 
therefore,  they  formally  but  reluctantly  acknowledged  him  to  be 
"the  singular  protector  and  only  supreme  governor  of  the  English 
Church,  and,  as  far  as  the  law  of  Christ  permits,  its  supreme 
head." 


^  For  the  Petition  of  Grievances,  see  Gee  and  Hardy,  Docs.,  pp.  145-153. 
2 For  Warham's  reply  to  the  King,   see  Gee  and  Hardy,  Docs.,  pp. 
154-178. 


536  THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    REVOLT   OF    ENGLAND      f Henby  Vili. 

The  effect  of  this  act  of  convocation  was  virtually  to  give  to 

Henry  the  authority  which  the  pope  had  heretofore  wielded  in 

the  English  Church.     Still  Henry  was  not  vet  willing: 

Significance     ^  i-i-n  i  i^i 

ofthedecia-    to  sever  his  Kingdom  altogether  from  the  papacy.     The 

Peter's  Pence  and  the  first  fruits  continued  to  be  regu- 
larly paid,  and  the  doctrinal  authority  of  the  universal  church 
recognized.  So  far  the  king  had  merely  denied  the  appellate 
jurisdiction  of  the  Holy  See,  and  secured  the  recognition  of  the 
civil  authority  over  the  acts  of  convocation. 

Parliament  in  the  meantime  had  taken  up  the  ax  also,  and  in 
response  to  Henry's  request  brought  forth  a  series  of  acts  which 

struck  at  the  abuses  which  most  nearly  affected  the 
a^UofS     ^l^ss^s  which  its  membership  represented.      The  fines 

and  fees  which  ecclesiastical  courts  might  prescribe  were 
fixed;  the  practice  of  seizing  "mortuaries,"  the  best  chattel,  or 
the  ''upmost  cloth"  which  covered  the  dead  body,  was  abolished; 
clergymen  were  forbidden  to  trade  for  profit;  plural  holdings 
were  to  be  allowed  only  when  the  livings  were  small  and  were  then 
to  be  limited  to  four.  These  acts  were  moderate;  there  was  no 
one  of  them  which  might  not  have  emanated  from  the  clergy 
themselves. 

Beyond  the  walls  of  Westminster,  however,  the  reform  move- 
ment was  rapidly  assuming  volume  and  strength,  soon  to  place 

it  beyond  the  power  of  king  or  parliament  to  control. 
Extension  of   The  revolt  of  England  was  in  fact  developing  along 

thereform  -i-   >-      .     u    i.  •  r  et-     /  ^.^     ^' 

movement.  three  distmct  but_convergmg  Imes:  First,  the  king 
was  moving  toward  a  declaration  of  the  complete  inde- 
pendence of  the  English  Church  and  the  reorganization  of  the 
English  ecclesiastical  system  upon  a  purely  national  basis;  second, 
the  parliament  was  interested  in  the  reform  of  those  practices  of 
the  church  which  distressed  the  laity  in  particular;  but  third,  a 
far  more  serious  threat  to  the  established  order,  there  was  a 
rapidly  increasing  body  of  people,  thoughtful  and  devout,  but 
active  and  determined,  who  had  caught  their  inspiration  from 
Luther  and  his  followers,  possibly  from  some  lingering  fires  of 
Lollardy,  and  had  begun  an  attack  upon  the  whole  system  of 
accepted  church  doctrine.     Their  position  was  a  strong  one,  for 


1534-1530]  WILLIAM   TYNDALE  537 

they  represented  the  quickening  conscience  of  England,  the  pro- 
test of  the  better  thought  of  the  people  against  the  irreligion  and 
heartless  materialism  of  the  age,  with  which  unfortunately  the 
clerical  body  in  the  interests  of  their  special  privileges  and  their 
vast  wealth  had  suffered  themselves  to  be  identified. 

Of  the  leaders  of  this  third  movement,  the  most  important  was 

William  Tyndale,  who  had  been  a  student  at  the  great  English 

universities  and  there  come  under  the  influence  of  the 

the  English     ncw  learning.      His  active,  practical  mind  very  early 

Scrivtures.  j  ^ 

conceived  the  idea  of  giving  the  results  of  the  ripened 
scholarship  of  the  age  to  the  people  in  the  form  of  an  accurate 
translation  of  the  Scriptures.  He  soon  became  satisfied,  however, 
that  such  a  work  could  not  be  done  in  England  in  the  present 
mood  of  the  clergy,  and  in  1524  went  to  the  continent,  where  he 
met  Luther  at  Wittenberg  and  finally  settled  down  at  Cologne. 
But  here  the  town  authorities  made  trouble  for  him  and  he  was 
forced  to  retire  to  Worms  where  in  1526  he  finished  the  octavo 
edition  of  his  New  Testament,  and  sent  over  some  three  thousand 
copies  to  be  distributed  in  England.  The  translation  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch followed  in  1530.  The  friends  of  Tyndale  in  the  mean- 
time had  organized  an  '* Association  of  Christian  Brothers" 
who  made  it  their  task  to  bring  his  translations  into  direct  contact 
with  the  people  by  a  wide  distribution.  They  were  circulated 
with  tracts  of  Tyndale,  Frith,  and  Barnes,  '* three  worthy  martyrs 
and  principal  teachers  of  the  Church  of  England." 

Henry  had  no  sympathy  with  this  phase  of  the  reform,  for  he 

hated  Luther  with  all  the  intolerance  of  a  narrow  and  obstinate 

mind  and  was  suspicious  of  everything  that  smacked  of 

tht  gnirni-^     the  Lutheran  fiavor.     The  bishops  also  had  been  quick 

the  religious    to  take  alarm  at  the  appearance  of   Tyndale's  New 

TcfoTm> 

Testament  and  published  their  disapproval  of  his  trans- 
lations. But  while  Wolsey  remained  in  power,  he  had  stayed  their 
hands  from  offering  personal  violence  to  the  men  who  were  thus 
using  the  Scriptures  to  undermine  the  authority  of  the  church. 
More,  however,  whose  legal  training  perhaps  had  inspired  in  his 
mind  a  respect  for  law  above  the  simple  dictates  of  humanity,  and 
who  possibly,  also,  felt  the  need  of  vindicating  the  political  reform 


538  THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    REVOLT   OF   ENGLAND       [ Henry  vm. 

with  which  he  was  in  sympathy  from  the  charge  of  any  complicity 
in  the  attack  on  the  doctrines  of  the  church,  marshalled  all  the 
machinery  of  government  against  the  ** Christian  Brothers"  and 
began  a  vigorous  attempt  to  uproot  the  spreading  heresies.  He 
had,  moreover,  already  drawn  the  sword  of  controversy  and  had 
upheld  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory  against  Tyndale  and  others  in  a 
tract  called  the  ''Supplication  of  Souls."  While  the  king,  there- 
fore, still  bent  upon  his  divorce,  was  striving  to  frighten  the  pope 
into  compliance  by  the  threat  of  severing  the  ecclesiastical  system 
of  England  from  that  of  the  continent,  while  the  parliament  was 
seeking  to  relieve  the  people  from  the  burdens  of  mortuaries  and 
the  neglect  of  pluralists.  More  had  lighted  the  fires  at  Smithfield 
and  begun  sending  the  clearest  sighted  advocates  of  the  reform  to 
the  stake. 

Between  Henry  and  the  pope  matters  had  speedily  come  to  a 
deadlock.      The  pope  refused  to  be  bullied  and  announced  his 

determination  not  to  yield ;  Henry  at  a  loss  as  to  the 
toiheuni-       next  step,  yet  fully  determined  as  ever  to  have  his  way, 

appealed  to  the  universities  of  Europe  for  an  opinion 
upon  the  crucial  question,  whether  the  pope  was  competent  to 
allow  a  man  to  marry  his  deceased  brother's  widow;  that  is.  Was 
a  Papal  Bull  superior  to  the  plain  declaration  of  the  Scriptures? 
The  universities  took  up  the  question,  and  amused  themselves 
with  it  after  their  ponderous  fashion,  and  finally  gave  a  decision, 
each  in  accordance  with  the  political  preferences  of  their  respec- 
tive sovereigns,  and  so  settled  nothing.  After  three  years  more  of 
vexatious  waiting,  Henry  found  that  he  was  no  nearer  his  goal 

than  ever,  and  turned  again  to  his  Reform  Parliament 
Further  acts  fo^.  comfort,  seeking  through  it  to  renew  his  attack 
formPariia-  upon  the    pope.      In    1532    it    abolished    benefit  of 

clergy  for  all  below  the  rank  of  deacon ;  it  also  lim- 
ited to  twenty  years  the  period  for  which  lands  could  be  bur- 
dened vrith  the  obligation  of  paying  for  masses  for  the  dead. 
Convocation  was  compelled  to  agree  to  constitute  no  new  canons 
without  the  king's  consent  and  to  submit  the  existing  law  to  a 
committee  of  revision  made  up  of  laymen  and  ecclesiastics. 
Then  the  parliament  proceeded  to  threaten  the  pope  more  directly 


1533]  THOMAS   CRANMER  639 

by  empowering  Henry  to  suspend  the  payments  of  Peter's  Pence 
and  annates  whenever  he  saw  fit.* 

Thus  far  while  the  Commons  had  been  practically  unanimous 
in  its  support  of  the  king,  in  the  Upper  House  the  clergy  by 

reason  of  their  great  strength  had  exerted  a  powerful 
"croMmer        Conservative  influence,  so  that  at  times  the  consent  of 

the  Lords  -to  measures  of  reform  had  been  secured  only 
with  great  difficulty;  but  during  the  year  Archbishop  Warham 
died  and  Henry  hastened  to  replace  him  by  a  very  different  man, 
Thomas  Cranmer.  This  man,  destined  to  give  his  life  for  the 
independence  of  the  English  Church,  was  the  son  of  a  gentleman 
of  Aslacton,  Nottinghamshire,  where  he  was  born  July  2,  1489. 
He  had  entered  Cambridge  at  fourteen,  become  a  fellow  in  1510, 
and  had  been  ordained  to  the  priesthood  in  1523,  but  continued 
his  connection  with  the  university  as  a  lecturer  on  divinity  until 
1528.  In  this  year  by  mere  chance  the  young  divine  was  thrown 
into  the  company  of  Gardiner  and  Fox,  two  of  Henry's  ministers, 
and  modestly  proposed  to  them  the  plan  of  laying  Henry's  diffi- 
culties before  the  universities.  Henry  with  bluntness  character- 
istic of  the  man  ordered  Cranmer  to  be  sent  for  at  once,  declaring 
"this  man  I  trow,  has  the  right  sow  by  the  ear,"  and  committed 
to  him  the  presentation  of  his  cause  before  the  universities  of 
Europe.  Warham  died  while  Cranmer  was  on  the  continent, 
and  Henry  named  him  for  the  vacant  see.  In  vain  Cranmer  pro- 
tested that  he  had  been  disqualified  by  a  recent  marriage;  Henry 
insisted,  and  upon  Cranmer's  return  he  was  formally  consecrated, 
March  30,  1533. 

Henry  now  had  an  ally  in  the  place  where  one  was  most  needed, 
and  by  his  help  proceeded  at  once  to  cut  the  troublesome  knot 

presented  by  the  Canon  Law.     At  the  beginning  of 

The  divorce      xr  ^  o  o 

declared,  1533  parliament  had  formally  abolished  the  right  of 
appeal  from,  the  English  ecclesiastical  court  to  Rome, 
and  Cranmer  by  direction  of  the  king  at  once  took  up  the  question 
of  the  divorce,  and  although  Catharine  denied  the  authority  of  the 
archbishop's  court,  the  marriage  was  straightway  declared  illegal. 
Henry  had  already  married  Anne  Boleyn  early  in  the  year ;    the 

iSee  Gee  and  Hardy,  Docs.,  pp.  176-186. 


540  THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    REVOLT    OF    ENGLAND       [hknkt  Vlll. 

marriage  was  now  announced  and  the  coronation  of  the  new 
queen  celebrated  with  a  state  and  magnificence  befitting  the 
defiant  mood  of  the  king. 

The  divorce  and  the  marriage  brought  on  the  crisis.  The 
pope  annulled  the  findings  of  Cranmer's  court  and  commanded 
Henry  to  put  away  Anne  Boleyn  before  the  end  of 
Juiv^%33  September  under  pain  of  excommunication.  Even 
Henry  paused  before  forcing  this  final  issue.  There 
was  danger  of  an  active  interference  on  the  part  of  Charles  V. , 
when  once  the  fatal  bull  should  leave  the  Papal  Curia.  The 
hearts  of  the  people  of  England  had  always  been  with  Catharine, 
they  had  cheered  her  with  uncovered  heads  and  shouted  "God 
bless  her"  as  she  passed  to  the  place  which  had  been  fixed  upon 
for  her  retirement.  For  Anne  they  had  little  sympathy,  and 
even  that  soon  passed  to  positive  detestation  as  they  better  under- 
stood her  character;  nor  were  bold  spirits  lacking  to  protest 
openly  against  the  conduct  of  the  self-willed  king.  John  Fisher, 
the  venerable  bishop  of  Rochester,  who  had  been  Catharine's 
chaplain,  had  boldly  spoken  out  for  her  at  the  first  trial  before 
Campeggio  and  Wolsey,  and  in  1532  Sir  Thomas  More  had  thrown 
up  the  seals  of  his  office  and  retired  from  public  life,  rather  than 
be  a  party  to  the  apostasy  of  England.  Stubborn  as  Henry  was 
he  could  not  be  oblivious  to  the  contempt  of  men  whom  he  had 
once  admired  and  respected  with  all  the  ingenuousness  of  youth. 
Yet  Henry  had  no  thought  of  submission ;  he  would  appeal  to  a 
general  council  of  the  church  first;  he  would  form  another 
league  to  defend  himself  against  the  emissaries  of  this  mad  pope, 
but  submit?  Never !  It  was  in  this  temper  that  he  was  brought  at 
last  completely  under  the  infiuence  of  men  like  Cranmer  and 
Cromwell  who  were  bent  upon  forcing  the  separation  from  Rome 
and  who  now  easily  led  him  to  face  the  alternative,  and  answer 
threat  with  threat :  If  the  pope  did  not  cancel  his  decree  within 
nine  weeks,  Henry  would  declare  the  complete  independence  of 
England  of  the  papal  system. 

At  last  the  fateful  month  of  September  opened.  On  the  11th 
the  queen  gave  birth  to  a  daughter  whom  they  christened  after 
Henry's  mother  Elizabeth.     It  was  a  daughter  in  spite  of  the  pre- 


1533,  1534]  THE    ACT    OF    SUPREMACY  541 

dictions  of  astrologers   and  wizards,  but   the   friends  of   Henry 
determined  to  make  the  best  of  it.      In  tlie  spring  parliament 

passed  an  Act  of  Succession  ^  which  settled  the  crown 
EUzabeth  i  ^^P^n  the  children  of  Henry  and  Anne,  and  in  the  autumn 
^f^li^^^^      interpreted  it  by  a  second  act  which  further  authorized 

Henry  to  compel  his  subjects  to  take  an  oath  to  sup- 
port the  Act  of  Succession.  Any  one,  moreover,  who  should 
utter  a  word  to  the  disparagement  of  the  king's  marriage  or  of 
his  heirs,  should  be  guilty  of  misprision  of  treason  and  be  liable  to 
complete  forfeiture  of  goods  and  imprisonment  during  the  king's 
pleasure.  More  and  Fieher  refused  to  take  the  oath.  Fisher 
was  already  in  the  Tower  and  More  was  sent  to  join  him. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  pope  had  refused  to  cancel  his  decree, 
and  nothing  was  left  for  Henry,  unless  he  would  retire  from  the 

conflict  and  restore  his  injured  wife,  but  to  take  the 
iwnrcnfacw  ^^^^  ^tQ]}.  Accordingly,  March  31,  1534  the  convoca- 
mvemher,      ^jqj^  Qf  Canterbury  abjured  the  papal  supremacy;   the 

convocation  of  York  passed  a  similar  decree  before 
May  15;  and  in  November  parliament  formally  decreed  that  the 
king  was  to  be  henceforth  accounted  '*the  only  supreme  head  on 
earth  of  the  Church  of  England  called  Anglicana  Bcclesia.'*^ 
This  act,  the  famous  Act  of  Supremacy,*  the  English  Declaration 
of  Independence,  closes  the  long  series  of  anti-papal  legislation 
which  began  with  the  first  Statute  of  Praemunire  in  1353,  and 
now  definitely  sundered  England  from  the  ancient  ecclesiastical 
system  of  Europe.^ 

In  order  to  reconstitute  the  church  it  was  necessary  further  to 
pass  supplementary  acts  which  also  date  from  this  eventful  year 
ThecoroUa-  ^^^  ^^^J  ^®  regarded  as  corollaries  of  the  Act  of 
Aft  of  sit  Supremacy.  By  these  the  annates  were  added  to  the 
premacy.        regular  revenues  of  the  crown,*  the  king  was  empow- 

»  Gee  and  Hardy,  pp.  232-243  and  244-247. 

2  Gee  and  Hardy,  pp.  243,  244  and  pp.  251,  252. 

^  For  other  important  acts  of  this  eventful  year,  see  Gee  and  Hardy, 
pp.  195-257. 

*  They  were  afterward,  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  set  apart  for  the 
increase  of  the  revenues  of  poor  Hvings. 


643  THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    KEVOLT   OF    ENGLAND      [henry  viii. 

ered  to  nominate  bishops,  and  the  chapter  enjoined  to  elect  his 
nominees  under  the  penalties  of  Praemunire.     Cromwell  although 

a  layman  was  named  vicar  general  of  the  kingdom, 
V^tVf^^f  ^  position  which  made  him  president  of  convocation 
CTi  ^ch^^^^     ^^^  brought  the  legislative  power  of  that  body  directly 

under  the  king's  control.  All  the  bishops  of  England, 
also,  were  suspended  that  they  might  be  reappointed  under  the 
new  law.  No  attempt,  however,  was  yet  made  to  change  the  doc- 
trines of  the  church.  The  pope  was  no  longer  recognized,  but 
the  English  Church  was  still  Catholic  in  local  government,  worship, 
and  doctrine. 

The  Act  of  Supremacy  was  received  generally  without  opposi- 
tion.      The  Carthusian   monks  of    the  London  Charter   House 

dared  to  protest,  and  twelve  of  them  were  promptly 
me  Act  of       hanged  as  a  warning  to  others  who  might  be  of  their 

way  of  thinking.  More  shining  marks,  however,  were 
offered  by  the  two  distinguished  prisoners  in  the  Tower,  Fisher 
and  More.  Fisher  had  begun  his  career  as  confessor  of  Margaret 
Beaufort,  the  mother  of  Henry  VII.,  and  had  faithfully  served 
the  Tudors  for  three  generations.  Few  men  had  exerted  a  wider 
or  nobler  influence.  The  other  victim  was  a  typical  product  of 
the  Eenaissance.  Born  in  1478,  the  son  of  a  crown  justice,  he 
was  early  bred  to  the  law.  At  Oxford  he  came  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Colet  and  Erasmus,  and  became  deeply  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  the  newer  criticism.  The  "Utopia,"  a  sort  of  sixteenth 
century  *' Looking  Backward,"  which  sought  to  expose  the  evils 
of  the  existing  order,  and  at  the  same  time  to  set  forth  an  ideal 
community  to  be  found  somewhere  in  "no  man's  land,"  entitled 
More  to  a  fair  place  in  literature.  He  also  won  quite  a  reputation 
as  a  lawyer,  and  as  speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  sufficiently 
proved  his  spirit  by  boldly  attacking  Wolsey,  when  Wolsey  was  in 
the  heyday  of  his  power.  Henry  at  one  time  was  very  fond  of 
More,  whose  refinement,  ready  wit,  and  gracious  open  nature  made 
him  altogether  a  very  lovable  character,  and  now  really  desired  to 
save  his  old  friend.  But  More  had  raised  an  issue  not  with  Henry 
alone,  but  with  the  whole  drift  of  the  last  ten  years  of  English 
history,  and  Henry  was  powerless;  the  grim  logic  of  his  position 


1535]  THOMAS    CROMWELL  543 

virtually  forced  him  to  destroy  these  the  truest  friends  of  his 
youth,  the  nohlest  ornameuts  of  his  reign.  As  to  More  and  Fisher 
there  are  no  sublimer  instances  of  heroic  devotion  to  conscience 
in  all  history;  without  the  support  of  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
martyr,  without  the  sympathy  of  a  powerful  following  who  might 
look  to  them  for  example  and  inspiration  in  devotion,  with  their 
eyes  open,  they  yet  went  deliberately  to  the  block  rather  than 
deny  what  they  felt  to  be  truth.  Fisher  was  executed  on  June 
22,  1535,  and  More  on  July  6,  following. 

It  is  now  time  to  notice  the  man  who  perhaps  more  than  any 
other  is  responsible  for  the  later  acts  of  Henry,  Thomas  Crom- 
well, "The  Hammer  of  the  Monks,"  and  *'the  first 
Cromwell,       great  Enj<lish  Secretary  of  State."     He  was  born  at 

"  The  Ham-      %,    j_  .       ..  .  V,  xi      ^i 

merofthe  Putney  m  the  year  of  Boswoi-th,  the  son  of  an  iron- 
master. After  spending  some  years  abroad  as  a  soldier 
in  Italy,  and  as  a  merchant  in  Antwerp,  he  returned  to  London  to 
begin  business  as  an  attorney,  money  lender,  and  wool  speculator. 
Here  he  fell  in  with  Wolsey  and  entered  into  his  employ,  collect- 
ing the  revenues  of  the  archi episcopal  see  of  York  and  also  con- 
ducting the  various  matters  connected  with  the  dissolution  of  the 
monasteries  and  the  founding  of  Wolsey's  college  at  Oxford. 
After  AVolsey's  fall  he  entered  directly  into  the  service  of  the  king 
and  soon  became  one  of  his  most  influential  ministers.  He  was 
able,  industrious,  resolute,  and  self-willed.  He  can  hardly  be 
called  a  Protestant,  for  he  probably  had  no  personal  religion ;  he 
favored  the  divorce  and  did  not  hesitate  to  push  the  king  on  to  a 
separation  with  Rome  in  order  to  attain  it.  He  managed  the 
parliament  in  the  king's  interests,  ruled  in  the  Privy  Council,  and 
fell  heir  to  all  the  bitter  hatred  which  the  nobles  once  felt  for 
Wolsey. 

Cromwell's  early  experience  in  Wolsey's  service  had  brought 
him  into  contact  with  the  life  of  the  monasteries  upon  their  most 
unattractive  side ;  and  it  was  not  difficult  for  him  to 
themonas-  persuade  Henry  that  they  were  useless  and  that  their 
wealth  ought  to  be  brought  under  the  control  of  the 
crown.  As  a  preliminary  move,  no  doubt  designed  to  justify  the 
meditated  spoliation,  he  sent  out  a  commission  in  1535  to  visit  the 


544  THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    REVOLT    OF   ENGLAND      [henryVIH. 

various  houses  and  report  on  their  condition.  The  report,  known 
as  the  "Black  Book  of  Monasteries,"  was  ready  when  ;garhament 
met  the  next  year,  and  upon  its  representations  parUament  deter- 
mined to  abolish  all  but  about  thirty  of  the  larger  houses  upon 
which  the  commission  had  reported  favorably.  The  others  to  the 
number  of  376  were  abolished  and  their  estates  confiscated  for  the 
crown.  The  inmates  w^ere  free  to  enter  one  of  the  larger  houses, 
or  to  abandon  the  monastic  life.  To  such  as  chose  the  latter  a 
pension  was  allowed,  equal  to  the  income  of  a  common  parish 
priest. 

While  Henry  was  thus  ploughing  his  way  at  home,  ruthlessly 

overturning  the  traditions  of  a  thousand  years,  Europe  looked  on 

aghast.      The   executions   of   More   and   Fisher  were 

Grrnwinq  un-  •       -i        -  ^      -,  -,.  it/-, 

reM.  Risims  received  with  deep  disapproval  even  by  the  Germans, 

in  the  north.         .  ,    ^      ^    ^   ^     \Y .  . 

who  regarded  the  English  movement  as  a  spurious 
reformation,  drawing  its  inspiration  from  politics  and  trade  rather 
than  religion.  The  pope,  also,  set  about  preparing  his  bull  of 
deposition ;  even  Francis  had  turned  against  Henry,  and  could  he 
and  Charles  ever  agree  to  act  in  harmony,  a  league  of  western  Europe 
for  the  vindication  of  the  church  and  the  overthrow  of  the  mad 
king  of  England  might  become  a  possibility.  England  also  was 
uneasy.  The  unrest  had  begun  to  manifest  itself  in  various 
ways.  An  epileptic  nun  had  appeared  in  Kent,  who  predicted  the 
king's  speedy  death,  and  had  deceived  even  Fisher  by  her  spuri- 
ous revelations.  She  was  executed  in  1534;  her  fall  had  been  the 
occasion  of  Fisher's  original  imprisonment  in  the  Tower.  In  1535 
intrigue  was  prevalent  and  serious  outbreak  threatened ;  but  the 
death  of  Catharine  the  next  year,  by  removing  the  hope  of  those 
who  were  expecting  Charles  to  interfere,  greatly  diminished  the 
danger  of  any  possible  outbreak.  The  people,  however,  particularly 
in  the  north,  were  becoming  embittered  by  a  series  of  special 
grievances,  some  real  but  most  of  them  fancied,  growing 
partly  out  of  the  attack  upon  the  monasteries,  partly  out 
of  the  unpopularity  of  Cromwell  with  the  nobility,  partly  out  of 
an  unfortunate  law  known  as  the  Statute  of  Uses  which  pre- 
vented landowners  from  making  charges  on  their  estates  for 
the  benefit  of  younger  sons  or  daughters,  partly  out  of  the  cus- 


1536]  THE    PILGRIMAGE    OF   GRACE  545 

torn  of  calling  suits  to  London  for  a  hearing  instead  of  allowing 

them  to  be  settled  at  the  county  courts,  and  partly  out  of  the 

increasing  displacement   of   agriculture   by  sheep   farming.       A 

series  of  revolts  broke  out  in  October  of  153G  and  con- 

The  PilnTtTn- 

age  of  tinned  through  the  winter,  extending  over  Lincoln- 

shire, Yorkshire,  Cumberland,  and  Westmoreland, 
in  which  the  clergy,  the  nobles,  the  gentry,  and  landless  poor 
were  generally  implicated.  The  revolt  .  in  Yorkshire,  known 
as  the  "Pilgrimage  of  Grace,"  became  really  formidable,  and 
although  it  also  failed  and  the  leaders,  among  whom  were 
the  abbots  of  Fountains,  Jervaulx,  Barlings,  and  Sawley, 
were  put  to  death,  the  protest  was  not  altogether  lost.  The 
hated  Statute  of  Uses  still  remained  on  the  statute  books  but 
the  courts  interpreted  the  law  more  generously.  A  special  com- 
mittee of  the  Privy  Council,  known  as  the  Council  of 
The  Cfmncu  the  North,  were  also  appointed  to  try  cases  such  as 
created,  1537.  were  ordinarily  brought  to  London,  holding  sittings 
during  four  months  of  each  year  in  the  cities  beyond 
the  llumber.  The  president  of  the  councirwas  virtually  governor 
in  the  north  in  the  king's  name. 

The  northern  risings  had  failed  not  because  of  any  lack  of 
people,  for  at  one  time  some  thousands  were  actually  in  arms, 
but  because  the  insurgents  could  not  find  a  claimant 
N^  Torkut  to  set  up  against  Henry  about  whom  the  disaifected 
elements  might  rally.  In  1538,  however,  the  govern- 
ment suddenly  became  aware  of  a  widely  extended  plot,  which 
centered  in  the  two  Yorkist  families  of  the  Poles  and  the  Cour- 
tenays.  Henry  Courtenay  was  the  grandson  of  Edward  IV.  by 
his  daughter  Catharine.  He  was  marquis  of  Exeter  and  possessed 
great  power  in  the  west.  The  Poles  were  represented  by  the  sons 
of  that  Reginald  Pole  who  had  been  killed  at  Pavia  in  1525  and 
Margaret,  the  daughter  of  the  duke  of  Clarence,  the  countess  of 
Salisbury.  The  eldest  son  was  Henry,  Lord  Montague,  a  warm 
friend  of  the  marquis  of  Exeter,  and  married  to  a  Neville.  The 
second  son  was  Reginald  Pole  who  had  entered  the  church  and 
was  once  a  great  favorite  with  the  king.  At  first  he  had  been  in 
sympathy  with  the  divorce,  but  like  More  and  Fisher  had  refused 


546  THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    REVOLT   OF    ENGLAND      [henky  viii. 

to  follow  Henry  in  seceding  from  the  great  ecclesiastical  family  of 
Europe  and  had  written  a  treatise  upon  "Ecclesiastical  Unity." 
The  pope  was  pleased  and  made  the  author  a  cardinal.  Henry 
was  not  pleased  and  had  the  author  attainted.  The  exact  extent 
of  the  plot  is  not  known  or  the  degree  in  which  the  several  leaders 
Avere  implicated.  The  cardinal  had  entered  the  pope's  service  and 
was  his  trusted  messenger  in  his  endeavor  to  rouse  Charles  V.  to 
draw  the  sword  against  England.  The  marquis  of  Exeter  had 
assisted  the  king  in  suppressing  the  " Pilgrimage  of  Grace"  but  had 
openly  avowed  his  distaste  for  the  business.  Some  treasonable  prep- 
arations, also,  were  unearthed  in  Cornwall.  A  younger  Pole, 
Geoffrey,  offered  evidence  against  his  eldest  brother  and  his 
mother,  the  venerable  countess  of  Salisbury,  who  were  probably 
more  or  less  in  correspondence  with  the  exiled  cardinal.  It  was 
known  also  that  Charles  was  gathering  a  mysterious  fleet  of  two 
hundred  sail  in  the  Schelde.  Henry  acted  with  his  usual  ruthless 
energy.  Exeter  and  Montague  were  beheaded  and  Lady  Salisbury 
was  sent  to  the  Tower,  although  she  was  not  put  to  death  until 
1541. 

The  risings  led  directly  to  the  suppression  of  the  remaining 

monasteries.     The  work  began  in  1536  in  the  voluntary  surrender 

of  the  great  House  of  Furness.     Other  houses  followed 

Suppression  . 

uf  the  great  the  example  01  Furness  when  it  was  known  that  the 
king  stood  ready  to  make  liberal  provisions  for  the 
future  support  of  the  inmates.  Their  chattels  were  sold  and 
their  lands,  yielding  a  revenue  estimated  at  £6,000,000,  were  turned 
over  to  the  king. 

Here  was  an  enormous  wealth  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  gov- 
ernment, but  the  keen  politicians  who  surrounded  Henry  were  at  no 
loss  as  to  its  disposal ;  they  proposed  to  forestall  reaction 
S?fands  %  ^^  making  the  nation  a  partner  with  the  government  in 
leri^^^^'  ^^^  spoliation  of  the  church.  A  part  was  applied  to  the 
creation  of  six  new  bishoprics ;  a  part  was  used  in  coast 
fortifications ;  a  yet  greater  part  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  new 
families,  the  Eussells,  the  Seymours,  the  Dudleys,  the  Cecils,  and 
the  Cavendishes,  the  new  reform  nobility  whom  Henry  had  called 
around  him  as  a  balance  to  the  old  nobility ;  but  the  greatest  part 


1536]  DISPOSAL   OF   CHURCH    LANDS  547 

went  out  in  small  holdings,  sold  off  for  a  song  to  the  neighboring 
gentry,  so  that  twenty  years  later  when  the  reaction  came  in 
under  Mary  and  her  advisers  talked  of  restoring  the  monasteries, 
it  was  said  that  more  than  twenty  thousand  families  were  inter- 
ested in  the  retention  of  these  lands.  Nothing  could  have  been 
devised  more  certain  to  fix  permanently  the  results  of  Henry's 
reforms.  In  another  way  also  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries 
strengthened  the  government  by  removing  the  abbots  from  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  thereby  assuring  the  lay  element  of  a  per- 
manent majority  over  the  spiritual  peers.*  Henry,  also,  was  care- 
ful to  select  for  his  six  new  bishoprics  men  upon  whose  sympathies 
he  could  depend. 

With  the  suppression  of  the  monastic  houses,  the  establish- 
ment of  a  lay  majority  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  passing 
away  of  all  possibility  of  foreign  military  interference,  the  political 
revolt  from  Kome  may  be  regarded  as  accomplished.  The  doc- 
trinal revolt  was  yet  to  come. 

^  See  Stubbs,  Lectures  on  Mediaeval  and  Modem  History,  pp.  309  and 
310.  It  seems  that  while  the  spiritual  lords  had  always  been  in  a  numer- 
ical majority  up  to  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  yet  so  far  as  actual 
daily  attendance  was  concerned,  as  shown  by  the  records  of  each  session, 
the  voting  strength  of  the  two  elements  was  commonly  more  nearly 
equal. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  PKOGRESS  OE  THE  REFORM 


HENRY  Vni.,  15^-1547 
EDWARD    VI.,  15i5-lbo3 


THE  HOWARDS 

John  Howard,  Duke  of  Norfolk, 

supporter  of  Richard  III., 

kiUed  at  Bosworth,  1485 

Thomas,  Earl  of  Surrey; 

later.  Duke  of  Norfolk, 

victor  at  Flodden,  1513.    Died  1524 

I 


Thomas,  Duke  of 
Norfolk, 
d  1554 


Admiral  Edward 

Howard,  killed 

in  1513 


Henry,  Earl  of  Surrey, 

I     Ex.  by  Henry 
VIII.,  1547 

Thomas,  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  Ex.  1572 


Edmimd 
Howard 

Catharine 

Howard, 

Henry  VIII. 

fifth  wife, 

Ex.  1543 


William, 
Lord  Howard 
of  Effingham 

Admiral  Charles 
1    Howard  of  the 

Armada  Epoch. 

Created  Earl  of 

Nottingham  1590, 

d.  1624 


Elizabeth =Thomas 
Howard  I   Boleyn 

Anne  Boleyn 
Henry  VIII. 's 
second  wife, 
Ex.  1536 
I 
Elizabeth, 
Queen  of  Eng- 
land, 1558-1603 


At  the  beginning  of  the  year  1539  Henry  was  as  determined  as 

ever  that  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  English  Church  should 

not  "vary  in  any  iot  from  the  faith  Catholic."     But  by 

Tfie  schism  j  j  >i  j 

in  the  reform  the  Act  of  Supremacy  he  had  opened  the  flood  gates, 
and  all  the  tremendous  power  of  the  government  could 
not  close  them  again.     As  early  as  1536  the  ministers  of  the 
church  had  felt  the  pressure  of  the  growing  dissatisfaction  and  in 
order  to  meet  the  objections  of  educated  people,  and  reach  some 
common  ground  of  agreement  with  those  who  were  beginning  to 
question  the  teaching  of  the  church,  by  the  authority  of  convoca- 
tion had  published  a  series  of  articles,  ten  in  number, 
A!rt^u^i536   ^^  which  they  declared  that  the  Bible  and  the  "three 
creeds"^  were  sole  authority  for  all  matters  of  faith, 
and  explained  and  enjoined  as  necessary  to  salvation  the  three 
sacraments, — baptism,  penance,  and  the  sacrament  of  the  altar. 

^The  Apostles',  the  Nlcene,  and  the  Athanasian. 

548 


1539]  THE   SIX   ARTICLES  549 

The  logical  sequence  of  an  appeal  to  the  authority  of  Scriptures, 
moreover,  was  a  demand  for  the  Scriptures  themselves,  and  in 
1539,   convocation   authorized,    also,  and   ordered   to  be  placed 

in  each  church,  a  version  "known  as  the  '* Great  Bible." 
mbie^^l     "^^^^  ^^^  ^^^  strictly  a  new  version,  but  was  founded 

upon  the  work  of  Tyndale  and  Coverdale,  Tyndale's 
fellow  in  exile,  who  had  published  the  first  complete  translation 
of  the  Scriptures  in  English  in  1535,  the  year  before  the  burning 
of  Tyndale  at  Vilvorde.  The  ''Great  Bible"  was  accompanied  by 
an  introduction  from  the  pen  of  Cranmer. 

Here  then  was  a  distinct  concession  of  the  ministers  of  the 
church  to  the  new  learning;  an  authoritative  acknowledgment  of 

the  claims  of  reason  to  a  hearing  as  against  the  dog- 
Agmw?n.      n^atic  methods  of  medievalism,  a  public  recognition  of 

an  authority  superior  to  that  of  the  priesthood.  But 
there  was  also  a  vast  body  of  smaller  folk,  radicals  of  excitable 
nature,  to  whom  an  appeal  to  reason  meant  an  appeal  to  license, 
and  who  thought  that  the  abjuration  of  the  papal  supremacy  per- 
mitted them  to  begin  at  once  an  open  and  violent  attack  upon  the 
doctrines  and  practices  of  the  church.  The  ministers  of  the 
church  felt  their  weakness  and  appealed  to  the  king  for  protec- 
tion. When,  therefore,  the  new  parliament  came  together  in  1539, 
it  determined  under  the  promptings  of  the  Howards,  who  repre- 
sented the  old  nobility,  to  publish  a  formal  statement  of  doctrines 
which  were  not  to  be  questioned,  and  to  put  a  stop  to  the  unseemly 
agitation  which  had  of  late  invaded  the  most  solemn  ceremonies 
of  the  church.  The  result  was  the  famous  Six  Articles,  which 
may  be  taken  as  a  fair  statement  of  the  faith  of  the  conservative 
party  of  reform  at  the  time,  as  well  as  an  expression  of  their 
temper. 

This  ''bloody  act,"  as  the  radical  reformers  termed  it,  neither 
Catholic  nor  Protestant,  reasserted  the  supremacy  of  the  king  as 

under  God  the  head  of  "the  whole  church  and  congre- 
Articies,        gation  of  England,"  but  enjoined  the  acceptance  of 

transubstantiation,  communion  in  one  kind,  the 
celibacy  of  priests,  the  observance  of  "vows  of  chastity  or  widow- 
hood," the  continuance  of  private  masses,  and  the  practice  of 


550  THE    PROGRESS    OF    THE    REFORM  [henryVIIL 

auricular  confession.  Death  by  fire  was  prescribed  as  the  penalty 
for  denying  transubstantiation.  Death  was  also  prescribed, 
although  not  by  fire,  for  teaching,  or  preaching,  or  maintaining  in 
a  public  court,  views  contrary  to  the  remaining  articles;  for  pro- 
fessing such  views  in  other  ways,  that  is  by  printing,  writing,  or 
by  word,  for  the  first  offense  forfeiture  was  prescribed,  and  for 
the  second  offense  death.  For  those  who  denied  the  articles  by 
open  act  the  penalties  were  likewise  severe.^  The  act  was  to  go 
into  effect  "after  the  twelfth  day  of  July." 

The  Six  Articles  were  a  direct  blow  to  the  hopes  of  those  who 

were  in  sympathy  with  the  doctrinal  reforms  of  the  Lutherans  and 

a  warning  of  the  serious  nature  of  the  resistance  which 

Results  of 

the'^Six^^  might  be  expected.  The  king  apparently  had  wished 
to  temper  the  harshness  of  the  law  somewhat,  but  his 
sympathies  with  its  purpose  were  so  well  known  that  little  help 
was  to  be  expected  from  him.  Cranmer  and  Latimer  had  opposed 
the  act  in  parliament,  but  Cranmer's  timidity  and  Latimer's  declin- 
ing influence  forbade  any  expectation  of  shelter  from  this  direction, 
now  that  the  act  had  become  law.  Cromwell  also  had  been  more 
or  less  in  sympathy  with  the  attack  upon  the  doctrines  of  the 
church,  but  he  was  too  much  of  a  politician  to  attempt  to  inter- 
fere where  even  the  king  had  failed  to  soften  the  resentment  of 
parliament  against  the  agitators.  He  remained  silent  therefore 
while  the  reformation  drew  the  sword  against  the  reformation. 

If,  however,  Cromwell  could  not  stay  the  tide  which  was  bear- 
ing all  before  it  in  parliament,  he  could  yet  plan  a  bold  stroke 
for  saving  the  doctrinal  reform.  Henry  had  long  since 
andihf^  Wearied  of  Anne  Boleyn  as  he  had  wearied  of  Cathar- 
aiiiancT'  ^^^'  ^^^  ^^^  listened  eagerly  to  rumors  of  gravest  mis- 
conduct which  her  enemies  were  doing  all  they  could 
to  spread.  In  the  early  part  of  1536  she  had  been  put  through 
the  farce  of  a  trial  in  which  torture  was  freely  used  in  securing 
testimony,  and,  although  she  herself  protested  her  innocence,  a 
court  of  subservient  peers  condemned  her  to  death.  She  was 
executed  on  May  19th,  and  on  the  20th  Henry  married  Jane 
Seymour,  to  make  way  for  whom,  he  had  been  as  eager  to  get  rid 

*  For  the  text  of  the  Six  Articles,  see  Gee  and  Hardy,  pp.  303-319. 


153G-1540]      CROMWELL    AND   THE    LUTHERAN    ALLIANCE  551 

of  the  unhappy  Anne  as  he  had  ever  been  to  get  rid  of  Catharine. 
But  the  blight  which  had  rested  on  Henry's  domestic  life,  was 
not  to  be  dispelled.  The  new  queen  died  October  20,  1537, 
having  survived  her  predecessor  little  more  than  a  year.  On  the 
12th,  however,  she  had  given  birth  to  the  long-expected  heir,  after- 
wards known  as  Edward  VI.,  and  as  both  Catharine  and  Anne 
Bole3m  were  dead  at  the  time  of  Henry's  third  marriage,  no 
legal  objection  could  be  raised  to  the  right  of  the  young  prince  to 
succeed  to  his  father's  throne.  Thus  the  question  which  had  so 
long  vexed  Henry's  mind  had  been  at  last  settled.  After  the 
death  of  his  third  queen  Henry  had  remained  unmarried  for  two 

years;  yet  he  had  not  been  so  disconsolate  that  he 
fourth  could  not  amuse  himself  over  the  various  schemes  of 

his  ministers  for  finding  another  candidate  for  the 
dangerous  post.  For  the  nation  these  had  been  years  of  great 
moment.  Cromwell  was  then  at  the  height  of  his  power;  his  ax 
dripped  with  the  blood  of  the  Poles  and  the  Courtenays;  the 
proudest  of  the  old  Catholic  nobility  were  swept  away;  the 
monasteries  were  suppressed ;  the  Ten  Articles  were  put  forth  by 
convocation  and  the  Great  Bible  was  published.  Apparently  the 
reform  was  carrying  all  before  it.  Then  the  reaction  spoke  in  the 
Six  Articles,  and  Cromwell,  who  had  gone  too  far  to  trim  to  the 
shifting  wind,  saw  that  only  a  bold  step  would  save  his  work. 
If  an  alliance  could  be  made  between  Henry  and  Francis 
and  the  league  of  German  princes  which  had  been  formed  at 
Schmalkalden  in  1530  for  protection  against  the  emperor,  then 
England  need  have  no  fear  of  an  invasion  by  Charles ;  and  if  in 
addition,  Henry  could  be  induced  to  forget  his  obstinate  hatred 
of  the  Lutherans,  to  enter  into  a  marriage  alliance  with  some  one 
of  the  powerful  German  houses  of  the  reform  party,  the  wily 
minister  might  hope  effectually  to  counteract  the  growing  influ- 
ence of  the  men  who  had  engineered  the  8ix  Articles  through 
parliament.  This  was  Cromwell's  plan,  and  he  so  far  succeeded 
as  to  get  Henry's  consent  to  a  marriage  with  Anne,  the  sister  of 
the  duke  of  Cleves,  an  important  prince  of  the  lower  Khine. 
Henry  was  not  at  all  pleased  with  his  bride ;  it  is  said  that  his 
consternation  was  so  great  when  he  first  beheld  the  plain,  expres- 


552  THE    PEOGRESS    OF   THE    REFORM  [henryVIII. 

sionless  face,  deeply  pitted  with  smallpox,  that  he  could  not  utter 
a  word,  and  forgot  altogether  to  take  from  his  pocket  the  present 
which  he  had  brought.  Yet  he  could  not  draw  back,  for  it  would 
not  do  to  offend  the  duke  of  CI  eves  upon  whom  the  furtherance 
of  the  alliance  with  Francis  rested.  The  marriage,  therefore,  in 
spite  of  the  king's  disgust  was  duly  celebrated,  January  6,  1540. 
Then  for  a  time  matters  moved  smoothly  for  Cromwell ;  appar- 
ently he  was  more  powerful  than  ever;  the  enforcement  of 
the  Six  Articles  was  suspended,  the  force  of  the  reaction  was 
stayed. 

But  Cromwell  was  playing  a  dangerous    game  and  the  odds 
were  heavy  against  him.    First  Francis  definitely  announced  that 

he  would  not  ioin  the  Protestant  league:  then  the  Ger- 
Cromwell,       man  princes  hastened  to  make  their  own  terms  with 

the  emperor.  Cromwell's  fine  scheme  had  collapsed 
and  Henry  found  himself  left  out  in  the  cold,  with  a  fright  of  a 
wife  on  his  hands.  The  enemies  of  Cromwell,  the  old  conservative 
nobility,  saw  their  opportunity  and  proceeded  to  make  the  most  of 
it,  doing  all  they  could  to  quicken  Henry's  disgust  and  turn  his 
wrath  upon  the  luckless  minister.  Convocation  was  ordered  to 
declare  the  marriage  null ;  Cromwell  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of 
treason,  condemned  unheard  by  an  Act  of  Attainder,  and  hurried 
to  the  block. 

The  fall  of  Cromwell  was  the  signal  that  Henry  had  thrown 
himself  into  the  arms  of   the  party  of  reaction.     The  political 

head  of  this  party  was  Thomas  Howard,  the  duke  of 
reaction.  Norfolk.  He  had  fought  by  the  side  of  his  father  at 
Henry  and  Floddcn ;  his  brother  Edward  Howard,  the  Lord  High 
Howard,        Admiral,  had  been  killed  in  action  at  sea  in  the  kingf's 

Julll   1540. 

service, — something  unique  in  the  history  of  Lord  High 
Admirals.  Duke  Thomas  had  been  prominent  in  the  active  hos- 
tility of  the  old  nobility  to  Wolsey  and  had  seen  his  schemes  of 
family  aggrandizement  succeed  in  the  coronation  of  his  niece 
Anne  Boleyn  as  Queen  of  England,  but  only  to  be  thwarted  again 
by  the  counter  plotting  of  Cromwell.  Yet  he  had  saved  himself  in 
the  fall  of  the  unfortunate  Anne,  bided  his  time,  and  now  again 
saw  a  second  great  minister  hurled  from  his  lofty  height  while 


1543]  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   HOWARD    INFLUENCE  553 

a  second  niece,  Catharine,  the  daughter  of  his  brother  Edmund, 
became  Queen  of  England. 

The  enemies  of  the  doctrinal  reform  well  understood  what  was 
meant  by  the  failure  of  Cromwell's  scheme  of  a  Protestant  alli- 
ance, and  set  to  work  in  serious  earnest  to  enforce  the 
nerindof^  Six  Articles,  with  grim  impartiality  hurdling  to  Smith- 
SS2e  ^^^^  ^^^  deniers  of  the  royal  supremacy  and  the 
deniers  of  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation.  For- 
tunately, however,  the  triumph  of  the  Howards  was  short. 
Within  two  years  Catharine  Howard  had  followed  her  cousin 
Anne  Boleyn  to  the  block  and  upon  a  similar  charge.  Yet  the 
reform  did  not  at  once  recover  the  lost  ground.  Henry  was  not 
inclined  to  tamper  farther  with  doctrinal  matters  but  preferred  to 
keep  things  as  they  were.  Cranmer,  also,  had  lost  prestige  in 
the  fall  of  Cromwell.  Latimer,  the  bishop  of  Ely,  who  had 
been  the  most  sincere  among  the  advisers  of  Henry  in  helping  on 
the  doctrinal  reform,  had  resigned  on  the  passage  of  the  Six 
Articles,  leaving  Stephen  Gardiner,  the  bishop  of  Winchester,  a 
bold  and  honest  advocate  of  the  old  doctrines,  to  direct  Henry  as 
his  chief  ecclesiastical  adviser.  It  was  his  policy  to  undermine 
Cranmer  and  oppose  all  further  innovations. 

A  year  after  the  death  of  Catharine  Howard  Henry  married 
for  the  sixth  and  last  time.     The  bride  was  Catharine  Parr,  whose 
discretion  enabled  her  to  please  her  lord  and  keep  her 
sixth  mar-      head  on  her  shoulders  during  the  remaining  years  of 
arineParr,     his  reign.     The  marriage  was  without  political  signifi- 
cance. 
While  the  events  of  these  years  were  changing  the  whole  future 
of  English  history,  no  less  important  and  far-reaching  changes 
were  taking  place  in  other  parts  of  Britain,  and  behind 
TwI^Trf    ^^^  green  shores  of  its  neighbor  across  the  Irish  Sea. 
Wales,  1536.    Wales  had  been  virtually  a  part  of  England  since  the 
reign  of  Edward  I.  but  the   border  counties  had  been 
retained  in  semi-independence,  nor  had  Wales  or  Chester  yet  been 
allowed  a  representation  in  parliament.     Henry  abolished  the  sepa- 
rate jurisdiction  of  the  marcher  lords,  enlarging  the  Welsh  shires 
and  adding  five  new  ones.     He  also  gave  Wales  twenty-four  repre- 


654  THE    PKOGRESS    OF   THE    REFORM  [hexry  vul 

sentatives  in  parliament,  and  Chester  four,  and  established  at 
Ludlow  a  separate  council  of  government,  similar  to  that  which 
he  established  north  of  the  Humber  the  next  year. 

Flodden  had  so  crippled  Scotland  that  the  Scots  had  been  able 
to  do  little  harm  to  England  during  the  minority  of  James  V.  The 
hostility  of  the  clergy  to  Henry's  church  policy,  how- 
ever, had  greatly  strengthened  the  old  French  party  at 
the  Scottish  court,  under  whose  influence  the  young  king  had  at 
last  reached  man's  estate.  In  1537,  in  spite  of  all  attempts  of 
Henry  to  win  his  nephew's  confidence,  James  had  definitely  com- 
mitted himself  to  the  French  party  by  marrying  Magdalen,  the 
daughter  of  the  French  king,  and  although  the  new  queen  lived 
only  a  few  months,  the  alliance  was  renewed  the  next  year  by  a 
marriage  with  Mary  of  the  powerful  family  of  Guise.  Henry, 
notwithstanding,  had  still  sought  to  win  the  favor  of  his  Scottish 
kinsman,  but  in  1540  a  refusal  of  James  to  meet  him  for  a  confer- 
ence satisfied  him  that  Scotland  must  be  counted  among  his 
enemies.  In  the  months  which  followed  Cromwell's  fall,  also, 
Henry's  relations  to  Francis  were  becoming  every  day  more 
strained,  and  he  determined  by  striking  first  to  anticipate  the 
support  which  James  was  certain  to  give  the  French  in  case  of 
war.  In  1542,  therefore,  he  sent  Thomas  Howard  to  invade  the 
country,  but  gained  nothing  save  to  bring  a  raid  of  Scots  into 
England  in  reply.  The  Scottish  nobles,  however,  who  were 
divided  among  themselves,  gave  the  raid  only  a  half-hearted  sup- 
port, and  the  whole  northern  army,  some  ten  thousand  strong,  dis- 
gracefully fled  at  the  approach  of  a  few  hundred  border  farmers. 
This  affair  of  Solway  Moss  broke  the  heart  of  the  proud  young 
king  of  Scots;  he  survived  his  humiliation  only  a  few  days, 
leaving  the  crown  to  an  infant  daughter  a  week  old.  The 
announcement  that  he  had  an  heir  to  his  crown  brought  no  cheer 
to  the  dying  king.  "The  deil  take  it,"  he  exclaimed,  *'it  came 
with  a  lass  and  it  will  go  with  a  lass  I"  ^  The  ''lass"  was  Mary 
Stuart. 

In  Ireland  Henry  was  pursuing  his  way  with  characteristic 
ruthlessness.     In  1534  the  Fitzgeralds  broke  out  in  open  revolt, 

1  Green,  vol.  II.,  p.  210. 


1535-1543]  HENRY    VIII.  AND    IRELAND  555 

occasioned  by  the  arrest  of   the   earl  of  Kildare.     In  1535  Sir 
Leonard  Grey  suppressed  the  revolt,  and  Henry  proceeded  to  hunt 

out  and  destroy  every  male  of  the  Fitzgerald  family. 
viii.  and      "J'he  Irish  parliament,  which  since  the  Poynings  Acts 

had  remained  under  the  control  of  the  English 
council,  supported  Henry  even  to  the  recognition  of  his  supremacy 
over  the  church,  forbidding  the  use  of  the  Irish  language,  the 
Irish  dress,  and  the  Irish  fashion  of  wearing  the  hair.  Monaster- 
ies were  abolished ;  relics  and  images  were  destroyed  and  English- 
speaking  priests  were  put  in  charge  of  the  churches.  For  the 
moment  Henry  was  everywhere  successful.  In  1539  he  had  pos- 
session of  most  of  the  island,  and  in  1541  he  changed  his  title 
from  **Lord"  to  "King  of  Ireland."  Henry  rewarded  the  Irish 
chiefs  who  supported  him  by  giving  them  English  titles  and  the 
plunder  of  the  Irish  monasteries. 

In  1543  the  long-expected  war  with  France  broke  out  and, 
curiously  enough,  the  ally  of  Henry  was  the  emperor.    Charles  was 

too  good  a  politician  to  allow  the  memory  of  the  wrongs 
war  with        wliich  had  been  heaped  upon  the  unfortunate  Catharine, 

or  the  wayward  religious  ideas  of  Henry,  to  debar  him 
from  the  advantage  of  a  proffered  alliance  against  his  old  enemy 
of  France.  In  England  the  overthrow  of  Cromwell  and  the 
increase  of  the  power  of  the  Catholic  nobility  naturally  drew 
the  country  toward  Charles,  while  the  influence  of  Francis  in 
Scotland  and  the  repudiation  of  his  earlier  promises  to  Henry 
roused  again  the  old  latent  animosity  of  the  English  against  the 
French.  Francis,  moreover,  had  put  himself  outside  the  pale  of 
sympathy  of  all  Christendom,  whether  Catholic  or  Protestant,  by 
making  a  formal  alliance  with  the  Turk.  Even  Protestant  Ger- 
many drew  back  in  horror  from  an  alliance  with  a  Christian  prince 
who  sent  his  fleets  to  help  Algerian  pirates  in  the  sack  of  Christian 
cities,  and  at  the  Diet  of  Spires,  1543,  voted  24,000  men  and  a 
general  poll  tax  in  order  to  assist  the  emperor  in  overthrowing 
the  "two  enemies"  of  Christendom.  Henry  sent  a  body  of  six 
thousand  Englishmen  to  assist  Charles  on  the  German  border, 
while  he  himself  attempted  to  invade  France  in  person.  But 
Charles,  true  to  his  Spanish  training,  was  as'  treacherous  as  ever, 


556  THE   fROORESS   OP   THE    REFORM  [henky  viil. 

and  while  Henry  was  squandering  the  blood  and  treasure  of  his 
subjects  before  Boulogne,  Charles  was  making  a  separate  treaty 
with  Francis  at  Crepy,  in  which  Francis  agreed  to  abandon  the 
Turks  and  unite  with  Charles  in  a  joint  attack  upon  Protestant- 
ism. 

Henry  in  the  meantime  was  left  to  struggle  on  alone,  hoping 

to  retain  the  paltry  advantage  which  he  had  won.     An  army 

which  he  had  dispatched  into  Scotland  under  Seymour 

The  tvccitii  of 

Boulogne,  and  Dudley  burned  Leith  and  Edinburgh,  but,  beyond 
reading  the  Scots  the  old  lesson,  really  accomplished 
nothing.  In  the  summer  of  1545  the  French  made  an  unsuccess- 
ful attempt  to  secure  a  lodgement  on  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  the 
coast  of  Sussex.  Boulogne,  which  the  English  had  taken  in  1544, 
also  resisted  all  attempts  at  recapture.  It  was  possible,  there- 
fore, for  Henry  to  retire  with  some  dignity,  and  in  June  1546  he 
brought  the  useless  war  to  a  close  by  the  treaty  of  Boulogne,  in 
which  he  agreed  to  surrender  the  city  to  the  French  after  eight 
years  upon  the  payment  of  5,000,000  francs.  As  usual  in 
Henry's  continental  alliances  he  had  been  fooled  and  betrayed. 
He  had  won  some  advantages  but  had  gained  nothing  commen- 
surate with  the  enormous  debt  in  which  the  war  had  involved  his 
government. 

As  soon  as  peace  was  assured  the  king  turned  his  attention  to 
his  wasted  treasury.  The  magnificent  fund  which  his  father  had 
accumulated  had  been  spent  in  the  wars  and  fetes  of 
cieHng  of  the  early  years  of  his  reign.  Vast  sums  had  poured  into 
his  treasury  from  the  plunder  of  the  church  in  Crom- 
well's days,  but  this  treasure  also  had  soon  gone  with  the  rest. 
Financial  obligations,  however,  were  trifling  matters  for  a  king 
who  had  so  ruthlessly  trampled  upon  far  more  sacred  pledges. 
In  1545  he  levied  a  benevolence,  but  this  had  produced  only  a 
small  part  of  the  enormous  sum  needed  to  satisfy  the  government 
creditors.  Then  Henry  resorted  to  the  dangerous  expedient  of 
tampering  with  the  coinage,  reducing  the  quantity  of  silver  in  an 
ounce  of  coin  first  to  ten  pennyweight  and  finally  to  six.  In  this 
way  Henry  was  enabled  to  balance  his  accounts  with  his  creditors, 
but  with  most  disastrous  effects  upon  the  commercial  prosperity 


1536-1546]  BREAK    IN    THE    REFORM    PARTY  557 

of  the  kingdom.  The  old  coins  of  the  realm  rapidly  passed  out 
of  circulation;  commercial  transactions  with  foreign  countries 
became  almost  impossible ;  prices  rose  rapidly,  while  those  who 
depended  upon  wages  or  fixed  incomes  were  thrown  into  great 
distress.  To  add  to  the  confusion  Henry  discovered  a  new  source 
of  plunder  in  the  confiscation  of  the  chantries,  hospitals,  colleges, 
and  gilds  which  piety  had  once  founded,  and  whose  wealth  still  lay 
in  the  control  of  the  church ;  and  to  the  vast  throng  who  had 
been  set  adrift  by  the  sequestrations  of  Cromwell,  to  the  greater 
number  who  could  no  longer  earn  a  living  at  the  old  wage  scale, 
were  now  added  still  another  throng  of  starving  idlers,  further  to 
depress  the  wages  of  the  employed  and  fill  the  country  with  beg- 
gary and  robbery  and  the  cities  with  crime  and  wretchedness. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  breach  between  the  two  wings*  of  the 

reform  was  constantly  widening.     The  act  of  1536  which  had 

given  to  the  church  the  Creeds,  the  Ten  Command- 

Widening       ments,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  English,  had  been  a 

breach  in  the  i  i  •        •  i         n        •        • 

reform  party,  great  advance.  The  publication  and  authorization  of 
the  Great  Bible  had  been  a  further  advance.  But 
since  the  fall  of  Cromwell  the  Six  Articles  had  held  their  bloody 
sway,  and  in  1543  Gardiner  led  a  direct  attack  upon  the  English 
Bible,  forbidding  the  reading  of  it  to  ''husbandmen,  artificers, 
and  journeymen,  and  to  all  women  except  gentlewomen."  In 
1546  the  heresy  hunters  even  invaded  the  queen's  private  circle 
and  carried  off  to  the  stake  her  friend,  the  gentle  Anne  Askew. 

In  1546,  however,  the  influence  of  the  reactionaries  had  once 
more  begun  to  wane.     Henry  had  again  attacked  the  church  in 
the  interests  of  his  depleted  treasury.     He  was  also 
rmction^and    growing  suspicious  of  the  Howards  in  the  interests  of 
Hmry'8  Princc  Edward.     The  old  Cromwellian  party  were  rep- 

rekjn.  resented  by  Edward  Seymour,  the  earl  of  Hertford,  the 

little  prince's  uncle,  and  by  John  Dudley,  Lord  Lisle,  son  of  the 
finance  minister  of  unsavory  memory  of  Henry  VII. 's  time. 
AVith  them,  in  sympathy  at  least,  also  stood  Cranmer  whose  won- 
derful skill  in  turning  the  time -hallowed  Latin  prayers  of  the 
church  into  pure  and  expressive  English,  had  given  the  church  its 
first  English  Litany  in  1544.     Cranmer  lacked  the  moral  courage 


558  THE    PROGRESS    OF   THE    REFORM  [henry  viii. 

ever  to  become  a  leader,  but  his  position  of  archbishop  was  one  of 
great  influence,  and  he  made  a  powerful  second  where  bolder 
spirits  led.  .  For  two  years  the  king's  health  had  been  declining. 
His  once  magnificent  constitution  was  breaking ;  he  had  become 
so  weak  that  he  could  no  longer  write  his  name  and  was  com- 
pelled to  affix  the  royal  assent  to  the  acts  of  government  by  a 
stamp  made  for  the  purpose.  Yet  the  spirit  burned  as  fiercely  as 
ever,  and  when  he  learned  that  Henry  Howard,  Earl  of  Surrey, 
had  quartered  his  arms  with  those  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  indi- 
cating his  direct  descent  from  royal  blood,  the  old  wrath  which 
had  once  been  so  terrible  again  blazed  up.  Surrey  was 
Henry  viH.,  sent  to  the  block,  and  his  father  Duke  Thomas  was  also 

Jan.  28,  1547, 

arrested  and  attainted  the  day  of  his  son's  execution. 
But  the  next  day  Henry  died  before  the  failing  hand  could  seal 
the  act  which  had  condemned  his  last  victim. 

The  acts  of  Henry  VIII.  are  the  best  commentary  upon  his 
character.  Possibly  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign  he  was  not  at 
heart  a  bad  man.  He  possessed,  however,  an  inordinate 
of^Henru^^^^  vanity,  an  all-consuming  self  love,  which  under  opposi- 
tion developed  into  a  savage  determination  always  to 
have  his  own  way,  come  what  might.  Fortunately,  or  unfortu- 
nately, his  quarrel  with  the  church  found  a  sympathetic  echo  in 
the  national  heart,  estranged  from  the  pope  by  an  accumulation 
of  grievances  which  dated  back  to  the  thirteenth  century.  Here 
lay  the  strength  of  a  king,  who  at  any  other  time  would  have  been 
resisted,  if  not  deposed  by  his  people.  He  was  also  strong  in  the 
limits  which  he  proposed  to  set  to  his  work;  for  Henry's  idea  of 
reform,  undoubtedly,  represented  the  exact  length  to  which  the 
average  Englishman  was  prepared  to  go  in  breaking  with  the  old 
system.  Only  so  can  we  explain  the  acquiescence  of  the  country 
in  his  brutality  and  his  tyrannies. 

The  political  and  social  results  of  the  reign  were  far-reaching; 
and  yet  for  this  Henry  deserves  possibly  little  credit.  All  Europe 
was  advancing  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  England  in  spite  of  her 
king  was  sure  to  enjoy  her  share  of  the  new  life.  She  had  already 
passed  from  a  feudal  state  to  a  modern  nation  before  Henry  began 
his  reign;  her  population,  her  wealth,  her  trade  and  commerce, 


1543]  EDWARD   VI.  559 

had  placed  her  amoDg  the  great  powers  of  Europe.     The  nobles, 
also,  had  been  shorn  of  political  authority  and  the  middle  class 

was  beginning  to  assume  its  place  in  the  control  of  the 
Heriryinthe  state.  The  influence  of  the  church  as  a  political  or 
Hocmi remita    social  powcr  in  the  nation  had  already  waned,  and  with 

the  loss  of  its  influence  it  lost  the  power  of  protecting 
its  great  wealth  from  the  first  greedy  hand  that  discovered  the  dan- 
gerous secret.  Yet  had  Henry  opposed  the  reform,  had  he  set  the 
machinery  of  the  state  to  work  to  crush  heresy  in  its  first  forms, 
as  he  undoubtedly  would  have  done  had  he  not  run  foul  of  the 
legatine  court,  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  the  Reformation  would 
have  taken  such  firm  root  in  England,  at  least  in  that  generation. 
At  the  time  of  Henry's  death,  the  son  of  Jane  Seymour  was  in 
his  tenth  year.     In  character  he  was  all  that  a  prince  should  be, 

upright,  devout,  and  seriously  intent  upon  doing  good. 

The  one-sided  training,  however,  to  which  he  was  sub- 
jected by  his  guardians,  soon  developed  traces  of  his  father's  self- 
confidence,  harshness,  and  want  of  feeling.  He  became  bigoted 
and  superstitiously  devoted  to  doing  the  work  of  God  as  he  under- 
stood it.  The  mind,  moreover,  forced  by  the  unnatural  work  to 
which  it  was  put,  matured  more  rapidly  than  the  body.  There 
was  something  abnormal  and  unwholesome  about  this  child  with  the 
cold,  solemn  face  and  high  forehead,  with  the  sickly  undersized 
body,  who  shrank  from  the  sports  and  companionships  of  child- 
hood, and  preferred  to  spend  his  hours  poring  over  stately  vol- 
umes of  theology,  or  discussing  abstruse  topics  with  the  doctors  of 
the  church.  There  is  something  also  deeply  pathetic  about  this 
absolute  little  lord,  who  needed  nothing  so  much  as  a  mother;  a 
peculiarly  sensitive  instrument,  left  to  be  strung  and  tuned  and 
played  upon  by  designing  men  who  thought  only  of  using  him  to 
carry  out  their  wild  schemes  of  reform,  or  to  inaugurate  an  era  of 
public  plunder  and  spoliation. 

The  death  of  Surrey  and  the  arrest  of  Norfolk  had  left  the 
radical  reform  party  again  in  control  of  the  council,  and  although 
Henry,  in  his  desire  to  maintain  the  existing  status,  had  sought 
in  his  will  to  balance  the  two  parties  against  each  other  by  refusing 
to  give  to  either  a  control  in  the  council,  the  changing  temper  of 


560  THE    PROGRESS    OF   THE    REFORM  [edward  VI. 

the  nation,  where  under  the  grim  tutelage  of  the  Six  Articles  the 

reform  party  had  waxed  in  numbers  and  strength,  presented  a 

temptation  which  such  leaders  as  Seymour,  the  kind's 

Edward  Sey-  f  -,    ta    ji  u         x  •  x        mi.  -i 

nmur,  Lord     unclc,  and  Dudley  could  not  resist.     The  council  ac- 

Protector 

January,'  cordingly,  paying  little  attention  to  the  desire  of  the 
dead  king,  made  Edward  Seymour,  the  earl  of  Hert- 
ford, Lord  Protector,  and  by  empowering  him  to  act  even  without 
the  council,*  conferred  upon  him  an  authority  almost  regal.  Two 
weeks  later,  under  the  virtuous  pretense  of  carrying  out  the  late 
king's  wishes,  they  made  Seymour  Duke  of  Somerset,  John  Dudley 
Earl  of  Warwick,  and  rewarded  other  members  of  the  council  in 
the  same  way  with  titles  and  honors.  This  unseemly  haste  in  title 
grabbing  was  an  ominous  beginning;  even  Wriothesley,  the  chan- 
cellor, who  belonged  to  the  party  of  Norfolk  and  Gardiner  and  who 
had  protested  against  the  establishment  of  the  protectorate,  was 
not  above  being  advanced  to  the  peerage  as  Earl  of  Southampton. 

The  protector  was  undoubtedly  a  sincere  man,  a  good  soldier 

and  of  proved  courage ;  but  he  was  also  impetuous  and  conspicuously 

lacking  in  judgment.      He  belonged  to  that  tactless 

Dangers         school  of  politicians  who  are  ever  taking  the  second 

before  the  -,     «  ,^        n      i         -k-t  it  ... 

protecunate.  step  before  the  jSrst.  Nor  was  he  long  m  giving  a  sig- 
nal exhibition  of  his  lack  of  that  discretion  which  is  the 
first  quality  of  statesmanship.  At  the  time  of  the  death  of  Henry, 
England  was  at  peace  with  all  the  world.  But,  as  the  winter  so 
eventful  for  the  cause  of  the  Keformation  in  Germany  passed,  more 
than  one  war-cloud,  portentous  of  coming  storm,  drifted  above 
the  horizon.  Francis  followed  Henry  to  the  grave  on  March  31, 
and  his  successor,  Henry  11. ,  showed  alarming  signs  of  intending 
to  break  the  last  treaty  with  England.  The  emperor  also  was 
steadily  pushing  his  plans  for  the  dispersion  of  the  league  of 
Schmalkalden,  and  had  not  only  succeeded  in  detaching  some  of 
its  members,  but  on  the  22d  of  April  had  surprised  the  elector 
John  Frederick  at  Muhlberg,  routing  his  army  and  taking  prisoner 
the  elector  himself.  These  events  were  far  from  England,  and  yet 
no  one  could  doubt  that  with  Protestant  Germany  crushed,  the 
next  object  which  Charles  would  attack  would  be  England  herself, 
provided  Henry  II.  of  France  should  permit  it. 


1547]  SOMERSET   AND   THE   REFORM  5G1 

It  was  at  all  events  a  time  for  the  protector  to  walk  warily,  to 

make  friends  and  not  enemies.     Yet  from  the  first  he  seemed  bent 

upon  making  a  ffreat  Catholic  alliance  of  all  Europe 

Blunders  of 

the protecU/r.  against  England  possible.  He  offended  the  French  by 
fortifying  the  harbor  of  Boulogne,  contrary  to  the  stipu- 
lations of  the  last  treaty.  He  offended  the  Scots  by  imperiously 
demanding  the  fulfillment  of  a  treaty  which  they  had  made  with 
Henry  VIII.  in  1543,  by  which  the  Princess  Mary  was  to  marry 
Edward.  And  when  the  Scots  refused  to  make  good  the  agree- 
ment, he  crossed  the  border  and  defeated  them  in  a 

PiTikie 

cieugh,sept.  pitched  battle  at  Musselburgh,  or  Pinkie  Cleugh.  The 
victory  brought,  great  gloiy  to  the  protector,  making 
him  the  darling  of  the  hour,  but  roused  the  whole  Scottish  nation 
where  before  there  had  been  of  late  a  growing  sympathy  with  the 
English  Reformation,  and  ultimately  brought  about  the  marriage 
of  the  young  queen  of  Scots  with  the  Dauphin  Francis,  the  very 
thing  which  this  campaign  was  designed  to  avert. 

At  home  also  the  protector  pursued  a  like  heedless  policy.    Un- 
like the  most  of  the  politicians  who  surrounded  him,  he  was  sin- 
cerely devoted  to  the  reform,  but  with  blind  indifference 

The  'pvotect- 

</r's policy  to  cousequeuces  he  proposed  to  use  the  power  of  the 
government  to  secure  at  once  what  a  cooler  judgment 
would  have  waited  for  a  decade  at  least  to  bring  about.  The 
chancellor  Wriothesley,  the  new  earl  of  Southampton,  was 
excluded  from  the  council.  The  bishops  of  England  were  com- 
pelled to  accept  a  renewal  of  their  commissions  in  the  name  of  the 
new  king  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  they  were  to  look  upon 
themselves  as  merely  ordinary  government  officials.  The  old 
iconoclastic  spirit,  which  had  drawn  down  upon  the  reformers  the 
vengeance  of  the  reaction  in  the  penalties  of  the  Six  Articles,  had 
also  begun  to  show  itself  soon  after  the  death  of  Henry  and  the 
half-hearted  way  in  which  the  council  had  proceeded  against  the 
first  offenders  had  encouraged  rather  than  checked  its  excesses. 
Finally  the  protector  himself  gave  the  sanction  of  government  to 
such  acts  by  issuing  a  formal  order  for  the  purification  of  the 
churches,  and  on  May  4  announced  a  general  visitation  to  take 
effect  throughout  England.     The  decorated  windows  were  to  be 


562  THE   PROGRESS    OF   THE    REFORM  [edwabd  vi. 

broken,  the  walls  whitewashed,  the  images  of  saint  or  Savior  to  be 
destroyed.  Bishops,  also,  were  to  be  questioned  as  to  their  support 
of  the  various  acts  for  the  abolition  of  the  papal  authority  and  the 
establishment  of  the  royal  supremacy.  Protests  were  made,  but 
they  were  unheeded.  Irresponsible  mobs  paraded  the  country 
roads  tricked  out  in  sacred  vestments  associated  in  the  popular 
mind  with  the  reverent  worship  of  a  thousand  years.  Images 
and  pictures  were  dragged  out  and  burned  in  the  midst  of  blas- 
phemous revelry.  Everywhere  the  most  inflammable  doctrines 
were  fearlessly  preached. 

When,  therefore,  parliament  met  in  November  the  radical 
reformers  were  in  the  ascendant.  They  were,  moreover,  aggres- 
sively energetic  and  knew  exactly  what  they  wanted. 
ai^mppari  ^^®  o^^^^^  popularity  of  Somerset  who  had  just  returned 
teii!»-fi547.  ^^'^^^  ^^^^  ^^®  laurels  of  Pinkie  Cleugh,  whose  sym- 
pathy with  the  ultra  reform  party  was  well  understood, 
was  guarantee  also  that  they  would  meet  with  very  little  resist- 
ance. Accordingly  the  Six  Articles,  the  various  bills  of  the 
Lancastrian  period  against  Lollards,  the  treason  acts  of  Henry 
VIII.  which  condemned  a  man  to  death  for  calling  the  king  a 
heretic,  were  swept  away.  The  profanation  of  the  Eucharist  was 
to  be  punished  by  fine  and  imprisonment,  but  communion  in  both 
kinds  was  enjoined,  nor  could  the  parish  priest  deny  those  who 
reverently  desired  to  communicate.  The  shadow  of  authority  in 
the  election  of  bishops  which  Henry  VIII.  had  left  to  dean  and 
chapter,  was  also  taken  away.  Bishops  henceforth  were  to  be  com- 
missioned solely  by  the  crown  without  any  fiction  of  election. 

The  towns  generally  were  in  sympathy  with  these  radical  meas- 
ures of  council  and  parliament ;  the  country,  where  new  ideas  natu- 
rally  gain  ground  more  slowly,  at  least  acquiesced.  The 
tiie  reform  government,  liowever,  seemed  bent  upon  making  trouble 
for  itself,  and  proceeded  to  reenact  the  law  of  1545, 
thus  placing  at  its  disposal  the  property  of  the  hospitals,  colleges, 
and  chantries  throughout  England  which  had  escaped  Henry  VIII.^ 
A  great  show  was  made  of  establishing  new  schools  out  of  the  pro- 

*  Oxford,   Cambridge,  Winchester,  Eton,  St.  George's,  and  Windsor 
were  exempted. 


1547]  PLUNDER    OF   THE    CHURCH  5(33 

ceeds,  but  only  eighteen  or  twenty  were  ever  founded,  and  of  these 
many  were  left  upon  such  meagre  foundations  that  they  were  prac- 
tically useless.  Three  hospitals  also  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
munificence  of  the  protectorate.  In  consequence  the  Reformation 
was  seriously  weakened  at  the  very  point  where  up  to  this  moment 
its  greatest  strength  lay.  It  had  rested  its  case  upon  an  appeal  to 
human  intelligence  against  the  dogma  of  the  church  and  therefore 
had  encouraged  education.  But  now  the  needs  of  tiie  teachers 
were  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  needs  of  the  politicians.  Fifteen  years 
later  the  speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  complained  that  one 
hundred  schools  were  wanting  "which  before  that  time  had  been." 
Even  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  whose  foundations  had  been  spared 
by  the  Act  of  1547,  felt  the  withering  influence  of  this  drying  up 
of  the  sources  of  their  student  supply;  ** scarce  an  hundred  stu- 
dents were  left  of  a  thousand." 

At  this  point  it  might  be  expected  confiscations  would  stop. 
But  the  rapacious  council  turned  next  upon  the  bishoprics.    Three 

of  the  six  recently  founded  by  Henry  VIII.  were  abol- 
thechurcJi.     ^^hed  and  their  incomes  appropriated.     Other  bishops 

were  compelled  to  surrender  large  portions  of  their 
lands  or  their  revenues  in  order  to  escape  confiscation.  Church 
buildings  were  seized  and  converted  to  worldly  uses;  sometimes 
the  buildings  were  razed  and  the  site  devoted  to  a  palace  for  a 
friend  of  the  government.  St.  Stephen's  Chapel  was  turned  into 
a  hall  for  holding  the  meetings  of  parliament;  the  College  of  St. 
Martins  le  Grand  was  made  into  a  tavern;  Somerset  proposed 
even  to  tear  down  the  Confessor's  venerable  abbey  at  Westmin- 
ster. The  infiuence  of  the  clergy  suffered  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Men  refused  to  honor  those  whom  they  no  longer  respected. 
Those  who  held  the  right  of  appointing  to  livings,  advowso7i, 
sought  to  get  their  share  of  the  plunder  by  exacting  from  the 
needy  appointee,  sometimes  a  lump  sum,  sometimes  a  percentage 
of  the  yearly  tithes.  The  character  of  the  clergy  degenerated 
correspondingly.  As  a  body  they  became  less  honorable,  less  scru- 
pulous, less  learned.  The  good  Bishop  Latimer  and  others  like  him, 
who  had  unwittingly  helped  to  raise  this  unclean  spirit  of  plunder, 
looked  on  in  dazed  consternation.     Latimer  complained  that  the 


564  THE    PROGRESS   OF   THE    REFORM  [edward  VI. 

clergy  were  forced  to  put  themselves  into  gentlemen's  houses  and 
"serve  as  clerks  of  kitchens,  surveyors,  or  receivers."  But  the 
work  of  plunder  was  not  to  stop  here.  The  royal  eagles  had 
gorged  to  the  full,  but  the  carrion  of  less  noble  feather,  vultures  of 
every  breed,  must  now  be  served  and  they  also  gathered  to  the 
banquet.  Shrines  and  altar  plate  were  stolen  by  base  hands  to  find 
their  way  to  the  mint  to  be  issued  in  the  current  coin.  Chalices, 
jewels,  bells,  and  ornaments,  were  appropriated  by  greedy  vestrymen, 
and  offered  for  public  sale;  pictures  and  furniture  were  carried  off; 
church  buildings  were  turned  into  stables,  and  horses  and  mules 
and  kine  munched  their  straw  in  solemn  silence  under  the  stately 
arches  of  nave  or  choir  loft. 

Cranmer  in  the  meanwhile  was  exercising  his  peculiar  gifts  in 
bringing  out  an  English  prayer  book  in  the  hope  of  introducing 
some  order  in  the  midst  of  the  chaos  by  providing  a 
BookanaTiie  ^^^i^^rm  service.  In  this  he  was  assisted  by  a  commit- 
f^^%^^5'49  ^®^  ^^  churchmen  of  whom  Nicholas  Eidley,  the  bishop 
of  Kochester,  is  perhaps  the  best  known.  The  work 
received  the  approval  of  convocation  and  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity^ 
was  sanctioned  by  parliament  and  substituted  for  the  forms  already 
in  vogue.  It  was  an  adaptation  of  the  old  Missal,  or  Mass  Book, 
and  the  Breviary,  the  book  which  contained  the  authorized  prayers 
of  the  old  church  for  the  seven  canonical  hours.  The  treatment 
of  the  mass  naturally  puzzled  the  redactors.  They  finally  decided 
upon  a  compromise,  which  as  usual  in  such  cases  satisfied  no  one. 
They  went  too  far  to  carry  along  those  who  hated  the  new  changes, 
as  Bishop  Bonner,  and  not  far  enough  to  please  those  who  denied 
the  real  Presence  and  the  Eucharistic  sacrifice.  It  was  necessary 
to  hold  another  * 'royal  visitation"  in  order  to  enforce  the  new 
service  book.  Bonner  was  deposed,  and  thrown  into  prison  where 
he  lingered  until  the  death  of  Edward. 

Somerset  had  now  been  in  control  of  the  government  for  two 
years  and  the  effect  of  his  high-handed  policy  was  beginning  to  be 
manifest  upon  all  sides.  The  social  disorders  to  which  the  later 
acts  of  Henry's  reign  had  contributed,  had  increased;  nor  had  the 
protector  done  aught  to  relieve  the  distress,  save  to  modify  some- 

1  Gee  and  Hardy,  pp.  358-366. 


1549]  POPULAR   KISIXGS  '  565 

what  the  laws  against  vagrancy.     The  continued  debasing  of  the 
coinage  had  also  augmented  the  commercial  distress,  while  the 

confiscation  and  breaking  up  of  the  foundations  con- 
rmctiHn^ "^^   nected  with  the  religious  gilds  had  swelled  the  number  of 

those  who  were  thrown  upon  public  charity  for  support. 
The  increasing  stringency,  moreover,  had  reacted  upon  itself;, 
those  who  employed  servants  attempted  to  retrench  by  cutting 
down  the  number;  landlords  also,  in  their  effort  to  secure  less 
costly  methods  of  production,  continued  to  enclose  large  areas  for 
sheepwalks,  thus  swelling  the  ever-increasing  multitude  who  were 
left  to  choose  between  beggary,  robbery,  and  starvation.  Rest- 
lessness increased  rapidly;  men  ceased  to  respect  a  government, 
which  existed  only  to  impoverish  them;  they  began  to  discredit 
the  reform  as  the  cause  of  all  their  misery ;  they  decried  the  lead- 
ers, too  many  of  whom  had  fattened  upon  the  plunder  of  the 
church,  as  thieves  and  highwaymen. 

Among  the  Protestant  leaders,  moreover,  there  were  not  want- 
ing ambitious  spirits  who  sought  to  take  advantage  of  the  unrest 

for  their  own  profit.  The  first  of  these  was  Lord 
ThimL  sey-  Thomas  Scymour  of  Sudeley,  who  had  grown  jealous  of 
^arch  1549    ^^'^^  brother's  power  and  had  made  use  of  his  position  as 

admiral,  it  was  alleged,*  to  prepare  for  insurrection  by 
secretly  forging  cannon,  laying  up  ammunition,  and  making  friends 
with  the  Channel  pirates.  He  was  arrested  and  attainted  by  the 
same  parliament  that  passed  the  Act  of  Uniformity. 

More  serious  trouble  followed  in  the  summer.     The  effort  to 
introduce  the  Prayer  Book  was  attended  by  risings  in  Cornwall  and 

Devon.  Exeter  was  besieged  by  a  band  of  10,000  rebels 
ings^^S49^^'    ^^^^  demanded  the  restoration  of  the  Six  Articles,  of 

the  mass,  and  the  elevation  of  the  Host,  the  suppression 
of  the  English  Bible,  and  the  recall  of  Cardinal  Pole.  They  were 
put  down  by  Russell  and  Grey  but  only  after  two  hard-fought  bat- 
tles, St.  Mary's  Clyst  and  Sampford  Courtenay,  in  which  four 
thousand  of  the  western  peasants  were  slain.  Of  the  leaders, 
among  whom  was  an  Arundel,  short  shrift  was  made.    Insurrection 

^Seymour  was  condemned  without  trial.     Hence  the  charges  were 
never  proved. 


566  THE    PROGRESS    OF   THE    REFORM  [edwabd  VI. 

had  also  broken  out  ia  Oxfordshire,  Berkshire,  and  other  places. 
The  most  serious  rising  occurred,  however,  in  Norfolk  which 
unlike  the  remote  western  counties  had  been  a  stronghold  of  the 
Reformation.  Here  the  grievance  of  the  people  was  not  the 
Prayer  Book,  but  their  poverty  and  suffering.  A  great  camp  was 
iormed  at  Household  Hill,  near  Norwich,  whither  under  the  guid- 
ance of  a  tanner  named  Ket  the  people  proceeded  in  a  very  orderly 
way  to  summon  the  neighboring  landlords  before  them  to  answer 
for  their  conduct  in  the  enclosure  of  the  neighboring  commons  and 
the  eviction  of  yeoman  tenants.  The  protector  was  greatly 
puzzled  as  to  what  course  to  follow,  for  these  were  his  friends;  he 
himself  was  attempting  to  check  the  greed  of  the  landlords  and 
had  appointed  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  enclosures.  He, 
therefore,  sought  to  temporize  and  persuade  the  people  to  entrust 
their  cause  to  him ;  but  the  rebels  refused  to  break  up  the  camp  until 
their  grievances  had  first  been  righted.  Fighting  began,  and  then 
the  trouble  was  on.  John  Dudley,  the  earl  of  Warwick,  who  was 
marching  north  with  an  army  designed  for  Scotland,  was  ordered 
to  proceed  against  the  rebels.  This  he  did  at  once,  routing  them 
with  great  slaughter  August  27. 

These  events  completely  destroyed  what  was  left  of  Somerset's 
waning  influence.     It  was  evident  to  the  most  hopeful  that  he  had 

failed,  not,  however,  from  any  lack  of  good  will,  but 
vroSorQ^^  simply  because  he  persisted  in  doing  too  many  things  at 
a^inistra-     once.     After  two  years  of  administration  he  had  to 

show  for  his  pains:  the  hostility  of  Scotland  confirmed, 
war  with  France  not  only  imminent  but  practically  begun  about 
the  outposts  of  Boulogne,  the  anti-reform  elements  in  the  west 
goaded  to  open  resistance,  the  tenantry  of  the  midland  and  eastern 
counties  in  revolt,  and  a  serious  breach  between  landlord  and  ten- 
ants threatened,  similar  to  the  outbreaks  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
The  public  debt  also  had  been  increased  by  a  million  and  a  half 
pounds  to  which  a  ruinous  rate  of  interest  was  daily  adding  its 
burden.^  The  yearly  income  of  the  crown  was  about  £300,000; 
but  the  household  expenses  under  the  extravagant  and  visionary 
management   of   the    protector   had   increased   from   £19,000   to 

^For  some  of  this,  the  protector  had  contracted  as  high  as  13  or  14  %. 


1549]  FIRST    FALL    OF    SOMERSET  567 

£100,000/  Cromwell  had  fleeced  the  church,  but  Somerset  had 
flayed  it ;  yet  not  for  the  state  or  the  cause  of  reform  but  for  him- 
self and  his  political  friends.  Corruption  pervaded  the  public 
service  from  top  to  bottom.  The  royal  mints  not  only  continued 
their  dangerous  output  of  debased  coins  but  the  royal  officers  were 
allowed  to  do  some  coining  on  their  own  account.  Sharington  the 
master  of  the  mint  at  Bristol,  who  was  implicated  in  the  fall  of 
Thomas  Seymour,  confessed  that  in  a  few  months  he  had  thus  put 
out  some  £100,000.  The  commander  of  the  skeleton  regiments  on 
the  northern  border  drew  pay  and  rations  for  the  full  quota  of 
troops,  and  kept  up  the  fraud  by  hiring  neighboring  countrymen 
to  fill  his  depleted  ranks  on  muster  days. 

The  council,  therefore,  determined  to  take  advantage  of  the 
unpopularity  of  the  protector  and  oust  him  by  simply  falling  back 
X,    ..  „  .     up<>^  ^^6  terms  of  Henry's  will.     At  first   Somerset 

First  fall  of        f        ^  .  . 

Somerset,  thought  of  resistance,  but  an  appeal  to  the  country 
revealed  to  him  the  sober  truth  that  his  only  hope  lay 
in  the  mercy  of  the  council.  This  unnerved  him ;  he  confessed 
his  failure,  and  was  allowed  to  retire  in  peace,  though  not  without 
a  few  weeks  of  seclusion  in  the  Tower. 

John  Dudley,  the  earl  of  Warwick,  who  had  been  the  chief 
instrument  in  the  overthrow  of  Somerset,  now  became  the  influ- 
ential man  of  the  council,  but  without  the  title  or  rank  of  protec- 
tor. He  was  such  a  man  as  times  of  revolution  are  likely  to  bring 
to  the  fore.  He  had  by  diligence  and  merit  worked  out  from 
under  the  shadow  of  his  father's  reverses,  and  had  become  distin- 
guished '*as  a  soldier,  a  diplomatist,  and  as  an  admiral."  He  had 
commanded  the  English  fleet  in  1545  and  won  no  small  glory  in 
bringing  the  attempted  descents  of  the  French  of  that  year  to 
naught.  He  had  been  second  in  command  at  Pinkie  Cleugh.  He 
was  shrewd,  cunning,  and  knew  how  to  keep  his  thoughts  to  him- 
self. He  was  free  from  enthusiasm  both  in  his  faults  and  his  vir- 
tues. He  affected  to  support  the  religious  reform  but,  as  the 
sequel  proved,  his  support  was  a  matter  of  politics  rather  than 
principle. 

*  For  part  of  this,  Somerset  was  hardly  responsible ;  as  a  result  of 
many  causes,  prices  had  risen  enormously. 


568  THE    PEOGRESS    OE   THE    REFORM  [edward  vi. 

The  council  first  gave  its  attention  to  untangling  the  skein 

which  had  fallen  to  them  from  the  impetuous  fingers  of  Somerset. 

They  made  peace  with  France  though  at  the  sacrifice  of 

counciiin       Boulogne.     Other  measures  were  not  so  commendable. 

nowcT. 

They  proceeded  to  reduce  the  outstanding  debt  of  the 
crown;  but  unfortunately  the  members  of  the  council  themselves 
had  provided  funds  for  the  suppression  of  the  recent  revolts  and 
their  first  care  was  to  secure  repayment  by  allowing  each  councillor 
to  take  a  certain  amount  of  bullion  in  fine  silver  to  the  royal  mint 
and  receive  it  back  again  * 'coined  and  printed  into  money  current 
according  to  the  established  standard."  More  than  £150,000 
'* worth  of  base  silver  coin  was  thrown  at  once  into  circulation, 
deranging  prices  more  than  ever,  shaking  the  exchange,  driving 
the  gold  out  of  the  country,"  and  adding  to  the  multitude  of  dis- 
tressing complications  already  existing.  Among  these  is  to  be 
noticed  a  failure  of  the  harvest  which  greatly  increased  the  price 
of  bread.  The  council  took  the  matter  up  and  attempted  to  fix 
the  price  at  which  grain  might  be  sold.  But  the  measure  only 
exasperated  the  agricultural  classes  and  did  not  relieve  the  dis- 
tress; the  council  quickly  withdrew  the  dangerous  regulation. 

At  the  time  of  the  overthrow  of  Somerset  the  tide  was  already 
setting  strong  towards  the   conservative  policy  of    Henry  VIII. 

The  commons  of  Devon  and  Cornwall  had  openly 
Dudley  and     demanded  the  restoration  of  the  Catholic  faith  and  a 

the  reform. 

re-enactment  of  the  Six  Articles.  But  for  Dudley  to 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  this  movement  meant  the  restoration  of 
Norfolk  and  Gardiner,  and  he  very  well  knew  that  to  restore  Nor- 
folk meant  the  restoration  of  the  old  nobility  to  power  and  the 
speedy  end  of  his  own  influence.  His  only  hope,  therefore,  was 
to  make  tliorough  work  where  Somerset  had  begun.  Bishops  like 
Gardiner  and  Bonner  were  displaced  by  men  like  Eidley,  Hooper, 
and  Coverdale.  The  fires  of  Smithfield  were  not  allowed  to 
smoulder;  and  the  world  witnessed  the  unseemly  spectacle  of 
Protestants  burning  Protestants.  In  their  efforts  to  enforce  the 
Uniformity  Act,  however,  the  leaders  had  found  an  ominous  and 
insurmountable  obstacle  in  the  courage  of  the  Princess  Mary,  who 
by  the  will  of  Henry  and  the  law  of  parliament  was  the  heir  to  the 


1551,  1552]  SECOND    FALL   OF    SOMERSET  569 

throne.  Through  all  the  storm  she  had  quietly  but  faithfully 
adhered  to  her  mother's  faith,  and  when  ordered  to  give  up  the 
mass,  she  firmly  persisted  in  the  path  of  duty  as  she  saw  it.  The 
council  durst  not  go  further;  to  use  violence  would  bring  about 
the  long  dreaded  alliance  of  the  empire  with  France  and  possibly 
an  invasion  of  England.  To  destroy  Mary  would  give  the 
emperor  a  claim  upon  the  crown  of  England,  since  he  was  of 
Yorkist  blood  through  Margaret  the  wife  of  Charles  the  Rash;  a 
claim  which  the  pope  might  be  expected  to  recognize  as  better  at 
least  than  that  of  Edward  or  Elizabeth,  both  of  whom  had  been 
born  in  schism.  This  constant  threat  of  foreign  interference  is 
always  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  considering  the  treatment  of  Mary 
at  the  hands  of  Somerset  and  Dudley. 

In  carrying  out  liis  schemes  Dudley  needed  all  the  available 
strength  of  the  reform  party,  and  in  April  1550  Somerset  was 
again  admitted  to  the  council.  His  influence  had 
^^&u»h7m'  r^pi^^y  revived  after  his  fall.  Before  the  unquestioned 
f/s(me)iet  sincerity  of  the  man,  the  superiority  of  his  personal 
character,  his  nearness  to  the  king  and  interest  in  his 
welfare,  men  soon  forgot  his  mistakes  and  began  to  look  to  him 
again  as  the  real  leader  of  the  reform.  But  as  the  autumn  of 
1551  came  in,  the  reaction  in  his  favor  so  alarmed  Dudley  that  he 
began  to  plot  again  for  his  overthrow  and  suddenly  arrested  him  on 
the  charge  of  treason.  And  when  he  found  tliat  he  could  not  con- 
vict him  upon  this  charge,  he  dropped  it  for  a  charge  of  conspiracy 
against  Dudley  himself,  and  in  January  1552  the  quondam  pro- 
tector was  sent  to  the  block. ^  It  was  a  fatal  mistake  for  Dudley. 
From  that  day  eyes  were  opened  to  the  real  character  of  this 
zealous  reformer  and  men  began  to  detest  him. 

As  Dudley  realized  that  his  popularity  with  his  party  was 

declining  he  increased  his  pretended  enthusiasm  for  the  purification 

of  the  church.     The  success  of  Charles  in  Germany 

Reforms  of      j^^d  driven  a  multitude  of  Protestant  exiles  across  the 

sea,   who   brought  the  ultra  views   of   the   Zwinglian 

school  with  them  and  soon  made  their  influence  felt  at  Oxford  and 

^  Recent  attempts  have  been  made  to  vindicate  the  character  and  work 
of  Somerset.    See  Pollard's,  England  under  the  Protector  Somerset. 


570  THE    PKOGRESS    OF    THE    REFORM  [edward  VI. 

Cambridge.  Even  Cranmer  was  drifting  fast  in  their  wake,  and 
was  prepared  at  last  to  deny  the  Real  Presence  in  the  mass.  In 
1552  the  Prayer  Book  of  1549,  known  as  The  First  Prayer  Book 
of  Edioard  VI.  was  superseded  by  the  Second  Prayer  Book  of 
Edward  VI.  which  embodied  many  new  phrases,  showing  the 
Zwinglian  drift  of  the  editors  and  making  it  no  longer  possible  for 
the  believers  in  transubstantiation  to  find  shelter  within  its  mel- 
lifluous cadences.  The  new  Prayer  Book  was  followed  by  the 
Forty -two  Articles  which  presented  a  new  statement  of  doctrine, 
based  on  the  Lutheran  confession.  The  same  parliament  also  took 
time  from  their  doctrinal  discussions  to  pass  a  Poor  Law 
Poor  Law  which  compelled  each  parish  to  make  a  systematic  col- 
lection for  its  poor,  an  honest  but  futile  effort  to  meet 
distresses  which  struck  their  roots  far  back  into  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. 

The  Second  Prayei*  Book  of  Edward  VI.  and  the  Forty-two 

Articles  indicate  the  high-water  mark  of  the  first  period  of  the 

reform.       The  leaders    had    already   outstripped    the 

The  high-  ^.  _,,  ^.  „  -,    ^i_  i_    1       1 

watermark  nation.  The  corruption  01  some,  and  the  wholesale 
plundering  of  most,  had  discredited  their  principles; 
and  the  forces  of  reaction  were  gathering,  all  the  more  terrible  and 
disastrous  in  recoil,  because  for  the  time  repressed  by  authority  and 
compelled  to  gather  strength  in  secret. 


CHAPTER    V 


THE   CATHOLIC    REACTION 

EDWARD  VI.,  1553. 
MARY,  1553-1558. 


So  far  the  reform  had  brought  little  of  peace  or  contentment  in 
its  train.     The  authority  of  the  church  as  a  teacher  of  doctrine  had 

been  challenged  ;  its  authority  as  a  teacher  of  righteous- 
d£S&"^    ness  had  been  broken  down.     Men  no  longer  sought  the 

confessional,  or  feared  the  censure  of  teachers  whom 
they  hud  ceased  to  revere.  Rascality  ruled  in  high  places;  its 
example  Wtis  felt  through  all  the  inferior  walks  of  life.  English 
goods  in  the  past,  like  English  money,  had  won  a  splendid  reputa- 
tion in  the  marts  of  Europe,  and  were  received  everywhere  without 
question  or  suspicion.  But  the  general  topsy-turvy  of  moral 
ideas,  which  had  followed  the  loosening  of  religious  bonds,  soon 
bore  fruit  in  a  decline  of  national  honesty.  The  government  had 
led  the  way  in  putting  out  a  dishonest  coinage  from  the  royal 
mints;  English  merchants  and  manufacturers  were  not  a  whit 
behind  them  in  debasing  the  output  of  their  looms.  For  a  time 
the  decline  in  the  quality  of  English  goods,  as  the  decline  in 
the  quality  of  English  money,  was  not  understood  by  foreigners, 
and  profits  increased,  but  only  temporarily;  nor  was  it  long  before 
the  dishonest  merchant  began  to  reap  the  full  reward  of  this 
suicidal  policy.  Bales  of  English  goods  were  to  be  seen  rotting  on 
the  quays  of  Antwerp  or  Venice,  rejected  by  the  consignees  and 
stamped  by  the  government  inspector  as  fraudulent.  To  the  dis- 
tress caused  by  the  greed  of  the  landlords  was  now  to  be  added  the 
distress  caused  by  the  greed  of  the  merchants,  whose  trade  was 
crippled  by  a  decade  of  dishonesty  more  than  by  all  the  wars  of 
Charles  or  Francis.  The  number  of  the  unemployed  continued  to 
increase ;    even  those  who  had  work  could  no  longer  earn  enough 

571 


572  THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION  [edwabd  VI. 

to  keep  themselves  or  their  families.  Those  who  suffered  turned 
upon  those  who  had  abundance  as  in  some  way  responsible  for 
their  misery.  The  proprietary  class  in  turn  were  fully  aware  of 
the  growing  hatred  and  suspicion  of  the  people ;  they  felt  their 
insecurity  and  turned  upon  the  party  in  power,  seeing  in  their 
reckless  waste  and  improvidence,  their  confiscations  and  wild 
financiering,  their  corruptions  and  tyrannies,  the  source  of  all  the 
present  evil. 

As  Edward  approached  man's  estate  the  more  sanguine  thought 
to  find  in  him  a  remedy  for  existing  evils.     The  minority  rule 

would  soon  be  ended  and  the  king,  of  whom  none  had 
Diuiie^^ ^^      ^^^^  heard  aught  but  good,  would  put  away  his  corrupt 

or  incapable  ministers  and  relieve  his  people  of  the  bur- 
den of  their  ill-doing.  But  this  hope  was  soon  to  be  blighted. 
As  Edward  neared  his  sixteenth  year,  it  became  evident  to  his 
ministers  that  he  would  never, endure  the  cares  of  royalty;  and 
Dudley,  now  duke  of  Northumberland,  began  to  turn  his  thought 
to  the  succession  with  the  view  of  perpetuating  his  own  authority. 
By  the  terms  of 'Henry's  will,  sanctioned  by  an  act  of  parliament, 
the  Lady  Mary  was  to  succeed  Edward  in  case  he  should  die  with- 
out heirs.  Mary's  preferences,  moreover,  were  too  well  known  to 
leave  any  doubt  as  to  what  kind  of  men  would  be  chosen  for  her 
ministers;  and  with  Howard  and  Gardiner  in  power  Dudley's  head 
would  not  rest  upon  his  shoulders  for  a  fortnight.  Dudley,  there- 
fore, determined  upon  a  scheme  which  was  as  bold  as  it  was  desper- 
ate and  impossible  of  success.  He  persuaded  Edward,  ostensibly 
in  the  interest  of  the  Keformation,  to  make  a  will  as  his  father  had 
done  before  him.  By  this  will  both  Mary  and  Elizabeth  were  to 
be  set  aside  as  illegitimate  and  the  succession  was  to  pass  to  Lady 
Jane  Grey,  the  granddaughter  of  Henry  VIII. 's  favorite  sister 
Mary,  the  queen  of  Louis  XII.  of  France,  who  had  married  for  her 
second  husband  Charles  Brandon,  Duke  of  Suffolk.  Edward 
entered  into  the  plan  warmly.  The  will  was  signed,  but  there  was 
not  time  to  secure  the  sanction  of  parliament.  For  the  same  holy 
purpose,  to  save  the  Eeformation,  Edward  was  also  persuaded  to 
sanction  the  marriage  of  Lady  Jane  to  Guilford  Dudley,  the  son  of 
Duke  John. 


1553]  QUEEN   JANE  573 

On  July  6, 1553  the  boy  king  died.  Dudley  attempted  to  keep 
the  secret  until  he  could  seize  Mary,  who  was  staying  at  the  time  at 
Hiinsdon  in  Hertfordshire,  and  dispatched  his  son 
jmi^^pro-  Robert  Dudley,  better  known  afterward  as  Earl  of 
juiTio'  Leicester,  to  arrest  her  at  once.  But  Mary's  friends 
were  equally  alert,  and  within  twenty-four  hours  after 
the  king's  death  she  was  in  full  flight  to  join  the  Howards  in  Nor- 
folk, proclaiming  her  reign  as  she  passed  along  and  calling 
upon  the  loyal  to  join  her.  In  the  meanwhile  Northumberland 
summoned  the  council,  announced  the  king's  death,  and  proclaimed 
''Queen  Jane."  The  unfortunate  girl  who  was  to  be  sacrificed  to 
the  minister's  ambition,  was  hardly  in  her  seventeenth  year.  Her 
beauty,  her  noble  and  pure  spirit,  her  innocence  and  her  tragic 
fate,  have  made  her  a  universal  favorite.  One  almost  marvels  that 
such  a  flower  could  bloom  in  the  atmosphere  that  surrounded  John 
Dudley.  She  cared  nothing  for  the  royal  honors  and  submitted  to 
his  plans  because  she  was  taught  it  was  her  duty.  Yet  she  was  by 
no  means  a  puppet,  and  stoutly  refused  to  have  Dudley's  son,  her 
husband,  crowned  with  her. 

The  issue  was  now  fairly  joined.  To  support  Queen  Jane, 
meant  to  support  Dudley  and  the  continuance  of  the  policy  which 
"Qtt€en  ^^^^  brought  such  woe  and  unrest  on  the  land;  to  sup- 

'^'Quem^'  P^^^  Mary  meant  an  entire  reversion  of  policy  and,  if 
Mary.''  nothing  more,  the  restoration  of  the  ecclesiastical   laws 

of  Henry  VIII.  The  Lady  Mary,  moreover,  *'had  the  better 
right."  Apart  from  the  question  of  her  mother's  divorce,  she 
had  been  named  as  the  next  in  succession  by  an  act  of  parliament 
and  that  law  had  never  been  repealed.  But  above  all.  Lady  Jane 
stood  for  the  Reformation  and  Mary  stood  for  the  old  faith.  The 
nation  was  weary  of  reformers  who,  after  twenty  years,  appar- 
ently still  saw  as  much  to  reform  as  ever.  The  people,  moreover, 
no  longer  believed  in  the  sincerity  of  Dudley,  and  they  wanted  a 
change  in  hope  of  bettering  the  temporal  state  of  the  kingdom. 
From  the  first  then  Jane  had  little  prospect  of  success;  however 
men  might  respect  her  character,  they  regarded  her  as  a  crea- 
ture of  Dudley's  and  felt  no  fervor  in  her  cause;  even  in  London, 
where  if  anywhere  Dudley  might  expect  support,  his  proclamation 


574  THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION  [maby 

had  been  received  by  the  assembled  crowds  in  silence.  The  lack 
of  enthusiasm  was  ominous ;  the  tide  of  reaction  was  coming  in, 
and  had  the  law  been  on  Dudley's  side,  it  is  not  likely  that  the 
nation  would  have  heeded  it,  when  once  Catharine's  daughter  had 
raised  her  standard.  But  now  the  law  was  on  Mary's  side;  justice 
also  was  on  her  side,  and  the  sympathies  of  the  nation  were  with 
her.  The  old  duke  Thomas  Howard  was  still  in  the  Tower;  but 
his  sons  and  grandsons  were  up,  and  from  far  and  near  the  country 
flocked  to  their  banner.  The  fleet  also  declared  for  Mary,  and  at 
last  even  the  Protestant  lords  went  over  to  her.  There  was  noth- 
ing left  for  Dudley  but  submission;  and  on  July  19  he  aban- 
doned his  queen  of  a  week,  and  himself  proclaimed  Mary  at 
Cambridge.  The  next  day  he  was  arrested  and  sent  to  the  Tower. 
There  was  no  hope  for  him,  and  yet  with  the  idea  of  winning  some 
favor  with  his  executioners  he  made  an  abject  confession :  that  his 
Protestantism  had  been  only  a  sham,  that  he  was  a  good  Catholic 
at  heart  and  that  he  had  been  all  along  playing  a  part.  The  last 
was  probably  the  most  truthful  statement  he  had  ever  made  during 
his  entire  false  life.  He  failed  to  save  himself,  but  did  great 
harm  to  the  Protestant  cause;  for  the  simple  folk,  who  had  called 
him  their  *' Joshua,"  and  were  accustomed  to  trust  him  implicitly, 
naturally  began  to  suspect  all  professions  and  believe  in  no  man's 
sincerity.  He,  moreover,  gave  the  party  who  were  coming  into 
power,  a  very  low  estimate  of  the  sincerity  of  the  whole  body  of 
reformers,  and  by  leading  Mary  and  her  advisers  to  think  that 
they  were  all  like  him,  doubtlessly  encouraged  the  policy  of  perse- 
cution. On  August  3  Mary  entered  London.  The  Lady  Jane 
and  her  husband  were  arrested,  and  in  IN'ovember  were  tried  and 
convicted  of  treason.  But  Mary  fully  intended  to  be  lenient,  and 
had  no  thought  then  of  shedding  their  blood. 

The  choice  of  Mary  was  the  expression  of  the  desire  of  the 
nation  to  retrace  its  steps.     But  how  far  would  the  reaction  go? 

This  would  be  determined  by  the  character  of  Mary 
^^  and  the  policy  of  her  ministers.     How  long  should  the 

reaction  endure?  This  would  be  determined  by  the 
extent  to  which  the  people  would  follow  their  sovereign.  The 
outlook  for  the  reformers,  therefore,  was  not  encouraging.     The 


1553]  EARLY   MODERATION    OF   MARY  o'J'S 

new  queen  was  a  Tudor,  with  all  the  Tudor  tenacity  of  purpose 
and  blind  self-will,  with  a  dangerous  possibility  of  ruthless  cruelty 
if  roused  or  resisted.  With  all  the  intensity  of  her  Tudor  nature, 
moreover,  Mary  was  devoted  to  her  mother's  faith  and  under 
strong  influence  was  certain  to  take  up  the  full  restoration  of  that 
faith  to  her  people  as  the  one  object  of  her  life. 

At  first,  however,  her  course  was  moderate  enough.     She  had 
no  intention  of  being   severe.     The  emperor  sent  her  his  con- 
gratulations .and  admonished  her  to  move  cautiously, 
Beginning  of  ^q  \yQ  content  witli  the  free  exercise  for  herself  of  her 

Mary's  reign. 

creed,  to  take  no  step  without  the  sanction  of  parlia- 
ment and  by  no  means  of  her  own  authority  to  attempt  to  set 
aside  the  Act  of  Uniformity;  her  first  duty  was  to  bring  quiet  to 
her  realm ;  her  prudence  and  moderation  must  give  satisfaction  to 
her  subjects  of  all  opinions.  Gardiner,  the  old  bishop  of  Win- 
chester, had  been  released  on  the  day  of  the  entry  into  London 
and  placed  at  the  head  of  the  council  as  chancellor.  The  policy 
which  he  outlined  for  the  administration  conformed  in  all  respects 
to  the  sensible  advice  of  the  emperor.  The  expenses  of  the  house- 
hold were  to  be  cut  down  to  the  scale  which  had  prevailed  in 
Henry  VII. 's  time.  The  garrisons  of  Berwick  and  Calais  were  to 
be  placed  on  a  more  economical  footing ;  the  navy  reduced ;  the 
irregular  guard  diminished.  There  was  to  be  no  more  bribery  in 
the  courts  of  Westminster  and  among  the  justices  of  the  peace; 
**they  were  to  be  restored  to  their  authority  without  suffering  any 
matters  to  be  ordered  otherwise  than  as  the  laws  should  appoint." 
Mary's  first  acts  were  in  keeping  with  this  program.  The  late 
king  was  buried  with  the  public  rites  prescribed  by  the  existing 

law ;  Cranmer,  who  was  still  at  large,  was  allowed  to 
awmnf         conduct  the  ceremonies.     The  members  of  Edward's 

council  who  had  not  supported  Dudley,  were  left  in 
undisturbed  possession  of  their  places.  The  Protestant  bishops 
who  had  been  most  pronounced  in  their  later  teaching  were 
removed  and  the  old  Catholic  bishops  were  restored  again  to  their 
dioceses.  The  return  of  Bonner  from  the  Marshalsea  to  St.  Paul's 
was  like  a  triumphal  procession;  'Hhe  people  rang  the  bells  for 
joy."     The  persecution  of  Catholics  was  also  stopped;    religious 


b76  The  catholic  heaction  [marv 

disputations  were  forbidden,  but  Protestants  were  to  be  protected 
from  the  interference  of  reactionary  mobs. 

To  the  great  majority  of  the  people  this  was  well  pleasing. 
They  hailed  Mary's  accession  as  the  first  step  toward  a  return  to 
the  policy  of  her  father,  and  they  did  not  wish  to  go 
^f'^Ma^'T  f^^rther.  They  were  not  Protestants;  but  they  did  not 
mmf^'^^  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  Mary  declared  legitimate  to  the  disparage- 
ment of  Elizabeth's  claims  as  fixed  by  Henry's  will. 
They  had,  moreover,  dipped  too  generally  into  the  plunder  of  the 
church  to  wish  to  see  the  church  restored  as  it  had  been  in  Wol- 
sey's  time;  they  had  no  desire  to  surrender  the  confiscated  lands, 
which  had  now  been  in  their  hands  for  nearly  a  generation.  When 
therefore  Mary's  first  parliament,  the  most  nearly  representative 
of  any  which  had  been  chosen  in  England  for  many  years,  came 
together,  the  most  radical  of  Edward's  religious  laws,  the  Prayer 
Book,  and  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  were  swept  away;  the  Mass  was 
restored  by  a  vote  of  350  to  80  in  the  Commons,  and  the  clergy 
were  required  to  return  to  celibacy;  but  beyond  this  parliament 
refused  to  go.  It  was  satisfied  with  restoring  the  statutes  of 
Henry's  reign;  and  even  here  it  made  exceptions.  The  Six 
Articles  and  the  older  laws  against  the  Lollards  found  no  favor. 

Gardiner,  the  chancellor,  was  a  thorough-going  Englishman 
and  had  no  desire  to  see  either  the  papal  authority  restored  in 
England,  or  the  crown  bound  by  a  foreign  alliance  to 
Zit^andtfie  ^^^^  Support  of  Spain  or  France.  But  Mary  was  already 
mi'Istian^isds  ^^i^ting  out  from  under  his  influence  and  had  fallen 
under  the  power  of  other  counsellors.  By  them  she 
had  been  induced  to  fix  her  mind  upon  two  projects  which  she  had 
long  cherished  in  secret;  first  to  secure  a  marriage  alliance  with 
her  cousin  Philip  of  Spain,  and  second  to  restore  England  com- 
pletely to  the  papal  allegiance.  In  the  second  she  had  been  greatly 
encouraged  by  Renard,  the  imperial  minister,  yet  he  had  no  desire 
by  pushing  it,  to  imperil  the  prospect  of  the  marriage  alliance. 
In  this  he  reflected  both  the  ambition  and  the  caution  of  his  mas- 
ter. Charles,  in  fact,  regarded  the  marriage  alliance  as  a  necessary 
offset  to  the  alliance  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  with  Francis  of 
France.      It  wr.s  to  be  his  next  move  in  the  great  continental 


1553]  THE   SPANISH   MARRIaGE  577 

game ;  the  interests  of  England  were  of  little  moment  compared 
with  the  success  of  his  vast  schemes  against  his  rival.  But  Mary 
with  characteristic  Tudor  impatience  was  unwilling  to  wait  for  the 
unwinding  of  the  emperor's  plot,  and  had  no  sooner  made  up  her 
mind  than  she  entered  at  once  into  secret  negotiations  with  the 
pope,  and  Cardinal  Pole  set  out  for  England.  The  emperor  heard 
of  the  measure  in  alarm  and  persuaded  the  pope  to  call  Pole  back. 
In  the  meanwhile  the  parliament  in  its  own  way  was  working 
at  the  problems  presented  by  the  new  reign.  When  it  had  settled 
the  religious  question,  it  turned  to  the  question  of  the  royal  mar- 
riage. The  members  were  fully  determined  that  a  foreign  prince 
should  not  sit  upon  the  English  throne  even  as  the  consort  of 
their  queen,  and  on  the  16th  of  November  the  Speaker  of  the 
Commons,  in  the  name  of  parliament,  formally  petitioned  the 
queen  to  marry  one  of  her  own  subjects.  Mary  was  furious,  and 
as  the  parliament  showed  no  signs  of  withdrawing  its  impertinent 
advice,  on  December  6  she  sent  the  members  to  their  homes, — a 
bad  omen  for  tlie  future. 

In  the  council  the  Spanish  marriage  was  hardly  more  popular. 
Gardiner  who  was  in  touch  with  the  parliament,  proposed  Edward 

Courtenay,  who  as  great-grandson  of  Edward  IV.  was 
ami  t/je  "^''  of  the  blood-royal  and  though  a  subject,  worthy  by 
nSSrt-^ae        ^i^'th  to  be  the  queen's  consort.     But  Mary's  mind  was 

made  up, — always  a  serious  matter  for  a  Tudor.  She, 
moreover,  had  formed  a  most  romantic  attachment  for  her  Spanish 
kinsman,  whom  she  had  never  seen,  but  whom  she  imagined  to  be 
a  paragon  of  all  princely  virtues.  Gardiner  knew  his  mistress  too 
well  to  continue  his  opposition,  and  wisely  determined  to  prevent 
so  far  as  possible  the  evils  which  might  follow  the  Spanish  mar- 
riage, by  prescribing  a  series  of  stipulations,  in  which  Chiles 
pledged  himself  that  Philip  should  never  be  more  than  titular  king 
of  England,  that  England  should  never  be  united  with  Spain  under 
one  crown,  that  all  foreigners  should  be  excluded  from  command 
in  the  English  army  or  navy,  and  that  England  should  not  be 
asked  to  assist  Spain  in  her  wars  with  France.  The  council  then 
yielded  a  reluctant  consent.  The  marriage  contracts  were 
signed,  and  the  time  for  the  wedding  fixed. 


bUS  THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION  [maby 

From  the  nation  at  large  Mary  got  little  comfort.  In  spite  of 
the  concessions  of  Charles,  Englishmen  generally  believed  that 
England  was  now  to  become  a  mere  dependency  of 
oonosUionto  ^P^i^?  ^^^^  Naples  and  the  Low  Countries,  ruled  by 
marriaT^  Spanish  adventurers  and  overawed  by  Spanish  mus- 
keteers. If  Protestants  and  Catholics  could  agree  to 
make  common  cause  something  might  be  done,  but  the  bitter 
memories  connected  with  the  names  of  Seymour  and  Dudley  were 
too  fresh  to  permit  the  Catholics  to  join  with  their  recent  foes. 
The  Protestant  leaders,  or  rather  the  wreck  of  the  old  party  of 
John  Dudley,  rallied  about  Henry  Grey  the  duke  of  Suffolk, 
Lady  Jane's  father,  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  and  Sir  Peter  Carew, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  an  extensive  conspiracy  with  the 
avowed  purpose  of  preventing  the  Spanish  marriage  but  really  to 
depose  Mary  and  place  Elizabeth  and  Courtenay  on  the  throne. 
Time,  however,  was  urgent,  and  the  vigilance  of  Gardiner  forced 
the  leaders  to  act  before  their  plans  were  ripe.  Suffolk  strove  to 
rouse  the  midlands,  but  his  connection  with  the  late  duke  of 
Northumberland  prevented  the  people  from  rallying  to  his  stan- 
dard and  he  soon  found  himself  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower.  Sir 
Peter  Carew  attempted  to  raise  Devonshire  but  with  no  better  suc- 
cess, except  that  he  managed  to  get  away  to  France.  Wyatt  in 
the  southeast  got  together  some  15,000  Kentishmen  and  led  them 
to  South wark.  Mary  had  no  armed  force  at  hand  to  defend  her; 
the  Londoners  were  in  panic  and  more  than  half  inclined  to  allow 
the  insurgents  to  cross  the  bridge,  but  the  vigorous  and  courage- 
ous conduct  of  Mary,  ably  supported  by  the  old  duke  of  Norfolk, 
brought  them  to  their  duty ;  the  bridge  was  held  and  Wyatt  was 
compelled  to  ascend  to  Kingston  where  he  found  a  crossing  and 
from  whence  he  managed  to  fight  his  way  into  the  city.  The 
quest  from  first  to  last  was  a  fool's  errand;  the  little  band  who 
had  followed  Wyatt  were  overwhelmed  and  he  himself  with  Suffolk 
and  others  were  sent  to  the  block.  It  was  inevitable  that 
Suffolk's  daughter  the  Lady  Jane  and  her  harmless 
husband,  should  be  drawn  down  with  her  father  and 
his  friends,  although  they  had  taken  no  part  in  the  plot.  On  Feb- 
ruary 12,  the  sentence  of  the  year  before  was  carried  out.     On  the 


1554]  THE   PAPAL   ALLEGIANCE   RENEWED  579 

same  day  Courtenay  was  arrested  and  a  wholesale  slaughter  of  com- 
mon prisoners  begun.  Gibbets  were  erected  over  all  London,  and 
everywhere  the  eyes  of  the  people  rested  on  "the  hideous  spectacle 
of  hanging  men."  Elizabeth  was  sent  to  the  Tower;  Gardiner 
and  Renard  pressed  Mary  to  give  consent  to  her  execution  and 
for  a  few  days  the  ax  hung  above  Elizabeth's  head,  suspended  only 
by  a  thread.  Her  enemies,  however,  could  bring  no  proof  to  show 
that  she  had  been  a  party  to  the  conspiracy ;  the  lords,  moreover, 
led  by  her  kinsman,  William  Howard  who  commanded  the  fleet, 
were  determined  that  guilty  or  not,  she  should  not  be  sacrificed, 
and  in  May  she  was  finally  released.  Courtenay  also  was  dismissed 
and  allowed  to  retire  to  the  continent.  lie  died  at  Padua  1556. 
The  ill  timed  insurrection  and  the  vigorous  treatment  of  the 
rebels  prevented  further  opposition  and  in  April  a  new  parlia- 
ment formally  sanctioned  the  marriage  contract.  The 
Srw^S^"^  prince  arrived  in  July  and  on  the  25th  the  marriage 
™5S  •^^^^^  was  celebrated.  The  pair  were  thoroughly  incompat- 
ible; Mary  was  plain,  without  any  attractive  qualities 
of  mind  or  body,  and  withal  was  twelve  years  the  senior  of  her 
husband.  Her  health  was  already  breaking;  she  had  grown  wan 
and  haggard ;  her  spirits  were  easily  affected ;  all  of  which  did  not 
tend  to  commend  her  to  a  husband  who  had  tolerated  the  mar- 
riage at  all,  simply  as  a  political  necessity.  He  met  Mary's 
ardent  devotion  with  a  cold  indifference,  which  soon  changed  to 
disgust  when  he  found  that  the  suspicions  of  parliament  and 
council  showed  no  signs  of  abating  and  that  lie  was  expected  to 
play  the  part  simply  of  gentleman  usher  to  his  queen.  The  next 
summer  he  hailed  the  pretext  furnished  by  the  proposed  abdica- 
tion of  his  father  to  get  himself  home  as  speedily  as  possible. 

While  Philip  remained  in  England  he  had  counselled  his  ardent 
queen  to  move  cautiously  in  carrying  out  the  second  project  which 
was  as  dear  to  her  as  the  Spanish  marriage.  Now,  how- 
The  papal  ever,  the  only  influence  that  could  have  stayed  her  hand 
newed,  1554.  was  withdrawn.  The  parliament,  which  had  accepted 
the  Spanish  marriage,  had  flatly  refused  to  restore  the 
Six  Articles,  and  a  proposition  to  reenact  the  laws  against  Lol- 
lardy  had  been  lost  somewhere  between  the  two  houses.     But  in 


580  THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION  [ 


Mast 


October  when  Mary's  third  parliament 'came  together,  it  was  soon 
evident  that  while  a  large  majority  had  no  objection  to  restoring 
the  pope,  they  were  in  no  mind  to  renounce  the  possession  of 
church  lands  which  had  fallen  to  the  nation  by  reason  of  its  share 
in  Henry's  acts  of  spoliation.  Mary  exerted  all  her  influence  to 
bring  over  the  reluctant  members  to  agree  to  right  the  wrong 
done.  The  repentance  of  the  apostate  nation  v^ould  have  little 
meaning  unless  it  surrendered  the  fruits  of  its  sin;  nor  would  the 
restoration  of  the  papacy  be  of  much  practical  value  if  the  church 
were  to  remain  in  beggary.  In  vain  Mary  and  her  chancellor 
pleaded ;  in  vain  Mary  sought  to  set  an  example  by  releasing  the 
church  lands  which  were  held  by  the  crown.  There  the  matter 
hung  until  the  pope  came  to  the  rescue  by  formally  agreeing  to 
ratify  the  possession  of  the  church  lands  by  the  present  holders, 
on  condition  that  parliament  pass  the  laws  necessary  to  restore  the 
papal  supremacy.  On  the  29th  of  November  parliament  voted  on 
the  question,  whether  the  country  should  return  to  the  obedience 
of  the  Apostolic  see.  In  the  Upper  House  the  assent  was  given 
without  opposition.  In  the  Lower  House,  out  of  360  members 
present,  only  two  responded  with  a  negative  vote.  The  next 
day,  St.  Andrew's  Day,  the  last  of  November  1554,  the  queen,  the 
council,  and  the  members  of  both  houses  of  parliament,  repaired  to 
"Whitehall  and  kneeling  before  Cardinal  Pole,  the  papal  legate, 
who  with  ''ecstatic  impatience"  had  been  waiting  for  this  moment 
ever  since  the  accession  of  Mary,  confessed  the  sin  of  the  nation 
and  received  absolution.  England  was  now  once  more  restored  to 
the  church  of  the  continent. 

It  remxained  for  parliament  to  undo  the  hostile  legislation  of 

Henry  VIII.     It  was,  however,  not  to  be  so  simple  a  matter  as 

the  vote  of  November  29  seemed  to  indicate.     "The 

The ''Great    papal    Supremacy,   the    secularization   of   the   church 

Bill:' J  aim-     ^    ^  ^  *^,.  ^,^.  ,  .,, 

ary4,i555.      property,  and  the  authority  of  the  Episcopal  courts, 

were  so  inextricably  interwoven,  the  acts  or  parts  of 
acts  bearing  on  the  question  were  so  many,  it  was  not  until  Jan- 
uary 4,  that  the  result  of  the  work,  known  as  the  "Great  Bill,"  ^ 
was  formally  presented  to  the  crown.     By  this  act  all  the  ecclesias- 

1  Gee  and^Hardy,  pp.  385-415. 


1555]  THE    REACTION    AT   FLOOD  581 

tical  legislation  of  Henry  Subsequent  to  the  year  1529  was  swept 
away. 

The  limits  of  legislative  reaction  were  now  reached  and  parlia- 
ment refused  to  go  farther.     The  two  acts  upon  which  Elizabeth's 

right  to  the  succession  rested  had  been  slated  by  Gar- 
atfiooT^^^    diner  for    condemnation,  but  parliament  refused    to 

touch  them  save  as  they  affected  the  See  of  Rome. 
It  restored  the  authority  of  the  bishops'  courts  but  expressly 
denied  them  the  right  **to  inquiet  or  molest  any  person  or  per- 
sons or  body  politic,"  on  account  of  the  possession  of  any  of  the 
sequestered  lands  or  other  property  of  the  church.  The  Act  of 
Mortmain  was  suspended  for  twenty  years,  but  '*the  spectre  of 
praemunire"  was  left  ** unexercised"  to  haunt  the  clergy  with  all 
the  shadowy  terrors  which  had  been  imparted  to  it  by  the  decision 
of  Henry  VIII. 's  courts.  In  vain  the  clergy  pleaded  that  the 
hated  law  might  be  repealed  or  at  least  limited  in  its  application; 
parliament  would  go  no  farther.  The  tide  of  reaction  was  at 
flood. 

The  nation  was  satisfied ;  enough  had  been  done,  and  here  mat- 
ters might  have  rested  had  not  Mary  made  up  her  mind  to  force 

Englishmen  to  become  Catholics  in  heart  as  they  had 
thepertsecu-     become  Catholics  again  by  the  laws  of  the  land.     As 

men  understood  the  functions  of  government,  it  was 
entirely  within  her  right  to  compel  her  subjects  to  subscribe  to  a 
uniform  faith.  She  was  also  justified  by  the  customary  law  of 
Europe  in  using  violence  against  those  who  defied  the  laws  and 
subjecting  them  to  death  by  the  torture  of  fire.  Henry  VIII. 
had  done  this  and  Cranmer  had  sanctioned  it  in  the  case  of  Ana- 
baptists. Even  Latimer  had  preached  a  commendatory  sermon 
when  the  Catholic  Father  Forest  had  been  slowly  tortured  to  death 
in  an  open  Iron  cradle  which  was  kept  swinging  over  a  slow  fire. 
It  was  no  more  than  Catholic  and  Protestant  states  were  doing  to 
their  rebellious  subjects  on  the  continent.  It  was  nevertheless  a 
grave  and  fatal  error,  and  did  more  to  defeat  Mary's  purpose  and 
bring  on  a  new  Protestant  reaction  than  all  the  fiery  polemics  of 
men  like  John  Knox  and  others,  foreigners  mostly,  who  had  fled  to 
the  continent  again  on  scent  of  the  coming  storm.     Mary  had 


582  THE   CATHOLIC    REACTION"  [jiABY 

triumphed  over  the  laws ;  she  had  silenced  opposing  theorists ;  she 
could  not  crush  the  rising  spirit  of  humanity  in  the  hearts  of  her 
people. 

For  this  reaction  Mary  herself  was  largely  to  blame.     Gardiner 

had  favored  severe  measures  with  the  heretics  as  with  the  political 

rebels,   but  he  drew  back  when  he  saw  its   futility. 

ity  for  the       Pole  Succeeded  Cranmer  and  his  position  was  always 

persecutions.  p  ,  •    n  i  i  -i  • 

one  01  great  mnuence ;  yet  he  was  by  no  means  m  sym- 
pathy with  the  persecutions.  He  **publicly  told  the  clergy  that  the 
best  way  of  reclaiming  the  people  was  not  by  measures  of  severity, 
but  by  reforming  their  own  lives,"  and  on  one  occasion  at  least 
he  dismissed  twenty  heretics  with  a  mere  submission.  The  Span- 
ish influence,  it  is  well  known,  was  against  the  persecutions,  not 
for  reasons  of  humanity,  but  because  Philip  and  his  advisers  were 
wise  enough  to  foresee  the  ultimate  effect  upon  the  Spanish  influ- 
ence in  England.  But  Mary's  Tudor  blood  had  been  roused  by 
opposition,  and  with  a  persistence  which  at  times  looks  almost  like 
insanity,  she  pursued  her  way.  Wilfulness  assumes  queer  guises 
sometimes.  In  the  case  of  the  father,  it  appeared  as  vanity,  self- 
love,  lust;  in  the  case  of  the  daughter,  as  duty,  tho  desire  to  do 
the  will  of  God  as  a  bigoted  mind  understood  it. 

On  June  20,  1555  the  act  which  restored  the  heresy  acts  of 
Henry  IV.  and  Henry  Y.  went  into  effect  and  soon  the  fires  of 
Smithfield  were  again  crackling  merrily.  Among  the  first  vic- 
tims were  John  Rogers,  the  Bible  translator,  and  Hooper  the 
bishop  of  Gloucester.  Gardiner  and  others,  possibly  Mary  her- 
self, did  not  expect  any  serious  resistance ;  a  few  examples  only 
would  be  necessary  to  show  the  heretics  that  the  government  was 
in  earnest.  They  gave  the  leaders  little  credit  for  sincerity  and 
thought  that,  like  Dudley,  the  smell  of  death  would  frighten 
them  into  speedy  acquiescence.  But  these  were  different  men 
whose  faith  was  now  to  be  put  to  the  test ;  nor  could  tlieir  firm- 
ness be  shaken  by  the  sight  of  the  flames.  Spectators  who  came 
to  scoff  and  jeer,  went  away  thoughtful  and  reverent.  Coverdale 
was  saved  by  the  interposition  of  the  king  of  Denmark;  but 
Ridley  and  Latimer  sealed  their  faith  at  Oxford,  October  16, 
1555.      Latimer  was  now  in  his  seventy-seventh  year,  hale  and 


1556]  DEATH    OF    CRANMER  583 

hearty  and  merry  to  the  last.     "Play  the  man,  Master  Ridley," 

he  shouted  to  his  fellow,  as  the  executioners  were  fastening  them 

to  the  stake,  "we  shall  this  day  light  such  a  candle  in  England, 

as  I  trust  by  God's  grace  shall  never  be  put  out." 

Of  all  Mary's  victims  none  perhaps  had  merited  her  vengeance 

more  than  Cranmer.     She  would  not  be  a  woman  to  forget  the 

part  which  he  had  taken  in  fastening  the  stain  upon 

Cranmer,       her  birth.     Cranmer  bad  been  brought  up  for  trial  in 
March,  1556. 

September  1555  at  the  time  when  Ridley  and  Latimer 
were  tried.  But  he,  unlike  them,  was  a  regularly  consecrated 
bishop  of  the  Catholic  church  and  his  fellow  bishops  feared  to 
proceed  without  special  license  from  Rome.  When  at  last  in  the 
following  February  the  requisite  authority  was  received,  Cran- 
mer's  courage  which  had  never  been  of  the  stoutest  failed  him. 
He  shrank  from  the  torture  of  the  heretic's  death,  and  in  hope  of 
gaining  his  life  recanted.  His  enemies,  however,  had  no  thought 
of  allowing  their  victim  to  escape  and  he  was  condemned  not- 
withstanding. As  the  end  drew  near,  he  recovered  his  spirit  and 
boldly  facing  death  withdrew  his  unhappy  denial  of  the  Protes- 
tant faith,  thrusting  his  right  hand  into  the  flame  first,  "that 
unworthy  right  hand,"  as  he  sadly  exclaimed,  with  which  he 
had  signed  the  recantation. 

The  whole  number  of  executions  amounted  to  277.  The 
victims  were  taken  almost  altogether  from  the  ranks  of  the  com- 
mon people.  No  one  of  note  among  the  laity  suffered ; 
extmto/"^''^  and  with  the  exception  of  a  few  ecclesiastics,  such  as 
tiww.^^**^^*  Ridley,  Latimer,  and  Cranmer,  none  who  could  be 
called  prominent.  The  executions,  moreover,  were 
confined  almost  entirely  to  the  three  dioceses  of  London,  Norwich, 
and  Canterbury.  In  the  rest  of  England  all  told,  they  did  not 
number  more  than  fifty.  They  were  enough,  however,  to  stir  a 
deep  spirit  of  hate  and  resentment  among  the  people  and  leave 
an  indelible  impression  upon  the  English  mind  which  three 
hundred  years  have  not  been  able  to  efface. 

Mary  felt  deeply  the  decline  of  her  popularity.  She  knew 
that  her  people  hated  her  and  waited  for  her  death.  To  add  to 
her  sorrow  and  sense  of  loneliness,  Philip,  under  the  plea  of  new 


584  THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION  [: 


MABT 


duties,  had  practically  deserted  her.     She  longed  for  the  love  of 

the  husband  who  never  came,  and  who  ceased  at  last  even  to 

write  to  her.     She   had  prayed  for  a  child :  but  her 

Decline  of  ,      -,  ,  i      n        -r, 

Marrs  prayers  had  been  mocked.     Even  God  apparently  had 

abandoned  her.  She  was  alone  and  desolate.  She 
dared  no  longer  trust  herself  in  public,  lest  she  should  give  way 
in  unseemly  outbursts  of  hysteric  passion.  She  fell  into  a 
profound  melancholy  and  great  distaste  of  life. 

Her  councillors  knew  that  the  nation,  goaded  by  the  brutal 
scenes  which  they  were  called  upon  to  witness,  only  waited  a 
leader  to  break  into  open  revolt.  Even  Bonner  hesitated,  con- 
scious of  the  execrations  of  the  people,  but  Mary  egged  him  on 
to  do  his  duty.  To  her  clouded  mind  all  her  disappointments 
were  due  to  her  remissness  in  expelling  the  spirit  of  an ti- Christ 
from  the  realm.  The  few  Spaniards  who  remained,  also  came  in 
for  a  share  of  the  popular  execrations  and  in  their  fear  pathetically 
appealed  to  their  master  for  their  recall.  Still  tlie  leaders  hesi- 
tated to  summon  the  people  to  arms.  An  armed  insurrection 
would  give  Philip  an  excuse  for  landing  his  Spanish  infantry  at 
once  and  taking  possession  of  the  English  strongholds.  Once  in 
possession  it  would  be  impossible  to  eject  him  without  the  aid  of 
France.  From  this  they  shrank.  It  was,  moreover,  no  longer  a 
secret  that  the  unhappy  queen  was  dying  of  an  incurable  malady, 
that  her  time  was  limited,  and  that  Elizabeth  would  soon  mount 
the  throne  in  her  place. 

One  attempt  was  made  by  Thomas  Stafford,  the  grandson  of 
the  late  duke  of  Buckingham.  In  April  1557  he  succeeded  in 
landing  thirty  Englishmen  and  one  Frenchman  in 
Sfto#ord'.s;  Yorkshire,  and  actually  seized  Scarborough  Castle,  but 
1557.  '    only  to  be  immediately  taken  and  put  to  death.     The 

attempt  of  itself  was  of  little  importance;  but  the 
expedition  had  been  fitted  out  in  France  and  gave  Mary  therefore 
a  pretext  for  declaring  war  against  France.  Philip,  who  visited 
England  for  a  few  weeks  in  March,  had  exerted  all  his  influence 
for  this  purpose,  and  Mary  was  well  pleased  to  have  one  oppor- 
tunity at  last  of  gratifying  her  husband. 

England,  perhaps  in  all  her  history,  was  never  less  prepared 


1558]  THE    LOSS    OF    CALAIS  585 

for  war.  Stephen  Gardiner  had  died  at  his  post  November  12, 
1555.  He  had  done  much  to  restore  the  credit  of  the  govern- 
ment and  reduce  its  indebtedness.  But  after  him  the 
Calais,  Jan-  conduct  of  the  administration  had  fallen  into  incom- 
petent hands.  Mary  had  been  allowed  to  exhaust  the 
royal  treasury  in  her  frantic  efforts  to  refound  the  abbeys  and 
restore  the  desecrated  church  buildings.  Many  complaints  had 
come  from  Calais  of  the  beggared  condition  of  its  garrison  and 
the  ruined  state  of  its  fortifications;  she  had  been  warned  by 
Admiral  Howard  of  the  pitiful  condition  of  the  navy.  But  with 
the  same  blindness  with  which  she  had  urged  on  the  executions 
of  linen  drapers  and  village  priests,  she  had  continued  to  pour 
out  the  national  treasure  in  her  work  of  restoring  the  church. 
She  was  now  compelled,  therefore,"  to  levy  forced  loans,  to  lay 
new  duties  upon  imports  and  exports,  for  which  the  laws  gave 
her  no  sanction,  and  to  continue  the  debasement  of  the  coinage. 
After  so  much  else,  these  acts  completely  destroyed  what  little 
credit  Mary  still  retained  with  the  proprietary  classes,  who  had 
not  been  directly  affected  by  the  persecutioi;s.  The  war  itself, 
moreover,  was  exceedingly  unpopular;  the  possibility  of  it  was 
the  thing  which  had  been  feared  from  the  first,  and  was  the  secret 
of  most  of  the  popular  suspicion  of  Philip.  When,  therefore, 
early  in  the  new  year,  the  news  was  brought  home  that  Calais  and 
Guisnes,  the  last  foothold  of  the  English  in  France,  which  had 
been  English  territory  for  211  years,  had  been  taken  by  the  duke 
of  Guise  without  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  incompetent  minis- 
ters of  Mary  to  save  them,  nothing  was  left  to  complete  the 
general  disgust  and  detestation  of  the  people. 

No  one  felt  the  crushing  disappointment  of  the  fall  of  Calais 
more  than  Mary  herself.  It  was  to  the  dying  woman  the  last  sign 
of  the  Divine  disfavor  and  she  roused  herself  with 
Death  of  frantic  energy  to  continue  her  work.  The  fiery  execu- 
PiieJSovem-  ^^^^^^  Went  on  with  renewed  vigor;  the  rebuilding  and 
beri7,i558.  reestablishing  of  monasteries  continued.  But  the  end 
was  not  far  off.  It  came  on  the  17th  of  November 
1558.  A  few  hours  later  her  old  friend  Cardinal  Pole  also  passed 
away,  broken-hearted  it  would  seem  under  the  treatment  of  the 


586  THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION  [mabt 

new  pope  Paul  IV.  who,  inspired  by  his  French  sympathies,  had 
made  Pole  the  victim  of  his  hatred  of  Philip,  first  depriving  him 
of  his  legatine  powers,  and  then,  to  justify  the  act,  charging  him 
with  heresy. 

Mary  was  a  good  woman  spoiled  by  the  fatal  superstition  which 
confounded  religion  with  orthodox  opinion.  Had  she  lived  in 
better  times  she  might  have  proved  a  worthy  queen. 
^pMar^^  Eeligions  party  hatred  has  made  of  her  a  monster,  but 
she  seems  to  have  been  well  educated,  amiable  in  man- 
ner, and  not  altogether  unpleasing,  until  she  became  haggard  by 
disease  and  a  breaking  heart. ^  No  monarch  was  ever  more  con- 
scientious in  the  fulfillment  of  a  monarch's  high  responsibilities; 
none  more  sincere  in  the  unflinching  pursuit  of  what  she  deemed 
to  be  right.  It  was  impossible  for  the  daughter  of  Catharine  of 
Aragon  to  be  other  than  a  bitter  enemy  of  the  Reformation.  But 
she  was  not  cruel  by  nature;  few  political  executions  would  have 
attended  her  accession  to  the  throne,  had  not  the  foolish  rebellion 
of  Suffolk  and  Wyatt  driven  her  to  measures  of  severity.  Her 
religious  persecutions  also  were  inspired  not  by  a  thirst  for  blood, 
but  by  her  passionate  desire  to  save  the  souls  of  the  millions  of  her 
countrymen,  who,  as  she  sincerely  believed,  were  in  danger  of 
eternal  damnation  because  of  the  errancy  of  a  few  religious 
teachers.  In  this  use  of  political  power  she  was  upheld  by  the 
convictions  of  the  most  enlightened  men  of  her  time. 

'  Gold  win  Smith,  The  United  Kingdom,  I.  pp.,  358,  359. 


CHAPTER  VI 

ELIZABETH;  THE   REFORM    ESTABLISHED 

ELIZABETH  155fi-15Si 

THE  STUART  SUCCESSION 
Margaret  Tudor,  eldest  daughter  of  Henry  VII. 
m.  (1)  James  IY.  of  Scotland         m.  (2)  Archibald  Douglas,  Earl  of  Angus 


V.= 


James  V.  =  Mary  of  Guise  Margaret  =  Matthew  Stuart,  Earl 


of  Scotland 


of  Lennox,  d.  1571 


Mary,  =  Henry  Stuart,  liord  Charles  Stuart,  Earl  of 

executed  1587     I        Darnley  I        Lennox 

James  VI.  of  Scotland,  1567-1625  Arabella  Stuart,  died 

and  L  of  England,  160S-16-^  1615 


Although  Elizabeth  was  barely  twenty-five  when  she  came  to 
tKe  throne,  her  life  had  been  so  fraught  with  dangers  and  crowded 

with  experiences  that  she  was  already  old  in  wisdom. 
EUzaheth^^    It  is  said,  that  she  was  very  beautiful  and  possessed  all 

the  accomplishments  of  the  great  lady  of  her  day;  she 
could  speak  Latin,  Italian,  or  French,  and  could  read  Greek;  she 
was  well  versed  in  theology,  history,  and  other  branches  of  the 
learning  of  the  time.  She  had  her  father's  masculine  will,  his 
shrewd  knack  of  judging  men  and  things,  and  his  coarse  but 
direct  way  of  expressing  himself.  She  had  her  mother's  coquetry 
and  freedom  of  manner,  her  vanity  and  love  of  admiration;  she 
had  her  father's  fondness  for  dress  and  display.  But  unlike  either, 
her  passions  were  never  given  the  leash.  She  could  be  as  par- 
simonious as  Henry  VII. ;  she  could  be  as  patient  and  self-con- 
trolled in  working  toward  an  end.  Of  personal  religion,  she  knew 
nothing;  conscience  with  her  was  a  matter  of  policy  rather  than  of 
feeling.  She  could  lie  most  impudently ;  she  could  be  as  rough 
and  boisterous  and  profane  as  one  of  her  Dover  sailors.  She  could 
be  as  voluble  as  a  fishwife  in  the  torrent  of  abuse  which  she 
might  pour  upon  the  luckless  minister  who  happened  to  rouse  her 

587 


588  THE    REFORM   ESTABLISHED  [elizabeth 

wrath,  spitting  in  his  face  or  making  his  head  ring  with  a  sound- 
ing box  on  the  ears. 

In  state-craft  she  was  a  master,  and  with  marvelous  insight 
grasped  the  conditions  which  confronted  her.  And  yet  possibly 
her  tastes  served  her  here  fully  as  much  as  her  native 
m^beth  shrewdness.  She  hated  extravagance  in  the  use  of  pub- 
lic funds;  hence  her  conduct  of  the  treasury  was  sparing 
even  to  parsimoniousness,  but  in  parsimony  was  salvation.  She 
hated  extravagance  in  religion  as  well  and  had  no  sympathy  with 
the  ultra  Protestants;  hence  she  was  conservative  in  her  religions 
policy,  and  probably  would  have  remained  a  Catholic  if  the  church 
had  not  disowned  her.  As  it  was,  she  drifted  with  the  people, 
restraining  the  excesses  of  either  party,  but  yielding  when  she 
must  to  the  will  of  the  nation.  She  hated  the  French  and  was 
suspicious  of  the  Spaniards;  hence  she  would  ally  herself  with 
neither,  but  coquetted  with  both,  deceived  both,  and  accomplished 
her  end  at  last,  keeping  England  out  of  "foreign  entanglements" 
and  giving  the  country  peace  for  twenty  years.  In  a  word  she 
proposed  to  do  nothing,  to  allow  her  foreign  enemies  to  wear 
themselves  out  in  the  suicidal  struggle  which  was  distracting 
Europe,  while  England  recovered  its  wasted  energies.  This  emi- 
nently shrewd  and  characteristic  policy,  with  rare  skill  and  patience, 
she  followed  steadily  during  a  reign  of  forty-five  years. 

When  Elizabeth  began  her  reign,  the  realm  was  in  a  critical 
condition.  The  bitter  memories  of  the  past  were  fresh  and  the 
agents  of  Mary's  cruelties  still  held  the  high  places  in 
Difflcuities  chnrch  and  state.  The  country  was  in  the  midst  of  a 
Elizabeth.  disastrous  war  with  France  and  Scotland.  The  king- 
dom was  practically  defenseless;  it  was  without  an 
army,  without  a  navy,  and  its  fortifications  were  crumbling.  The 
treasury  was  empty;  the  currency  was  in  confusion;  trade  was  lan- 
guishing, and  taxes  were  heavy.  During  the  last  three  years  of 
Mary's  reign,  moreover,  the  land  had  been  ravaged  by  famine  and 
pestilence,  and  the  people  were  still  suffering.  They  were  just  in 
the  mood,  therefore,  to  cast  themselves  with  terrible  energy  into  a 
reaction  which  threatened  to  be  even  more  violent,  more  terri- 
ble, more  destructive  of  life  and  property  than  the  Marian  per- 


1558]  WILLIAM    CECIL  589 

sedition,  if  it  did  not  end  in  civil  war.  The  question  of  the  succes- 
sion, also,  was  by  no  means  settled ;  the  spent  storm  of  the  fifteenth 
century  still  hovered  darkly  above  the  horizon  and  the  queen's 
right  to  the  throne  was  certain  to  be  challenged  by  the  Catholic 
powers.  France  was  sure  to  press  the  claims  of  Mary  of  Scot- 
land, and  the  pope,  strongly  French  in  his  sympathies,  was  cer- 
tain to  issue  a  bull  of  excommunication  whenever  the  French 
court  gave  the  word.  Such  was  the  forbidding  outlook  when 
Elizabeth  took  up  the  work  of  her  unhappy  sister. 

Almost  the  first  important  act  of  Elizabeth  was  to  make 
William  Cecil  Secretary  of  State.  He  was  born  in  1520  in  Lin- 
colnshire and  educated  at  Cambridge.  He  had  entered 
^]!li^"^  into  the  service  of  Henry  VIII.  and  after  his  death  had 
become  Somerset's  private  secretary.  Under  Dudley's 
administration  he  had  held  high  office  and,  although  he  had 
declared  for  Queen  Jane,  his  life  had  been  spared.  During  Mary's 
reign  he  had  remained  in  obscurity,  finding  shelter  with  many 
others  who  had  been  of  Edward's  court,  by  conforming  to  the 
dominant  religion.  Another  important  appointment  of  Elizabeth 
was  that  of  Matthew  Parker,  the  old  chaplain  of  her  mother,  to 
the  position  left  vacant  by  Pole's  death.  Both  men  were  moder- 
ate Protestants  and  were  one  with  Elizabeth  in  her  desire  to 
restore  the  tranquillity  of  the  realm.  To  Nicholas  Bjicon,  the 
brother-in-law  of  Cecil,  was  committed  the  keeping  of  the  Great 
Seal. 

The  religious  question  demanded  immediate  settlement.  The 
nation  was  still  Catholic,  both  in  form  and  in  sentiment,  although 
the  people  were  weary  of  the  church  courts  and  their 
and^uie^  heresy  trials,  and  were  generally  disgusted  with  the 
Qv^tion  tyranny  of  priests.  The  new  pope,  Paul  IV.,  more- 
over, was  apparently  inclined  to  demand  the  surrender 
of  the  church  lands,  and  in  that  event  the  papacy  also  would 
inevitably  come  in  for  a  share  in  the  revulsion  of  feeling  roused  by 
the  excesses  of  Mary  and  her  pro- Spanish  policy.  Yet  Elizabeth 
hesitated  to  break  with  the  papacy.  She  was  more  Catholic  than 
Protestant  in  her  sympathies  and  had  no  desire  to  commit 
England  again  to  the  Reformation.     But  Anne  Boleyn's  daughter 


590  THE    REFORM    ESTABLISHED  [Elizabeth 

conld  never  expect  the  recognition  of  Rome.  If  England  were 
to  remain  Catholic,  Mary  of  Scotland  and  not  Elizabeth  must  be 
accepted  as  the  legitimate  sovereign,  and  Paul  IV.,  a  man  any- 
thing but  conciliatory,  refused  outright  to  recognize  the  right  of 
the  new  queen  to  the  succession.  If  Elizabeth  would  reign  there- 
fore, she  must  take  up  again  the  work  of  her  father.  But  here 
she  was  confronted  by  the  danger  of  excessive  reaction.  The 
Protestant  exiles  were  already  trooping  back  from  Germany  and 
the  Low  Countries,  and,  vociferous  for  change,  were  inciting  the 
London  mob  to  attack  the  mass  and  all  popish  observances.  Yet 
Elizabeth  would  not  be  hurried.  She  insisted  on  having  mass  in 
Latin,  but  she  permitted  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed,  to  be  used  in  English. 
She  stopped  the  persecutions  for  heresy,  but  forbade  controversy. 
She  refused  to  disturb  Mary's  bishops  and  assured  Philip  that  she 
believed  in  transubstantiation. 

When  parliament  came  together  early  in  1559  the  cautious  mod- 
eration  of   Elizabeth  was   fully  justified.     The   most  of    Mary's 

ecclesiastical  legislation  was  repealed,  but  of  eighteen 
legisiatum  ^  ecclcsiastical  acts  of  Henry  VIII.  which  had  been 
jirstpariia-     repealed  by  Mary,  only  ten  were  revived,  and  of  nine  of 

Edward  VI.,  only  one.^  A  new  Abt  of  Supremacy 
declared  the  queen  to  be  "over  all  persons  and  causes,  as  well 
ecclesiastical  as  civil,  within  these  dominions  supreme;"  but  the 
style  "Supreme  Head  of  the  Church"  was  dropped.  A  new  Act  of 
Uniformity  also  appeared ;  but  the  Prayer  Book  was  so  ordered  as 
to  hold  to  a  middle  course,  leaving,  in  language  studiously 
ambiguous,  room  for  the  disciples  of  all  faiths,  so  that  Catholic 
or  Anglican,  Lutheran  or  Calvinist,  might  find  his  creed  in  the 
common  form.  "Such  ornaments  of  the  church  and  ministers 
were  to  be  retained  and  used,  as  were  in  the  Church  of  England  by 
the  authority  of  Parliament  in  the  second  year  of  King  Edward 
VI."  These  measures  were  not  expected  to  satisfy  the  radicals 
of  any  party;  but  they  might  quiet  the  apprehension  of  the  mod- 
erate men  of  all  parties  and  furnish  the  basis  upon  which  English- 

1  See  Gee  and  Hardy,  pp.  442-458.     Cf.   with  Mary's  Acts  of  Repeal, 
lb.,  pp.  377-416. 


1583]  THE   COURT   OF   HIGH    COMMISSION  691 

men  might  live  at  peace  with  each  other.  No  declaration  of  faith 
was  to  be  exacted  from  laymen.  If  a  man  attended  church,  the 
requirements  of  conformity  were  satisfied.  If  he  absented  himself 
from  church,  a  fine  of  12  pence  for  the  household  was  prescribed. 
Officeholders,  whether  lay  or  ecclesiastical,  were  required  to  take 
the  oath  of  supremacy ;  to  fail  was  to  lose  their  position  and  be 
debarred  forever  after  from  entering  the  public  service.  The 
ecclesiastical  officer  who  took  the  oath  and  afterwards  refused  to 
comply  with  the  terms  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  was  to  be  pun- 
ished with  heavy  fines  and  temporary  imprisonment  for  the  first 
and  second  offenses;  for  the  third,  deposition  and  life  imprison- 
ment. These  requirements  for  the  times  were  certainly  moderate 
enough;  but  the  last  provision  showed  that  moderation  was  not 
to  be  taken  as  weakness.  Elizabeth  did  not  mean  to  be  trifled 
with. 

The  church  as  organized  by  Mary  was  not  so  easy  to  manage. 
Convocation  formally  approved  of  transubstantiation  and  the 
papal  supremacy.  The  bishops  in  the  House  of  Lords 
The  reaction  all  spoke  and  voted  against  the  Act  of  Supremacy,  and 
church  when   Elizabeth  demanded  that  they  should  take  the 

oath  only  one  of  the  fourteen  bishops  yielded.  Of  the 
lower  clergy,  however,  out  of  9,000  only  189  refused  the  oath  and 
threw  up  their  posts.  Of  the  others  many,  while  avoiding  the 
oath  under  various  pretexts,  yet  indicated  their  submission  to  the 
new  order.  Elizabeth,  who  had  no  thought  of  driving  them  to 
extremes,  was  apparently  satisfied.  With  the  power  of  making 
episcopal  appointments  in  her  hands,  she  could  wait  for  a  more 
gradual  but  surer  way  of  securing  a  loyal  body  of  ecclesiastics. 

The  Act  of  Supremacy  had  also  empowered  the  queen  to  dele- 
gate authority  to  commissioners  who  should  inquire  into,  and 
punish,  all  violations  of  the  ecclesiastical  laws  of  the 
The  Court  of  kingdom.  At  first  Elizabeth  contented  herself  with 
musirm,  1683.  issuiug  Only  occasional  commissions,  but  there  was  so 
much  work  to  be  done  and  the  docket  soon  fell  so  far 
in  arrears  that  in  1583  a  permanent  court,  the  famous  Court  of 
High  Commission,  was  established,  consisting  of  forty  persons, 
twelve  of  whom  were  bishops. 


592  THE    REFORM    ESTABLISHED  [Elizabeth 

Elizabeth   found    on  her  accession  that   Philip  II.   of  Spain 
seriously  desired  to  be  her  friend ;  for  since  Mary  Queen  of  Scots 

was  man'ied  to  the  Dauphin,  Philip  was  forced  to  support 
alidPhmp      Elizabeth  against  Mary.     This  necessity  was  England's 

salvation;  for  England  in  1558  could  have  coped  with 
neither  kingdom  successfully.  In  his  anxiety  to  retain  Elizabeth 
as  his  ally,  Philip  proposed  marriage.  Elizabeth,  however,  had 
no  inclination  to  marry  the  cold  and  politic  Spaniard  of  whom  she 
had  seen  quite  enough  in  her  sister's  court.  Yet  it  was  far  bet- 
ter to  keep  Philip  dangling  as  a  suitor,  than  to  part  with  him 
definitely,  and  this  perhaps  pleased  Philip  quite  as  well,  for  until 
his  suit  should  be  dismissed,  Elizabeth  at  least  would  not  support 
his  enemies.  He  remained,  therefore,  ostensibly  her  friend,  and 
in  the  final  treaty  with  Erance,  faithfully  supported  the  English 
claims. 

The  treaty  of  Ciiteau  Cambresis,  April  1559,  marks  the  close 
of  the  long  series  of  political  wars  which  had  been  stirred  up  by 

the  ambition  of  Charles  YIII.  Erom  this  date  until 
tyrisisand  the  treaty  of  Westphalia  1648,  the  wars  of  Europe  are 
ditwmfoi-  no  longer  fought  for  mere  political  advantage,  bat 
*^^^^'  '  are  dominated  by  the  issues  of  the  great  religious  con- 
troversy of  the  age.  The  Erench  Henry  II.  survived  the  peace 
barely  three  months,  sacrificed  to  the  love  of  his  people  for  the 
sport  of  the  tourney.  Francis  11.  succeeded  to  the  throne 
and  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  was  thus  also  Queen  of  Erance.  The 
union  of  the  two  crowns,  however,  did  not  last  long.  Erancis 
died  in  15 GO  without  issue  and  Mary  returned  to  her  own 
people. 

During  the  fifteen  years  in  which  Mary  had  dwelt  in  France,  con- 
ditions in  Scotland  had  been  rapidly  changing.     The  Eeformation 

had  been  given  an  enthusiastic  support  by  both  people 
matumia       and  nobility.     The  nobles  still  enjoyed  their  old  feudal 

privileges,  and  like  the  English  nobles  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  could  bring  small  armies  of  retainers  into  the  field  to  defy 
the  crown  and  the  courts.  The  church  was  rich  and  corrupt,  and 
naturally  fearing  the  barons,  sided  with  the  crown  in  its  struggle 
with  its  great  subjects.     The  barons,  therefore,  were  ready  to  take 


1559]  JOHN   KNOX  59^ 

up  the  Keformation  as  a  new  weapon  against  the  crown,  since 
they  could  thus  strike  down  its  strongest  ally;  but  the  bishops, 
encouraged  by  the  turn  of  affairs  in  England  during  Mary's  reign, 
were  fully  determined  to  arrest  the  spread  of  reforming  heresies  in 
Scotland,  and  had  resorted  to  persecution.  When,  however,  Eliza- 
beth ascended  the  English  throne,  the  Protestants  took  fresh  heart. 
A  group  of  nobles  signed  a  covenant,  and  styling  themselves  'Hhe 
Lords  of  the  Congregation,"  demanded  the  English  Prayer  Book 
and  prepared  to  defend  their  faith. 

In    1559    the    Scottish    Protestants    received    an    important 
accession  to  their  ranks  in  the  person  of  John  Knox.     Knox  had 

been  taken  at  St.  Andrews  Castle  by  the  French  in  the 
John  Knox,    early  days  of  Seymour's  protectorate  and  sent  to  the 

galleys;  later  he  had  been  chaplain  to  Edward  VI.,  but 
on  the  incoming  of  the  Catholic  reaction  had  escaped  to  the  con- 
tinent. At  Geneva  he  came  under  the  direct  influence  of  John 
Calvin  and  adopted  his  views.  From  this  safe  retreat,  also,  he 
issued  his  fiery  attack  upon  Mary,  **The  Monstrous  Regiment  of 
Women."  He  was  imperious,  uncompromising,  and  of  dauntless 
courage.  When  he  returned  to  Scotland  in  1559  he  devoted  all 
his  terrible  logical  powers  to  the  attack  upon  the  prevailing  cus- 
toms of  the  church.  His  eloquence  was  irresistible;  his  stinging 
satire,  his  hard  scorn,  lashed  the  people  to  frenzy.  At  Perth  the 
vast  congregation  rose  from  one  of  his  sermons  to  loot  the  cathe- 
dral, smashing  the  windows,  ripping  up  the  pictures,  and  demol- 
ishing the  images.  From  Perth  the  frenzy  of  destruction  spread 
over  Scotland.  The  Queen  Regent,  Mary  of  Guise,  attempted  to 
interfere;  but  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation  sheltered  and 
encouraged  the  iconoclasts.  Open  war  broke  out.  The  Regent 
called  upon  the  French  court  for  help.  The  Lords  turned  to 
Elizabeth,  and  proposed  to  her  a  match  with  the  earl  of  Arran 
who  stood  next  to  Mary  Stuart  in  the  line  of  succession.  But  the 
high-spirited  English  queen  found  little  to  her  liking  in  the  weak- 
minded  earl ;  moreover,  the  marriage  would  have  been  attended  by 
an  immediate  attempt  to  dethrone  Mary  in  Arran's  interest,  a  step 
which  Elizabeth  knew  w^oiild  at  once  combine  the  Catholic  powers 
of  Europe  against  her.     But  beyond  mere  reasons  of  state  Eliza- 


/\Mc 


594  THE    REFORM    ESTABLISHED  [elizabkth 

beth  had  little  sympathy  with  the  excesses  of  the  Congregation ; 
she  hated  Presbyterianism,  detested  Knox,  and  was  suspicious  of 
rebels  of  all  kinds.  Yet  she  could  not  permit  the  French  to  regain 
control  of  Scotland.  She  agreed,  therefore,  against  her  inclina- 
tion, to  assist  the  Lords  to  drive  out  the  French,  but  they  must 
remain  loyal  to  their  queen.  In  July  15G0  the  Treaty  of  Edin- 
burgh afforded  a  momentary  settlement,  compelling  the  expulsion 
of  the  French  and  securing  toleration  for  the  Protestants.  The 
Scottish  reformers,  however,  were  not  the  kind  of  men  to  be  satis- 
fied with  half  measures,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  recent  death 
of  the  Queen  Regent  proceeded  to  attack  the  legal  foundations  of 
the  church,  and  by  act  of  parliament  swept  away  the  old  church 
establishment  and  enjoined  the  Calvinistic  form  in  its  place.  The 
Lords  thus  far  had  supported  the  reform  partly  for  political  rea- 
sons and  partly  because  they  desired  to  plunder  the  church  as  the 
English  Lords  had  done  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  and  Edward. 
When,  however,  the  time  came  to  enjoy  the  spoils,  they  found  an 
insurmountable  obstacle  in  John  Knox,  who  had  no  desire  to  see 
the  church  stripped  to  satisfy  the  greed  of  the  nobles,  and  threw 
all  his  fiery  energy  into  the  new  struggle  between  the  reformed 
clergy  and  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation. 

Things  were  at  this  pass  when  Mary  returned  to  her  kingdom 
August  15G1.     She  was  a  gay,  light-hearted  girl  of  nineteen, 

highly  cultured,  full  of  the  spirit  of  the  French  renais- 
£S(  ^^^       sance,  and  with  an  irresistible  way  of  drawing  the  hearts 

of  those  who  came  in  contact  with  her,  very  marked  in 
contrast  with  the  cold  and  haughty  Elizabeth.  Her  intellectual 
powers  also  were  as  marked;  she  could  plot  with  Italian  cunning 
and  possessed  withal  the  courage  and  will  to  carry  out  her 
schemes ;  but  unfortunately  she  was  not  mistress  of  her  passions. 
She  professed  herself  willing  to  tolerate  Protestantism  and  asked 
only  that  Protestants  tolerate  her  in  turn.  To  this  the  Lords 
assented,  but  Knox,  the  watch-dog  of  the  new  Scottish  church,  cried 
out  in  horror  against  it,  declaring  that  one  mass  was  **more  fear- 
ful unto  him  than  ten  thousand  armed  enemies. "  Between  Knox 
and  such  as  Mary  there  could  be  neither  sympathy  nor  compro- 
mise. 


1560]  PEACE    POLICY    OF    ELIZABETH  595 

An  era  of  turmoil  and  strife  followed.     Elizabeth's  sympathies 

were  with  her  sister  monarch ;   her  monarchical  instincts  always 

strong   with  her,  as  with   her  father,   forbade  her  to- 

Eiizabeth's     encourasre  rebellion.     But  Mary  claimed  to  be  by  right 

nolicy  toward,  jo 

Mary.  of  birth  the  legitimate  heir  to  the  English  throne  after 

K^  Mary  Tudor,  and  this  claim  she  would  not  surrender, 

y^m^  Elizabeth  would  recognize  her  as  her  successor.  This, 
however,  Elizabeth  would  not  do;  her  Protestant  subjects  feared 
the  Scottish  queen  and  had  no  wish  to  see  another  Catholic  Mary 
on  the  English  throne.  Elizabeth  contented  herself,  therefore, 
with  encouraging  the  Scottish  Lords  in  order  to  keep  Mary  busy 
at  home  and  prevent  the  formation  of  a  party  in  her  favor  in 
England;  for  the  English  Catholics  were  just  as  fearful  of  a 
Protestant  succession  and  looked  to  Mary  for  the  solution  of  their 
troubles. 

The  English  parliament  thought  to  settle  the  troublesome 
question  by  finding  a  husband  for  Elizabeth  and  more  than  once 
petitioned  her  on  the  subject;  she  answered  graciously 
T/ie proposed  hut  cvasively,  and  continued  to  keep  her  suitors  waiting. 
l^SbethJ^  In  1501  it  was  supposed  that  she  was  about  to  marry 
>C  Lord  Robert  Dudley,  her  first  favorite,  the  handsome 
but  /worthless  son  of  the  late  duke  of  Northumberland. 

For  the  first  ten  years  of  her  reign,  Elizabeth  steadily  persisted 
in  her  purpose  to  remain  at  peace.     *'No  war,  my  lords,"  was  her. 
oft-repeated  rejoinder  at  the  council  board.     Her  gov- 
ofEUmbeih    ^rnmcut    had   been    peaceful   and    economical.       The 
country  was  recovering  rapidly  from  the  disorder  which 
had  confronted  her  on  her  accession.     She  restored  the  coinage  in 
1560  and  recovered  the  credit  of  the  government.     She 
r^un-ed         repaired  and  garrisoned  her  fortresses  and  once  more 
September,     brought  the  navy  up  to  a  respectable  footing.     More- 
over, her  studied  policy  of  conciliation  and  her  persist- 
ent refusal  to  side  with  extremists  had  created  a  new  national  party 
who  put  their  interests  as  Englishmen  over  against  those  of  church 
or  party,  and  who  were  increasing  every  year  in  strength  and  num- 
ber.    Her  policy  of  shielding  herself  from  foreign  attack  behind 
the  rivalry  of  France  and  Spain  had  also  succeeded.      As  the 


596  THE    REFORM    ESTABLISHED  '        [Elizabeth 

Reformation  progressed  and  both,  states  were  weakened  by  revolts 
of  their  Protestant  subjects,  the  prospect  of  interference  became 
even  more  remote.  It  was  Elizabeth's  policy,  moreover,  without 
committing  herself,  to  encourage  Protestants  on  the  continent  as  in 
Scotland.  She  particularly  feared  the  Guises,  who  led  the  Cath- 
olic nobility  against  the  Huguenots,  and  who  as  uncles  of  the  Scot- 
tish queen  were  ready  to  support  her  in  pressing  her  claims  to  the 
English  throne.  In  1562,  the  French  queen  mother,  the  famous 
Catharine  de  Medici,  attempted  to  give  the  Huguenots  religious 
toleration,  but  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  Guises.  The  result 
was  a  civil  war,  in  which  Elizabeth  gave  some  assistance  to  the 
Huguenots  and  received  Havre  in  pledge.  The  war,  however,  was 
not  creditable  to  English  arms  and  in  1564  Elizabeth  retired  from 
the  struggle.  And,  although  she  continued  cautiously  to  encour- 
age the  Huguenots  when  opportunity  offered,  it  became  more 
definitely  than  ever  her  policy  to  keep  out  of  war  with  France  as 
well  as  Spain. 

The  same  policy  which  led  Elizabeth  to  interfere  in  the  strug- 
gle of  the  Huguenots  led  her  also  to  adopt  stricter  measures  in 
restraining  her  Catholic  subiects  at  home.  Their  sym- 
Elizabeth  pathies  were  naturally  roused  by  the  convulsion  which 
Catholics  of  was  distracting  1^  rance  and  their  attitude  was  becoming 
more  aggressive.  The  violent  Protestants  were  also 
urging  the  government  forward.  The  Act  of  1562  which  com- 
pelled all  teachers,  all  university  students,  all  lawyers  and  all  law 
officers,  and  all  members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  to  take  the 
oath  of  supremacy,  not  only  rid  the  government  of  annoying 
obstructionists,  but  made  the  Commons  more  strongly  Protestant 
than  ever.  The  next  year  parliament  advanced  another  step  in 
adding  to  the  Prayer  Book  the  Thirty -Nine  Articles^  which  were 
based  on  the  forty-two  articles  of  Edward  VI.  and  broadly  defined 
the  doctrines  of  the  Anglican  Church,  robbing  the  Catholics  of 
the  shelter  of  the  ambiguity  of  Elizabeth's  Prayer  Book. 

These  measures,  however,  were  not  radical  enough  to  satisfy 
the  ultra  Protestants  and  the  same  year  an  unseemly  and  bitter 
controversy  arose  within  the  Protestant  ranks  over  the  continued 
use  of  vestments  in  the  church  service.     Extreme  Protestants, 


1565]  THE    PURITANS  597 

soon  to  be  known  as  Puritans,  objected  to  continuing  the  forms 
or  ceremonies,  which  had  been  inherited  from  the  old  church. 
They  objected  to  the  Prayer  Book,  because  it  had  been  taken  from 

the  old  Mass  Book;  they  objected  to  kneeling  at  the 
Division  in  Sacramental  service,  because  the  act  appeared  like  an 
tcmfrarSs  adoration  of  the  Host ;  they  objected  to  the  sign  of 
The  Puritans,  ^he  cross  at  baptism,  because  it  seemed  to  them  like 

an  incantation  more  worthy  of  paganism  than  Chris- 
tianity. They  objected  also  to  the  claim  of  archbishop  or  bishop  to 
the  possession  of  any  special  spiritual  powers.  The  great  body  of 
Puritans  had  no  thought  at  first  of  separating  themselves  from 
the  Anglican  Church  but  sought  to  continue  the  reform  within 
the  national  church,  replacing  the  episcopacy  by  a  government  of 
synods  and  elders  after  the  Genevan  or  Presbyterian  model.     One 

section,  however,  known  as  Separatists,  rejected  both 
'arathS         forms  of  church  organization  and  taught  that  the  only 

form  sanctioned  in  the  Scriptures  was  the  Congrega- 
tional, based  upon  the  independence  of  each  body  of  believers. 

Elizabeth  had  no  sympathy  with   Puritanism.      The  quarrel 
over  forms  and  vestments  exasperated  her,  but  she  needed  the 

Puritans  and  knew  that  they  were  not  to  be  trifled 
and  the  with.     After  an  attempt  in  1505  to  compel  them  to 

conform,  she  determined  to  put  up  with  their  vagaries 
and  to  give  her  attention  to  the  more  serious  problems  which 
immediately  threatened  her  throne  and  which  warned  her  to  be 

tolerant  of  Puritanism.     In  1563  the  famous  Council  of 

The  Council  ,    ^        -,     n      •    ^        i    •,  1  T11T  '  1 

of  Trent,        Trent  had  finished  its  work.     It  had  become  evident  to 

1545-1563. 

the  leaders  of  the  old  church  that  it  was  useless  to 
attempt  to  find  any  common  ground  of  compromise  which  would 
satisfy  the  reformers,  short  of  the  abandonment  of  the  papal  sys- 
tem and  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Yet 
it  was  possible  to  reform  the  abuses  within  the  church,  the  out- 
growth of  feudal  influence  largely,  which  had  been  a  cause  of  grief 
to  good  Catholics  long  before  they  had'  been  made  the  object  of 
attack  by  Protestants.  There  was,  however,  to  be  no  wavering  in 
restating  the  accepted  doctrines  of  the  church  or  in  reaffirming  the 
papal  supremacy,  and  upon  this  basis  arose  the  movement  known 


m  1 


598  THE    REFORM    ESTABLISHED  [Elizabeth 

as  the  Counter-Eeformation  which  was  destined  to  save  Catholicism 
in  Europe.     Its  success  was  largely  due  to  the  devoted  energy  of 
the  ''Company  of  Jesus,"  a  new  order,  which  had  been 
panyofjesus  established  by  Ignatius  Loyola  in  1540.     The  members 
were  devoted  to  the  restoration  of  the  church ;    and  to 
this  end  they  preached,  and  taught,  and  sent  out  missionaries,  trained 
and  disciplined  to  act   with  the  promptness   and  unquestioning 
obedience  of  the  soldier.     It  was  this  powerful  Catholic 
Puritan^m     ^^^^^Jon  on  the  continent,  which  had  been  thus  success- 
fully inaugurated,  that  now  aroused  Elizabeth   by  its 
aggressive  vigor  and  inclined  her  to  look  with  more  tolerance  upon 
the  demand  of  the  Puritans  for  stricter  laws  in  restraining  Cath- 
olics. 

Thus  far  Mary  had  managed  to  hold  her  own  in  Scotland;  but 
in  1565   she  determined  upon  a  course  which  ultimately  united 
Elizabeth,  England,    and  the  Scottish   people  against 
Mary'sun-     her.       Bv    marrvinef  for    her   second   husband   Henry 

fortunate^ 

h)ve  affairs.  Stuart,  Lord  Darnley,  the  son  of  her  father's  lialf- 
sister,  she  hoped  to  unite  the  two  lines  of  Stuart 
succession  and  strengthen  her  cause.  Darnley  was  weak  and 
vicious,  without  capacity  for  politics,  personally  objectionable  to 
Elizabeth,  and  a  Catholic.  But  Mary,  blind  to  all  peril,  deaf  to 
all  entreaties,  for  the  moment  was  infatuated  with  her  tall  and 
handsome  cousin,  only  to  repent  later  of  her  impetuous  folly.  The 
foolish  youth  proved  himself  so  unworthy  of  the  queen's  confi- 
dence that  she  refused  to  allow  him  to  be  crowned  at  her  side.  He 
turned  for  comfort  to  the  Scottish  lords,  who  persuaded  him  that 
the  queen's  secretary,  an  Italian  named  David  Rizzio,  was  his  rival 
in  the  queen's  affections,  and  so  worked  upon  him,  that,  crazed 
with  jealousy,  one  eveningjn  Miirch  1566,  supported  by  a  band  of 
Protestant  IoinJsT"^"  broke  into  Mary's  drawing-room.  The 
unhappy  secretary  was  seized,  dragged  from  the  queen's  presence 
and  stabbed  to  death.  In  less  than  a  year  Darnley  himself  was 
assassinated  by  the  connivance  of  the  earl  of  Bothwell,  a  wild,  law- 
less nature,  who  was  allowed  not  only  to  secure  an  acquittal  by- 
overawing  his  judges,  but  to  carry  off  Mary  and  marry  her, 
apparently  with  her  consent. 


1567-1577]  FALL   OF   MARY    QUEEN    OF    SCOTS  599 

This  act  of  Both  well  was  Mary's  death  warrant.     All  Scotland 

believed  that  she  had  herself  planned  the  murder  of  her  husband 

and  had   willingly  sdven   herself   to   Bothwell.      The 

Fall  of  Mary  ,  .    "^      ,  -,    .      -r  ^     i        ,,, 

Queen  of        people  rose  against  her  and  m  June  1567,  Bothwells 

retainers  having  deserted  him,  Mary  surrendered  to  the 
Lords  at  Carberry  Hill.  Bothwell  escaped  to  Orkney  and  after  a 
wandering  life  was  seized  by  the  Danes  and  finally  died  in  prison  in 
1577.  Mary  was  brought  to  Edinburgh  amid  the  execrations  of 
the  people,  and  shut  up  in  Lochleven  Castle;  Darnley's  son  James, 
a  child  one  year  old,  was  proclaimed  King  of  Scotland.     In  May 

1568  Mary  succeeded  in  making  her  escape,  and  sum- 
Mau^is^isb-s    "toning  the  Catholics  to  her  side,  attempted  to  regain 

her  crown.  But  she  was  defeated  at  Langside  near 
Glasgow,  and  compelled  once  more  to  flee  from  the  face  of  her 
angry  people. 

In  Scotland  there  was  no  longer  resting  place  or  safety  for  the 
unhappy  queen;   in  her  despair  she  determined  to  present  herself 

at  the  threshold  of  her  sister  sovereign  and  rival,  and 
EfiSabeth.       ^.ppeal  to  her  for  protection  and  support.     Elizabeth 

pretended  to  investigate  the  matter  and  called  upon  the 
Scottish  lords  to  justify  their  act  of  rebellion.  In  reply,  they  pro- 
duced a  casket  of  letters,  alleged  to  have  been  written  by  Mary  to 
Bothwell  which  if  genuine  proved  her  complicity  in  Darnley's 
murder.  Genuine  or  not,  Mary  refused  to  answer  the  charge  or 
to  recognize  the  commission  which  had  been  appointed  virtually  to 
try  her.  She  refused  also  to  abdicate  in  favor  of  her  son,  or  make 
any  concessions  to  her  rebellious  subjects.  Elizabeth  could  not 
bring  herself  to  give  up  Mary  to  her  subjects;  she  dared  not  offend 
them  by  releasing  her.  Almost  against  her  will,  therefore,  she 
was  led  to  confine  the  exile  at  Tutbury.  Mary's  beauty,  her  wit, 
her  fascinating  ways,  her  misfortunes,  made  her  a  dangerous 
prisoner.  Thomas  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the  son  of  the  earl  of  Sur- 
rey, one  of  Henry  VIII. 's  last  victims,  had  already  become  infatu- 
ated, and  encouraged  by  the  support  of  a  number  of  Catholic 
nobles,  including  Thomas  Percy  Earl  of  Northumberland  and 
Charles  Neville  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  proposed  to  marry  Mary, 
who  was  to  be  acknowledged  as  Elizabeth's  successor.     Elizabeth 


600  THE    REFORM    ESTABLISHED  [Elizabeth 

promptly  threw  Norfolk  into  prison,  whereupon  an  insurrection  led 
by  Northumberland  and  Westmoreland  broke  out  in  the  Catholic 
north.  But  Elizabeth  was  too  quick  for  the  malcontent  nobles. 
She  suppressed  the  revolt  with  cruelty  and  severely  punished  those 
engaged  in  it ;  every  market  town  between  the  Wharfe  and  Tyne  was 
graced  with  a  group  of  hanging  rebels.  Northumberland  escaped 
to  Scotland  but  was  delivered  to  Elizabeth  and  executed  in  1572. 

The  time  had  now  come  when  no  amount  of  skillful  fencing 
could  longer  delay  the  crisis  which  had  been  threatening  Elizabeth 
ever  since  her  accession  to  the  throne.  In  February 
^hfS-i^iT^  1570  Pope  Pius  Y.  issued  the  long  expected  bull  of 
reS^"^^^^'*  excommunication  and  deposition,  freeing  all  the  sub- 
jects of  Elizabeth  from  their  oath  of  allegiance  and  in 
the  minds  of  many  not  only  justifying  open  rebellion  but  the 
secret  plot  of  the  assassin.  Elizabeth  was  now  strong  in  the  confi- 
dence of  the  great  part  of  her  people;  yet  this  loyalty  had  never 
been  put  to  the  test  and  the  open  declaration  of  war  by  the  pope 
caused  no  small  anxiety  on  the  part  of  the  queen  and  her  council- 
lors, and  naturally  roused  suspicion  and  distrust  of  all  her  Catholic 
subjects.  She  had,  however,  little  cause  for  alarm.  Scotland 
was  now  committed  not  only  to  the  Eeformation  but  to  an  alliance 
with  England  as  well.  Mary  the  only  rival  whom  she  might  fear 
was  in  her  hands.  The  Catholic  government  of  France  was  strug- 
gling to  retain  its  position  against  the  rising  power  of  tlie  Hugue- 
nots. Spain  was  fully  occupied  in  maintaining  her  hold  upon  the 
Netherlands,  where  her  subjects  under  the  lead  of  William  of 
Orange  had  arisen  against  her  civil  and  ecclesiastical  tyrannies. 
Elizabeth,  therefore,  had  nothing  to  fear  from  either  France  or 
Spain;  yet  it  se3med  good  policy  to  make  friends  if  possible,  and 
the  subject  of  a  foreign  marriage  was  once  more  broached.  In  1571 
the  negotiations  seemed  at  last  about  to  bear  fruit  in  a  union 
with  the  duke  of  Alen9on,  the  youngest  brother  of  Charles  IX.  It 
is  not  at  all  likely  that  Elizabeth  was  any  more  serious  now  than 
before,  but  for  eleven  years  she  managed  to  retain  the  avowed 
friendship  of  France ;  the  little  duke  of  Alen9on,  whom  Elizabeth 
playfully  called  her  frog,  came  and  went,  her  recognized  suitor, 
Elizabeth  always  contriving  to  find  excuse  for  delaying  the  mar- 


1572]  THE    RIDOLFI    PLOT  601 

riage  and  in  the  meantime  enjoying  the  full  benefit  of  a  French 
alliance  as  a  foil  to  the  threatening  attitude  of  Spain.  In  case  of 
attack,  either  country  was  to  assist  the  other;  they  were  also  not 
to  interfere  in  Scottish  affairs  nor  allow  any  one  else  to  do  so. 

In  1572  the  excommunication  bore  its  first  fruits  in  the  Ridolfi 
plot.     Norfolk  had  been  spared  in  1569,  but  learning  little  wisdom 

from  failure  he  had  continued  his  plotting,  carrying  on 
The  Ridolfi     ^  treasonable  correspondence  with   Duke  Alva  in   the 

Netherlands  through  an  Italian  broker  named  Ridolfi. 
Ridolfi  lived  in  London  but  his  business  often  carried  him  to  the 
continent  and  it  was  thought  that  he  would  thus  escape  suspicion. 
But  Cecil,  now  Lord  Burghley,  early  learned  of  the  plot  and 
shadowed  the  conspirators  until  he  had  obtained  evidence  sufficient 
to  establish  the  charge  of  treason,  fully  implicating  Norfolk, 
Mary,  and  others.     Norfolk  was  seized  and  put  to  death. 

Before  1571  Elizabeth  had  not  summoned  a  parliament  for 
nearly  five  years.     She  had  avoided  parliaments  as  the  simplest 

way  of  preventing  the  radical  views  of  the  Puritans 
menfoUdii     ^^^"^  coming  to  the  front.     But  it  seemed  necessary 

after  the  bull  of  excommunication  to  give  Europe  some 
new  evidence  of  the  loyalty  of  her  people  and  accordingly  in  the 
spring  of  1571  she  called  a  parliament  together.  It  was  over- 
whelmingly Protestant,  for  the  Supremacy  Act  had  barred  out  the 
Catholics;  nor  did  it  take  long  to  pass  laws  against  the  bringing 
of  papal  bulls  and  other  papal  documents  into  the  kingdom. 
When  the  Ridolfi  plot  was  exposed  in  1572  parliament  also  promptly 
petitioned  for  the  execution  of  Norfolk  and  passed  a  bill  of 
attainder  against  Mary.  Elizabeth,  however,  had  no  thought  of 
sanctioning  the  latter  measure ;  she  was  quite  satisfied  to  have  her 
enemies  know  that  she  stood  between  them  and  the  vengeance  of 
the  nation. 

After  the  execution  of  Norfolk,  a  long  period  of  tranquillity 
followed.      Even    the  massacre  of    St.   Bartholomew,   though  it 

stirred  up  intense  bitterness  in  England,  was  not  allowed 
Immidmty.    *^    disturb    Elizabeth's    friendly   relations    with    the 

French  court.  The  Spaniards  continued  their  desper- 
ate struggle  in  the  Netherlands  and  so  far  from  molesting  England 


602  THE    EEFORM    ESTABLISHED  [elizabkth 

were  not  even  able  to  retaliate  for  the  injuries  inflicted  by  English 
pirates  or  the  encouragement  which  Elizabeth  gave  to  Philip's  rebel- 
lions subjects.  Elizabeth,  however,  still  had  no  wish  for  open  war 
with  Spain,  and  in  1575  declined  the  sovereignty  of  Holland  and 
Zealand,  which  was  offered  her  by  the  Netherlanders.  The  rest- 
lessness of  the  Puritans  caused  her  no  little  uneasiness,  not  because 
she  doubted  their  loyalty,  but  because  they  were  for  driving  on  the 
chariot  of  reform.  The  parliament  of  1572  had  proposed  further 
changes  in  the  Prayer  Book.  The  Puritan  body,  also,had  sent  in  a 
formal  ** Admonition  to  Parliament,"  in  which  they  demanded  the 
abolition  of  episcopacy  and  attacked  the  church  courts,  includ- 
ing the  Court  of  High  Commission.  But  Elizabeth  was  not  to  be 
hurried  and  bade  her  parliament  cease  the  discussion  of  such  sub- 
jects. 

It  was  impossible,  however,  to  keep  the  people  from  thinking 
and  talking,  and  outside  of  parliament  the  Puritans  were  steadily 
gaining  ground.  The  queen  was  particularly  annoyed 
Puritanism.  ^^  ^^^^^  meetings  for  '^prophesying, "  where  it  was  cus- 
tomary for  the  clergy  to  take  up  for  free  discussion 
some  text  of  Scripture  in  which  the  debaters  were  very  apt  at 
finding  applications  in  existing  political  and  religious  conditions. 
She,  therefore,  ordered  Grindal,  who  had  succeeded  Parker  in  1576, 
to  suppress  such  discussions.  But  Grindal  was  himself  too  much 
of  a  Puritan  to  wish  to  see  the  prophesyings  stopped,  and  refused. 
Elizabeth  straightway  suspended  him  from  his  office,  and  the 
offensive  discussions  ceased. 

The  whole  episode  reveals  the  firm  hand  with  which  Elizabeth 
controlled  her  church.  Her  policy  toward  it  was  directed  entirely 
ccmtroiof  by  political  motives;  nor  did  she  hesitate  to  plunder 
oitrm^  quite  as  ruthlessly  as  Somerset.  She  left  bishoprics 
church.  vacant  for  years,  while  she  put  their  revenues  into  her 

own  treasury ;  she  forced  bishops  to  surrender  large  sums  of  money 
from  their  sees  as  well  as  a  large  part  of  the  lands  connected  with 
them.  The  bishops  remonstrated;  many  of  Archbishop  Par- 
ker's letters  are  wails  of  complaint  against  the  robbery  of  the 
church.  But  complaints  were  useless;  for  Elizabeth  had  as  little 
respect  for  the  personal  dignity  of  her  bishops  as  for  their  estates. 


1577-1580]  drake's    VOYAGE  603 

The  relations  of  Spain  and  England  during  these  years  were 

often  strained  to  the  point  of  war.     Elizabeth  secretly  assisted  the 

Dutch,  and  Philip  encourasred  her  subiects  to  rebellion. 

Relation  of       -^     ,  i  ^    -,  .i         .i  <•     i    ^^. 

Spain  and  Each  monarch  suspected  the  other  of  plotting  assassina- 
tion ;  nor  would  either  have  grieved  if  some  fanatic  had 
attempted  it.  Spaniards  killed  Englishmen  wherever  they  met 
them,  and  Englishmen  hunted  Spaniards  up  and  down  the  high 
seas.  Yet  the  two  countries  were  nominally  at  peace;  and  the  two 
monarchs  were  constantly  exchanging  fair  words  and  large  prom- 
ises. Elizabeth,  however,  continued  to  encourage  her  seamen  to 
prey  upon  Spanish  commerce;  her  eyes  glistened  with  pleasure  at 
tales  of  adventure  in  the  Spanish  seas,  where  English  pirates 
boarded  the  great  galleons  and  turned  their  tons  of  precious  metal 
towards  English  ports.  In  this  half  legalized  piracy  the  peo- 
ple also  took  a  deep  patriotic  interest;  the  names  of  Drake, 
Hawkins,  and  Frobisher,  were  honored  at  every  English  fire- 
side. In  1577  Drake  sailed  for  the  Pacific,  sacked  towns  and 
cities  along  the  coast  of  South  America,  seized  and  scuttled 
Spanish  ships,  and  at  last,  after  planting  the  English  flag  in  Cali- 
fornia and  sailing  clear  round  the  world,  entered  Plymouth  in  1580 
with  his  ship  heavily  loaded  with  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones. 
The  Spanish  ambassador  demanded  justice,  and  Elizabeth  protested 
that  he  should  have  it,  while  Drake  sunned  himself  in  the  wrath  of 
the  great  queen,  divided  his  treasure  with  her,  and  laughed  at  the 
vengeance  of  the  Spaniard.  It  was  piracy,  pure  and  simple;  but  it 
was  a  great  school  for  the  training  of  a  navy,  and  it  cost  nothing. 
In  retaliation  for  English  piracy,  Philip  offered  assistance  to 
the  Irish,  who  were  as  usual  in  arms  against  England.  Queen 
Mary  had  planned  to  settle  Irish  affairs  by  the  intro- 
PMUpl!^'^  duction  of  English  colonists  and  a  vigorous  suppres- 
/rSSf*''  ^^^^  ^^  ^^®  I^ish  in  their  favor;  so  little  had  the 
religious  quarrel  yet  obscured  the  original  race  quarrel. 
Her  plan,  however,  had  not  been  inaugurated  save  in  the  counties 
of  Kings  and  Queens.  Through  Elizabeth's  reign  the  old  struggle 
still  smouldered,  and  in  1580  Philip  attempted  to  fan  the  embers 
into  new  flame  by  sending  over  a  large  Spanish  force  to  furnish  a 
rallying  point  for  the  discontented  Irish.     But  the  Spaniards  were 


604  THE    KEFOKM    ESTABLISHED  [Elizabeth 

quickly  routed  and  the  danger  of  Spanish  interference  in  Ireland 
passed  by.  The  English  ferocity  towards  everything  Irish,  how- 
ever, did  not  cease.  Edmund  Spenser,  the  poet,  has  left  a  piti- 
ful picture  of  the  sufferings  of  the  people:  ''Out  of  every  cor- 
ner of  the  woods  and  glens  they  came  creeping  forth  upon  their 
hands,  for  their  legs  could  not  bear  them;  they  spoke  like  ghosts 
crying  out  of  their  graves ;  they  did  eat  the  dead  carrions,  happy 
where  they  could  find  them." 

Elizabeth  had  now  reigned  twenty-two  years.    During  the  first 
ten  years  she   had  maintained  a  judicious   spirit  of  conciliation 

towards  her  subjects  of  all  creeds.  She  had  frowned 
andmf^  upon  cxtravagaiice  of  all  kinds,  and  as  long  as  her 
jS!^^^^^    people  observed  the  laws  outwardly  she  left  them  to 

themselves.  But  during  the  second  decade  it  had  become 
increasingly  difficult  to  sustain  this  judicious  course, — due  mainly 
to  the  changing  tone  of  Catholicism  itself.  Hundreds  of  English 
subjects  had  fled  to  Spain  and  other  Catholic  countries,  where  they 
found  ready  sympathy  among  their  fellow  religionists;  many  also 
had  come  directly  under  the  influence  of  the  Company  of  Jesus 
and  committed  their  lives  to  the  work  of  restoring  Catholicism  in 
those  countries  which  had  lapsed  from  the  old  faith.  Chief  among 
the  English  members  of  the  order  was  William  Allen,  a  graduate 
of  Oxford,  who  in  1568  had  founded  at  Douai  in  the  Netherlands 
a  college  for  the  training  of  secular  clergy.  In  1578  he  began  to 
send  over  his  missionaries  to  England  to  attack  Protestantism  in 
its  stronghold.  The  flrst  of  these  were  Eobert  Parsons  and 
Edmund  Campion.  Parsons  was  cool,  calculating,  and  self-pos- 
sessed. Campion  was  an  enthusiast,  but  singularly  pure-minded, 
modest,  and  gentle.  Both  men  began  their  work,  but  each  in  his 
own  way.  Parsons  took  to  political  plotting,  while  Campion 
labored  for  the  conversion  of  Englishmen.  By  the  law  it  was  a 
dangerous  thing  to  celebrate  the  mass,  or  to  say  aught  against 
royal  supremacy;  it  was  treason.  Heretofore,  however,  while 
Elizabeth  had  left  the  sword  suspended,  she  had  been  careful  not 
to  execute  the  terrible  penalty.  But  the  renewed  agitation  roused 
the  government  to  action.  More  stringent  laws  were  passed 
against  the  Catholics.     The  maximum  fine  which  might  be  levied 


1578] 


PERSECUTIONS   OF   JESUITS 


605 


upon  recusants^  Catholics  who  refused  to  attend  the  Anglican 
service,  was  raised  to  £20  a  month.  An  active  search  also  was 
made  for  propagandist  missionaries.  Campion  was  taken  and  exe- 
cuted. Parsons  escaped  to  the  continent.  The  sword  of  perse- 
cution had  again  fallen,  and  from  this  time  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
civil  war  in  the  next  century,  the  Catholic  clergy  continued  to 
exercise  their  functions  at  the  peril  of  their  lives. 

PROMINENT  CONTEMPORARIES  OF  THE  LATER  TUDORS 


FRANCE 

Francis  I.,  d.  1547 
Henry  II.,  d  1559 
Francis  II.,  d.  1560 
Charles  IX.,  d.  1574 


Henry  III. 
Henry  IV. 


d.  1589 
d.  1610 


SPAIN 


THE  EMPIRB 


I.,  1516-1556 
Philip  II.,  d.  1598 
Philip  III.,  1598  - 


Charles, 
V 


1519-1558 
Ferdinand  I.,  1558-1564 
Maximilian  II.,  1564- 

1576 
Rudolph  II.,  1576  — 


POPES 


1523- 


Clement  VII. 

1534 
Paul  III.,  1534-1550 
Julius  III.,  1550- 1555 
Paul  IV.,  1555-15.59 
Pius  IV.,  1559-1,566 
Plus  v.,  1566-1572 
GreKory  XIII., 

1572-1585 
Sixtus  v.,  1585-1590, 

etc. 


SCOTIiAND 

James  V.,  d.  1542 
Mary,  1542-1567,  (d. 

1587) 
James  VI.,  1567-1625 


Ivan  IV.,  the  Terrible, 
d.  15&4 


THE  NETHERLANDS 

WlUiam  the  Silent,  d. 
1584 


MSN  NOT  PRINCES 


ARCHBISHOPS   OF 
CANTERBURY 

William  AVarham  1504-1532 
Thomas  Cranmer.  1533-1556 
K(^uii>al(l  role.  1556-1558 
Mattlunv  Parker,  1559-1576 
Edmund  Crindal,  1576-1583 
John  WhitKlft,  1583-1604 


CHANCELLORS    OF  ENG- 
LAND 

Thomas  Wolsey,  1515-1529 
Sir  Thomas  More,  1529-1532, 

(d.  1535) 
Thomas  Wriothesley,  1544- 

Stephen    Gardiner,     1553- 

1556 
Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  1558- 

1579 


REFORMERS 

Tyndale,  d.  1536 
Zwingli,  d.  1531 
Luther,  d.  1546 
.  Ix)yola,  d.  1556 
Calvin,  d.  1564 


SCIENTISTS,    DISCOVER- 
ERS, AND  NAVIGATORS 

Albuquerque,  d.  1515 
Vasco  da  (Jama.  d.  1524 
Copernicus,  d.  1543 
Frobisher,  d.  1594 
Drake,  d.  1596 
Raleigh,  d.  1618 


PAINTERS 

Leonardo  da  Vinci,  d.  1519 
Raphael,  d  1520 
Michael  Angelo,  d.  1563 


LITERARY  MEN 

Si)enser,  d.  1599 
Shakspere,  1616 
Cervantes,  d.  1616. 


CHAPTEK    VII 

ELIZABETH;   THE    DUEL   WITH    SPAIN 

ELIZABETH,  15^i-16a3 

The  year  1584  witnessed  a  marked  change  in  Elizabeth's  foreign 
policy.  For  twenty-six  years  she  had  persistently  refused  to  allow 
England  to  be  allured  into  war.  She  had  continued  to 
^tso/  lend  the  struggling  Netherlanders  aid,  but  sufficient 
only  to  keep  the  contest  with  Spain  alive,  and  when  the 
Spanish  complained  of  her  perfidy,  she  had  coolly  disclaimed  the 
acts  of  her  agents.^  In  1584,  however,  a  crisis  was  rapidly 
approaching  in  the  relation  of  parties  on  the  continent,  and  Eliza- 
beth saw  that  self-defense  required  a  more  positive  interference  on 
her  part.  The  death  of  Alen9on  in  June  had  left  the  Huguenot 
Henry  of  Navarre  the  heir  to  the  French  throne,  and  in  their  alarm 
the  French  Catholics  had  once  more  taken  up  arms.  The  death 
of  Alen9on,  moreover,  had  virtually  dissolved  the  long  alliance  of 
England  and  France,  and  in  the  event  of  Catholic  success  France 
was  almost  certain  to  join  with  Spain  against  England.  If  this 
were  not  enough  to  stir  Elizabeth  out  of  her  negative  policy,  the 
assassination  of  William  of  Orange  on  July  10,  by  leaving  the 
Netherlanders  without  a  leader,  promised  to  end  the  Dutch  war  in 
Philip's  favor,  and  Elizabeth  knew  well  that  with  France  distracted 
by  civil  war  and  the  Xetherlanders  crushed,  Philip  would  turn  upon 
her  in  order  to  punish  her  for  the  piracies  of  her  people  and  her 
encouragement  to  his  rebellious  subjects.  The  Dutch  appealed  to 
Elizabeth  to  put  herself  at  the  head  of  a  Protestant  league.  Such 
a  responsibility  was  by  no  means  to  her  liking,  yet  she  saw  that  at 
all  hazards  the  Dutch  must  be  supported;  the  Armada  was  already 
c:i sting  its  shadows  across  the  southern  horizon. 

At  home,  also,  the  friends  of  the  imprisoned  Queen  of  Scots, 
with  persistent  faith  in  their  cause,  had  continued  to  plot  for  the 

608 


1584-1586]  DEATH   OF   MARY    QUEEN^   OF   SCOTS  607 

destruction  of  Elizabeth,  and  the  complicity  of  Mendoza,  tho 
Spanish  ambassador,  in  one  of  these  plots  had  led  to  his  dismissal 
in  June.  When,  a  few  weeks  later,  the  news  reached 
Marian  England  of  the  success  of  the  plot  against  William  of 
athome.  Orange,  the  excitement  knew  no  bounds,  and  in  Novem- 
ber bore  fruit  in  a  widely  extended  patriotic  league,  or 
association,  for  the  defense  of  the  queen.  Catholic  Englishmen  as 
well  as  Protestants  joined  the  league  and  swore  to  defend  the 
queen  with  life  and  goods,  and  if  she  were  assassinated,  to  hold 
responsible  the  person  benefited  by  the  act.  The  * 'person" 
referred  to  in  these  ambiguous  terms  was  of  course  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots.  In  1585  parliament  legalized  the  association,  and  in 
August  Elizabeth  definitely  broke  with  Spain  by  openly  entering 
into  a  treaty  with  the  Dutch ;  in  January  she  sent  an  armed  expe- 
dition to  the  Netherlands. 

Little  came  of  this  first  open  essay  of  Elizabeth  against  Spain. 
The  chief  incident  of  the  expedition  was  the  death  at  Zutphen,  of 
the  young  Sir  Philip  Sidney  distinguished  as  diploma- 
Wmtfuhe^  tist,  soldier,  and  poet.  .  Uis  fame  to-day  rests  upon  the 
N^heriands,  Arcadia,  Robert  Dudley,  the  earl  of  Leicester,  had 
been  put  in  command  of  the  expedition.  He  was  no 
match,  however,  for  the  duke  of  Parma,  the  renowned  soldier 
who  confronted  him,  and  returned  in  a  few  months,  having  done 
little  for  the  Netherlands  and  embarrassed  the  queen  by  accepting 
in  her  name,  but  greatly  to  her  disgust,  the  title  and  powers  of 
governor-general. 

It  would  seem  that  the  temper  of  the  country  and  the  increas- 
ing severity  of  the  late  acts  of  parliament  ought  to  have  warned 
Mary's  friends  of  the  danger  of  further  plotting  against 
ton  plot  and    the  life  of  Elizabeth.     But  in  158G  a  new  plot,  more 

death  of  .  ,  i  ,.    , 

Mary  Qiieen  serious  than  any  yet  unearthed,  was  brought  to  light; 
the  conspirators  were  arrested  and  put  to  death.  But 
unfortunately  for  Mary,  two  letters  written  by  her  to  Anthony 
Babington,  the  chief  conspirator,  and  commending  his  plot,  fell 
into  the  hands  of  Elizabeth's  secretary.  Sir  Francis  Walsingham. 
Parliament  had  already  in  the  previous  year,  passed  an  act  in  gen- 
eral but  unambiguous  terms,  empowering  the  appointment  of  a 


608  THE    DUEL    WITH    SPAIJST  [Elizabeth 

commission  to  try  Mary  in  case  she  should  be  privy  to  a  plot  for 
the  assassination  of  Elizabeth.  It  was  evident  enough  that  her 
existence  was  a  constant  encouragement  to  plotters  like  Babington, 
and  with  a  Spanish  invasion  threatening,  it  was  hardly  good  policy 
to  forbear  longer.  Yet  there  were  serious  legal  technicalities  in 
the  way  of  a  trial;  Mary  was  not  a  subject  of  Elizabeth;  moreover 
she  had  appealed  to  her  as  an  exile.  Even  were  she  subject  to  the 
laws  of  England  her  part  in  the  Babington  plot  could  hardly  be 
deemed  by  an  ordinary  court  of  law  worthy  of  death.  The  com- 
mission, however,  found  her  guilty  of  complicity,  and  a  few  days 
later  parliament  by  formal  vote  petitioned  that  the  sentence  of 
death  be  carried  out.  Elizabeth  signed  the  death  warrant,  but 
refused  to  authorize  the  execution.  Finally,  the  council,  perceiv- 
ing that  the  queen  was  determined  to  shirk  all  responsibility  for 
the  deed,  gave  orders  for  the  execution,  and  on  the  8th  of  Feb- 
ruary 1587,  Mary,  after  nineteen  years  of  captivity,  was  beheaded 
at  Fotheringay.  Elizabeth  immediately  disclaimed  the  act  and 
with  unspeakable  meanness,  fined  and  dismissed  Secretary  Davison 
who  had  acted  as  the  instrument  of  the  council.  As  for  the 
nation,  the  news  of  Mary's  death  was  everywhere  received  as  the 
news  of  a  victory;  bells  were  rung  and  bonfires  were  lighted.  A 
great  sense  of  relief  came  over  the  people.  The  last  fear  of  civil 
war  had  been  dispelled. 

If,  however,  the  strength  of  conspiracy  had  been  broken  at 
home  by  the  execution  of  Mary,  the  expediency  of  the  measure  was 
by  no  means  justified  by  the  effect  abroad.  The  news 
^fi&^s  ^^  Mary's  death  was  received  at  first  with  incredulity 
Throad^  and  then,  when  rumor  passed  into  certainty,  with  a 
cry  for  vengeance.  In  Paris  the  people  raved  against 
the  perfidious  queen;  at  Rome  the  pope  solemnly  proclaimed  a 
crusade  against  the  heretic  monarch;  in  Spain  preparations  were 
made  for  a  holy  war  against  the  archenemy  of  the  Catholic  faith. 
Philip,  moreover,  had  special  grounds  for  taking  up  the  bloody 
scarf  of  the  fallen  queen.  In  the  shadow  of  the  scaffold  she  had 
sent  him  a  last  message  enjoining  war  with  England  as  ''God's 
quarrel  and  worthy  of  his  greatness,"  and  named  Philip's  daughter, 
descended  from  John  of  Gaunt  by  her  mother  Philip's  third  wife, 


1587,  1588]  THE   ARMADA  609 

heir  to  her  claim  to  the  English  throne.  Philip  saw  himself,  there- 
fore, confronted  with  a  threefold  quest:  the  avenging  of  innocent 
blood,  the  chastisement  of  the  spoilers  of  the  church,  and  the 
championship  of  his  daughter's  claim  to  the  English  throne. 
Thus,  while  the  execution  of  Mary  had  removed  the  danger  of  civil 
war,  it  had  united  all  Elizabetli's  foreign  enemies  and  precipitated 
the  struggle  which  had  been  approaching  for  twenty  years. 

Philip  at  once  turned  with  serious  purpose  to  prepare  a  huge 
armament  for  the  invasion  of  England.     Elizabeth,  however,  had 

no  thought  of  waiting  for  the  blow  to  fall  before  she 
o/¥}Mip^^  began  action.  Though  war  had  not  yet  been  declared,  she 
iS/^^^'         dispatched  Drake  with  a  little  fleet  of  twenty-four  sail 

to  watch  the  Spanish  coast.  With  a  boldness  that 
astounded  Europe  he  ran  into  the  harbor  of  Cadiz  and,  in  spite  of 
the  forts,  burned  the  ships  building  there  for  the  English  expedi- 
tion and  destroyed  immense  quantities  of  naval  stores.  He  also 
made  an  attempt  to  enter  the  Tagus  where  other  ship-building  was 
going  on.  The  destruction  of  Philip's  shipping  compelled  him  to 
postpone  his  expedition  until  the  next  year.  With  the  humorous 
bravado  characteristic  of  Shakspere's  England,  Drake  called  his 
exploit  *'singeing  the  King  of  Spain's  beard." 

Philip  pushed  on  his  work  with  redoubled  energy,  and  in  1588 
the  great  Armada  was  at  last  ready  to  sail.     It  was  Philip's  plan 

to  have  the  fleet  act  in  conjunction  with  the  duke  of 
p\tUip^  Parma,  who  was  to  throw  an  army  of  30,000  men  into 

t'^ffu.*^     England    from    the    Netherlands.       This    army    had 

actually  been  gathered  in  the  preceding  year,  but  when 
the  Armada  finally  sailed,  it  had  dwindled  to  17,000  men.  The 
fleet  consisted  of  132  vessels  of  war  and  some  40  transports, 
manned  by  7,400  sailors  and  19,000  soldiers.  No  expense  had  been 
spared;  the  expedition  was  also  immensely  popular;  the  best  blood 
of  Spain  was  represented  on  the  decks.  In  England  great  dismay 
took  possession  of  all  classes,  when  once  it  was  known  that  the 
huge  Armada  had  actually  spread  her  wings  over  the  ocean,  and 
was  drawing  nearer  with  every  swelling  breeze.  And  yet  the 
danger  was  by  no  means  as  serious  as  the  people  imagined  or  as 
tradition  has    reported.      The   armament  of    Philip  was  greatly 


610  THE    DUEL    WITH    SPAIN  [elizabetu 

inferior  in  real  fighting  efficiency  to  the  fleet  which  Elizabeth  had 
prepared  to  meet  it.  The  English  vessels  were  of  an  improved 
type,  developed  out  of  the  piracies  of  the  last  twenty  years;  they 
sailed  much  faster  than  the  Spanish  high-deckers,  and  were  more 
easily  managed ;  they  were  also  better  officered  and  more  effectually 
manned.  They  carried  heavier  guns  and  more  of  them,  and  could 
fire  three  shots  to  the  Spaniards'  one.  The  English  gunners,  also, 
far  outclassed  the  Spaniards  as  marksmen.  As  one  of  Drake's 
captains  wrote,  "Twelve  of  her  Majesty's  ships  were  a  match  for 
all  of  the  galleys  in  the  king  of  Spain's  dominions;"  and  here  were 
not  twelve  but  197  of  these  formidable  crafts  to  meet  tlie  132  of 
Philip. 

To  supplement  these  preparations  to  meet  the  fleet  at  sea,  an 

army  of  16,000  men  was  gathered  at  Tilbury  to  defend  London,  and 

another  army  of  30,000  was  mustered  in  the  midland 

Preparation  j     ,^     .  ^t        n     . 

of  Elizabeth    counties ;    it   was   also   arranged   that    upon   the   first 

to  meet  .    ^,         ,  -,  ..i  .       .i 

Philip  hy  appearance  ot  the  Armada  within  the  narrow  seas, 
beacon  fires  should  be  kindled  from  every  hillside  in  the 
kingdom  and  every  shire  should  summon  its  militia  into  the  field ; 
that  is,  practically  the  whole  male  population  of  England  were  to 
be  called  out  to  confront  the  Spaniard,  the  moment  he  should  set 
foot  upon  English  soil.  The  English  fleet  had  been  divided  into 
two  squadrons;  the  one  under  Lord  Henry  Seymour,  the  youngest 
son  of  the  Protector,  lay  off  the  Netherlands  blockading  its  ports; 
the  other  under  Lord  Charles  Howard,  grandson  of  the  hero  of 
Flodden,  supported  by  Drake,  Hawkins,  and  Frobisher,  lay  at 
Plymouth  guarding  the  entrance  to  the  Channel. 

The  Spanish  Admiral  Medina  Sidonia  had  been  ordered  to 
avoid  Plymouth,  but  for  some  unexplained  reason,  on  July  20,  he 
passed  by  within  easy  reach  of  the  town;  the  English 
tumofthe  Captains  at  once  saw  their  advantage  and  in  their  fleet 
crafts  put  out  in  pursuit.  With  the  weather  gauge  in 
their  favor  they  could  follow  the  huge  galleons  at  will,  peppering 
away  at  them  with  perfect  impunity  and  darting  swiftly  out  of 
reach  when  a  Spaniard  turned  and  attempted  to  close.  The  two 
fleets  moved  slowly  up  the  Channel,  keeping  up  a  running  fight 
until  they  reached  Calais  on  the  27th.     Medina  Sidonia  expected 


1588]  WRECK    OF   THE    ARMADA  611 

to  find  Parma  waiting  for  him  at  Dunkirk;  but  Parma  was  still  at 
Bruges  and  nothing  was  ready.  This  was  bad  enough,  but  the 
English  had  followed  their  quarry  to  cover,  and  now,  hovering  in  the 
offing,  showed  no  inclination  to  allow  the  Spaniards  to  wait  until 
Parma  had  retrieved  his  neglect,  or  his  blunder.  On  the  night  of 
the  20th,  taking  advantage  of  a  northeast  wind,  they  drove  a  fleet 
of  fire  ships  into  the  harbor  among  the  crowded  Spanish  ship- 
ping, throwing  the  crews  into  confusion,  and  enabling  the  English 
to  follow  up  their  success  by  a  direct  attack  in  the  morning.  As 
night  drew  down,  the  day  was  going  against  the  enemy;  the  same 
wind  which  had  brought  in  the  fire  ships,  was  steadily  crowding 
the  Spaniards  upon  the  Flemish  shoals  and  the  Armada  bade  fair 
to  end  its  career  then  and  there,  when  the  wind  veered  and 
enabled  the  distressed  galleons  to  stand  out  into  the  North  Sea. 
The  Spaniards  were  now. thoroughly  disheartened;  Parma  and 
his  army  of  invasion  had  failed  them;  their  ammunition  had  been 
exhausted ;  the  crews  had  suffered  serious  losses  and 
to  round         the  surviviuff  ships  had  been  severely  strained  by  the 

Scotland.  .  .    ,  ,  *  ,,     ,  1         .    ,  , 

experiences  of  the  past  week.  All  thought  of  descend- 
ing upon  the  English  coast  was  abandoned;  yet  they  durst  not 
again  brave  the  Channel  in  their  crippled  condition.  There  was 
no  help  for  it;  and  so  they  sailed  away  into  the  North  Sea  in  the 
vain  hope  of  reaching  home  by  rounding  the  northern  headlands  of 
Scotland  and  passing  down  the  west  coast  of  Ireland.  The  same 
ill  luck,  however,  pursued  them  to  the  end.  The  English  had 
long  since  exhausted  the  ammunition,  which  the  government  in 
accordance  with  the  miserly  policy  of  Elizabeth  had  doled  out  in 
pitiably  inadequate  quantities,  and  had  given  up  the  chase,  but 
gale  after  gale  broke  upon  the  now  doomed  Armada.  The  coasts 
of  Norway,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  were  littered  with  the  wreckage. 
Two  thousand  corpses  were  counted  on  the  beach  of  Sligo  Bay. 
Of  the  172  vessels  which  had  so  proudly  sailed  out  of  the  harbors 
of  Spain  in  the  early  summer,  only  fifty-three,  shattered  and  use- 
less, ever  reached  a  Spanish  port  again.  Philip  bore  his  misfor- 
tunes with  a  spirit  worthy  of  a  king:  ''I  sent  you  out,"  he  said, 
as  the  fugitives  came  crawling  back,  "to  war  with  men  and  not 
with  elements."     In  England  the  fate  of  the  Armada  was  greeted 


612  THE    DUEL    WITH    SPAIN  [Elizabeth 

with  transports  of  unbounded  joy;  to  the  faithful  it  seemed  that 
as  in  olden  times,  God  had  marshalled  the  "stars  in  their  courses" 
to  fight  for  his  people,  and  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Spaniard  had 
vindicated  the  cause  of  the  righteous. 

The  power  of  Spain  had  long  been  overstrained  by  the  task 
which  she  had  assumed  of  arbitrating  the  destinies  of  two  hemi- 
Effectof  spheres.  But  until  the  failure  of  her  boasted  Armada 
of^the^^^^  the  fatal  secret  had  not  been  divined  by  her  foes.  Now, 
Armada.  however,  the  spell  of  her  great  name  was  broken ;  the 
English  became  more  daring  than  ever  and  began  a  series  of  attacks 
upon  the  exposed  coasts,  which  Philip  was  helpless  to  ward  off. 
He  sued  for  peace;  but  the  English  had  no  thought  of  allowing 
their  prostrate  foe  to  rise,  now  that  they  had  discovered  his  weak- 
ness and  had  him  at  their  mercy;  they  had  too  long  feared  him 
to  play  the  magnanimous.  They  smote  again  and  again,  and  when 
Philip  died  in  September  1598,  the  war  was  still  raging. 

At  home  the  dispelling  of  the  Spanish  phantom  which  had  so 

long  overshadowed  the  land,  gave  opportunity  for  the  full  play  of 

party  animosities;    and  soon  it  was  evident  that  Eng- 

The^'Mar-      ^^nd  had  purchased  immunity  from  foreign  attack,  only 

Tracts,"         ^^  the  expense  of  that  unanimity  which  had  made  her 


1588. 


heretofore  invincible.  In  the  very  year  of  the  overthrow 
of  the  Armada  a  bitter  assault  was  made  upon  the  bishops  in  a 
series  of  pamphlets  called  the  ''Martin  Marprelate  Tracts,"  the 
authors  of  which  were  Separatists.  The  government  replied  by 
active  persecution;  some  of  the  Separatists  were  hanged  and  many 
others  were  driven  from  the  country.  Puritans,  anxious  as  they 
were  for  reform,  were  bitterly  opposed  to  the  acts  of  the  Separatists. 
It  was  not  only,  however,  that  the  various  sects  of  the  reform 
began  to  assert  themselves  more  persistently  than  ever,  but  parlia- 
ment, the  very  stronghold  of  Tudor  absolutism,  also 
EiizcLbeth  began  to  show  signs  of  restlessness  and  an  unmistakable 
later  pariia-  disposition  to  reopen  the  contest  with  the  crown  for 
ancient  rights,  now  too  long  not  denied  but  held  in  abey- 
ance. Elizabeth  had  made  use  of  parliaments  more  freely  than 
any  of  her  predecessors  since  the  days  of  Henry  VI.  It  was  not 
because  she  loved  them  more,  but  the  uncertainties  of  her  position 


1571-1601]  MONOPOLIES   AND    PATENTS  613 

had  forced  her  to  lean  often  upon  the  nation,  and  give  to  the  world 
arrayed  against  her  the  oft  repeated  evidence  of  the  loyalty  of  her 
people;  if  legal  technicalities  cast  a  shadow  across  her  right  to  the 
throne,  she  was  undoubtedly  the  nation's  choice.  Elizabeth  fully 
appreciated  the  moral  effect  of  this  fact,  and  when  once  the  reli- 
gious question  was  settled,  took  no  important  step  without  first 
giving  her  parliament  an  opportunity  to  set  the  pace.  It  was  part 
of  her  statecraft.  The  consciousness  of  parliament  of  its  own  dig- 
nity had  naturally  increased  as  a  result  of  this  renewed  activity,  and 
had  expressed  itself,  as  naturally,  in  a  demand  for  the  respect  of  its 
ancient  privileges.  As  early  as  1571,  when  the  queen  had  ordered 
Strickland  to  absent  himself  from  the  House  because  he  had  dared 
to  discuss  ecclesiastical  reforms,  the  House  had  shown  so  much 
feeling  that  she  had  withdrawn  her  command.  In  1570,  however, 
when  Peter  Wentworth  claimed  for  the  House  perfect  freedom  of 
speech,  he  was  silenced,  and  in  1593  the  queen  went  so  far  as  to 
arrest  certain  members  for  discussing  forbidden  topics.  Thus  the 
House  was  learning  to  reassert  its  old  privileges  of  freedom  from 
arrest  and  freedom  of  speech^  and  although  the  first  steps  were 
taken  with  evident  timidity,  and  progress  was  slow,  a  new  spirit 
was  quickening  into  life,  which  had  been  unknown  in  the  days  of 
Henry  VIII. 

In  1601  this  spirit  successfully  expressed  itself  in  a  yet  bolder 
protest  on  the  subject  of  monopolies  and  patents.  By  long  custom 
the  government  claimed  the  authority  to  grant  to  indi- 
^7idmi^nt»'  ^^^^^^^  ^^  companies  the  sole  right  of  making  or  deal- 
ing in  a  particular  article,  or  of  carrying  on  a  specified 
trade.  Thus  in  1600  the  East  India  Company  had  been  given  a 
monopoly  of  the  trade  with  the  East  Indies.  Some  monopolies 
and  most  patents  were  commendable,  since  without  them  the  trade 
in  question  could  not  be  carried  on,  the  goods  could  not  bo  manu- 
factured, oy  the  new  process  or  invention  could  not  be  introduced. 
The  difficulty  was  that  English  monarchs  had  often  granted 
monopolies  and  patents,  where  they  were  absolutely  unnecessary 
and  only  served  the  purpose  of  filling  the  pockets  of  courtiers  at 
the  expense  of  the  subjects.  Such  was  the  monopoly  on  playing- 
cards  held  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.     There  were  monopolies  also  on 


614  THE    DUEL   WITH    SPAIN  [Elizabeth 

leather,  salt,  currants,  iron,  "ashes,  bottles,  bags,  shreds  of 
gloves,"  vinegar,  coal,  lard,  oil,  fish,  and  a  hundred  other  com- 
modities. One  angry  member,  on  hearing  the  list  read,  had  bitterly 
cried  out,  "Is  not  bread  there?"  and  insisted  that  "if  order  be  not 
taken  for  these,  bread  will  be  there  before  the  next  parliament." 
In  1601  the  eyes  of  parliament  were  opened  to  the  significance  of 
the  grievance,  and  the  members  arrayed  themselves  in  an  ominous 
majority  against  the  privileges  which  the  queen  had  showered  upon 
her  subjects.  One  of  the  commoners  in  a  quaint  arraignment  of 
the  nuisance  declared:  "It  bringeth  the  general  profit  into  a 
private  hand,  and  the  end  of  all  is  beggary  and  bondage  of  the  sub- 
jects." Elizabeth  saw  that  she  must  yield,  though  at  the  begin- 
ning of  parliament  she  had  forbidden  the  Commons  to  debate  the 
question.  She  now  declared  in  a  touching  speech  that  the  griev- ' 
ance  should  be  amended,  thanked  the  members  for  their  zeal  and 
kindness,  and  assured  them  of  her  good  will  and  affection.  "There 
will  never  queen  sit  in  my  seat,"  she  asserted,  "with  more  zeal  to 
my  country,  or  care  to  my  subjects.  .  .  .  And  though  you  have 
had,  and  may  have,  many  princes  more  mighty  and  wise  sitting  in 
this  seat,  yet  you  never  had,  or  shall  have,  any  that  will  be  more 
careful  and  loving." 

After  freeing  the  country  from  foreign  danger,  Elizabeth 
turned  upon  Ireland  with  more  determination  than  ever.  In  1594 
RMnaof  ^^^^  Irish  of  Ulster  rose  under  Hugh  O'Neill,  Earl  of 
O'Neiiiin  Tyrone;  Spain  sent  assistance  the  next  year,  and  in 
Ireland.  1593^  O'Neill  inflicted  a  serious  defeat  upon  the  English 
at  the  Blackwater.  Elizabeth  sent  to  Ireland  as  her  commander, 
the  earl  of  Essex,  her  last  favorite,  a  showy  but  inferior  man. 
Essex  was  defeated  by  O'Neill  and  returned  to  England  in  disgrace. 
He  had  come  home  without  leave  which  was  equivalent  to 
deserting  his  colors,  and  Elizabeth  could  not  forgive  the  offense. 
The  earl  was  thrown  into  prison  and,  though  released 
and  death  the  next  year,  was  permanently  out  of  favor.  Over- 
whelmed by  his  disgrace,  he  plotted  to  remove  the 
queen's  ministers  by  force  and  compel  her  to  name  others  who 
would  be  devoted  to  his  interests.  It  was  a  dangerous  scheme,  for 
to  fail  was  to  submit  himself  to  the  penalties  of  high  treason. 


1C0M603J 


SIR   FRAXCIS    BACON  615 


But  Essex  thought  his  grievances  were  such  as  to  justify  the  wild- 
est hazard,  and  in  1601  he  rode  into  London  at  the  head  of  a  few 
friends  and  called  upon  the  citizens  to  rise  in  his  favor.  The  call 
to  arms,  however,  met  with  no  response ;  he  was  seized,  tried,  and 
sent  to  the  block. 

One  of  the  queen's  attorneys  at  the  trial  of  the  earl  was  Sir 
Francis  Bacon,  who,  although  he  had  been  befriended  by  Essex,  had 
now  appeared  against  him.  Bacon  has  been  much  blamed 
Bac^^^^^  for  this,  but  without  discrimination.  He  was  a  cold, 
and  consequently  an  unpopular  man ;  he  was  witty  and 
sarcastic,  making  few  friends  and  many  enemies;  he  was  ambitious 
and  not  free  from  the  sway  of  the  meanest  passions,  especially  the 
desire  to  shine  as  a  fine  gentleman.  He  spent  so  much  in  show 
that  he  was  forever  borrowing  and  begging,  demanding  promo- 
tions, rewards,  and  offices,  and  leaving  his  honest  debts  unpaid. 
Notwithstanding  these  reprehensible  features.  Bacon  was  one  of 
the  great  men  of  his  day  and  deserves  a  place  in  the  memory  of 
mankind  for  his  unselfish  labors  in  the  cause  of  science  and 
humanity.  He  was  a  great  lawyer,  a  politician,  a  man  of  the 
world,  and  above  all  a  statesman,  seeing  clearly  what  was  possible 
and  what  was  not  possible,  and  quite  as  clearly  the  means  of  attain- 
ing a  desired  end. 

The  queen  died  in  1603  at  the   ripe  age  of  seventy,  revered 

and   beloved  by  her   people.     Walsingham   had  preceded  her  in 

1590  and  Burghley  in  1598.     Her  last  great  minister 

Elizabeth,       was  Burghloy's  son  Robert  Cecil,  later  earl  of  Salisbury. 

In  his  hands  the  queen's  cause  was  well  served,  and  at 

her  death  he  had  made  all  things  ready  for  her  successor. 

Elizabeth's  reign  raised  England  to  the  first  rank  of  European 
powers.  She  had  been  successful  in  war  and  prosperous  in  peace, 
and,  under  the  confidence  which  she  created,  the  English 
o/reigrT^^  people  began  to  seek  new  and  richer  fields  for  the  exer- 
cise of  their  energies.  Of  the  men  who  were  thus 
alhired  to  careers  of  exploration  and  adventure,  the  namo  of  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  is  perhaps  the  best  known  to  Americans.  He 
was  a  man  of  marvelous  energy  and  ability,  and  has  left  a  record 
as    explorer,    soldier,    statesman,    colonizer,    and    scholar.     But 


616  THE    DUEL    WITH    SPAI:N"  [Elizabeth 

his  bad  qualities  were  quite  as  eminent  as  his  good.  He  was  cruel, 
domineering,  corrupt,  and  faithless;  and  at  Elizabeth's  death  he 
was  probably  the  most  unpopular  man  in  England.  He  made 
several  attempts  at  colonization  in  America,  chief  of  which  was 
the  expedition  to  Virginia  in  1584,  all  unsuccessful  but  of  value  in 
preparing  the  way  for  the  great  era  of  colonization  to  follow. 
Among  others  who  tried  to  colonize  new  lands  or  to  open  new 
avenues  to  commerce  were  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  who  inspired 
the  earlier  schemes  of  Ealeigh;  Sir  John  Hawkins,  who  introduced 
African  slaves  into  the  Spanish  colonies  of  America;  Drake  also, 
famous  for  his  exploits  against  the  Spaniards  and  his  voyage 
around  the  world;  Frobisher,  who  sought  for  a  northwest  passage; 
Richard  Chancellor,  whose  efforts  to  open  up  a  northeast  passage 
to  India  brought  him  to  Moscow  in  1553  and  led  the  next  year 
to  the  forming  of  the  famous  Moscovy  Company,  antedating  by 
forty-six  years  the  founding  of  the  yet  more  famous  East  India 
Company.  In  England  itself  men  were  at  no  less  important  tasks. 
Sir  Thomas  Gresham  founded  the  Royal  Exchange  in  1560,  and 
put  in  operation  a  reform  of  the  currency,  which  was  successfully 
carried  through  by  Elizabeth's  ministers. 

The  result  of  all  this  busy  striving  was  the  enrichment  of  Eng- 
land, and  the  further  strengthening  of  the  middle  class  which 
Henry  VII.  and  Henry  VIII.  had  done  so  much  to  foster.  In 
the  first  parliament  of  James,  it  is  estimated  that  the  House  of 
Commons  represented  three  times  the  wealth  of  the  House  of  Lords. 

Equally  great  were  the  literary  triumphs  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 
The  early  Tudor  period  had  been  comparatively  barren.  Sir 
Thomas  More  and  the  Bible  translators,  Tyndale  and 
triumphs  of  Covcrdalo,  have  already  been  mentioned,  Cranmer's 
reiSn^^^^^  power  is  shown  in  the  Prayer  Book  of  Edward.  In 
poetry  Skelton  was  popular;  Wyatt  and  Surrey  also 
had  won  unfading  laurels  before  they  staked  their  lives  in  the 
mad  game  of  politics.  These,  however,  were  only  pioneers; 
their  work,  an  earnest  of  what  was  to  come  after  in  the  full  blaze 
of  renaissance  which  marked  the  latter  days  of  Elizabeth.  Of 
the  masters  who  belong  to  this  later  era,  who  have  made  this 
reign  an  epoch  in  the  development  of  English  literature,  no  name 


LITERARY    ACHIEVEMENTS    OF    REIGN  617 

is  SO  niiiVersally  known  and  honored  without  question,  as  that  of 
William  Shakspere.  But  close  behind  him  there  rise  a  score  of 
others:  Spenser,  famous  for  his  Faerie  Queen;  Raleigh,  poet  and 
writer  of  elegant  prose;  Marlowe,  the  dramatist  whose  marvelous 
lines  entranced  those  who  listened ;  Ben  Jonson,  scholar  and  wit ; 
Bacon,  associated  with  the  earlier  triumphs  of  inductive  science; 
Sir  Philip  Sidney,  the  poet  of  feeling  and  skill ;  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher,  famous  yoke-fellows  in  play-writing;  Greene  also,  and 
Peele,  Webster,  Ford,  and  a  host  of  others  only  a  little  less 
worthy.  These  are  the  men  who  helped  to  make  Elizabeth's 
reign  memorable,  and  to  perpetuate  the  glory  of  England  and  her 
queen. 

The  century  had  been  filled  with  fathomless  turmoil  and  cease- 
less strife.     The  foundations  of  the  deep  had  been  broken  up,  and 

the  disturbed  waters  in  wild  tumult  had  surged  and 
End  of  the  resurged  in  their  efforts  again  to  secure  equilibrium. 
mth  oentui-y.    The  closiug  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  marked  the  period 

when  that  equilibrium  was  once  more  temporarily  re- 
stored. The  struggle  of  Germany  with  Charles  V.  had  ended  in 
1555  in  the  Peace  of  Augsburg;  a  treacherous  peace  with  its  legal 
recognition  of  the  Protestant  states  and  '*its  wretched  rule  of  mock 
toleration."  Philip  and  the  League  had  failed  to  prevent  the 
accession  of  Henry  of  Navarre  in  France;  and  although  Henry  had 
sealed  his  success  by  embracing  the  faith  which  he  had  been  all  his 
life  fighting,  he  did  not  forget  his  old  allies  and  friends,  and 
in  1598,  by  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  secured  toleration  to  the 
French  Protestants.  The  same  year  the  long  struggle  of  France 
and  Spain  ended  in  the  Peace  of  Vervins.  Philip  II.  died  within 
the  year,  and  his  son  Philip  III. ,  who  had  none  of  his  father's 
taste  for  war  and  intrigue,  whose  character  was  the  best  pledge  for 
the  continuance  of  the  peace,  succeeded  him.  With  Philip  II. 
gone  and  France  at  peace  with  Spain,  the  English  had  little  excuse 
for  carrying  on  the  war  farther ;  all  active  interest  in  the  original 
issues  of  the  war  had  long  since  been  lost  in  the  new  objects  which 
were  already  drawing  the  energies  of  Englishmen  into  other  chan- 
nels. Formal  peace,  however,  was  not  declared  until  the  second 
year  of  the  new  reign. 


PART  III— NATIONAL  ENGLAND 

THE    ERA   OF    ISTATIONAL    AWAKENING 
BOOK  III— POLITICAL  REVOLUTION 

FROM  1603  TO  1689 


CHAPTER   I 


THE    BREACH    BETWEEN    KIN^G    AND    COMMONS 

JAMES  1.,  1603-1625 
CHARLES  1.,  1625-1628 

The  long  struggle  between  the  king  and  the  Commons,  which 

virtually  began  with  the  first  parliament  of  James  I.,  was  the 

result  of  an  inevitable  clashing  of  the  two  systems  which 

Nature  of  the 

strucjqieof      had  bccome  embodied  in  English  laws  by  the  close  of 

the  Stuarts       , ,        rn     t         t^     •    i       .  i  i -.  ■,- 

withth^i  the   iudor  reriod:    the  older  parliamentarv  system  of 

parliament.  .         ,  .  ,  -^     -j 

the  Lancastrian  kings,  and  the  newer  system  of  gov- 
ernment by  council,  inaugurated  by  the  Tudors.^  The  first  had 
been  sanctioned  by  a  body  of  formal  statutes,  which  had  slowly 
accumulated  during  the  two  centuries  that  followed  the  grant- 
ing of  the  Great  Charter.  These  statutes,  however,  had  been 
allowed  to  lose  their  force  in  the  reaction  which  followed  the  civil 
wars  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  Tudor  sovereigns  had  not 
repealed  them;  they  had  simply  not  used  them;  and  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  seventeenth  century,  although  the  statutes  still  survived, 
they  served  to  furnish  a  theory,  rather  than  a  fact,  of  government. 
The  Tudor  system  of  government  by  council  had  been  allowed  to 
grow  up  during  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  baronage  were 
weak  and  the  Commons  had  not  yet  learned  their  strength,  when 

^  For  a  review  of  the  constitutional  questions  involved  in  the  great 
struggle  of  the  seventeenth  century  see  Prothero's  Select  Statutes,  etc. 
Introduction. 

618 


THE    INEVITABLE    CONFLICT  619 

England  was  confronted  by  powerful  foreign  foes  and  the  nation 
was  more  anxious  to  preserve  its  strength  in  unity  and  harmony, 
than  to  secure  its  liberties  by  emphasizing  the  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual under  the  laws.  The  Tudors,  moreover,  never  worried 
themselves  over  the  theories  under  which  they  exercised  their 
authority,  but  were  quite  content  with  a  growing  body  of  prec- 
edents, which,  so  long  as  they  remained  unchallenged,  justified 
almost  any  extension  of  the  royal  prerogative. 

It  was  impossible,  however,  for  two  systems  so  opposite  in  kind 
to  continue  to  exist  side  by  side  without  coming  into  conflict 
sooner  or  later.  Even  during  Elizabeth's  reign,  after 
frievitaS^^  the  destruction  of  the  Armada  had  revealed  to  the 
nation  its  strength,  rumblings  of  the  coming  storm  are 
to  be  heard  in  the  protests  and  petitions  of  her  later  parliaments. 
It  was  not,  however,  until  the  Stuarts,  by  their  novel  theories  of 
*^royal  prerogative''  and  ''divine  right,"  attempted  to  justify  the 
system  which  they  had  received  from  the  Tudors,  that  the  nation, 
acting  through  its  parliaments,  roused  itself  to  compel  the  crown 
to  conform  its  acts  to  the  statutes  of  the  realm,  which  had  been 
long  since  established,  but  since  the  close  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses 
had  been  practically  laid  aside.  Tlie  parliament  asked  for  no 
rights  which  had  not  been  granted  to  the  nation  in  the  ancient 
laws  and  customs  of  the  land.  The  king  proposed  to  exercise  no 
prerogatives  which  were  not  recognized  in  the  precedents  of  the 
past.  Had  the  first  two  Stuarts  been  wise  sovereigns  of  the  type 
of  Edward  I.  or  Elizabeth,  they  would  have  conceded  the  theory 
and  might  have  saved  the  fact;  but  unfortunately  for  them- 
selves, fortunately  for  the  nation,  they  were  not  wise,  and 
attempted  to  meet  the  venerable  theories  of  the  English  Constitu- 
tion, which  had  long  since  assigned  to  the  king  a  very  definite  place 
in  the  English  system,  with  new  and  monstrous  theories  of  royal 
supremacy,  borrowed  in  part  from  the  Roman  Civil  Law,  and  in 
part  from  current  theological  ideas  of  a  party  in  the  English 
Church.  The  sixteenth  century  could  furnish  a  precedent  for 
almost  any  abuse  of  royal  authority,  for  almost  any  outrage  of  the 
rights  of  subjects;  but  English  kings  had  made  too  many  conces- 
sions to  powerful  refractory  parliaments,  they  had  been  too  often 


620  Kl^a    AND    COMMONS  [jamesi. 

deposed  and  their  ministers  slaughtered,  to  afford  any  standing 
ground  for  a  theory  of  "divine  right"  or  of  authority  above  the 
laws  of  the  realm. 

The  successor  of  Elizabeth  with  his  crown  became  heir  also  to 
the  arbitrary  system  of  the  Tudor s  and  the  numberless  abuses 
>  which  had  crept  in  as  a  result  of  tlieir  long  impunity  in 
'^terU^^  violating  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  laws.  As  the 
government  was  ordered,  its  chief  instrument  was  not 
the  parliament  but  the  king's  council,  or  Privy  Council,  by  whose 
counsel  and  advice  the  king  issued  proclamations  which  had  the 
effect  of  laws.  This  council  at  the  accession  of  James  consisted 
of  about  eighteen  members^  and  included  the  chief  officers  of 
state:  the  Lord  High  Chancellor,  who  was  the  head  of  the  legal 
system  of  the  kingdom,  President  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  and 
Chairman  of  the  House  of  Lords;  the  Lord  High  Admiral,  who 
was  commander-in-chief  of  the  navy;  the  Attorney  General  and 
the  Solicitor  General,  who  were  the  law  officers  of  the  crown,  who 
advised  the  king  on  legal  questions  and  managed  the  law  cases  in 
which  the  crown  was  involved.  Following  these  were  the  several 
secretaries  of  state,  who  had  risen  to  great  prominence  under 
Elizabeth,  who  attended  to  most  of  the  details  of  administration 
and  conducted  foreign  affairs. 

Another  peculiar  feature  of  the  Tudor  system  was  the  existence 
of  a  group  of  irregular  courts,  vested  in  each  case  with  special 
jurisdiction  and  to  that  extent  invading  and  setting 
cour^^^^^  aside  the  older  common  law  and  equity  courts  of  the 
realm.  Some  of  these  courts  were  very  ancient,  ante- 
dating the  Tudor  period,  and  like  the  common  law  and  equity 
courts  had  sprung  from  the  original  judicial  powers  of  the  king's 
council.  It  was  in  keeping,  however,  with  the  despotic  tendency 
of  the  Tudor  reign  to  increase  and  greatly  extend  the  powers  and 
jurisdictions  of  these  courts,  until  at  the  opening  of  the  Stuart 
period  fully  one-third  of  the  population  of  England  had  been 
removed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  common  law  courts.  These 
irregular  courts  had  been  authorized  by  acts  of  parliament  and 
were  as  legal  as  the  more  ancient  courts  of  law  and  equity;    but 

'  Prothero,  p.  xcix. 


THE    COURTS  621 

they  had  been  left  more  latitude  in  methods  of  procedure  and  had 
developed  customs,  which  were,  if  not  tyrannical,  certainly  contrary 
to  the  spirit  of  English  law,  and  often  invaded  rights  which  were 
commonly  supposed  to  be  secured  to  all  Englishmen  by  Magna 
Charta  and  other  subsequent  ordinances  and  statutes.  Thus  it 
was  their  custom  to  try  cases  without  a  jury  and  compel  the  pris- 
oner to  testify  against  himself;  nor  did  they  hesitate  to  use  torture 
to  open  the  lips  of  a  reluctant  witness. 

The  most  important  of  these  Tudor  courts  were  the  famous 

Court  of  Star  Chamber,  the  various  councils  by  which  the  north 

and  west  were  governed,  and  the  Court  of  High  Com- 

Tucu>r  courts   missiou.     The  courts  of  common  law  and  equity  were 

and  common       i         i  j  j    »        .  .  i       »/ 

law  courts,      the  old  and  familiar  Court  of  Exchequer,  the  Court  of 
Common   Pleas,   the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  and  the 
Court  of  Chancery;  the  first  three  had  received  their  final  form  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Edward  I. ;  the  fourth  as  early  as  Edward  III. 
When  the  special  courts  were  first  created,  they  were  perhaps 
justified  by  the  conditions  which  called  them  forth.      As  time 
passed,  however,  they  were  for  the  most  part^  no  longer 
thetinecuii      neccssary,  and  became  more  arbitrary  and  cruel.     Men 
charged  with  petty  offenses  were  dragged  before  the 
Court  of  Star  Chamber,  fined  enormous  sums  and  imprisoned  for 
years,  or  they  might  be  punished  by  having  the  ears  cut  off  or  the 
nose  slit,  or  in  other  humiliating  ways.     The  Court  of  High  Com- 
mission   also  was    not  behind  in    inflicting   penalties    as    severe, 
though  not  as  barbarous,  for  such  crimes  as  staying  away  from 
church  or  holding  a  prayer  meeting  in  a  private  house. 

In  addition  to  the  abuses  which  had  sprung  of  the  extra  legal 
powers  which  parliament  had  conferred  upon  the  Tudors,  there 
were  others  also,  some  of  which  were  survivals  of  older 
abmcl^^^^^    feudal  customs,  and  some  had  grown  up  out  of  prec- 
edents which  the  Tudors  had  established,  which    had 
passed  heretofore  unquestioned.     To  the  former  belonged  the  right 

^  As  late  as  the  administration  of  Wentworth  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  I.,  the  Council  of  the  North  continued  to  perform  a  real  service  in 
dealing  with  the  lawlessness  of  powerful  subjects,  where  the  authority  of 
the  ordinary  courts  broke  down  entirely. 


622  KING    AN^D    COMMONS  [james  i. 

of  purveyance  by  which  the  officers  of  the  crown  could  demand  the 
goods  of  subjects,  or  their  services,  at  the  crown's  price.  In  this 
connection  is  also  to  be  mentioned  the  right  of  granting  monopolies 
and  patents,  which  had  become  so  great  an  evil  in  the  later  days 
of  Elizabeth.  The  Tudors  had  also,  whenever  it 
arievcmces  P^e^sed  them,  continued  to  exact  forced  loans  and 
benevolences.  Other  sources  of  grievance  against  the 
crown  had  arisen  from  the  determination  of  the  government  to 
compel  all  the  people  to  conform  to  the  legal  model  prescribed  in 
the  authorized  church. 

These  were  some  of  the  points  upon  which  it  was  impossible  for 
the  crown  and  the  nation  to  remain  long  in  harmony,  if  the  new 
monarch  insisted  on  going  on  in  the  old  way.  The  dis- 
atissue^^  pute,  however,  over  this  grievance  or  that,  must  not 
obscure  the  real  point  at  issue.  It  was  not  merely  a 
struggle  over  particular  abuses,  but  over  the  whole  system  of  arbi- 
trary government  which  had  been  built  up  by  the  Tudors,  of  which 
the  abuses  were  the  fruit.  The  question  of  ultimate  sovereignty 
was  really  at  stake.  Did  the  king  enjoy  certain  prerogative  rights, 
bestowed  upon  him  by  divine  law,  which  made  him  supreme  in  any 
conflict  with  the  laws  and  customs  of  parliament  or  the  liberties  of 
the  nation?  Or  was  the  king  simply  a  minister  of  the  state,  created 
by  the  state,  empowered  to  act  in  the  name  of  the  state,  and 
himself  responsible  to  the  laws  of  the  state,  as  these  laws  had  been 
defined  and  authorized  by  himself  in  conjunction  with  the  national 
parliament? 

The  questions,  moreover,  which  confronted  James  were  not  all 
born  of  English  politics  or  the  strifes  of  English  sectaries.  He  was 
also  king  of  Scotland,  and  king  of  Ireland,  and  each 
mx)Mems  country  had  its  government  separate  from  that  of  Eng- 
land although  it  recognized  a  common  king.  Each  coun- 
try, moreover,  had  not  only  its  own  problems  to  settle,  it  had 
also  another  very  distinct  series  of  questions  which  had  arisen  out 
of  its  relations  to  England ;  problems  all  of  them  fully  as  impor- 
tant and  puzzling  as  those  which  confronted  the  king  in  his  English 
domain.  There  were  gra^'e  continental  questions  as  well,  which 
were  also  pressing  for  immediate  settlement,  questions  which  had 


CHARACTER   OF  JAMES  I.  623 

grown  up  out  of  the  struggle  of  Holland  and  Spain,  and  again  of 
Spain  and  France,  in  all  of  which  England  had  been  more  or  less 
involved  in  spite  of  the  conservative  policy  of  Elizabeth. 

It  was  a  time,  therefore,  when  England  more  than  ever  needed  a 
king  who  should  be  resourceful,  sagacious,  and  broad  enough  in  his 

sympathies  to  touch  all  the  manifold  interests  which 
James^i^^  ''"^   the  English  crown  had  come  to  represent  at  the  opening 

of  the  seventeenth  century.  But  unfortunately  James 
I.  possessed  no  one  of  these  needed  qualifications.  He  was  thirty- 
seven  at  the  death  of  Elizabeth  and  had  been  a  king  since  infancy ; 
but  he  belonged  to  that  class  of  minds  who  never  learn  anything 
and  never  forget  anything;  hence  his  experience  in  Scotland  had 
profited  him  little.  He  had  been  well  educated  and  knew  more  of 
the  history  of  his  own  country  and  of  neighboring  peoples  than 
most  of  the  statesmen  of  liis  time.  But  his  learning  had  brought 
him  little  wisdom  and  left  him  only  a  conceited  pedant,  absurdly 
vain  of  his  accomplishments,  with  unlimited  confidence  in  his  own 
powers,  and  ready  to  be  victimized  by  the  first  designing  courtier 
who  loudly  sounded  his  praises  as  '*lhe  British  Solomon."  His 
contemporary  Henry  IV.  of  Franco  called  him  the  ** wisest  fool" 
in  Europe.  He  was,  moreover,  incapable  of  ''taking  trouble  in 
thought  or  action,"  and  hence  was  irresolute,  suspicious,  depend- 
ent, and  "an  easy  prey  to  the  passing  feelings  of  the  hour."  He 
had  none  of  the  Tudor  trait  of  securing  personal  respect ;  he  was 
tactless  in  managing  those  who  opposed  him;  but  tolerated 
familiarity  in  men  who  posed  as  his  confidential  friends,  who 
fawned  upon  him  and  secretly  despised  him. 

Yet  there  was  some  good  in  this  pedant  king;  he  was  affable, 
moral,  and  actuated  by  the  best  of  motives.     In  some  things  he 

was  even  in  advance  of  his  times ;  he  hated  war  and  was 

Failure  to 

understand     "intellectually   tolerant,   anxious  to  be  at  peace  with 

the  English.  "^    .    .  '^        -,    ^  -,  .  ^t 

those  whose  opinions  differed  from  his  own.  He  was 
above  all  things  anxious  to  be  a  reconciler,  to  make  peace  where 
there  had  been  war  before,  and  to  draw  those  to  live  in  harmony 
who  had  hitherto  glared  at  one  another  in  mutual  defiance.  He 
was  penetrated  with  a  strong  sense  of  the  evil  of  fanaticism."* 
1  Gardiner,  History  of  England,  1603-1642,  I,  pp.  48,  49. 


G24  KING   AND   COMMONS  [jamesi. 

He  wished  particularly  to  treat  the  Catholics  with  lenity.  He 
saw  also  that  the  peace  of  the  island  depended  upon  the  complete 
union  of  England  and  Scotland,  and  sought  this  union  as  a  definite 
policy.  But  unfortunately,  like  many  a  wiser  man  of  his  day,  he 
failed  utterly  to  understand  the  Puritans.  A  bitter  experience  in 
Scotland  had  taught  him  to  hate  its  officious  Presbyterianism,  and 
to  long  for  the  land  where  the  ecclesiastical  lords  were  the  servants 
of  the  crown,  not  its  masters.  Hence  when  he  entered  England 
he  proposed  to  do  what  he  could  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the 
bishops,  and  would  make  no  concessions  to  the  party  who  were  cry- 
ing out  against  the  corruptions  of  the  established  clergy.  He  saw 
in  the^cry  for  ecclesiastical  reform,  only  an  attack  upon  the  crown 
itself;  as  he  was  fond  of  saying,  *'No  bishop,  no  king."  He 
thought  he  knew  the  English  character  and  plumed  himself  on  his 
ability  to  give  the  Englishmen  just  what  they  wanted.  Yet 
almost  his  first  act  on  entering  the  country  was  to  hang  an  ordi- 
nary pickpocket  without  trial.  Later  he  assured  his  dismayed 
parliament:  "The  state  of  monarchy  is  the  supremest  thing  upon 
earth;  for  kings  are  not  only  God's  lieutenants  upon  earth  and 
sit  upon  God's  throne,  but  even  by  God  himself  they  are  called 
gods.  ...  as  to  dispute  what  God  may  do  is  blasphemy,  so  it  is 
seditious  in  subjects  to  dispute  what  a  king  may  do  in  the  height 
of  his  power.  "^ 

When  James  reached  London  he  found  the  court  divided  into 

two  parties,  as  they  favored  continuing  the  long  war  with  Spain  or 

bringing  it  to  a  close.     The  natural  instinct  of  James 

The  court 

parties  of        was  for  peacc  and  this  threw  him  at  once  under  the 
influence  of  the  powerful  little  man,  who  for  nine  years 
remained  his  chief  minister  of  state,  Robert  Cecil,  son  of  the  late 
Lord  Burghley.     The  leader  of  the  war  party  was  Sir 
^Raie\  Walter  Kaleigh  who  had  been  captain  of  the  late  queen's 

guard.  His  qualities  were  of  the  showy  kind,  that 
figured  best  in  leading  forlorn  hopes,  or  in  planning  novel  expedi- 
tions for  colonial  settlement.  He  had  never  been  popular  with  his 
contemporaries  and  his  pronounced  partiality  for  war  as  well  as  his 

iProthero,  S.S.  pp.  293-295;  also  Lee,  Source  Book  of  English  History, 
p.  337. 


THE    COBHAM    PLOT  G25 

reputation   for  intrigue  had  kept  him  out  of  Elizabeth's  Privy 

Council.     In  marked  contrast  with  this  showy  man  of  the  camp 

and  the  sword,  was  the  quiet  little  man  of  the  cabinet 

ceciT^  and   the  pen;    a  tireless   worker  who   could  turn  off 

enough  work  for  a  dozen  ordinary  men  and  who  soon 

made  himself  indispensable  to  the  new  sovereign.     The  king  never 

loved  the  little  minister,   but  he  liked  his  conciliatory,   tactful 

ways,  so  dear  to  sovereign  hearts  of  the  kind  that  James  possessed, 

and  he  needed  him.     So  Cecil  was  retained  and  Raleigh  dismissed. 

The  king  and  his  minister  at  once  set  about  making  peace  with 

Spain,  and  a  defensive  treaty  with  France.     This  policy  was  bitterly 

opposed  by  Raleigh  and  his  friends,  and  they  so  far  for- 

TheCobham,  got  themselves  as  to  discuss  apian  for  getting  rid  of 

plot,  1603.        Cecil  by  force.    Lord  Cobham,  a  friend  of  Raleigh,  also 

entertained  the  idea  of  placing  Arabella  Stuart  *  on  the 

throne.     There  was  some  wild  talk,  in  addition,  of  getting  help 

from  Spain. 

While  Cobham  and  Raleigh  were  thus  casting  about  in  their 
minds  for  the  best  way  to  get  rid  of  Cecil,  some  of  the  Catholic 
priests  and  their  sympathizers,  who  were  greatly  incensed 
plot  '^^^  ^^  James  because  he  had  not  lived  up  to  certain  prom- 

ises of  toleration  which  it  was  alleged  ^  he  had  made 
while  in  Scotland,  were  also  talking  over  a  scheme,  equally  wild  and 
impracticable,  of  seizing  James  and  frightening  him  by  threats  of 
personal  violence  into  keeping  his  promise.  This  plot  is  known  as 
the  hye  plot  in  distinction  from  the  plot  of  Raleigh  and  Cobham 
which  was  designated  as  the  main  plot.  The  two  plots  had  no 
connection,  save  as  George  Brooke,  a  brother  of  Lord  Cobham,  was 
connected  with  both.  But  it  pleased  Cecil  to  arrest  all  concerned 
and  try  them  as  though  the  plots  were  one.  The  evidence  was 
slight,  and  yet  in  the  prevailing  fear  of  revolution  which  had 
become  almost  a  mania,  the  people  were  hardly  in  a  mood  to  dis- 
tinguish between  a  desire  to  get  rid  of  a  popular  minister  and 


1  See  table  p.  587. 

2  James  had  declared  that  he  would  not  exact  the  recusancy  fines, 
which  to  him  was  too  much  like  making  merchandise  of  conscience.  See 
Gardiner,  I,  pp.  99,  100. 


626  KIKG   AND   COMMOKS  [jamesi. 

treason  against  the  crown  itself,  and  Cecil  had  no  trouble  in  secnr- 
ing  the  conviction  of  Cobham,  Brooke,  Raleigh,  and  others.  Brooke 
and  Watson,  a  Catholic  priest,  were  hanged;  but  Cobham,  Raleigh, 
and  Lord  Grey  de  Wilton,  a  Puritan,  were  respited  and  sent  to  the 
Tower. 

In  the  meantime  James  had  been  brought  face  to  face  with  the 

religious  problem  in  a  still  more  annoying  form  in  the  shape  of  the 

"  Millenary  Petition,"  ^  so  called  because  purporting  to 

ton  Court        have  the  support  of  "more  than  a  thousand"  clergrvmen 

conference,  ^"^ 

Janimry,  of  the  established  church.  The  tone  of  the  document 
was  moderate  enough.  It  represented  those  who  desired 
'*not  a  disorderly  innovation,  but  a  due  and  godly  reformation," 
and  among  other  things  petitioned  that  men  appointed  as  clergy- 
men might  be  better  qualified  to  preach,  or  that  those  already  in 
office  might  be  compelled  to  set  apart  a  portion  of  their  living  to 
maintain  men  who  could  preach ;  that  the  number  of  livings  held 
by  individuals  might  be  restricted ;  that  the  prayer  book  be  relieved 
of  certain  terms  which  belonged  to  the  older  Catholic  service ;  that 
church  songs  and  music  be  moderated  to  better  edification ;  that 
the  Lord's  Day  be  not  profaned;  that  the  *'longsomeness"  of  the 
service  be  abridged;  and  that  kneeling  at  communion,  or  bowing 
at  the  name  of  Jesus,  or  the  giving  of  the  ring  in  marriage  be  not 
required.  Moderate  as  was  the  tone  of  the  document,  it  had 
emanated  from  the  Puritan  wing  of  the  church,  and  the  conservative 
elements  at  once  took  alarm,  the  two  universities  leading  in  the 
tirade  against  those  who  publicly  found  * 'fault  with  the  doctrine 
or  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England."  James  undoubtedly 
meant  to  give  the  petitioners  a  fair  hearing;  the  demand  that 
clergymen  should  be  able  to  preach  rather  appealed  to  his  shrewd 
sense ;  and  he  appointed  the  14th  of  January  for  a  conference  at 
Hampton  Court,  in  order  to  hear  arguments  of  the  contending 
parties  for  and  against  the  petition.  For  a  whole  day  he  listened 
to  the  discussion  patiently,  but  at  the  second  meeting  an  unfortu- 
nate mention  of  "presbyters"  by  one  of  the  disputants,  roused  the 
king  and  he  plunged  into  the  debate.  "Presbytery,"  he  shouted, 
"agreeth  as   well    with   monarchy   as    God    with  the  devil;"  he 

^  Gee  and  Hardy,  pp.  508-512;  also  Gardiner,  I,  pp.  148-158. 


1605]  THE    GUNPOWDER    PLOT  627 

would  make  the  Puritans  conform,  or  "harry  them  out  of  the 
land,  or  else  do  worse."  The  conference  from  which  so  much  was 
expected,  broke  up  in  confusion.  It  had  ended  in  the  total  defeat 
of  the  Puritans;  nor  was  the  wrath  of  the  king  to  pass  with  a 
harmless  outburst  of  hot  words.  Early  in  1605  he  compelled  the 
Puritan  clergy  to  vacate  their  pulpits.  Peace  within  the  church 
was  henceforth  impossible. 

The  king's  treatment  of  the  Catholics  was  as  reckless  as  his 

treatment  of  the  Puritans.     James  respected  the  old  church  as  the 

mother  of  the  Anglican  Church,  and  he  desired  that 

iheCatiioUcs   ^^^  Catholics  should  be  tolerated.     He  honestly  wished 

nnwder%ini    ^^  remit  the  payment  of  the  "recusancy  fines"  and  in 


f 


ovember4,    general  to  mitigate  the  action  of  the  severer  Tudor 


1605. 


laws.^  Yet  the  Catholics  were  far  from  satisfied;  they 
wished  James  to  restore  to  them  all  the  rights  of  citizenship,  a  thing 
which  he  conld  not  do  without  the  consent  of  parliament,  and, 
when  in  1604  parliament  compelled  him  to  allow  the  "penal  laws" 
against  Catholics  to  be  executed,  a  few  hotheads  determined 
upon  a  plan  which  only  the  wildest  desperation  could  justify  even 
to  themselves.  They  proposed  to  blow  up  the  House  of  Lords  at 
the  moment  when,  at  the  opening  of  parliament,  the  king  should  go 
there  with  his  council  to  meet  the  Commons.  Then  having  swept 
away  the  entire  Protestant  government,  King,  Lords,  and  Commons, 
they  would  raise  the  country  and  put  one  of  James's  children  on 
the  throne.  The  leader  was  Robert  Catesby,  a  man  of  good  family, 
of  great  energy  and  courage,  with  whom  were  associated  Thomas 
Percy  of  the  old  Northumberland  family,  Thomas  Winter  and 
others ;  not  least  among  them  was  Guy  Fawkes,  a  Yorkshire  soldier 
of  fortune,  who  had  fought  for  Spain  against  the  Netherlanders. 
The  plotters  got  control  of  the  cellars  under  the  House  of  Lords 
and  here  stored  a  quantity  of  gunpowder.  But  happily  the  date 
for  the  assembling  of  parliament  was  put  off,  and,  in  need  of  funds, 
the  conspirators  were  tempted  to  enlarge  the  number  of  those  who 
were  in  the  plot.  One  of  these  new  membei:s  of  the  conspiracy, 
Sir  Francis  Tresham,  in  his  desire  to  save  his  brother-in-law,  Lord 
Monteagle,  let  out  the  dangerous  secret.     The  day  for  the  meeting 

iProthero,  S.  S.,  pp.  17,  75,  76,  88,  89-93. 


028  Kli^G    AJ^D    COMMONS  [james  i. 

of  parliament  had  been  finally  fixed  for  the  5th  of  November,  but 
on  the  night  of  the  4th  the  ministry  had  the  cellars  searched  and 
found  Fawkes  in  charge  of  the  powder  barrels.  The  other  con- 
spirators were  already  assembled  at  Bunch urch  in  Warwickshire  to 
carry  out  their  part  of  the  plan,  when  they  heard  that  Fawkes  had 
been  discovered.  They  fled  to  liolbeche  House  in  Worcestershire 
and  here  made  a  brave  fight  for  their  lives.  Catesby,  Percy,  and 
two  others,  were  slain.  The  rest,  most  of  them  wounded,  were 
taken  to  London,  and  there,  with  Fawkes,  put  to  death  with  all 
the  barbarity  which  the  times  permitted. 

The  results  of  the  plot  were  disastrous  to  the  Catholics.     The 

exasperated  country  was  not  inclined  to  make  much  distinction 

between  the  few  enthusiasts  who  had  ensraffed  in  the 

Effect  of  Gun-    _  .  ^     ,  it,. 

powder  Plot  desperate  enterprise  and  the  great  body  of  their  co-reli- 
tionof  gionists.     The   country  was  thoroughly  alarmed,  and 

in  response  to  the  cry  for  severer  measures  in  addition 
to  the  old  laws,  which  had  been  burdensome  enough  under  Eliza- 
beth, parliament  enacted  that  no  Catholic  should  practice  law  or 
medicine  or  hold  any  office  in  the  government,  whether  civil, 
military  or  naval ;  no  Catholic  could  inherit  real  estate ;  live  in 
London,  unless  engaged  in  trade;  go  more  than  five  miles  from 
his  home,  or  appear  at  court.  His  house  also  was  to  be  always 
open  for  inspection.  All  Catholic  books  were  to  be  destroyed.  It 
was  a  criminal  offense  to  send  a  child  to  a  Catholic  school  in  Eng- 
land or  abroad;  while  the  attempt  to  convert  a  Protestant  to 
Catholicism  was  to  be  punished  by  hanging. 

It  took  James  even  less  time  to  embroil  himself  with  his  parlia- 
ment than  with  the  religionists  of  his  realm.  His  first  parliament 
was  summoned  in  March  1604.  In  his  directions  to  the 
Godwin's  electors  he  had  warned  them  against  sending  to  parlia- 
ment any  outlaws,  or  bankrupts,  or  men  noted  for 
superstitious  blindness  or  turbulent  manners.  This  was  whole- 
some advice  but  the  returns  were  to  be  sent  to  the  Court  of 
Chancery  for  review,  and  if  any  were  not  satisfactory  they  were 
"to  be  rejected  as  unlawful  and  insufficient."  Here  was  a  very 
important  principle  involved,  which  if  unchallenged  would  prac- 

iProthero,  S.  S.,  pp.  325-331  and  280-293. 


1604]  GOODWIN'S   CASE  629 

tically  leave  in  the  king's  hands  the  right  of  settling  contested 
elections,  and  at  a  crisis  enable  him  to  determine  altogether  the 
complexion  of  the  Commons.  Fortunately  a  test  case  presented 
itself  at  once,  in  one  Francis  Goodwin,  who  had  been  sent  up  from 
I^nckinghamshire.  Goodwin  was  an  outlaw,  that  is,  he  had  an 
unsatisfied  judgment  of  a  court  hanging  over  him,  and  was  at  once 
disqualified  by  the  Court  of  Chancery.  A  new  election  was  ordered 
and  Sir  John  Fortescue  was  returned.  But  when  parliament  met, 
Goodwin  claimed  his  seat,  and  the  Commons  raised  the  point  of 
privilege  and  sustained  him.  James  denied  their  point  on  the 
ground  that  all  privilege  liad  its  source  in  the  king's  grant.  The 
Commons,  however,  carried  the  day;  both  sides  withdrew  their 
candidates,  but  the  king  recognized  the  right  of  the  Commons  to 
decide  contested  elections. 

No  sooner  had  Goodwin's  case  been  closed  than  the  Ilouse 
found  another  of  its  privileges  violated.  One  of  its  members  named 
Sherley  had  been  arrested  for  debt, ^  though  according  to 
mST^^'*  parliamentary  privilege,  no  member  could  be  arrested 
during  the  session  of  parliament  except  for  treason, 
felony,  or  breach  of  the  peace.  Another  quarrel  followed  which 
ended  finally  in  the  release  of  Sherley  and  a  new  recognition  of  the 
principle  of  freedom  from  arrest. 

Another  matter  which  James  had  upon  his  heart,  was  the 

organic  union  of  the  two  kingdoms.     The  object   was  wise  and 

statesmanlike,  but  the  English  and  Scots  had  not  yet 

James  and      forgotten  the  bitter  past;    the  old  hatreds  still  smoul- 

the  union.  ©  r        7 

dered,  and  neither  people  regarded  a  closer  union  with 
any  favor.  Yet  farseeing  statesmen  like  Sir  Francis  Bacon  saw 
that  the  Union  of  the  two  countries  was  not  only  desirable  but 
inevitable,  and  used  their  influence  to  persuade  the  two  parlia- 
ments to  appoint  committees  to  consider  the  matter.  The  com- 
mittees met  and  agreed  to  recommend  a  commercial  union,  by 
which  the  tariff  wall  existing  between  the  two  countries  should  be 
thrown  down,  and  free  trade  established  except  in  the  matter  of 
English  wool  and  Scotch  cattle.  The  hostile  border  laws  were  also 
to  be  abolished,  and  neitlier  country  was  to  afford  asylum  to  the 

^Prothero,  S.  S.,  pp.  289,  290  and  320-325. 


630  KING    AKD    COMMOXS  [jamesL 

criminals  of  the  other.  They  also  recommended  that  Scotsmen 
born  before  the  accession  of  James,  the  ante-nati^  should  be  nat- 
uralized in  England  by  an  act  of  parliament,  and  that  Scotsmen 
who  were  born  after  the  accession  of  James,  the  post-7iati,  should 
be  declared  naturalized  from  birth.  This  report,  which  was  cer- 
tainly moderate,  and,  if  adopted,  would  have  made  a  good  begin- 
ning, was  returned  to  parliament  in  1606.  But  James  who  was 
impatient  to  have  a  legislative  union  established,  managed  to 
prejudice  his  case  by  his  tactless  impatience ;  he  delivered  long,  tire- 
some speeches  in  broad  Scotch,  urging  the  bewildered  parliament 
to  act,  and  making  no  effort  to  conceal  his  contempt  for  the  argu- 
ments of  the  opposition.  The  parliament  was  not  to  be  lectured 
into  compliance.  There  were  grave  questions  of  royal  prerogative 
involved.  English  merchants,  also,  were  afraid  to  face  the  free 
rivalry  of  Scottish  thrift;  and  English  politicians  had  no  wish  to 
share  fat  offices  of  state  with  James's  countrymen.  Parliament, 
therefore,  went  no  farther  than  to  abolish  the  old  border  laws  which 
had  grown  up  in  a  time  when  the  two  nations  were  at  constant 
feud.  In  1608  in  the  test  case  of  Eobert  Colville,  who  had  been 
born  in  Edinburgh  in  1605,  the  English  judges,  by  declaring 
him  to  be  a  natural  subject  of  the  king  of  England,  admitted 
all  post-7iati  to  naturalization.  Here  the  matter  rested  until 
the  Act  of  Union  of  1707  permanently  united  the  two  people  in 
one  state. 

During  the  thirty  odd  years  in  which  James  had  been  reigning 
in  Scotland,  he  had  been  forced  to  accommodate  himself  to  the 

meagre  revenues  of  a  country  which  was  proverbially 
of  the  new       poor.      He  was  not,  however,  thrifty  by  nature,  and 

when  he  found  himself  called  at  last  to  reign  over  a 
country  which  had  the  reputation  of  being  rich,  like  a  poor  trades- 
man who  suddenly  finds  himself  a  millionaire,  he  began  to  spend 
money  as  though  he  expected  never  to  see  the  bottom  of  the  new 
treasure  chest.  He  expended  £100,000  upon  his  journey  from 
Scotland,  the  funeral  of  Elizabeth,  and  his  coronation.  In  his 
second  year  he  squandered  £426,000  and  incurred  debts  to  the 
amount  of  £735,000.  The  annual  income  of  Elizabeth  had 
amounted  to  about  £300,000,  and  with  the  utmost  frugality  had 


1606-1610]  THE    GREAT    CONTRACT  631 

barely  sufficed  for  her  needs.*  The  prodigality  of  James,  therefore, 
soon  forced  him  to  apply  to  parliament  for  help.  But  parliament 
was  in  no  mood  to  look  leniently  upon  such  "needless  and 
unreasonable"  extravagance,  and,  instead  of  money,  gave  the  king  a 
lecture.  Cecil,  now  earl  of  Salisbury,  proposed  to  help  the  king 
by  increasing  the  tax  on  certain  imports  and  exports,  impositions^ 
basing  his  action  upon  the  right  of  the  king  to  regulate  foreign 
commerce.  His  position  was  contested  by  a  London  merchant 
na  ed  John  Bate,^  but  was  sustained  by  the  Court  of  Exchequer; 
the  judges  ruling  that  the  king  by  royal  prerogative  might  regu- 
late foreign  commerce.  Upon  this  ruling,  in  1608,  Salisbury,  who 
had  recently  added  to  the  duties  of  secretary  those  of  lord  treas- 
urer as  well,  issued  a  new  book  of  rates,  which  covered  almost  all 
articles  of  export  or  import  and  was  intended  to  increase  the  royal 
revenues  by  about  £70,000  a  year.  The  precedent  was  too  danger- 
ous to  allow  to  lie  long  unquestioned,  and  the  impositions  were  very 
soon  given  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  list  of  grievances  which  the 
Stuart  parliaments  were  drawing  out  against  the  administration. 
In  1610  Salisbury  brought  forth  another  measure  known  as  the 
Great  Contract ^^  by  which  he  proposed,  in  return  for  the  payment 
of  a  lump  sum  to  be  applied  to  the  crown  debts,  and  a 
Contract,  regular  yearly  income  of  £200,000,  assured  by  a  per- 
manent tax,  to  surrender  the  old  feudal  dues  and  the 
irregular  profits  of  purveyance;  the  king  also  agreed  to  consent  to 
a  bill  against  impositions.  There  was  much  to  be  said  in  favor  of 
this  plan  which  promised  so  many  mutual  advantages  both  to  king 
and  people,  and  the  Commons  actually  agreed  to  the  general  prin- 

^  This  revenue  was  derived  from  the  crown  estates,  the  ecclesiastical 
first  fruits  and  tenths  whicli  the  crown  had  enjoyed  since  Henry  VIII. 's 
time,  various  feudal  incidents,  and  tunnage  and  poundage  which  it  w^as 
the  custom  to  grant  to  each  sovereign  for  life  upon  his  accession.  These 
constituted  the  ordinary  revenues  of  the  crown  and  were  sufficient  to 
meet  its  ordinary  needs.  When  there  were  special  needs,  such  as  might 
arise  from  war,  a  special  parliamentary  grant  was  necessary.  Since  the 
fourteenth  century  it  was  customary  to  raise  such  extra  funds  by  a  gen- 
eral tax  on  the  yearly  value  of  land  and  on  personal  property,  the  subsidy. 
See  Prothero,  S.S.  Introduction  pp.  Ixix-lxxxiv. 

2Prothero,  ^.  >Sf.,  pp.  340,  343. 

3  Prothero,  S.  S,  pp.  295,  296. 


632  KING    AND    COMMONS  [iamesi. 

ciple  of  the  Contract,  but,  unfortunately,  Cecil,  in  order  to  prepare 
the  way  for  his  contract,  had  invited  the  Commons  to  present  their 
grievances;  they  had  taken  him  at  his  word,  and  in  the  alterca- 
tions which  followed,  the  Great  Contract  was  lost  sight  of  in  the 
larger  questions  of  law  and  right.  James  became  satisfied  that 
nothing  more  could  be  done  with  his  first  parliament,  which  had 
been  in  existence  now  since  1604,  and  on  February  11,  1611,  sent 
them  to  their  homes,  with  much  ill-feeling  on  both  sides. 

Fortunately  the  growing  distrust  of  king  and  parliament,  which 
had  thus  far  marked  the  first  years  of  James's  reign,  had  not  inter- 
fered with  a  great  work  which  since  1604  had  been 
thorized  quietly  carried  on  by  a  committee  of  learned  divines,  who 
the  Scrip-  represented  both  parties  in  the  English  Church.  This 
work  was  the  famous  "King  James  Version  of  the 
Scriptures, "  which  was  completed  and  published  in  1611,  and,  in 
spite  of  an  early  unpopularity  and  of  many  attempts  since  to  secure 
greater  accuracy  of  statement  or  more  scholarly  representation  of 
Scriptural  thought,  still  holds  its  sway  among  English-speaking 
peoples  as  the  most  popular  version  of  the  Bible. 

Xot  less  perplexing  than  the  questions  which  confronted  James 
at  home  were  the  questions  which  grew  up  out  of  the  English  hold 
upon  Ireland.  When  Essex  returned  from  Ireland  in 
1599  he  had  left  the  island  in  an  uproar.  His  suc- 
cessor Charles  Blount,  Lord  Mountjoy,  found  Dublin  and  a  few 
miles  of  the  surrounding  country  virtually  all  that  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  English.  He  was,  however,  a  practical,  thought- 
ful man,  with  the  instincts  of  a  soldier,  and  within  three  years 
had  ended  the  revolt  and  regained  possession  of  the  island.  A 
famine,  which  had  followed  the  war  with  frightful  ravages,  com- 
pleted the  soldier's  work.  The  energetic  deputy  covered  the 
country  with  fortresses,  small,  but  well  garrisoned  and  provisioned, 
and  so  overawed  the  Irish  nobles,  that  the  earl  of  Tyrone  submitted, 
and  the  earl  of  Desmond  fled  to  Spain. 

Mountjoy  was  followed  by  Sir  Arthur  Chichester  who  made  an 
able  and  determined  effort  to  restore  the  conquered  counties  by 
introducing  the  English  system  of  government  in  the  place  of  the 
old  tribal  system.     The  tribal  chieftains  became  simple  landlords. 


1607-1611]  THE    PLANTATION    OF    ULSTER  633 

and  their  subjects  tenants,  who  instead  of  the  old  irregular  levies 
were  henceforth  to  be  liable  to  their  lords  only  for  fixed  dues  or 

services.  Chichester  also  attempted  to  convert  the 
ChYhester       country   to  the  Protestant   faith,   which    was   already 

the  religion  by  law,  but  which  had  never  extended 
farther  than  the  bishops  appointed  by  the  government, — a  set 
of  men  for  the  most  part  notoriously  unfit  for  their  posts. 
The  deputy  had  the  Bible  and  Prayer  Book  translated  into 
Irish  and  attempted  to  reform  the  church.  But  the  dispossessed 
Irish  priests  refused  to  leave  their  charges,  while  the  English  of 
the  Pale  clung  to  the  old  faith  quite  as  stubbornly  as  the  Irish ; 
"and  the  sole  result  of  the  deputy's  efforts  was  to  build  up  a  new 
Irish  people  out  of  the  English  and  Irish  upon  the  common  basis 
of  religion."  Other  troubles  were  also  brewing.  The  Irish 
chieftains  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  loss  of  their  tribal  jurisdic- 
tions and  their  right  of  levy  upon  their  clansmen ;  they  objected 
also  to  the  interference  of  the  new  law  officers  in  their  quarrels, 
and  began  to  prepare  for  war.  The  English  hold  upon  the  coun- 
try, however,  was  too  strong  to  be  shaken  off,  and  in  1607  Tyrone 
abandoned  the  struggle  and  retired  to  the  continent. 

If  Chichester  could  have  had  his  way  something  might  now 
have  been  done  for  Ireland,  for  the  people  as  a  whole  were  not 

altogether  averse  to  the  new  order,  and  were  beffinninsr 

The  ^'Planta-    ^^,       ^,^,  -,         ^  ,        \        ji-xt-x 

tirni  of  ^  to  understand  the  advantage  of  quiet  and  of  the  protec- 
tion of  the  civil  courts  against  the  tyranny  of  their  old 
lords.  But,  unfortunately  for  both  England  and  Ireland,  James 
and  his  council  now  determined  to  interfere  and  deliberately 
adopted  a  gigantic  plan  of  spoliation.  They  declared  two- thirds 
of  the  north  of  Ireland  confiscated  to  the  crown  and  proceeded  to 
allot  the  lands  to  Scotch  and  English  colonists.  This  colonization 
of  north  Ireland,  known  as  the  "Plantation  of  Ulster,"  was  car- 
ried on  with  the  usual  indifference  of  a  conquering  people  to  the 
rights  of  a  subject  nation.  The  choicest  lands  were  taken  for  the 
settlers,  and  the  Irish  were  forced  to  content  themselves  with  what 
was  left.  The  new  settlers,  of  the  fervid  Scotch  Presbyterian  type 
mostly,  were  energetic  and  thrifty  people,  and  soon  gave  a  good 
account  of   themselves  in  their  growing  wealth  and  prosperity. 


634  KING    AND    COMMONS  [jamesi. 

But  nothing  of  this  prosperity  was  for  the  dispossessed  Irish. 
Keduced  to  enforced  poverty  by  being  despoiled  of  their  lands, 
hated  and  distrusted  by  the  conquerors  as  "alien"  and  Catholic, 
and  despised  as  "barbarians,"  they  lost  all  faith  in  English  jus- 
tice and  handed  down  to  the  generations  to  come,  hatred  of  the 
English  and  defiance  of  the  hand  that  had  despoiled  them,  as  a 
sacred  duty,  to  be  observed  with  a  devotion  kindred  to  that  with 
which  they  cherished  the  religion  of  their  fathers. 

The  years  which  immediately  followed  the  dissolution  of 
James's  first  parliament,  were  full  of  important  incident.  In  1612 
Salisbury  died  and  James,  like  Henry  III.,  undertook 
ihefavorUes  ^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^^  chief  minister.  Like  Henry  III  also  he 
soon  fell  into  the  hands  of  unworthy  favorites,  much  to 
the  disgust  and  scandal  of  the  realm.  The  first  of  these  was  a 
handsome  Scotchman  named  Robert  Carr,  whom  James  made  first 
viscount  of  Rochester  and  then  earl  of  Somerset.  Carr  knew 
little  of  business;  yet  James  gave  him  his  complete  confidence, 
the  effect  of  which  was  soon  seen  in  the  renewed  confusion  into 
which  the  finances  of  the  administration  fell  within  a  year  after 
Salisbury's  death.  In  1614  Carr's  infljience  began  to  wane  before 
that  of  a  new  rival  for  the  king's  favor,  George  Villiers;  and  in 
1616  his  career  at  court  was  cut  short  in  consequence  of  the  crime 
of  his  wife,  who  had  succeeded  in  poisoning  her  enemy  Sir  Thomas 
Overbury. 

James,  also,  had  ideas  of  his  own  about  the  proper  foreign  policy 

for  England.     "He  wished  to  put  an  end  to  religious  warfare  and 

to  persuade  the  Catholic  powers  and  the  Protestant 

The  fovcixiTi 

poiicijof  powers  of  the  continent  that  it  was  for  their  real  inter- 
est to  abstain  from  mutual  aggression.  Why  should 
not  he  and  his  family  be  the  centre  round  which  this  new  league 
of  peace  should  form  itself?"  ^  The  thought  was  noble  and  worthy 
of  James's  peace-loving  principles,  but  entirely  visionary  and 
impracticable  as  all  but  James  knew.  The  years  1609-1613  saw 
various  marriage  projects  advanced  in  which  the  children  of 
James  of  marriageable  age  were  concerned  and  for  whom  at 
different  times  alliances  were  proposed  with  the  Catholic  courts  of 

1  Gardiner,  II,  p.  138. 


1611-1624]  GEORGE   VILLIERS  635 

Spain,  France,  and  Tuscany.  In  these  negotiations  James  seems 
to  have  been  the  only  party  seriously  in  earnest.  He  was,  more- 
over, vigorously  opposed  both  by  Salisbury  and  his  own  eldest  son 
Prince  Henry,  especially  in  the  plan  of  an  alliance  with  Spain,  and 
largely  by  their  influence  in  1611  he  was  persuaded  to  consent  to 
a  union  of  his  daughter  Elizabeth  with  Frederick  V.,  Count 
Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  head  of  the  league  of  German  princes  known 
as  the  Protestant  Union.  The  marriage  was  celebrated  two  years 
later  when  both  Cecil  and  Prince  Henry  were  in  their  graves. 
The  early  death  of  this  fine  young  prince  seems  to  have  been  an 
irreparable  loss  to  England.  He  was  a  thorough  Protestant  in  his 
sympathies  and  of  unusually  sound  sense  for  a  Stuart.  Although 
he  had  not  yet  reached  his  twentieth  year  he  had  given  the  friends 
of  his  country  great  reason  to  expect  much  from  him.  He  saw  what 
James  did  not  see,  that  England's  future  lay  in  encouraging  rather 
than  repressing  her  Protestant  tendencies;  he  saw  also  that 
Protestant  Germany  was  the  natural  ally  of  England,  and  had 
accordingly  greatly  favored  the  marriage  project  of  his  sister 
Elizabeth.  He  appreciated  also  the  value  of  such  men  as  Raleigh, 
and  had  said  of  his  father's  treatment  of  the  old  soldier  of  Eliza- 
beth: **My  father  is  the  only  sovereign  of  Europe,  who  would  keep 
such  a  bird  in  a  cage."     His  loss  was  deeply  felt. 

After  the  death  of  Prince  Henry  and  Cecil,  James  veered  back 
again  to  his  earlier  idea  of  a  Catholic  alliance  as  the  best  means  of 
George  Securing  a  general  peace.     In  this  he  was  urged  on  by 

o/BucJiing-^^  Goorge  Villiers,  who  had  succeeded  Carr  as  the  king's  evil 
ham.  genius.     Villiers  was  advanced  rapidly;  in  1616  he  was 

created  a  viscount,  in  1617  an  earl,  in  1618  a  marquis,  and  finally 
in  1623  duke  of  Buckingham.  He  had  great  personal  magnetism; 
was  gallant,  kind  hearted,  impulsive,  and  not  averse  to  hard  work. 
He  was,  moreover,  a  very  different  man  from  the  type  of  Gaveston 
or  Carr.  He  dreamed  of  great  things,  but  lacked  the  practical 
judgment  necessary  to  turn  them  into  realities.  He  was  respon- 
sible for  most  of  the  later  blunders  of  James. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  personal  administration  of  the  king  had 
brought  matters  to  such  a  pass  that  he  could  no  longer  put  off 
calling  a  parliament,  and  in  1614  issued  writs  for  the  election. 


636  KING    AND    COMMONS  [jamesL 

When  the  new  parliament  came  together,  although  it  was  alleged 
that  some  of  the  friends  of  the  king  had  "undertaken"  to  secure 

returns  favorable  to  his  designs,  it  was  found  that  the 
theAddied  spirit  of  the  members  was  Just  as  intractable  as  ever, 
^'JZ^^^The^'  and  before  they  would  pass  an  act  to  help  the  king  out 
takers '"         ^^  ^^®  difficulties,  they  insisted  that  he  should  listen  to 

their  grievances.  They  were  furious  over  the  alleged 
attempt  of  the  "undertakers"  to  influence  the  elections;  they 
protested  against  the  impositions ;  they  protested  against  the  ejec- 
tion of  the  Puritan  clergy ;  they  protested  against  the  favorites, 
and  in  general  against  most  everything  the  king  had  done  or  had 
failed  to  do,  since  he  began  his  reign.  James,  however,  soon 
grew  weary  and  sore  under  the  incessant  scolding  of  his  "faithful 
and  loving  Commons"  and,  fully  determined  if  possible  to  get 
along  without  this  ungracious  monitor  in  the  future,  dissolved  his 
second  parliament  before  even  a  single  bill  had  been  passed.  The 
king's  friends  dubbed  it  in  derision  "The  Addled  Parliament." 

The  parliament  was  not  the  only  body  against  whom  James  was 
compelled  .to  defend  the  prerogatives  which  he  had  received  from 

the  Tudors.     From  the  first  he  had  shown  a  disposi- 

Th6  inde- 

peiidenceof  Hon  to  sustaiu  the  special  courts  whenever  they  came 
Dismwsaiof  into  couflict  with  the  common  law  courts.  The  com- 
mon law  judges  on  their  part  felt  an  instinctive  hos- 
tility to  the  extra  legal  powers  which  had  descended  from  the 
Tudors.  Their  leader  was  Sir  Edward  Coke,  eminent  among  the 
jurists  of  James  for  his  knowledge  of  the  common  law.  He  had 
held  the  office  of  attorney  general  under  Elizabeth,  had  been  made 
Chief  Justice  of  Common  Pleas  by  James  in  1606  and  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  King's  Bench  in  1613.  Coke  took  his  stand  upon  the 
principle  that  all  questions  of  law  between  the  king  and  the 
nation,  that  is  questions  of  prerogative,  should  be  submitted  to  the 
courts.  He  also  upheld  the  supremacy  of  the  common  law  courts 
over  the  extra  legal  courts  by  declaring  the  right  of  the  common 
law  judges  to  limit  the  jurisdiction  of  these  courts  in  special  cases, 
and  in  supporting  this  view  he  had  not  hesitated  to  issue  an 
injunction  against  the  court  of  High  Commission  or  to  reverse  a 
decision  even  of  the  court  of  Chancery.     In  his  defense  of  the 


1616]  SIR   EDWARD   COKE  637 

dignity  of  the  common  law  courts  the  courageous  chief  justice  had 
more  than  once  been  brought  face  to  face  with  the  king.  In  one 
of  these  altercations  James  had  declared  of  Coke's  position  that  it 
placed  the  king  under  the  law,  ** which  is  treason  to  affirm."  To 
which  Coke  had  coolly  replied  by  quoting  a  maxim  of  Bracton: 
"The  king  ought  not  to  be  under  any  man,  but  under  God  and  the 
Imu.''^  In  1616  the  contention  between  the  king  and  his  chief 
justice  reached  a  crisis  in  wliich  the  king  flatly  contended  that  in 
any  case  in  which  the  prerogative  of  the  crown  was  concerned  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  judges  to  stay  proceedings  until  they  had  first 
consulted  the  king.  Coke  saw  that  the  whole  question  of  the 
independence  of  the  courts  was  at  stake  and  brought  all  his 
wealth  of  legal  learning  and  powers  of  argument  to  bear.  James 
bullied  and  blustered,  but  mere  volubility  of  which  he  was  always 
a  master,  was  no  match  for  the  learning  of  the  chief  justice,  and 
failing  of  other  ways  to  silence  his  antagonist  James  dismissed  him 
from  "the  office  which  he  had  magnified  so  highly."  By  the  dis- 
missal of  Coke  "James  obtained  at  a  blow  all  that  he  had  been 
seeking  by  more  devious  courses."  The  common  law  judges 
henceforth  held  their  offices  practically  as  well  as  theoretically  at 
the  pleasure  of  the  crown;  "the  prerogative  was  safe  from  attacks 
from  judges  who,  comparatively  at  least  with  the  men  who  had 
held  office  before  the  fall  of  Coke,  were  dependent  upon  the  favors 
and  the  anger  of  the  crown. " 

During  all  these  years  Sir  "Walter  Raleigh  had  remained  in 
prison  where  his  unfortunate  plot  against  Cecil  had  brought  him 

in  1603.  He  had  amused  himself  by  writing  books  and 
expemim  devisiug  impossible  schemes  for  bettering  the  financial 
%^^^^^^^'      conditions  of  the  government.     At  last  the  report  of 

the  existence  of  a  gold  mine  in  South  America  won  the 
ear  of  the  king,  and  in  1617  Raleigh  was  fitted  out  with  a  ship  and 
sent  to  the  Orinoco  to  find  his  marvelous  mine.  He  was  warned, 
however,  not  to  molest  the  Spanish  or  in  any  way  embroil  James 
with  Spain.  The  expedition  was  a  pitiful  failure.  Raleigh's  men, 
apparently  against  his  orders,  attacked  the  Spanish  town  of  St. 
Thomas,  and  refusing  to  go  farther  forced  him  to  return  empty 
handed.     The  English  applauded  the  storming  of  St.  Thomas  and 


638  KING   AND    COMMONS  [jamesL 

saw  no  crime  in  it;  but  James  was  bent  upon  maintaining  his 
friendly  relations  with  Spain,  It  was  determined,  therefore,  to 
sacrifice  Raleigh  to  the  demand  of  Spain  and  accordingly  soon 
after  his  return  the  sentence  of  1603  was  carried  out.  The  people 
had  long  since  forgotten  the  former  unpopularity  of  Raleigh  and 
looked  upon  him  *'in  the  tragedy  of  his  death"  almost  as  a 
martyr.     James  was  now  the  most  unpopular  man  in  England. 

The  immediate  outbreak  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  however, 

soon  drew  the  attention  of  the  people  to  other  objects  and  offered 

James  an  opportunity  of  recovering  their  confidence. 

Outbreak  of    But  he  had  learned  nothing  by  his  blunders,  and  obsti- 

the  Thirty 

Years'  War  nately  persisted  in  his  course  of  antagonizing  the  nation 
at  every  step.  In  1618  the  Protestant  assembly  of 
Bohemia  had  refused  to  recognize  longer  as  their  king  Fer- 
dinand, the  head  of  the  Austrian  Hapsburgs,  and  had  offered  the 
throne  to  the  Protestant  Prince  Frederick  of  the  Palatine.  Fred- 
erick accepted  and  was  crowned  August  26,  1619.  Two  days  later 
Ferdinand  was  elected  emperor  and  at  once  brought  the  imperial 
power  to  bear  against  his  rival.  James  was  anxious  to  help  his 
son-in-law,  but  it  troubled  him  to  reconcile  his  own  position  as 
champion  of  peace  and  the  divine  right  of  kings  with  the  support 
of  one  whom  he  feared  miglit  be  technically  a  rebel.  He  hesitated 
and  dallied,  and  in  his  despair  sought  the  interposition  of  Spain. 
He  was  foolish  enough  to  think  that  by  securing  the  marriage  of 
Prince  Charles  with  the  Infanta  of  Spain,  he  might  connect  him- 
self with  the  Catholic  party  in  Europe  and  enlist  Spain  actively  in 
behalf  of  his  daughter's  husband.  The  Spaniards,  however,  had 
no  thought  of  supporting  Frederick,  but  instead  made  ready  to 
attack  the  Palatinate  on  their  own  account.  Yet  they  were  will- 
ing to  let  James  hope,  so  long  as  he  kept  out  of  the  war. 

In  1620  Frederick  suffered  a  serious  defeat  near  Prague;  the 

Spaniards  also  invaded  the  Palatinate.     It  was  evident  that  James 

must  interfere  if  his  son-in-law  were  to  be  saved.     Still 

The  third 

parliament     he  hesitated.     His  people  were  furious,  and  from  all 

summoned.         .^  ,,  „^  ..ir..  T^,-r»i- 

sides  arose  the  cry  for  war  with  Spam.  But  Bucking- 
ham, who  had  unbounded  confidence  in  his  own  powers  and  was 
still  hopeful  of  bringing  about  a  general  reconciliation  through  an 


1621-1624]  IMPEACHMENT   OF   BACON  639 

English-Spanish  marriage,  insisted  that  there  be  no  war;  and  yet 
it  was  not  repugnant  to  his  plans  to  make  use  of  the  existing  war 
fever  in  order  to  put  England  on  a  war  footing;— a  threat  which 
Spain  might  well  hesitate  to  challenge.  Accordingly  James's  third 
parliament  was  brought  together  in  1621.  His  attitude  was  con- 
ciliatory and  coaxing;  he  deprecated  *'the  undertakers"  whose 
mistaken  zeal  in  his  cause  had  made  so  much  trouble  with  his  last 
parliament;  he  pleaded  for  time  in  carrying  on  the  present  negotia- 
tions, but  declared  his  intention,  if  the  negotiations  failed,  of 
beginning  war  at  once  in  defense  of  his  son's  territory  and  the 
Protestant  religion.  The  Commons  promptly  voted  the  war  sup- 
plies, and  then  as  there  was  nothing  else  to  do,  they  vented  their 
impatience  in  a  series  of  inquiries  into  the  perennial  subject  of 
domestic  grievances.  In  this  they  were  supported  by  the  vener- 
able ex-justice  Coke,  who  in  spite  of  his  years  had  come  back  to 
the  attack  on  the  king  as  full  of  fight  as  ever,  and  determined  to 
carry  on  in  the  parliament  the  struggle  which  he  had  been  forced 
to  drop  in  the  courts.*  The  House  first  attacked  the  old  abuse  of 
monopolies  and  patents,  in  which  James  and  his  courtiers  had  been 
driving  a  thriving  trade,   and  although  they  were  not  abolished 

until  1624,  the  protest  was  not  lost.  They  then  turned 
mentof^        upon  Sir  Francis  Bacon,   Coke's  old  enemy,  who  was 

attorney  general  at  the  time  of  Coke's  dismissal,  but 
had  since  been  made  chancellor,  and  impeached  him  upon 
charges  of  corruption.  Bacon  confessed  and  threw  himself  upon 
the  mercy  of  the  peers.  The  king  remitted  the  penalty  but  a 
valuable  precedent  had  been  established.  The  Commons  had 
recovered  an  old  and  important  weapon  against  crown  ministers 
which  since  the  impeachment  of  Suffolk  in  1450,  had  been  left  to 
rust  along  with  other  forgotten  but  not  outworn  constitutional 
forms.  It  was  found  to  be  just  as  terrible  and  just  as  efficient  as 
ever,  and  from  tliis  time  forward,  during  the  whole  Stuart  period, 
there  was  scarcely  a  parliament  that  did  not  try  to  mark  some 
minister  for  impeachment. 

^  For  service  of  Coke  in  the  third  parliament  of  James  and  general 
estimate  of  his  character  see  Gardiner,  IV,  40,  41. 
2Prothero,  S.S..  p.  3S4. 


640  KII^^G   AND   COMMONS  [jamesi. 

In  the  meanwhile  parliament  emboldened  by  its  successes 
began  to  show  an  alarming  disposition  to  help  the  king  in  his 
"negotiations."  It  learned,  also,  that  he  had  proposed 
Mrw^mon  ^^  ^^^  Spaniards  to  secure  toleration  for  English  Catho- 
ncTlveech  ^^^^t  ^^^^  ^^  show  their  temper  the  Commons  decreed 
that  the  recusants  should  pay  a  double  share  towards  the 
war  fund ;  they  also  petitioned  the  king  to  put  the  laws  against 
Catholics  in  force,  and  asked  him  to  secure  a  Protestant  bride  for 
liis  son.  Encouraged  by  Buckingham  and  Gondomar,  the  Span- 
ish ambassador,  James  forbade  the  members  to  discuss  "myster- 
ies of  state"  and  covertly  threatened  the  leaders  by  announcing 
his  right  to  punish  members  for  their  conduct  as  members  of  the 
House.  This  direct  attack  upon  the  right  of  speech  again  brought 
forward  the  old  lion  Coke,  and  under  his  leadership  the  Com- 
mons ordered  to  be  enrolled  upon  their  journals  the  famous  opin- 
ion "that  the  liberties,  franchises,  priyileges,  and  Jurisdictions  of 
parliament  are  the  ancient  and  undoubted  birthright  and  inherit- 
ance of  the  subjects  of  England;  and  that  the  arduous  and  urgent 
affairs  concerning  the  king,  state,  and  defence  of  the  realm  and  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  the  making  and  maintenance  of  laws, 
and  redress  of  grievances,  which  daily  happen  within  this  realm, 
are  proper  subjects  and  matter  of  counsel  and  debate  in  parlia- 
ment; and  that  in  the  handling  and  proceeding  of  these  businesses 
every  member  of  the  House  hath,  and  of  right  ought  to  have, 
freedom  of  speech,  to  propound,  treat,  reason,  and  bring  to  con- 
clusion the  same. "  ^  In  connection  with  these  discussions  are  to  be 
noted  the  names  of  John  Pym,  a  young  member  from  Bedford- 
shire, and  Thomas  Wentworth,  a  member  from  Yorkshire,  names 
soon  to  be  household  words  in  England.  James  sent  for  the 
Journal  and  tore  out  the  protest,  and  then  dismissed  parliament. 
He  also  sent  Coke,  Phelips,  and  Mallory  to  the  Tower,  and  confined 
Pym  to  his  house. 

With  the  obstinate  tenacity  of  a  small  mind  James  continued 
to  cling  to  his  Spanish  marriage  scheme.  But  matters  were 
pressing  in  the  Palatinate.     The  Protestants  had  placed  their  cause 

^  Prothero,  Introduction,  pp.  Ixxxvii-xcviii.  and  pp.  117  133,  255,  310- 
316  and  320-339. 


1624]  CHARLES   AND   BUCKINGHAM  641 

in  the  hands  of  Mansfeld,  a  reckless  soldier  of  fortune,  who  was 
not  only  no  match  for  Count  Tilly,  the  general  of  the  Catholic 

League,  but  had  alienated  the  friends  of  Frederick  by 
towin Spain  ^^^  reckless  treatment  of  the  peasantry  of  the  Rhine 

country.  The  Protestant  Union  withdrew  from  the 
struggle ;  Heidelberg  and  Mannheim  fell ;  Frederick  fled  to  Holland 
and  his  electoral  honor  was  given  by  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  to  the 
duke  of  Bavaria.  James  in  his  despair  listened  to  .a  wild  scheme 
of  Buckingham's,  and  sent  him  with  Prince  Charles  to  Madrid  to 
push  the  suit  in  person.  The  appearance  of  the  two  at  the  Span- 
ish court  compelled  the  Spaniards  to  throw  off  the  mask,  and  even 
Buckingham  saw  at  last  how  useless  it  was  to  expect  Spain  to 
unite  with  England  against  the  other  branch  of  the  House  of 
Austria.  Had  the  attempt  been  made  earlier  good  might  have 
come  of  it,  though  not  in  the  way  that  James  had  planned.  But 
now  Spain  had  carried  its  purpose;  the  Palatinate  was  ruined; 
Frederick  had  been  punished  and  the  Spanish  court  sought  only 
to  shake  off  the  English  without  a  quarrel. 

Buckingham  and  Charles  returned  angry  and  disgusted,  and 
as  determined  to  make  war  on  Spain  as  before  they  had  been  set 

upon  the  alliance.  The  nation  which  had  been  furious 
ami^chaS  ^hcn  the  object  of  the  prince's  expedition  became 
i?25'"^^*'        known,  went  wild  with  joy  when  he  returned  without 

his  bride.  The  favorite  leaped  at  once  into  unbounded 
popularity.  James,  broken  in  body,  the  result  of  his  ungoverned 
habits  of  eating  and  drinking,  and  worn  in  mind  by  anxiety  and 
vexation,  thought  no  longer  of  resistance.  He  left  the  conduct  of 
affairs  virtually  in  the  hands  of  Charles  and  the  duke.  Parlia- 
ment was  summoned;  few  voices  were  raised  for  peace;  a  large 
sum  of  money  was  voted  for  the  war.  Parliament,  however, 
refused  to  trust  the  king  and  placed  the  disbursement  of  the 
money  in  the  hands  of  a  commission.  The  lord  treasurer,  Mid- 
dlesex, opposed  the  war  and  at  the  instigation  of  Charles  and 
Buckingham  was  impeached  on  a  trumped-up  charge  of  corrup- 
tion. The  king  looked  on  passive  but  disgusted  and  cynical. 
When  he  heard  of  Charles's  part  in  the  impeachment  of  Middlesex 
the  old  wit  flashed  up,  and  he  shrewdly  remarked:    *'He  will  live 


642  KINO   AKD   COMMONS  [charlks  i. 

to  have  his  belly  fall  of  impeachments."  The  session  ended  in 
general  good  humor  and  the  members  went  home,  well  satisfied 
with  themselves  and  the  young  prince  who  was  soon  to  be  at  the 
head  of  the  government  in  name  as  he  was  now  in  fact. 

Buckingham  and  Charles  now  had  the  power  in  their  hands, 

but  with  inconceivable  blindness,  instead  of  letting  the  marriage 

question  rest,  began  negotiations  with  the  French  king 

MistaTiesof     Louis  XIII.  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  hand  of 

BacMnqham  .  .  n^      .  -r  it  •      t 

and  Charles,  his  sistcr  Henrietta  Maria.  James  had  promised 
parliament  not  to  interfere  with  the  laws  against  recu- 
sants, but  Louis  insisted  upon  a  promise  of  toleration  for 
English  Catholics.  Parliament,  moreover,  had  indicated  its 
desire  to  attack  Spain  directly  on  the  seas,  her  only  vulnerable 
point;  but  the  advisers  of  the  king  thouglit  only  of  winning  back 
the  Palatinate.  Twelve  thousand  Englishmen  were  enlisted  and 
sent  into  the  Rhine  country  and  placed  under  the  command  of  the 
ruffian  Mansfeld,  where  they  were  left  to  die  of  cold,  famine,  and 
pestilence.  To  add  to  the  general  discontent  the  marriage  treaty 
with  France  was  duly  signed,  and  the  English  government  pledged 
itself  to  support  the  French  king  against  his  enemies, — an  unfor- 
tunate pledge  which  was  construed  by  the  people  later  as  a  promise 
to  assist  the  French  king  against  his  rebellious  Protestant  subjects. 
Here  was  trouble  enough  for  the  future,  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
confusion,  the  old  king  died,  March  1625. 

The  death  of  James  made  little  change  in  the  political  outlook. 
The  new  king  was  a  handsome,  taciturn  man  of  twenty-five,  with 
a  full  share  of  those  external  graces  of  royalty  which  his 
S'orSer '*  conccited  father  had  so  sadly  lacked.  He  was  dignified, 
temperate,  and  serious;  he  had,  moreover,  little  use  for 
the  empty-headed  parasites  whom  his  father  had  kept  about  his 
court.  He  was  industrious ;  but  possessed  no  great  ability.  He 
was  reserved  and  cold.  He  was  lacking  both  in  frankness  and 
decision ;  and  as  is  common  with  vacillating  natures  was  incurably 
obstinate.  He  could  neither  think  clearly  nor  express  himself 
clearly.  It  was  impossible  to  tie  him  down  to  any  promise,  or 
bind  him  to  a  fixed  policy.  And  yet  he  prided  himself  on  his  con- 
sistency.    He  was  disposed  to  treat  his  people  kindly,  but  had  no 


1625]  FIRST   PARLIAMENT   OF   CHARLES  643 

appreciation  of  their  wants,  and  understood  their  temper  even  less 
than  his  father.  All  in  all  he  was  entirely  unfit  to  play  the  king 
in  such  perplexing  times. 

The  political  creed  of  Charles  was  a  short  one;  he  believed  in 
the  **divine  right  of  kings"  and  also  in  the  **divine  right  of  bish- 
ops." There  was  no  place  for  a  parliament  in  his  sys- 
tem, except  as  a  cumbersome  and  annoying  method  of 
securing  money  for  the  purposes  of  government.  He  had  learned 
nothing  from  his  father's  blunders;  he  prided  himself  rather  on 
having  had  so  good  a  teacher. 

From  the  first  Charles  was  at  war  with  parliament.  It  met  in 
June  1025.  The  French  marriage  had  taken  place  in  May.  The 
Commons  were  not  pleased,  nor  did  they  approve  the 
of'vlSS''^  attitude  of  the  king  toward  the  English  Catholics, 
p^iiament.  whom  he  was  striving  to  protect  in  accordance  with  the 
marriage  contract.  They  were  inclined  to  find  fault, 
moreover,  with  the  management  of  the  war;  they  distrusted 
Charles  and  most  his  favorite  Buckingham,  whose  influence  at 
court  was  greater  than  ever.  When  Charles  asked  for  a  liberal  grant 
to  meet  the  burdens  of  the  war,  they  petitioned  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  laws  against  recusants  and  gave  him  but  a  small  part 
of  the  money  needed.  The  old  tariff  on  leather,  wine,  and  wool, 
known  as  tunnage  and  poundage,  which  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  it  had  been  customary  to  grant  to  every  king  for  life,*  they 
voted  for  one  year  only.  The  bill  failed  to  secure  the  assent  of 
the  Lords,  and  the  revenues  from  this  source,  which  had  become 
very  important  in  consequence  of  the  steady  growth  of  English 
commerce,  would  have  been  cut  off  altogether  had  not  the  king 
insisted  on  collecting  the  tax  without  an  act  of  parliament. 
Another  grievance,  fully  as  serious,  grew  up  out  of  the  promise  of 
Charles  to  assist  the  French  in  the  war  against  Spain.  He  had 
lent  a  man  of  war  and  seven  merchant  ships  to  his  new  allies ;  but 
Richelieu,  the  keen  minister  of  Louis  XIII. ,  had  no  intention  of 
entering  upon  a  foreign  war,  before  he  had  reduced  the  strength 
of  the  Huguenot  cities  somewhat,  whose  semi-independence, 
secured  by  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  might  prove  a  serious  threat  to 

^  Prothero,  Introduction,  Ixxii-lxxviii,  pp.  25,  26. 


644  KING    AND    COMMONS  [charles  r. 

the  peace  of  the  realm.  Hence  the  rumor  quickly  spread  in  Eng- 
land, that  Englishmen  had  been  sent  to  help  Richelieu  crush 
French  Protestants  and  added  greatly  to  the  disquiet  and  irri- 
tation of  parliament.  The  members  at  last  turned  upon  Bucking- 
ham, whom  they  Justly  held  responsible  for  the  French  alliance, 
and  attacked  him  by  name.  The  king  to  save  his  minister  dis- 
solved his  first  parliament. 

The  parliaments  were  now  steadily  feeling  their  way  back  to 
the  old  constitutional  grounds  which  they  had  occupied  in  the 
days  of  Henry  IV.  when  they  had  nominated  the 
of^ChaHes^  king's  council.  But  for  the  king  to  yield  to  this  claim 
*^  rUament  ^^^  ^^  renounce  a  right  which  his  predecessors  had 
enjoyed  since  the  days  of  Edward  IV.  Charles  could 
not  be  expected  to  give  up,  therefore,  without  a  struggle,  for  the 
essence  of  royalty  in  his  way  of  thinking  lay  in  the  right  of  the  king 
to  name  his  own  ministers.  Parliament  controlled  the  situa- 
tion, for  it  had  left  the  king  practically  without  funds,  and  he  was 
compelled  to  call  his  second  parliament  at  once.  He  thought 
if  he  could  get  rid  of  such  leaders  as  Coke,  Phelips,  and  Went- 
worth,  he  might  control  the  other  members,  and  hit  upon  the 
novel  device  of  naming  these  men  as  sheriffs  of  their  several  coun- 
ties, an  office  which  debarred  them  from  standing  for  reelection. 
By  long-established  custom  the  appointees  could  not  refuse  this 
high  mark  of  the  king's  favor  and  esteem;  but  the  cause  suffered 
in  nothing  for  a  new  leader  was  found  in  Sir  John  Eliot,  a  Cornish 
gentleman,  with  the  fiery  eloquence  and  devotion  to  popular  rights 
of  a  Patrick  Henry;  easily  stirred  to  indignant  anger,  warm- 
hearted and  sympathetic,  quick  and  keen,  but  not  farsighted,  and 
a  thorough-going  radical.  He  had  once  been  a  friend  of  Buck- 
ingham, but  his  eyes  were  now  opened  to  the  real  worthlessness  of 
the  minister,  and  the  House  had  hardly  opened  when  he  began  the 
attack  by  demanding  an  inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  the  public 
business. 

The  second  parliament  met  in  February  1626.  During  the 
interval  an  expedition  had  been  dispatched  to  Cadiz  with  the  idea 
of  seizing  the  Spanish  treasure  fleet.  The  sailors,  however,  had 
accomplished  nothing  beyond  getting  gloriously  drunk  on  Spanish 


1626]  TYRA]SrNi:ES   OF   CHARLES  645 

wine,  and  the  expedition  had  returned  in  disgrace.      The  House 
laid  the  responsibility  upon  Buckingham ;  it  was  one  more  evi- 
dence of  the  corruption  and  demoralization  which  he 

Attempt U)  1  i    •       ,1  IT  •  rni  ,       i 

impeach  had  wrought  m  the  public  service.  Ihe  vote  to  im- 
peach was  carried,  and  Eliot  and  Sir  Dudley  Digges 
presented  the  charges  of  the  Commons  before  the  Lords.  Charles 
had  protested  when  the  vote  was  presented  in  the  House,  and  now 
in  his  indignation,  under  the  pretext  that  the  two  spokesmen  of 
the  House  had  used  seditious  language,  he  threw  them  into  prison. 
The  other  members,  however,  stood  by  their  colleagues  and 
refused  to  do  any  business  until  they  had  been  released. 
The  king  yielded  and  the  attack  upon  the  favorite  was  re- 
sumed ;  to  escape  the  issue  the  king  was  again  forced  to  dissolve 
parliament. 

It  was  now  evident  even  to  Charles  that  nothing  was  to  be  got 
out  of  parliament  without  the  dismissal  of  Buckingham  and  this 
he  was  determined  not  to  do.  To  add  to  his  difficulty, 
cCSS^^""^  he  found  himself  threatened  by  war  with  France  in 
spite  of  his  recent  alliance;  he  was  too  weak  to  face 
the  Spaniards  on  the  seas,  or  to  assist  his  ally  Christian  of  Den- 
mark, who  had  been  defeated  at  Lutter,  and  was  suffering  for 
lack  of  the  help  which  Charles  had  promised.  Money  Charles 
must  have,  and  if  the  parliament  would  not  give  it  to  him,  he 
must  raise  it  without  parliament.  He  determined  therefore  to 
resort  to  the  Tudor  expedient  of  a  **free  gift;"  and  when  the 
people  refused  to  give,  in  his  anger  he  resorted  to  the  more  dan- 
gerous expedient  of  a  forced  loan.  But  here  he  met  with  resist- 
ance in  the  courts  as  determined  and  perplexing  as  in  the 
Commons.  Chief  Justice  Crewe  of  the  King's  Bench  was  dis- 
missed. Those  who  refused  the  loan  were  thrown  into  prison  if 
rich ;  if  poor  they  had  soldiers  billeted  on  them,  or  were  pressed 
into  the  army.  Eliot  and  Went  worth  and  most  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Commons,  who  were  among  the  intractable,  also  found  their 
way  into  prison.  When  five  of  the  imprisoned  attempted  to  sue 
out  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  by  which  the  king's  officer  was  com- 
pelled to  specify  the  reason  upon  which  he  detained  the  prisoner, 
the  king  announced  that  it  was  not  necessary  for  him  to  give  any 


646  KING    AND    COMMOKS  [chables  i. 

reason  for  imprisoning  his  subjects,  except  that  such  was  his  good 
pleasure. 

To  add  to  the  excitement  and  confusion,  war  with  France  now 
began  in  real  earnest.     The  English  had  seized  French  vessels  on 

charge  of  carrying  contraband  goods  to  the  Spanish 
tf^oTi^iH       Netherlands,  and  the  French  had  retaliated  by  seizing 

the  English  wine  fleet.  Charles  sent  Buckingham  with 
an  armament  of  6,800  men  to  assist  the  people  of  LaEochelle,  who 
were  threatened  with  attack  by  the  French  government.  Buck- 
ingham attempted  to  take  the  fort  of  St.  Martin  on  the  island  of 
Ehe  which  was  held  by  the  government  troops  and  commanded 
the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  but  after  losing  half  his  men  was 
compelled  to  retire.  Buckingham  had  really  shown  some  traits  of 
a  competent  commander;  but  the  expedition  had  been  badly 
organized  and  poorly  equipped;  his  soldiers  were  mostly  raw 
recruits,  pressed  for  the  occasion.  He  was  therefore  hardly 
responsible  for  the  failure.  But  public  opinion  was  now  too  thor- 
oughly wrought  up  to  judge  him  fairly.  The  people  laid  to 
his  charge  not  only  the  disgrace  suffered  by  English  arms  but  the 
loss  of  the  thousands  of  men  who  had  been  forced  to  give  up  their 
lives  in  the  profitless  errand. 

The  breach  between  Charles  and  the  nation  was  now  all  but 
irreparable.     Time  might  heal  it,  were  he  at  peace,  and  were  it 

possible  to  get  along  without  a  parliament.     But  he  was 

Serious  do  r 

nature  of        not  at  peace ;    on  the  contrary  he  was  confronted  by  a 

hreach  of 

Mug  and        war  with  the  two  greatest  powers  of   the  west;    the 
country  was  defenseless  and  the  treasury  empty.     He 
must  nerve  himself  to  meet  another  parliament. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE   ERA   OF   ARBITRARY   GOVERNMENT 

CHARLES  I.,  1628-1640 

The  urgency  which  compelled  Charles  to  summon  a  parliament 
warned  him  also  to  assume  an  attitude  of  conciliation.     But  the 

men  who  had  suffered  by  the  forced  loans  were  in  no 
The  third  mood  to  be  coaxed  or  wheedled.  The  campaign  was 
of  Charles  I.    bitter,  and  the  returns  went  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of 

the  popular  party ;  the  nation  evidently  was  with  the 
men  who  had  resisted  the  king,  and  had  sent  them  all  back. 
They  were  all  there ;  Coke,  Wentworth,  Eliot,  Pym,  and  many 
others,  destined  to  emerge  from  the  obscurity  of  private  life  in  the 
exciting  struggle  of  the  near  future.  Their  recent  sufferings  had 
made  them  desperate  while  the  consciousness  of  popular  support 
and  that  they  spoke  for  the  nation,  made  them  bolder  and  more 
dangerous  than  ever.  A  wiser  man  than  Charles  would  have 
moved  warily ;  revolution  was  in  the  air. 

It  did  not  take  the  leaders  long  to  form  a  plan  of  action.    Coke, 
the  veteran  of  many  legal  battles,  was  selected  to  attack  the  right 

of  arbitrary  imprisonment  as  claimed  by  the  king ;  Sir 
mom  adopt  John  Eliot,  as  bold  and  irrepressible  as  ever,  was  to 
apetition       lead  the  attack  upon  the  right  of  the  crown  to  make 

forced  loans ;  while  Wentworth,  so  soon  to  draw  back 
from  the  popular  cause,  but  still  high  in  public  confidence  and 
the  virtual  leader  of  the  Commons,  was  to  attack  the  general 
lawlessness  of  the  servants  of  the  crown.  Their  first  thought  was 
to  register  the  displeasure  of  parliament  on  the  recent  acts  of  the 
crown  in  a  series  of  resolutions  based  upon  an  appeal  to  the 
statutes  and  precedents  of  the  past.  Many  vigorous  debates  fol- 
lowed in  which  it  became  increasingly  evident  that  statute  and 
precedent  were  not  altogether  on  one  side;  a  decision  which 
Coke  himself  had  made  in  1609,  when  he  sat  upon  the  bench,  was 

647 


648  ERA    OF    ARBITRARY    GOVERNMENT  [charlks  I. 

cited  against  him.  It  was  also  evident  that,  however  the  resolu- 
tions might  be  worded,  they  were  virtually  an  arraignment  of 
the  king,  and  some,  as  Wentworth,  who  cared  little  for  theories  of 
the  constitution  and  much  for  the  dignity  of  the  administra- 
tion, wished  to  '*save  the  king's  face"  as  the  Chinese  proverb 
runs.  The  Commons,  therefore,  under  Wentworth's  inspira- 
tion, decided  to  bring  in  a  bill  which,  while  ignoring  the 
question  of  what  had  been  law,  should  set  definite  legal  limits  to 
the  activities  of  the  crown  for  the  future.  Here,  however,  Went- 
worth, was  defeated  by  the  king  himself,  who  had  not  yet  learned 
to  trust  the  clear-sighted  leader  of  the  House  and  further  had  no 
wish  to  be  confronted  by  a  list  of  prohibitions  such  as  he  knew  that 
Coke  and  Eliot  would  certainly  present  to  him.  He  thought, 
therefore,  to  avoid  the  issue,  by  asking  the  Commons  whether  his 
* 'royal  word  and  promise"  were  not  sufficient  guarantee  for  the 
observance  of  the  laws  of  the  realm.  The  Commons  were  willing 
to  give  up  the  bill ;  but  they  were  not  satisfied  with  a  general 
''blanket"  promise,  and  insisted  that  there  be  some  definite  under- 
standing between  king  and  parliament  as  to  what  were  the  customs 
of  the  realm.  At  the  suggestion  of  Coke,  therefore,  they  changed 
the  bill  to  the  form  of  a  petition  of  right  which  stated  the  griev- 
ances of  the  nation,  recited  the  existing  laws  bearing  upon  each, 
and  called  upon  the  king  to  give  his  word  that  hereafter  he  would 
instruct  his  servants  to  obey  them.  That  is,  instead  of  making  a 
new  law,  the  Commons  proposed  to  fall  back  upon  the  appeal  to 
existing  statutes.  A  petition  really  offered  them  a  great  advan- 
tage over  a  bill,  since  the  bill  must  wait  until  the  end  of  the  ses- 
sion for  the  royal  assent,  but  a  petition,  which  was  of  the  nature  of 
a  truce  or  convention,  could  receive  an  immediate  answer  from  the 
king,  and  yet,  when  so  approved  by  the  crown,  was  none  the  less  a 
statute,  having  the  effect  of  a  reenactment  of  the  older  laws 
involved.  The  air  thus  having  been  cleared,  the  Commons  might 
proceed  with  confidence  to  the  consideration  of  the  Subsidies  for 
which  the  king  asked. 

Thus  appeared  the  famous  Petition  of  Rights  an  event  fully  as 
noteworthy  in  the  annals  of  English  constitutional  history  as  the 
appearance  of  the  Great  Charter  in  the  reign  of  John.     Like  the 


1628]  THE    PETITION    OF    RIGHT  G49 

Great  Charter  it  purported  to  be  simply  a  restatement  of  the  laws 

of  the  realm ;  like  the  Charter  it  in  reality  challenged  the  whole 

drift  of  the  English  constitution  for  the  century  preced- 

The  Petition  *'   ■»■ 

of  Right,         ing,  and  diverted  it  into  entirely  new  channels;   like 
the  Charter  it  marks,  not  the  end  of  a  struggle  passed, 
but  the  beginning  of  a  struggle  at  hand;  yet,  like  the  Charter  also, 
it  was  a  great  gain  for   the  popular  party,  for  it  cleared  their 
minds,  and  set  before  them  a  definite  scheme,  or  party  platform; 
that  is  a  statement  of  the  things  which  they  proposed  to  secure.^ 
The  chief  objection  of  Charles  to  the  Petition  was  centered 
upon  an  article  which  appealed  to  a  law  of  Edward  III.  against 
suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  that  forbade  the 
»igmd,  royal  judges  to  refuse  the  writ  under  any  circumstances. 

The  king  looked  to  the  Lords  for  help,  and  for  a 
moment,  although  they  supported  the  Petition,  they  threatened  to 
endanger  its  whole  force  by  proposing  to  insert  a  clause  which  dis- 
claimed any  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  petitioners  to  detract  from 
**that  sovereign  power"  wherewith  the  crown  had  been  vested  for 
the  protection  of  the  subject.  The  House,  however,  stood  firm 
and  the  Lords  withdrew  the  objectionable  amendment.  Charles 
then  consulted  his  judges,  who  encouraged  him  to  think  that, 
although  accepting  the  Petition,  by  the  delays  of  the  courts  he 
might  yet  after  all  defeat  the  habeas  corpus  section.  Fortified  by 
this  decision,  the  king  yielded,  but  in  terms  so  ambiguous  that  the 
suspicions  of  the  Commons  were  aroused.  In  their  anger  they 
brought  out  the  old  whip,  which  had  so  often  made  Charles  quail 
before;  they  proceeded  to  draw  up  a  formal  remonstrance,  and, 
finally  as  their  courage  rose,  attacked  the  duke  of  Buckingham  by 
name  as  "the  grievance  of  grievances."  Charles  attempted  to 
stay  action  by  forbidding  the  Commons  to  proceed  with  the 
remonstrance,  but  at  the  threatened  impeachment  of  the  favorite, 
he  yielded,  and  on  June  7  appeared  before  the  Houses,  and  pro- 
nounced the  ancient  formula,^  which  long  usage  had  established  as 
the  legal  mode  of  giving  the  royal  assent.     The  members  broke 

*  For  text  of  Petition  of  Right  see  Taswell-Langmead,  pp.  453-456,  or 
Gardiner's  Const.  Docs,  of  the  Puritan  Revolution,  pp.  1-4. 

^Soit  droit  fait  comme  est  desirex;  "Let  the  law  be  as  desired." 


650  EKA    OP   ARBITRAKY    GOVERNMENT  [charles  i. 

into  a  storm  of  applause ;  the  good  news  ran  into  the  streets ;  can- 
non were  fired,  and  bonfires  lighted.  Throughout  the  kingdom 
there  was  wild  exultation  over  the  victory,  which  all  supposed  had 
now  set  the  long  quarrel  forever  at  rest. 

In  the  exuberance  of  good  will  the  Commons  at  once  granted 
five  subsidies,  amounting  to  about  £350,000,  which  they  had  virtu- 
ally promised  in  case  the  king  signed  the  Petition,  and 

A  remon-  i  ^    ^  . 

strance  then  proceeded  to  consider  the  granting  of  tunnage  and 

poundage  for  life.  Unfortunately,  however,  for  the 
continuance  of  this  good  feeling,  the  suspicions  which  the  recent 
conduct  of  the  king  had  awakened  were  not  quieted,  and  before 
settling  the  question  of  tunnage  and  poundage,  the  Commons 
after  all  determined  to  present  a  remonstrance,  setting  forth  their 
opinions  of  the  general  conduct  of  the  government,  particularly 
of  the  continued  levying  of  the  duties  in  question  without  the 
sanction  of  parliament ;  also  to  call  for  the  removal  of  Bucking- 
ham from  the  king's  service.  To  prevent  the  delivering  of  this 
remonstrance  Charles  adjourned  parliament  for  six  months. 

In  this  memorable  session  parliament  had  also  taken  up  the 
grievances  of  the  Puritans  against  the  Arminians,  as  the  anti-Cal- 
vinist  party  in  the  church  had  now  come  to  be  called, 
^trwThurih.  ^^^^  Arminius  a  Dutch  reformer  who  had  opposed  the 
sway  of  the  Genevan's  theological  ideas  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries. The  English  x\rminians  protested  against  the  extreme  Prot- 
estantism of  the  Puritans,  holding  that  the  doctrines  and  ceremonies 
of  the  English  Church,  sanctioned  by  the  practices  of  a  thousand 
years,  should  be  maintained,  and  that  it  was  not  necessary  to 
repudiate  these  in  order  to  repudiate  the  teachings  of  Papal  Cathol- 
icism. The  party  had  long  exercised  a  great  influence  at  Oxford 
and  had  advanced  rapidly  under  James.  They  leaned  naturally 
toward  Episcopacy  as  the  Puritans  leaned  toward  Presbyterianism. 
With  the  Stuarts,  moreover,  they  had  many  things  in  common, 
and  in  the  recent  quarrels  were  inclined  to  support  the  crown  as 
the  Puritans  were  inclined  to  support  the  Commons,  denouncing 
the  parliament  and  preaching  the  payment  of  the  forced  loan  as  a 
duty.  As  soon  therefore  as  parliament  had  been  prorogued, 
Charles  hastened  to  show  his  appreciation  of  these  voices  that  had 


1628]  WILLIAM    LAUD  651 

been  raised  in  his  behalf  in  his  time  of  need ;  he  brought  William 
Laud  from  the  unimportant  see  of  Bath  and  Wells  to  the  great 
see  of  London;  he  rewarded  others  by  promotions  and  richer 
livings. 

Laud  was  thoroughly  detested  by  the  Puritans.  He  was  a 
little,  red-faced  man  of  mean  appearance,  a  scholar  of  some  ability 
and  undoubtedly  sincere;  but  he  was  also  narrow- 
Lmid^m  minded,  obstinate,  and  devoid  of  tact.     In  the  great 

Puritan  stronghold  of  London  he  was  soon  in  hot 
water.  He  attempted  to  assure  greater  respect  for  the  ''Com- 
munion Table"  by  ordering  it  to  be  placed  at  the  east  end  of  the 
churches,  whereas  the  Puritan  had  adopted  the  practice  of  plac- 
ing it  at  the  side  of  the  church,  near  the  pulpit.  The  Puritans, 
also,  had  generally  adopted  the  practice  of  itinerant  preaching  and 
lecturing.  But  Laud  would  allow  no  clergyman  to  preach  save  in 
his  own  pulpit,  or  where  he  had  been  specially  licensed  by  his 
bishop.  Some  of  these  matters  in  this  practical  age  seem  trivial 
enough,  but  to  the  Puritan,  Laud's  innovations  were  the  first  step 
backward  toward  the  old  church,  and  the  diocese  soon  became  the 
scene  of  bitter  strife.  Thus  the  schism  which  was  opening  in  the 
church  became  identified  with  the  schism  which  was  opening  in 
the  state. 

Two  other  events  of  this  period  also  powerfully  affected  the 

drift  of  parties:    the  defection  of  Wentworth  from  the  popular 

party,  and  the  assassination  of  Buckingham.    The  reiffn 

Wentwoi'th      ^^       •' '  c  *-' 

and  Biickiiig-  of  Wentworth  in  the  Commons  had  ended  when  the 
bill  was  dropped  for  the  Petition,  and  the  reign  of 
Eliot  and  Coke  had  begun.  He  had  nobly  led  in  the  attempt  to 
defend  the  nation  against  the  disorder  which  was  sure  to  follow 
the  continued  violation  of  the  rights  of  subjects  by  the  king's 
officers.  He  now  shrank  from  the  greater  disorder  threatened  by 
what  he  believed  to  be  a  direct  attack  upon  the  dignity  of  the 
crown.  His  lips,  however,  had  been  closed  by  the  very  power 
which  he  had  sought  to  serve,  and,  through  the  rest  of  that 
memorable  session,  he  had  sat  sullen  and  silent.  Made  as  he 
was,  he  could  not  follow  in  the  wake  of  such  as  Coke  or  even 
Eliot ;  nor  yet  could  he  long  remain  silent  or  allow  his  splendid 


G52  ERA    or    ARBITRAKY    GOVERNMENT  [ciiarlesI. 

powers  to  rust  in  inaction.  He  therefore  withdrew  from  all 
further  opposition  in  the  House  and  soon  entered  into  the  king's 
sernce  as  heartily  and  energetically  as  he  had  once  led  in  the 
Commons.  Charles,  on  his  part,  who  now  began  to  understand 
the  man,  although  he  never  fully  trusted  him  until  the  very  last, 
admitted  him  to  the  peerage  as  Baron  Wentworth,  and  finally  sent 
him  home  to  Yorkshire  as  president  of  the  Council  of  the  North, 
where  his  fearless  energy  performed  a  real  service  in  reducing  the 
lawless  elements  of  that  much-distressed  region.  Later  Charles 
gave  him  a  place  in  the  Privy  Council. 

Buckingham  was  murdered  at  Portsmouth,  August  23,  by  a 
poor  fanatic,  named  Felton.  The  murder  was  inspired  by  per- 
sonal spite  and  not  by  political  hatred,  and  yet  so 
ofm^kirig^  unpopular  was  the  duke,  that  the  people  took  up  the 
?S^'  ^^^"  ^^'  assassin  as  a  hero,  a  martyr,  and  followed  him  to  the 
Tower  with  benedictions.  To  Charles,  Buckingham 
was  the  real  martyr. 

When  parliament  met  again  in  January  it  was  soon  evident 
that  the  death  of  Buckingham  had  made  no  difference  in  the 
Dissoiutwnof  position  of  parties.  The  struggle  went  on  just  as 
liammfof^^  before.  The  question  of  tunnage  and  poundage  was 
M^archio  ^^  ^^^^  taken  up.  Merchants,  encouraged  by  the 
1629.  remonstrance  of  the  last  session,  had  refused  to  pay 

the  tax  on  the  ground  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  Petition  of 
Right,  and  the  king's  officers  had  seized  their  goods.  The 
House,  excited  and  angry  over  what  they  regarded  as  the  king's 
mendacity,  although  nothing  had  been  said  about  tunnage  and 
poundage  in  the  Petition,  summoned  the  royal  officers  before 
them  to  answer  the  charge  of  collecting  money  illegally.  Charles, 
however,  would  not  allow  the  officers  to  appear,  declaring  that  he 
alone  was  responsible  for  what  had  been  done.  Meanwhile,  the 
House  had  also  been  waging  warfare  upon  the  Arminian  clergy. 
Charles,  who  as  usual  did  not  understand  the  real  spirit  of  the 
Commons,  thought  to  give  their  ardor  a  chance  to  cool  off,  and 
resorted  to  the  expedient  of  preventing  action  by  a  series  of 
adjournments.  But  this  only  annoyed  and  irritated,  and  when  on 
March   2,   1629,   the   Speaker,   in  accordance   with   instructions. 


1629]  ELIOT'S    RESOLUTIONS  653 

attempted  to  declare  the  House  adjourned  for  the  third  time 
within  a  fortnight,  two  members,  Holies  and  Valentine,  hurled 
him  back  into  the  chair  and  held  him  down  while  the  doors  were 
locked  against  the  entrance  of  the  king's  messenger.  A  wild 
tumult  followed,  in  the  midst  of  which,  while  the  Speaker  struggled 
and  wept,  while  the  House  raged,  while  swords  were 
resoiutitms  ^^^^  ^^^  blows  were  falling,  Eliot  managed  to  present 
three  resolutions  which  declared  all  those  who  favored 
Popery  or  Arminianism,  all  who  supported  the  king  in  the  collect- 
ing of  tunnage  and  poundage  without  the  consent  of  parliament, 
or  even  those  who  paid  the  illegal  imposts,  to  be  capital  enemies 
to  the  kingdom  and  the  Commonwealth.^  When  the  Speaker 
refused  to  put  the  resolutions.  Holies  promptly  put  them  for  him, 
and  the  House  carried  them  by  tumultuous  shouts  of  applause. 
Then  the  House  adjourned. 

The  Eliot  resolutions  were  a  declaration  of  war;  the  House 
had  declared  its  purpose  to  hold  those  who  supported  the  crown 
henceforth  as  traitors  to  the  kingdom  and  the  common- 
of^EUor^^^  wealth.  The  king  acted  just  as  Eliot  and  his  followers 
Vaimiine^  no  doubt  knew  that  lie  would  act ;  he  dissolved  parlia- 
ment on  March  10,*  and  arrested  the  men  who  had 
been  prominent  in  the  scenes  of  March  2.  They  pleaded  that  they 
were  not  answerable  outside  of  parliament  for  deeds  within  its 
walls;  but  the  judges  refused  to  admit  the  plea,  fined  the  culprits 
heavily  and  sent  them  to  prison  to  remain  until  they  should  sub- 
mit to  the  king.  Of  the  ten  men  who  were  arrested  all  but  three 
soon  yielded.  Eliot  after  three  years  confinement  succumbed  to 
the  damp  walls  of  the  Tower,  dying  there  of  consumption  in  1632, 
but  stout  of  heart  and  unconquered  to  the  last.  Valentine  and 
Strode  were  not  released  until  just  before  the  assembling  of  the 
"Short  Parliament"  in  1640. 

Eleven  years  of  arbitrary  t3rranny  were  now  to  pass  before 
Charles  again  summoned  a  parliament.  The  period  is  known  as 
the  first  era  of  Stuart  despotism.     Its  history  is  the  record  on  the 

^For  text  of  resolution,  see  Gardiner,  Const.  Docs.,  pp.  16,  17. 
2  For  the  king's  declaration  of  reasons  for  his  actions,  see  Gardiner, 
Const  Docs.,  pp.  17-31. 


654  ERA    OF   ARBITRARY    GOVERNMENT  [chablksI. 

part  of  the  king  of  a  desperate  struggle  to  secure  financial  independ- 
ence with  little  heed  to  the  spirit  of  English  laws;    on  the  part 
of  the  nation,  of  a  like  struggle  to  secure  its  rights 
The  eUven      within  the  constitution.     In  this  struggle,  the  common 

years  of  ^  007 

f^r^S'  l^w  courts,  subservient  as  they  were  to  the  crown,  were 
yet  the  only  hope  of  the  people,  deprived  now  of  the 
championship  of  parliament.  In  one  way,  however,  these  years 
were  not  without  compensation.  It  was  useless  for  the  king  to 
think  of  taking  any  further  part  in  the  great  war  which  was  still 
desolating  the  continent,  and  he  made  the  best  terms  he  could 
with  his  enemies,  coming  to  terms  first  with  France  in  1629  and 
with  Spain  in  1630.  He  did  not  abandon  the  hope  of  saving  the 
Palatinate  for  Frederick,  however,  and  occasionally  attempted 
negotiations  with  that  end  in  view ;  but  his  promises  or  his  threats 
were  alike  despised  by  men  who  had  no  respect  for  a  prince  "who 
had  neither  soldiers  to  fight  nor  money  with  which  to  equip  them. 
Had  Charles  been  a  thrifty  monarch  like  Henry  VII.,  the  task 
to  which  he  now  set  himself  would  have  been  difficult  enough. 
But  he  was  not  thrifty ;  as  Henrietta  Maria  said  of 
raisiw  him,  he  was  always  ''a  poor  housekeeper,"   and  the 

treasurer,  Lord  Weston,  was  soon  at  his  wits'  end  to 
secure  money  to  defray  the  most  ordinary  expenses  of  govern- 
ment. The  king's  officers  still  continued  to  collect  tunnage  and 
poundage,  in  spite  of  the  threatening  remonstrance  of  the  last 
parliament.  At  first  the  merchants  protested,  and  some  even 
braved  the  wrath  of  the  Privy  Council,  one  Kichard  Chambers 
bitterly  declaring  in  their  presence  that  even  in  Turkey,  "mer- 
chants were  not  so  screwed  and  wrung"  by  the  government.  Yet 
as  it  became  evident  that  parliament  could  not  protect  them,  the 
merchants  submitted  and  made  the  best  terms  they  could  with  the 
king's  collectors.  The  duty  derived  from  tunnage  and  poundage 
alone,  however,  was  far  from  sufficient  to  ■  meet  the  needs  of  the 
court,  and  in  1630  the  king  resorted  to  the  old  expedient  of 
Distraint  of  Knighthood,^  compelling  all  men  of  full  age  holding 
lands  to  the  value  of  £40  a  year  to  receive  knighthood  or  pay  a 
fine.     Tunnage  and  poundage  had  irritated  the  great  merchant 

iProthero,  S.  S.,  pp.  133,  176. 


1633,  1634]  FIBST   LEVY   OF   SHIP  MONEY  655 

class;  this  expedient  touched  the  rich  landowners,  who  might 
well  plead  that  present  conditions,  so  foreign  to  feudal  customs, 
had  virtually  annulled  the  old  law,  "which  had  not  been  put  in 
force  for  more  than  a  century."  * 

In  1633  the  king's  ministers  hit  upon  a  still  more  ingenious 

but  offensive  device  for  filling  the  royal  coffers.     They  established 

special  forest  courts    and  called  upon  all  holders  of 

The  forest 

titles  and  land,  that  had  once  been  forest  land,  to  prove  their 
titles.  Some  families  had  been  in  possession  of  such 
estates  since  the  thirteenth  century,  but  if  the  deed  were  lost  or 
contained  a  flaw,  so  that  the  owner  could  not  make  good  his  title 
when  challenged  by  the  king,  he  was  compelled  to  pay  a  heavy 
fine ;  for  by  English  law  no  length  of  possession  could  give  a  title 
against  the  king.  In  1632  the  king  had  also  returned  to  the 
granting  of  monopolies,  although  he  kept  within  the  letter  of  the 
law  of  1 624  which  had  forbidden  such  grants  to  individuals,  by 
creating  corporations  to  enjoy  the  privileges  of  the  royal  grant. 
Corporations  began  to  blossom  without  number ;  individuals  by 
organizing  into  a  company  and  making  a  handsome  donative  to 
the  royal  treasury,  might  secure  the  sole  right  of  selling  such 
articles  as  coal,  brick,  soap,*  beer,  wine,  starch,  or  any  one  of  a 
score  or  more  of  the  common  objects  of  daily  consumption. 

The  king's  ministers  in  the  meanwhile  were  ransacking  the 
records  for  other  precedents  which  could  be  turned  to  the  enrich- 
ment of  the  treasury  without  a  technical  violation  of 

The  iiTst  lew 

of  ship  the  law.     In  1634  they  hit  upon  the  perilous  expedient 

October  20,  of  levying  a  direct  tax  upon  certain  towns  under  the 
guise  of  the  ancient  ship  money.  Charles  had  lately 
been  seriously  debating  a  project  of  alliance  with  the  Spaniards 
against  the  Dutch.  But  England  had  no  ships,  and  Charles  had 
no  mind  to  call  a  parliament  to  ask  for  money  for  such  a  purpose. 
William  Noy,  his  Attorney  General,  pointed  out  to  him  that  the 
laws  of  England  imposed  upon  the  coast  towns  the  duty  of  fur- 


» Gardiner.  VII,  p.  167. 

2  For  the  interesting  soap  monopoly — "Papal  Soap,"  etc.,  see  Gardiner 
VII,  pp.  71-76. 


656  EKA   OP   ARBITRARY    GOVERNMENT  [charlesI. 

nishing  ships  for  the  navy  in  times  of  danger'.^  Some  recent 
piracies  on  the  coast  were  thought  to  be  of  sufficient  importance 
to  supply  the  conditions  which  justified  a  resort  to  this  ancient 
custom,  and  on  October  20,  1634  Charles  issued  the  first  of  the 
series  of  famous  writs. ^  By  this  writ  the  magistrates  of  London 
and  other  port  towns  were  ordered  to  provide  a  certain  number  of 
ships  of  war  to  be  ready  at  Portsmouth  on  the  first  of  the  follow- 
ing March,  and  empowered  to  assess  the  inhabitants  for  the  pur- 
pose of  building,  equipping,  and  maintaining  the  ships  and  their 
crews  for  six  months.  The  tonnage  and  equipment  were  also 
specified,  but  the  ships  ordered  were  so  large  that  most  of  the 
towns  could  not  build  them  in  their  own  yards,  and  they  were 
therefore  compelled  to  give  the  money  instead. 

The  writ  of  October  1634  had  been  limited  to  the  coast  towns; 
but  the  next  year,  August  4,  Charles  repeated  the  experiment  and 

upon  a  much  larger  scale,  sending  the  writ  to  every 
mrdwritf     county  of  England  and  Wales,  thus  virtually  demanding 

money  since  the  towns  of  the  interior  could  not  be 
expected  to  build  ships  themselves.  The  king  justified  the  exten- 
sion of  the  writ  by  the  plea  that,  since  the  whole  country  was  to  be 
benefited  by  strengthening  the  navy,  the  whole  country  ought  to 
bear  the  burden.  It  took  no  clear  head  to  see  the  purport  of  this 
levy  of  ship  money.  The  tax  was  not  large;  yet  a  small  tax  could 
establish  a  precedent,  and  if  once  fixed,  there  was  nothing  to  pre- 
vent the  king  from  freeing  the  crown  forever  from  parliamentary 
control.  The  issue  of  a  new  book  of  rates,  which  added  £10,000 
to  the  royal  income,  also  called  attention  to  the  progress  which  the 
king  was  making  in  securing  an  independent  royal  revenue,  and 
when,  October  9,  1636,  a  third  levy  of  ship  money  was  ordered,  it 
could  no  longer  be  doubted  that  the  king  proposed  nothing  less 
than  to  establish  in  this  form  a  permanent  annual  tax. 

All  classes  united  in  condemning  the  measure,  but  Charles, 
fortified  by  an  earlier  decision  of  his  judges  that  ship  money  was 
legal  in  case  of  danger,  and   supported  by  the  sympathy  of  Laud 

^  Ships  had  been  levied  upon  the  coast  towns  by  Elizabeth  and  as  late 
as  1626  by  Charles  himself. 

2  For  text  of  writ  see  Gardiner,  Const.  Docs.,  37-39. 


1633-1636]  AKCHBISHOP   LAUD  657 

and  the  expressed  wish  of  Wentworth  that  the  system  might  be  ex- 
tended to  the  support  of  the  army  as  well,  prepared  to  collect  the 
tax.     Then  some  of  the  bolder  spirits  determined  to 
John  Hamp-   ^cr\it  the   matter   out   in  the   courts,  and  refused   to 

ddft  s  case*  ^^ 

pay  the  tax  until  the  king  should  sue  for  it.  Among 
these  was  John  Hampden,  a  young  Buckinghamshire  squire. 
The  tax  for  which  he  was  held,  levied  upon  some  lands  in  Stoke 
Mandevill-e,  amounted  only  to  the  pitiful  sum  of  twenty  shillings, 
but  he  determined  not  to  pay  it,  until  the  Court  of  Exchequer  had 
heard  his  case.  The  earlier  opinion  of  the  judges,  as  well  as  their 
well  known  subserviency  to  the  king,  did  not  afford  the  people 
much  hope  of  a  fair  hearing.  What  was  their  surprise  and  joy, 
therefore,  when  it  was  learned  that  five  of  the  twelve  judges  had 
objected  to  the  writs.  Yet  technically  the  victory  was  with  the 
king  and  he  insisted  that  all  arrears  must  be  paid  at  once. 
Tyranny  could  go  no  farther;  parliamentary  government  in  Eng- 
land apparently  was  at  an  end;  Euglishmeu  wore  to  be  governed 
henceforth  without  any  "king-yoking  policy." 

Fortunately,  however,  there  was  another  cause  as  dear  to  the 
hearts  of  the  great  mass  of  the  English  people  as  their  political 

liberties,  in  which  they  saw  what  they  wanted  even 
huiumof^  more  clearly  and  definitely,  and  that  was  their  Puritan- 
Canterhury,    jguj       Charlcs    had    already    identified   himself   with 

Laud's  scheme  of  reform  in  his  London  diocese,  but  in 
1633  he  was  rash  enough  to  make  him  archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Laud  at  once  determined  to  carry  out  his  ideas  of  ecclesiastical 
reform  in  the  larger  sphere  in  which  this  elevation  now  gave  him  a 
free  hand.  He  raised  his  friends  to  the  high  places  of  the  church, 
and  then  with  the  support  of  the  Court  of  High  Commission 
began  to  rule  the  Puritan  clergy  with  a  rod  of  iron.  In  1634  he 
reissued  James's  "Declaration  of  Sports,"  which  permitted  good 
church  people  to  engage  in  archery  and  dancing  on  Sunday  after- 
noon ;  a  measure  which  deeply  offended  the  entire  Puritan  com- 
munity by  publicly  authorizing  the  desecration  of  their  one  holy 
day.  He  also  revised  the  old  custom  of  "metropolitan  visita- 
tions," traveling  over  his  archiepiscopal  see,  prying  into  the 
practices  of  each  church,  large  or  small,  sending  obstinate  clergy- 


658  ,  ERA    OF    ARBITRARY    GOVERNMENT  [chablesI 

men  before  the  Court  of  High  Commission,  and  setting  things  to 
rights  according  to  "the  pitch  of  reformation  which  was  floating 
in  his  own  brain."  The  indomitable  archbishop  spent  the  three 
years  from  1633-1636  in  the  highly  important  service  of  introduc- 
ing the  quarrel  about  vestments  and  the  proper  placing  of  church 
furniture  into  every  little  village  in  England,  and  succeeded  in  so 
irritating  and  alarming  the  people  that  they  were  thoroughly  con- 
vinced that  he  intended  nothing  short  of  the  restoration  of  the 
authoriby  of  the  pope. 

During  these  years  of  unchecked  tyranny  the  Star  Chamber 
also  contributed  its  share  to  the  disquiet  and  irritation  of  the 
Puritan  community.  In  1628  Dr.  Leighton  a  Scotch 
onhtcimrt  Physician  who  had  settled  in  London  had  got  up  a 
%}mmber  petition  for  the  abolition  of  Episcopacy,  which  he  pre- 
sented to  parliament.  The  next  year  he  published  his 
petition,  which  he  had  elaborated  into  a  book,  attacking  both  the 
king  and  the  bishops,  and  laying  to  their  charge  all  the  sins  of  the 
English  people.  In  1630  the  vigorous  author  was  sentenced  by 
the  Star  Chamber  to  be  flogged,  have  his  nose  slit,  one  ear  cut  off, 
and  his  face  branded.  Another  victim  of  Star  Chamber  justice 
was  William  Prynne,  who  in  1633  published  a  venomous  attack 
upon  the  stage  which  the  Puritans  had  already  marked  as  perni- 
cious and  immoral.  The  stage  had  degenerated  in  the  era  which 
had  followed  Shakspere,  and  there  was  much  ground  for  Puritan 
hostility.  But  unfortunately  for  Prynne  the  king  and  his  court 
were  great  playgoers  and  the  queen  had  herself  taken  part  in  a  pri- 
vate mask.  The  result  was  that  the  Star  Chamber  took  the  matter 
up,  and  Prynne  was  expelled  from  the  bar,  deprived  of  his  uni- 
versity degree,  set  in  the  pillory,  and  shorn  of  his  ears.  In  1637 
Prynne  again  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Star  Chamber. 
Laud  and       Laud     with    his     other     mischievous    activities    had 

the  censor- 
ship of  the       attempted  a  vigorous   censorship   of  the  press.      But 

secret  presses    continued  to  thrive;     frequently    also 

books  were  sent  to  Holland  for  printing;   and  in  spite  of  Laud's 

vigilance,   a  vigorous    and    stirring   literature,   representing  the 

views  which  he  was  struggling  to  repress,  was  steadily  gaining 

circulation  among  the  people.     Among  the  leaders  in  this  under- 


1633-1639]  WENTWORTH   IN   IRELAND  659 

ground  warfare  were  the  irrepressible  Prynne,  now  more  dangerous 
than  ever  since  he  had  lost  his  ears,  Henry  Burton  a  clergyman  of 
London,  and  Dr.  Bastwick  a  physician  of  Colchester.  The  three 
men  were  seized  and  received  the  sentence  of  the  court.  Public 
feeling  was  roused  to  the  boiling  point.  An  immense  crowd 
cheered  the  "three  renowned  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ"  and  strewed 
flowers  in  their  way  as  they  passed  to  the  pillory.  Not  satisfied 
with  cutting  off  the  ears  of  Bastwick  and  Burton  and  gleaning 
Prynne's  stumps,  the  court  sent  the  culprits  to  remote  prisons  at 
Carnarvon,  Lancaster,  and  Launceston.  Even  here  friends  were 
found  to  minister  to  the  victims  of  prerogative,  and  Charles  was 
finally  compelled  to  send  them  off  to  the  Channel  Islands  in  order 
to  get  them  out  of  all  touch  with  their  sympathizers. 

In  the  other  domains  which  recognized  the  Stuarts  as  sover- 
eigns, the  king's  policy  of  having  his  own  way  in  spite  of  the 

prejudices  or  preferences  of  the  people,  as  in  England, 
in  Ireland,      was  succeeding  wherever  physical  force,  or  the  brutality 

of  the  courts,  could  overawe  the  people,  and  with  the 
same  results.  In  1632  Went  worth  had  been  appointed  Lord 
Deputy  of  Ireland  and  the  next  year  entered  upon  the  administra- 
tion of  his  duties  in  that  long-abused  land.  Chichester  had 
retired  in  1614,  and  his  successors  had  continued  the  settling  of 
English  colonists  until  the  parts  of  Leinster  included  in  Wexford, 
Longford,  and  Westmeath,  and  Leitrim  of  Connaught,  had  become 

anglicized  in  much  the  same  way  as  Ulster.  The  last 
and  the  deputy,  Falkland,  had  arranged  with  Charles  in  return 

for  certain  concessions  to  secure  him  a  grant  of  £4,000 
a  year  in  order  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  Irish  army.  By  these 
concessions,  "Graces"  as  they  were  called,  Charles  agreed  to  allow 
the  Irish  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  instead  of  the  oath  of 
supremacy;  to  abolish  the  fine  for  not  attending  church;  to 
accept  a  title  to  land  of  sixty  years  standing  as  final  even  against 
the  crown.  When  Wentworth  took  up  his  duties,  however,  the 
subsidy  had  not  yet  been  passed  upon  by  the  Irish  parliament ; 
hence  the  question  of  the  Graces  was  still  pending. 

The  new  deputy  was  a  thorough-going  man  of  affairs  and  prided 
himself  on  systematic  methods  in  which  there  was  no  play  for 


660  ERA    OF    ARBITRARY    GOVERN^MEN^T  [charles  i. 

sentiment,  no  favor  for  the  rich,  no  compassion  for  the  powerful. 
This  system  he  called  "Thorough."      He   at   once    introduced 

some  much-needed  and  wise  reforms  both  in  the  civil 
mvam^^^  service  and  the  army,  where  the  peculation  and  job- 
^Thorough."  ^^^^    ^^   officials   had  introduced   general    confusion. 

He  also  attempted  to  impart  some  dignity  to  the  State 
Church,  which,  plundered  by  government  officials  and  debarred 
from  the  sympathy  of  the  population,  was  leading  a  beggar's  life, 
loved  by  none  and  despised  by  all.  It  soon  became  evident,  how- 
ever, that  AYentworth  had  been  guided  in  these  measures,  not  by 
any  sense  of  justice,  but  merely  by  reasons  of  policy.  He  per- 
suaded the  Irish  parliament  to  vote  a  large  subsidy  to  the  crown, 
and  then  announced  that  the  Graces,  to  which  the  king  had 
given  his  word,  should  be  submitted  without  the  clause  designed 
to  protect  and  assure  the  Irish  landowners.  His  real  purpose 
appeared  later,  when  he  began  to  make  plans  for  a  plantation  of 
Connaught  similar  to  that  of  Ulster.  Great  indignation  and 
unrest  followed;  no  landowner  could  feel  sure  of  his  title,  when 
the  king's  word  could  be  so  lightly  set  aside  by  his  minister. 
Wentworth  was  in  the  midst  of  these  schemes  for  spoiling  the  land- 
lords of  Connaught,  when  Charles  and  Laud  decided  that  they 
needed  him  and  his  system  of  Thorough  at  home. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  principles  of  Charles  and  Laud  were 
working  out  results  in  a  distant  quarter  of  the  world  in  ways  that 

they  little  thought  of.  Far  back  in  Henry  VII. 's  reign 
of^ChariS'  England  had  thought  to  get  her  share  from  discovery 
thfcoSies!^   in  the  new  world  by  fitting  out  the  Cabots  and  sending 

them  off  into  the  western  seas.  They  brought  back  a 
better  knowledge  of  the  great  northern  continent,  but  in  the 
midst  of  the  stirring  scenes  of  the  Tudor  reigns  Englishmen  had 
little  thought  of  the  new  world,  save  as  a  place  to  hunt  for  gold 
mines  or  Spanish  treasure  fleets.  Nevertheless  the  discoveries  of 
the  Cabots  served  as  a  foundation  upon  which  to  base  claims, 
when  in  the  later  years  of  Elizabeth  men  like  Sir  Humphrey  Gil- 
bert and  Raleigh  pointed  out  the  advantages  of  securing  in  the 
new  world  colonies,  or  trading  stations,  similar  to  those  which 
European  nations  had  long  maintained  in  the  Orient  as  the  basis 


1607-1640]  ENGLISH    COLONIES   IN    NEW   WORLD  661 

of  their  oriental  trade.     No  one  yet  dreamed  of  the  advantage 
which  these  settlements  in  the  western  wilderness  would  offer  to 
England  in  the  future  in  furnishing  a  field  where  her  excess  popu- 
lation might  find  room,  or  of  the  new  empire  which  was  to  grow 
from  such  small  seed.     Still   trading  companies  had 
fu^\tf        ^^^^  organized,  and  had  proceeded  to  plant  stations  on 
the  western  shores  of  the  Atlantic.     It  was  not,  how- 
ever, until  the  year  1607  in  the  settlement  of  Jamestown,  that 
these  efforts  attained    any  success.      Almost  at  the   same  time 
another  colony  was  settled  in  the  Barbadoes.     Great  difficulty  was 
fonnd  in  persuading  Englishmen  to  leave  their  native  land  and 
face  the  trials  and  dangers  of  the  wilderness  simply  upon  the  pros- 
pect of  gain ;  nor  was  it  until  the  more  powerful  motive  of  religion 
and  love  of  liberty  came  to  the  help  of  the  trading  companies 
that  their  early  plantations  began  really  to  flourish.     In  1620  the 
famous  little  band  of  Brownists,  or  Separatists,  who  for 
aHrm%2o      some  years  had  been  living  in  exile  in  Holland,  encour- 
aged by  the  patronage  of  the  London  Company,  deter- 
mined to  try  their  fortunes  in  the  new  world.     They  landed  at  a 
site  which  John  Smith  had  already  named  New  Plymouth  from 
the  home  of  the  great  western  company.     The  coast  was  bleak  and 
unpromising,  and  the  New  England  winter,  which  had  already 
begun,  gave  them  but  a  surly  welcome.     From  the  first  their  life 
was  a  hand  to  hand  struggle  with  death.     Few  recruits  joined 
them,  for  the  life  of  exile  had  as  yet  little  attraction  for  the  sturdy 
English  yeoman.      After  1629,  however,    the   alarming   strides 
which  the  despotism  of  church  and  state  were  making  at  home,  the 
revelation  of  the  weakness  of  parliament  in  the  presence  of  a  wil- 
ful monarch,  led  many  to  despair  of  ever  securing  in  England  the 
rights  which  the  laws  had  promised  them.     A  new  tide,  therefore, 
from  the  great  Puritan  class  very  soon  set  in  towards 
^ratuiris      ^^^  shore  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  emigrants  were 
'tiaV!^^^     soon  numbered  by  the  thousands.     The  exiles,  however, 
had  no  idea  of  extending  the  toleration  to  others  which 
they  sought  for  themselves.     It  was  not  long  before  a  sort  of 
Puritan  Star  Chamber  in  the  new  world  was  as  busy  whipping 
backs,  or  slitting  noses  and  cropping  ears,  as  the  more  august  body 


662  ERA    OF   ARBITRARY    GOVERNMENT  [ Charles  I. 

at  home.  Yet  there  were  some  who  felt  the  inconsistency,  and 
dared  to  raise  their  voices  in  favor  of  real  freedom  of  worship  or 
of  religions  thought.  Among  them  was  Roger  Williams  who  had 
joined  the  colony  in  1631,  who  first  saw  clearly  that  the  only  sure 
way  to  secure  toleration  was  to  make  matters  of  religion  indepen- 
dent of  the  state.  The  Massachusetts  Bay  colonists  were  not 
ready  for, such  radical  doctrines,  and  finally,  in  1637,  drove  out 
Williams  and  five  others  of  the  same  mind,  to  seek  a  new  home  on 
the  Narragansett  Bay  where  they  hegan  the  settlement  of  Rhode 
Island. 

While  the  Puritans  were  thus  seeking  to  escape  the  rod  of  the 
church  which  sought  to  make  them  conform  to  its  hated  cere- 
*•   monies,  it  would  be  strange  if  those  who  stood  at  the 
andthe^^^^    other  extreme  of  the  English  religious  community,  who 
coUmy^i6%.     ^^^  borne  a  much  heavier  burden  of  persecution  and  for 
a  far  longer  time,  should  not  also  cast  longing  eyes  to 
the  new  world,  where  they  might  be  free  from  the  hated  recusancy 
laws,  and  where  their  own  ministers   might-  teach  them  with- 
out the  constant  tlireat  of  the  hangman's  cord.     The  leaders  of 
this  movement  were  the  fine  old  Catholic  family  of  the  Calverts,  at 
whose  head  was  Lord  Baltimore.     They  named  their  settlement 
after  their  Catholic  queen,  Marylaud,  and  Charles  had 

Religious  ■,     •       -,  -i  ^  ^  ■> 

Meratum       their  charter  so  drawn  as  to  admit  full  relis^ious  liberty. 
by  law  in        Here  was  a  practical  solution  of  the  question  of  tolera- 

Maryland.  .  ^ 

tion.  From  the  first.  Catholics  and  Protestants  dwelt 
together  in  the  colony  upon  equal  terms,  and  by  common  consent 
questions  of  religious  difference  were  ignored;  their  first  free 
assembly  confirmed  by  formal  law  to  members  of  all  religions,  free- 
dom of  worship  and  political  equality. 

Laud  was  not  pleased  to  see  Englishmen  thus  escaping  from 
under   the    discipline   of    his   Court   of    High   Commission   and 

attempted  to  keep  avowed  nonconformists  at  home  by 
^^Laud  persuading  the  council  to  forbid  noblemen  or  gentry  to 
emi^ratifm.     ^^^^^    ^^^^    kingdom  without  the  royal  license  and  by 

compelling  people  of  lower  rank  to  present  a  certificate 
of  conformity.  This,  however,  did  not  check  the  flight  of  non- 
conformists who  continued  to  flock  to  the  new  world  by  the  thou- 


1593-1597]  laud's    REFORMS    IN    SCOTLAND  663 

sands,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  wars  promised  them  better 
things  at  home.  They  were  a  hardy  race,  these  exiles  for  con- 
science sake ;  uncompromising  moralists,  who  made  of  religion  a 
system,  not  of  loving  service  of  one's  fellow  men,  but  of  grim 
prohibitions;  unlovely  they  were,  and  yet  sturdy  material  for  the 
planting  of  a  nation.  It  has  been  estimated  that  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  American  Revolution  seventy- five  per  cent  of  the  people  of 
English  blood  of  the  northern  colonies  were  descendants  of  the 
men  and  women  who  had  been  driven  out  of  England  by  the 
tyranny  of  Charles  and  his  little  archbishop. 

Laud's  attention,  however,  was  soon  diverted  to  Scotland  where 
there  was  far  more  to  attract  his  mischievous  itching  for  reform 

than  in  the  humble  colonies.  In  Scotland  the  nobles 
reforms  in      and  people,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  combined  for 

the  overthrow  of  the  ancient  church.  They  had  had 
no  Henry  VIII.  or  Elizabeth  to  restrain  their  excesses,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  the  nobles  and  the  Protestant  clergy  were  quarrel- 
ing over  the  division  of  the  spoil.  In  this  strife  the  nobles  got 
the  lion's  share.     Bishops  were  retained,  but  they  were  ushered 

into  their  office  without  consecration  and  were  allowed 

Tlic 

''Tuichan  no  jurisdiction.  Their  principal  function  was  to 
draw  what  was  left  of  the  revenues  of  the  church 
from  the  people,  and  hand  them  over  to  the  nobles.  The 
shrewd  Scotsmen  were  not  deceived,  and  in  derision  called 
them  *'tulchan  bishops,"  from  the  tulchan^  or  decoy  calf,  which 
the  Scotch  farmer  was  accustomed  to  set  up  alongside  of  a 
bereaved  cow  to  persuade  her  to  let  down  her  milk.  After  a 
bitter  struggle  of  over  twenty  years,  the  people  finally  got  rid  of 
Preshytcri-  ^^^  tulchan  bishops  and  succeeded  in  introducing 
iMied  ^^^^^  Presbyterianism,  pure  and  simple.  The  "affairs  of  the 
1592-1597.  church  were  to  be  regulated  by  a  General  Assembly, 
composed  of  clergymen  and  laymen,  elected  for  that  purpose. 
From  the  assembly  there  was  a  regular  graded  series  of  similar 
bodies  leading  down  through  provincial  synods  and  presbyteries  to 
the  local  kirk  session.  James  got  little  comfort  out  of  these 
republican  bodies;  the  ministers  showed  little  respect  for  royalty 
and  fearlessly  abused  him  from  their  pulpits.     An  attempt  on  his 


664  ERA    OF    ARBITRARY    GOVERNMENT  [charles  i. 

part  in  1597  to  punish  such  insolence,  brought  on  a  tumult,  and 
the  king  was  compelled  to  flee  from  Edinburgh,  only  to  return 
Reestablish-  ^^  ^  ^^^  wccks  witli  an  armed  force,  sufficient  to  restore 
^P^/y^^,.  order.  The  nobles,  also,  came  to  his  help ;  the  rule  of  the 
1597.  clergy  was  overthrown,  and  the  hated  tulchan  bishops 

were   brought   back.     In    1618  James  forced  through   a  packed 
assembly  a  nominal  acceptance  of  the  so-called  Articles  of  Perth, 
by  which  communicants  were  to  kneel  to  receive  the 

The  A.rticles 

of  Perth,         Lord's  Supper,  Easter  and  Christmas  were  to  be  kept, 

the  Lord's  Supper  and  baptism  might  be  administered 
in  private  houses  in  case  of  serious  illness,  and  children  be  con- 
firmed by  bishops.  Here,  however,  James  was  shrewd  enough  to 
stop,  and  here  matters  rested,  until  Laud  took  the  hard-headed 
Scotsmen  in  hand  to  mould  them  to  his  ideas  of  uniformity.  The 
Church  of  Scotland  was  to  be  a  complete  copy  of  that  of  England, 
a  difficult  end  to  gain  eveu  had  Laud  and  Charles  been  wise  men. 

Ill  October  1625  Charles  had  issued  an  Act  of  Revoca- 
Revocation,     tiou,  by  which  the  church  property  in  the  hands  of  the 

nobles  was  to  be  turned  over  to  the  crown.  The  act, 
although  modified  by  a  subsequent  offer  of  compensation,  at  once 
alienated  the  nobles,  and  left  the  king  without  the  support  of  the 
only  party  which  had  been  willing  to  help  him.  He  now  attempted 
to  force  the  Prayer  Book  upon  the  ministers  and  increase  the 
power  of  the  bishops.  The  cry  of  popery  was  raised,  and  all  classes 
united  with  the  ministers  in  opposing  the  innovations. 

In  the  summer  of  1637  the  attempt  of  the  dean  of  Edinburgh 
to  use  the  hated  forms,  brought  on  a  riot  in  which  stones  were 
„,  thrown,  cathedral  windows  smashed,  and  the  bishop 

''Tables/'  narrowly  escaped  with  his  life.  The  year  was  spent  in 
a  vain  effort  of  king  and  people  to  come  to  some  agreement,  which 
failed  because  neither  would  yield.  In  1638  the  Scots  committed 
their  interests  into  the  hands  of  four  committees,  or  "Tables,"  one 

for  each  of  the  four  orders,  the  nobles,  the  gentry,  the 
tumaicove-     clcrgy,  and  the  cities.     The  first  fruit  of  the  labor  of 

the  Tables  was  the  famous  "National  Covenant"  by 
which  the  people  bound  themselves  to  resist  all  changes  in  religion 
"to  the  utmost  of  the  power  that  God  had  put  in  their  hands." 


THE    FIRST    bishops'    WAR  665 

The  document  was  signed  amidst  great  enthusiasm.  All  classes 
were  represented,  and  '*such  as  refused  were  accounted  no  better 
than  papists." 

Charles  saw  that  he  must  yield,  or  lose  Scotland.  He  was 
without  money ;  his  army  was  small  and  poorly  equipped ;  and  in 
TheAssem-  ^^^  condition  of  the  English  temper,  which  was  as 
uim^ow  threatening  as  the  temper  of  the  Scots,  he  knew  he 
1638.  could  not  depend  upon  England  in  case  of  war.     He 

therefore  allowed  his  representative,  James  Hamilton,  to  withdraw 
the  Prayer  Book,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  Scots.  In  November 
1638  Hamilton  summoned  a  General  Assembly  at  Glasgow.  The 
laity  predominated,  and  when  their  spirit  warned  Hamilton  that 
nothing  but  continued  opposition  was  to  be  expected,  he  attempted 
to  dissolve  them.  They  in  turn  denied  his  right,  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  state,  to  interfere  in  spiritual  matters,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  abolish  the  Episcopacy.  No  one  believed  that  Charles 
would  submit,  and  the  Scots  prepared  to  fight  for  their  cause. 

In  the  summer  Charles  gathered  an  army  of  twenty  thousand 
pressed  men,  taken  from  the  northern  counties,  and  advanced  to 
Berwick.  The  Scots  faced  them  at  Dunse  Law  twelve 
Bhihnpy  miles  away,  inferior  in  numbers  but  superior  in  training 
and  morale,  and  everything  else  that  goes  to  make  up  an 
efficient  army.  Many,  like  their  leader  Alexander  Leslie,  had 
already  periled  their  lives  in  the  Protestant  cause  in  Germany,  and 
were  not  afraid  of  powder.  Charles  for  once  took  counsel  with 
discretion,  and  on  the  18th  of  June,  in  the  Treaty  of  Berwick, 
agreed  to  refer  the  grievances  of  the  Scots  to  a  free  parliament 
and  assembly.  When  the  new  assembly  came  together,  however, 
it  simply  reenacted  the  acts  of  the  assembly  of  Glasgow;  the 
parliament,  from  which  the  bishops  were  excluded,  was  about  to 
confirm  its  acts,  when  Charles  pronounced  it  adjourned.  The 
angry  Scots,  in  reply,  denied  the  right  of  the  king  to  adjourn 
parliament  without  its  consent,  charged  Charles  with  trickery  and 
deceit,  and  prepared  again  for  war. 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  Charles,  at  Laud's  suggestion,  sum- 
moned Wentworth  from  Ireland  to  a  place  in  the  council.  From 
the  first  the  influence  of  the  minister  with  the  king  silenced  all 


666  ERA    OF    ARBITRARY    GOVERNMENT  [charlesI. 

other  voices.     He  saw  that  Charles  must  force  the  Scots  to  sub- 
mit, but  that  to  do  this  he  must  have  the  help  of  the  nation.     A 
Scottish  war  might  again  unite  parties   and  lead  the 
in  the  obdurate  parliament  to  relent  and  open  its  purse  strings. 

council.  -r»  -T      •  r  jr  o 

But  conciliation  was  necessary;  and  as  a  first  step 
Valentine  and  Strode  were  released  from  the  Tower  after  eleven 
years  of  imprisonment.  The  effect,  however,  was  largely  lost  by 
the  appointment  to  the  Great  Seal,  of  Finch,  the  Speaker  of  the 
parliament  of  1620,  the  very  man  whom  Valentine  and  Holies  had 
held  in  the  chair  while  Eliot  offered  his  famous  resolutions,  and 
who  had  since  made  himself  specially  obnoxious  by  an  unqualified 
support  of  ship  money.  Wentworth  also  was  made  earl  of  Straf- 
ford. 

The  fourth  parliament  of  Charles  met  on  the  13th  of  April 
1640.     Many  changes  had  taken  place  since  the  last  parliament 

came  together.     Eliot  had  died  in  prison;    Coke  and 

The  ''Short  .  ^  ,        ^       ^  ^  „^  /  ,  ' 

Parliaments  others  Were  also  dead,  and  W  entworth  had  ffone  over  to 

A.pril  1640. 

the  enemy.  But  John  Hampden  was  there,  the  hero 
of  the  ship  money  fight,  and  John  Pym  also  was  there,  now  sixty 
years  of  age,  a  veteran  in  parliamentary  warfare,  who  had  sat  in 
every  parliament  since  1621.  He  had  once  held  a  position  in  the 
Exchequer ;  he  had  also  a  strong  personal  influence  among  the 
Puritan  nobility,  and  was  thus,  both  by  his  experience  in  handling 
state  affairs,  and  his  friendships,  the  most  considerable  personage 
among  the  Puritan  commoners.  The.  friends  of  the  king 
attempted  to  make  much  of  the  threat  of  a  Scottish  invasion  and 
of  war  with  France,  since  it  was  known  that  the  Covenanters  had, 
quite  in  the  old  way,  appealed  to  the  traditional  foe  of  England 
for  help.  They  made  no  effort  to  deny  the  existence  of  grievances, 
but  asked  first  for  the  voting  of  supplies,  the  passing  of  a  tunnage 
and  poundage  bill,  in  order  that  when  the  country  had  placed 
itself  on  a  strong  footing  against  foreign  enemies,  parliament 
might  at  leisure  consider  domestic  grievances.  But  Pym, 
seconded  by  Hampden,  came  at  once  to  the  point  at  issue  and 
insisted  that  the  question  of  grievances  be  settled  first  before  a 
subsidy  should  be  voted.  Charles  appealed  to  the  Lords,  and  they 
voted  that  the  subsidies  ought  to  come  first;  but  the  Commons 


1640]  THE    SHORT    PARLIAMENT  66? 

held  to  the  position  taken  by  Pym.  Charles  then  by  the  advice  of 
AVentworth,  who  knew  what  stuff  these  Commons  were  made  of, 
proposed  to  give  up  ship  money.  Wentworth  also  advised  Charles 
to  ask  only  for  a  moderate  subsidy.  But  instead  Charles  asked 
for  nearly  a  million  pounds  to  be  raised  by  twelve  different  sub- 
sidies. The  Commons  asked  Charles  to  give  up  the  practice  by 
which  he  compelled  each  county  to  furnish  what  was 
conduct^  called  "coat  and  conduct  money"  for  the  men  whom 
it  sent  to  the  field.  In  the  bloodless  war,  which  had 
just  closed,  Yorkshire  alone  had  been  compelled  to  furnish  £40,000 
for  the  levies  which  the  county  had  sent  to  Berwick.  Charles 
saw  that  he  could  do  nothing  with  his  parliament,  and  on '  May  5 
decided  upon  a  dissolution  at  the  very  moment  when  the  Com- 
mons were  about  to  pass  another  petition,  virtually  expressing 
their  sympathy  with  the  Scots,  and  calling  upon  the  king  to  make 
terms  with  them.  The  fourth  parliament,  known  in  parliamentary 
history  as  the  *' Short  Parliament,"  had  sat  just  three  weeks. 

Charles  was  now  left  to  face  the  Scots  alone;  the  calling  of  a 
parliament  had  only  helped  to  stir  up  English  popular  feeling  and 
given  strength  and  body  to  the  opposition.    Wentworth, 
EhwUmd  "*    ^^  dauntless  as  ever,  would  hear  of  no  further  conces- 
sion; he  advised  the  king,  therefore,  to  fight,  to  take  the 
money  which  parliament  had  denied  him,  for,  since  the  nation's  life 
was  at  stake,  he  was  **absolved  from  all  rules  of  government."    He 
also  offered  Charles  the  Irish  army  *Ho  reduce  this  kingdom;" — 
fatal  words  which  were  not  forgotten.     Charles  hesitated  to  bring 
over  the  Irish,  but  he  besran  to  press  troops  for  a  second 
Bi.s/jo/>.s'  '      Bishops    War.     He  called  on  the  people  of  London  for 

Wav  1640, 

a  loan,  but  they  refused  it.  He  applied  to  the  courts 
of  Denmark,  Holland,  Spain,  and  even  the  pope,  for  aid,  but  to 
little  purpose.  The  Scots  were  eager  for  the  fray  and  crossing  the 
Tweed  advanced  to  the  Tyne  where  they  easily  scattered  the  half- 
hearted troops  of  the  king,  who  had  been  stationed  at  Newburn  to 
hold  the  passage  of  the  river. 

It  was  clear  enough  to  most  men  that  the  scheme  of  arbitrary 
government  had  now  run  its  course.  Yet  both  Charles  and  his 
council  shrank  from  again  confronting  a   parliament.     In  their 


668  ERA   OF   ARBITRARY    GOVERNMENT  [chaelesI. 

dilemma  they  fell  back  upon  the  ancient  expedient  of  summoning 
a  magnum  concilium  instead,  in  the  hope  of  securing  from  the 

nobles  the  support  which  they  could  not  expect  from 
magnum  ^^^  representatives  of  the  people.  Charles  was  at  York, 
sepSb^er  whither  he  had  gone  to  support  by  his  presence  the 
It^itm!^^       men  who  were  superintending  the  northern  levies,  and 

here  the  great  council  was  to  meet  him  on  the  24th 
of  September.  But  before  the  day  came  Charles  himself  had  become 
satisfied  that  he  could  not  avoid  summoning  a  parliament,  and  at 
the  opening  session  of  the  council  announced  the  issue  of  writs 
for  November  3.  The  peers  nevertheless  remained  in  session 
until  October  28,  and  during  that  time  performed  a  real  service 
for  the  king.  They  raised  in  London  upon  their  own  security  a 
loan  of  £50,000.  They  also  bore  no  small  part  in  securing  the 
Truce  of  Ripon,  by  which  the  Scots  were  to  hold  Northumberland 
and  Durham,  until  a  definite  peace  could  be  concluded  by  the  advice 
of  an  English  parliament.  Charles,  also,  was  to  allow  them 
£850  a  day  to  meet  their  expenses;  the  limit  was  fixed  at  two 
months. 

All  parties  were  thus  waiting  for  the  assembling  of  Charles's 
fifth  parliament.  The  presence  of  the  Scottish  army  was  a  guar- 
antee that  its  demands  should  be  heard.  The  tyranny  of  Charles 
I.  was  at  an  end. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    LONG    PARLIAMENT   AND   THE    CIVIL   WAR 

CHARLES  /..  1640-1646 

The  fifth  and  last  parliament  of  Charles  I.,  destined  to  be 
famous  among  English  parliaments  as  the  *'Long  Parliament," 
assembled  on  the  3d  of  November  1640.  The  elections 
PariianSt "  ^^^  ^^^^  conducted  in  the  midst  of  the  utmost  excite- 
ment. Pym,  Hampden,  Holies,  and  a  score  of  others, 
had  ** stumped"  the  counties,  strengthening  the  faltering,  rousing 
the  laggards,  and  clearing  up  the  doubts  of  the  wavering.  The 
character  of  the  new  House  fully  justified  these  efforts.  Never  had 
a  House  been  gathered  so  overwhelmingly  in  sympathy  with  the 
popular  cause.  The  great  merchant  class,  proverbially  conserv- 
ative and  cautious  where  business  interests  are  concerned,  was 
conspicuous  for  its  meagre  representation.  But  country  gentle- 
men and  lawyers,  university  men  the  most  of  them,  as  proverbially 
radical  and  uncompromising  when  once  aroused,  were  there  in 
great  numbers.  As  when  that  other  famous  gathering  of  farmers 
and  lawyers  met  at  Philadelphia  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  years 
later,  here  was  guarantee  that  there  would  be  no  compromise  with 
tyranny,  no  hedging  or  faltering,  until  the  great  cause  for  which 
the  people  had  sent  their  representatives  to  Westminster  should 
be  secured.  And  yet  these  men  were  not  mere  revolutionary 
theorists  such  as  wrought  such  havoc  among  the  institutions  of 
Europe  in  French  Revolution  times.  No  one  had  any  thought  of 
deposing  Charles,  much  less  of  substituting  another  form  of  gov- 
ernment in  the  place  of  the  ancient  government  by  King,  Lords,  and 
Commons.  Yet  all  were  determined  that  the  tyranny  represented 
by  the  systems  of  Wentworth  and  Laud  must  come  to  an  end.  They 
proposed,  moreover,  to  do  this,  not  by  revolution,  but  by  refor- 
mation; not  by  destroying  the  king,  but  with  the  aid  of  the  king; 

669 


670  THE    CIVIL    WAR  [chaelesI. 

not  by  making  new  laws  or  establishing  new  institutions,  but  by 
enforcing  the  old  laws  and  respecting  the  old  institutions. 

From  the  first  the  natural  leader  of  the  popular  party  in  the 
House  was  John  Pym.  With  him  were  associated  John  Hamp- 
'^King  ^®^'  John  Scldcn,  Denzil  Holies,  who  had  helped  to 

Pym/'  i^qI^  Speaker  Finch  in  the  chair,  William  Strode  who 

had  recently  been  released  from  the  Tower,  Oliver  St.  John  who 
had  made  a  reputation  as  Hampden's  lawyer  in  the  ship  money 
case.  Sir  Arthur  Haselrig,  Sir  Harry  Yane,  **young  in  years,  but 
in  sage  counsel  old,"  who  at  twenty- one  had  been  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  and  last  but  not  least,  the  man  of  tew  words  who 
was  destined  to  translate  the  speeches  of  Pym  and  Hampden  into 
terms  of  powder  and  lead,  the  great  man  of  the  era,  Oliver  Crom- 
well. Of  all  these  men,  as  a  debater,  as  a  leader  of  party,  Pym 
stood  easily  first;  and  his  enemies,  paying  unintentional  tribute  to 
his  powers,  soon  dubbed  him  in  derision  "the  king  of  the  House." 

There  was  a  prevailing  belief  among  all  parties  that  Went- 
worth,  now  earl  of  Strafford,  and  Archbishop  Land  had  conspired 
to  overthrow  parliamentary  government  and  restore 
upnnstraf-  Catholicism.  So  common  was  the  belief  that  neither 
'Lau£^  man  could  count  on  the  support  of  any  party,  and  with 
remarkable  unanimity  the  House,  as  the  first  step 
towards  putting  the  government  upon  a  working  footing, 
appointed  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  conduct  of  the  two 
ministers.  For  Strafford  the  case  wore  a  serious  aspect.  The 
popular  leaders  knew  his  ability  and  his  energy;  they  feared  him 
and  were  determined  on  his  destruction.  Yet  Charles  implored 
Strafford  to  leave  the  army  and  come  to  London,  assuring  him  on 
his  word  that  he  "should  not  suffer  in  his  person,  honor,  or  for- 
tune." Strafford  was  the  last  man  to  flinch  before  such  a  call, 
and  deliberately  entering  the  death-trap,  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  council  as  "thorough"  and  dauntless  as  ever.  Still  he  saw 
the  danger,  knew  that  the  impeachment  was  coming,  and  proposed 
to  Charles  to  make  the  treasonable  correspondence  of  the  popular 
leaders  with  the  Scots,  the  basis  of  a  counter  impeachment.  Pym, 
however,  was  too  prompt  for  the  wavering  monarch  and  struck 
first.      On  November  11     on    the  basis    of    a  vague  charge  of 


164l]  ATTAINDER    OF    STRAFFORD  671 

treason,  prepared  by  the  House,  Strafford  was  arrested  by  order 
of  the  Lords  and  committed  to  the  Tower.  On  December 
18  Laud  also,  on  motion  of  the  same  indefatigable  Pym,  was 
impeached  of  high  treason,  and  the  Lords  as  promptly  sent  him  to 
the  Tower.  Finch,  now  Lord  Finch,  and  others  fled  to  Hol- 
land. 

The  trial  of  Strafford  began  in  March,  but  it  was  soon  evident 
that  the  charge  of  treason  conld  not  be  established.     Pym  had 

secured  a  copy  of  a  copy  ^  of  the  notes  of  the  elder 
attainder  of     Vane,  purporting  to  give  the  exact  words  of  Strafford's 

unfortunate  advice  to  the  council  at  the  time  of  the 
First  Bishops'  War.  The  fatal  words  as  reported  ran:  **You 
have  an  army  in  Ireland,  you  may  employ  liere  to  reduce  this 
kingdom."  But  no  amount  of  legal  hocus  pocus  could  con- 
strue the  proposal  to  bring  over  the  Irish  army  to  support  the 
king  as  ^treason  against  the  king.  The  Commons,  however, 
were  determined  to  have  the  life  of  the  hated  minister,  and 
when  it  became  evident  that  the  prosecution  was  breaking 
down  for  lack  of  evidence,  they  resorted  to  a  bill  of  attainder 
which  passed  by  a  vote  of  204  to  59.     The  Lords  hesitated,  but 

Pym  had  unearthed  a  plot  to  which  the  queen,  if  not 
'Hw^Armu      Charles  himself,  was  privy,  for  bringing  the  northern 

army  to  London,  rescuing  Strafford,  and  overawing  the 
Commons.  There  were  also  rumors  of  the  approach  of  a  French 
force  by  sea,  which  was  to  meet  the  queen  at  Portsmouth  and 
unite  with  the  king's  troops.  Excitement  in  London  ran  high; 
the  trained  bands  were  called  out;  and  a  petition  calling  for  the 
death  of  Strafford  was  signed  by  twenty  thousand  persons.  The 
Lords  yielded  to  the  excitement  and  passed  the  bill.  Only  the 
king's  signature  now  remained  between  the  faithful  minister  and  a 
traitor's  death.  Charles  for  a  moment  hesitated,  and  then,  seek- 
ing to  save  his  self-respect  by  the  pitiful  plea  that  he  feared  for 
the  safety  of  his  wife  and  children  and  his  kingdom,  gave  way. 
It  was  not  the  first  time  that  the  nation  had  had  an  opportunity 

^  The  origiDal  notes  had  been  burned  by  order  of  the  King,  but  Vane 
had  first  taken  a  copy  which  his  son  Sir  Harry  Vane  had  found  among 
his  papers  and  in  turn  copied  and  brought  to  Pym. 


672  THE    CIVIL   WAR  [chaeles  i. 

to  estimate  the  value  of  a  king's  word.*  Strafford  was  beheaded  on 
Tower  Hill,  May  12,  1641.  The  death  of  Strafford  was  a  tribute 
to  his  ability.  The  Puritan  leaders  feared  him  more  than  they 
feared  the  king;  and  they  destroyed  him,  not  so  much  for  what  he 
had  done,  but  for  what  he  might  do. 

In  the    six    months  which   had  elapsed   since  the   arrest   of 

Strafford  several  notable  acts  had  passed  the  Commons.^     Early  in 

the  session  they  had  recalled  Prynne  and  his  fellow 

First  reforms  suffercrs  who  had  tasted  the  justice  of  the  Star  Cham- 

of  the  Long 

Parliament,  ber,  and  they  now  proposed  to  make  such  exercises  of 
royal  power  impossible  in  the  future  by  abolishing  the 
whole  list  of  special  courts,  sweeping  away  in  a  single  act  the  Star 
Chamber,  the  Council  of  the  North,  the  Council  of  Wales,  the 
Council  of  Lancaster,  and  the  Council  of  Chester,  and  restoring 
thereby  one-third  of  the  people  of  England  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  common  law  courts.  The  same  day,  July  5,  1641  EJizabeth's 
Court  of  High  Commission  was  also  abolished.  Lest 
niaiaM!^  ministers  should  be  encouraged  in  lawlessness  by  the 
absolute  control  which  the  king  held  over  the  times  for 
the  calling  of  a  parliament,  it  was  decreed  that  no  more  than 
three  years  should  henceforth  elapse  between  parliaments,  and 
that  when  assembled,  a  parliament  must  sit  for  at  least  fifty  days ; 
arrangements,  moreover,  were  made  for  the  holding  of  elections 
independently  of  the  crown,  should  the  king  refuse  to  issue  the 
proper  summons.^  Other  abuses,  also,  were  swept  away.  Ship 
money  was  declared  illegal  and  the  decision  against  Hampden 
reversed.  Distraint  of  Knighthood  was  abolished  and  the  forest 
commission  condemned.  The  ''Impositions,"  and  the  unauthor- 
ized levy  of  tunnage  and  poundage,  suffered  the  same  fate,  and 
the  unhappy  collectors  were  made  responsible  for  the  moneys 
which  they  had  taken  from  citizens  in  the  name  of  the  state, — a 
most  wholesome  lesson  to  law-breaking  servants  of  the  crown  in 
the  future.,     Parliament  then  sought  to  strengthen  the  law  courts 


^  Lee,  Source  Book,  pp.  357,  358. 

2 Gardiner,  Const.  Docs.,  pp.  106-122. 

^Gardiner,  Const.  Docs.,  pp.  74-84. 


1641]  REVOLUTIONARY   DRIFT  673 

by  decreeing  that  the  judges  should  hold  office  during  good 
behavior  and  not  be  liable  to  removal  at  the  king's  pleasure. 

Thus  far  the  efforts  of  the  Long  Parliament  had  not  been 
revolutionary.  They  had  simply  attacked  the  prerogatives  which 
the  Stuarts  had  derived  from  precedents  left  by  the 
^ry^driftof  Tudors  and  struck  them  off  one  by  one,  until  they  had 
ParUament  shattered  the  whole  Tudor  structure  and  leveled  it  with 
the  dust.  But  the  witless  intrigue  of  the  queen  in  the 
Army  Plot,  which  had  turned  all  London  npside  down,  had  deeply 
stirred  parliament ;  under  the  intense  excitement  its  work  began 
to  assume  a  new  character,  and  parliament  itself  began  to  change 
from  a  body  of  dignified  and  sober  reformers  into  a  gathering  of 
feverish  revolutionists.  The  precipitation  of  the  attainder  of 
Strafford  was  the  first  symptom  of  this  change.  More  significant 
still,  on  the  day  when  Charles  put  his  name  to  the  bill  of 
attainder,  he  was  also  compelled  to  sign  another  bill  which 
decreed  that  the  existing  parliament  should  not  be  dissolved  with- 
out its  own  consent.  The  revolutionary  purport  of  this  measure 
at  the  time  was  perhaps  not  observed;  the  promoters  thought  only 
of  preventing  the  king  from  carrying  out  his  part  of  the  Army 
Plot.  Yet  parliament  had  really  taken  from  the  king  the  consti- 
tutional right  of  appeal  to  the  nation,  and  left  him  henceforth  no 
means  of  getting  rid  of  a  refractory  parliament  other  than  civil 
war.  They  had  shorn  the  king  of  the  one  method  of  controlling 
parliaments,  which  by  the  laws  was  unquestionably  his,  and  legis- 
lated themselves  into  power  by  his  side  as  an  independent  olig- 
archy. As  long  as  the  nation  supported  the  parliament,  and  the 
king  remained  without  a  party,  the  full  significance  of  the  act 
would  not  appear;  but  let  the  king  once  secure  a  considerable 
party  in  the  nation,  civil  war  would  be  inevitable. 

For  the  moment,  however,  no  one  saw  the  shadow.  The  nation 
was  overwhelmingly  with  the  parliament;  and  parliament  had  acted 
thus  far  virtually  as  a  unit.  When  a  minority  had 
paruet^^^^  spoken,  as  in  the  opposition  to  the  attainder  of 
Strafford,  the  disagreement  had  been  not  upon  the 
principle,  but  upon  the  question  of  the  best  method  of  procedure. 
The   parliament  was    satisfied   with    its    work,    confident   in   its 


674  THE    CIVIL   WAR  [charles  l. 

strength,  and  had  no  wish  to  interfere  with  the  king  farther. 
It  voted  tunnage  and  poundage,  and  arranged  for  a  poll  tax, 
graduated  from  £100  to  6d.  In  August  the  claims  of  the  Scots 
were  also  satisfied,  their  army  sent  home,  and  the  English  army 
disbanded. 

The  political  questions  apparently  were  now  settled ;  the  king 

was  still  without  a  party,  and  probably  would  have  remained  so,  had 

not  the  unwise  zeal  of  some  radical  Puritans  thrust  the 

Dtmsion  of  , 

thepartyof  religious  questjon  to  the  front  and  given  it  a  new 
prominence.  Laud  and  men,  who  had  acted  with  him, 
like  Mainwaring,  had  forfeited  all  consideration  on  the  part  of 
parliament,  and  the  disposition  to  depose  and  punish  them  was 
practically  unanimous.  But  many  members,  distinguishing 
between  the  incumbent  bishops  and  the  Episcopacy,  and  sincerely 
attached  to  the  system  established  by  Elizabeth,  did  not  wish  to 
go  farther.  To  many  others,  however,  the  system  of  Episcopacy 
was  so  closely  associated  with  the  tyranny  which  they  were  seek- 
ing to  overthrow,  the  support,  which  convocation  had  given  tlie 
crown  both  by  its  money  grants  and  its  teachings,  so  marked,  that 
there  seemed  to  be  no  middle  ground.  In  London  especially, 
hostility  to  the  Episcopacy  ran  so  high  that  a  petition  for  complete 
abolition,  known  as  the  *'Eoot  and  Branch  Petition,"^  received 
fifteen  thousand  signatures,  and  in  response  to  this  petition,  on  May 
27,  1641,  Sir  Edward  Dering  presented  in  parliament 
The'^Root      the  '*Root  and  Branch  Bill."     The  unanimity  which 

and  Branch     ■,-,.,-,,  « 

Bill,"  1641.      had  prevailed  heretoiore  was  at  once  threatened.     Falk- 
land, Digby,  Hyde,  and  Selden,  drew  off  from  their  old 
companions,  and  made  so   brave  a   fight,  that   the  bill   had   not 
reached  its  final  stages  when  the  session  closed  in  September. 

Outside  of  parliament  also  the  waves  of  controversy  were  beat- 
ing high.  The  people  were  flooded  with  tracts  for  and  against 
the  episcopal  forms.  Bishop  Hall  of  Exeter  published 
war!^^^^  a  '* Humble  Remonstrance"  addressed  to  parliament,  and 
five  Puritan  clergymen  answered  him  in  a  tract  remark- 
able, not  so  much  for  its  contents,  as  for  the  curious  pseudonym, 
"Smectymnuus",  which  they  attached,  made  up  of  their  several 

*  Gardiner,  Const.  Docs.,  pp.  67-74. 


1641]  THE   INCIDENT  675 

initials.  Prominent  among  those  who  took  part  in  this  tract  war, 
was  John  Milton,  who  in  ponderous  but  sonorous  prose  denounced 
the  bishops  and  made  Episcopacy  responsible  for  all  the  failures 
of  the  Keformation.  The  result  of  this  unfortunate  strife  was  to 
divide  the  ranks  of  the  reformers  and  give  ecclesiastical  questions 
a  prominence  over  the  questions,  of  constitutional  reform,  which 
they  did  not  deserve. 

Charles,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  gone  to  Scotland  in  the  hope 
of  securing  the  support  of  his  Scottish  subjects,  by  granting  the 

demands  which  he  had  before  resisted  to  the  point  of 
ScoSandT  ^^''^^'  ^"^  ^^^^  court  was  still  the  center  of  intrigue,  and 
dent '^^641      ^^^  unfortiuiate  affair,  known  as  the  ** Incident,"  a  plan, 

formed  like  the  Army  Plot  by  some  hot-headed  courtiers, 
for  securing  and  possibly  destroying  the  popular  leaders  in  the  lato 
troubles  in  the  northern  kingdom,  completely  defeated  the  pur- 
pose of  the  king.  Yet  he  would  not  give  up  the  idea  of  getting 
aid  from  Scotland  and  made  Leslie,  the  leader  of  the  Scots  in  the 
Bishops'  Wars,  Earl  of  Leven ;  others  he  honored  in  similar 
ways.  He  was  not  unaware,  also,  of  tlie  significance  of  the  quarrel 
of  his  enemies  at  home  over  the  church  question,  and  sought  to 
add  fuel  to  the  flame  by  sending  a  declaration  to  the  English 
Lords,  *Hhat  he  was  resolved,  by  the  grace  of  God,  to  die  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  discipline  and  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, as  established  by  Elizabeth." 

Parliament  now  began  to  realize  the  mistake  of  raising  the 
religious   question.      Since  the  death   of   Strafford,  Charles   had 

done  little  to  regain  confidence;  his  actions  in  Scotland 
BranVhBiU  ^^^^'®  regarded  with  positive  suspicion.  The  Root  and 
d>-->ppcd,         Branch  Bill  was  therefore  abandoned  for  the  present, 

and  arrangements  were  made  for  storing  the  arms  of 
the  northern  army  at  Hull  and  guarding  the  Tower  of  London. 
A  quieting  appeal  also  was  issued  to  the  people,  asking  them  to 
withhold  action  and  wait  for  parliament  to  mature  its  plans  for 
the  reformation  of  the  church.  A  sort  of  committee  of  safety 
was  appointed  with  Pym  at  the  head,  to  remain  in  London  and 
keep  watch  of  the  drift  of  affairs.  Then,  on  September  9,  parlia- 
ment adjourned  until  October  20. 


676  THE    CIVIL    WAR  [cuakles  i. 

When  parliament  met  again,  it  had  hardly  begun  the  busi- 
ness of  the  session  when  most  disquieting  news  reached  it  from 
Ireland.  The  successors  of  Strafford  had  pushed  for- 
revoit^^  ward  his  scheme  of  colonizing  Connaught  and  were  in 
full  sympathy  with  the  plan  of  crushing  the  Catholics. 
But  Charles  had  been  intriguing  with  the  Catholic  lords,  and,  by 
conceding  all  that  the  Irish  parliament  demanded,  was  seeking 
here,  as  in  Scotland,  to  get  support  for  an  armed  interference  in 
England.  As  a  result  of  this  encouragement  the  parliament  and 
people  of  Ireland  soon  passed  beyond  the  control  of  the  authorized 
deputies  of  the  king,  and  on  October  23  the  whole  north  broke  out 
in  revolt.  Everywhere  the  English  settlers  were  taken  by  surprise 
and  driven  from  their  homes  with  great  suffering.  The  rebels  had 
rejected  a  proposal  of  wholesale  massacre ;  but  the  wrongs  of  the 
Celtic  population  were  many,  the  religious  hatred  was  intense,  and, 
when  once  the  people  saw  their  oppressors  fleeing  for  their  lives, 
their  homes  in  flames,  the  temptation  to  acts  of  barbaric  ferocity 
was  too  great  to  be  resisted. 

This  was  the  news  which  reached  the  English  parliament  soon 
after  the  opening  of  the  new  session,  yet  it  knew  not  how  to 
The  Grand  ^^^'  ^^  ^^^^  afraid  to  entrust  the  king  with  an  army, 
«trSe,JVo-  ^®^^  ^®  should  make  common  cause  with  the  Irish  for 
vemher,  1641.  the  suppression  of  the  liberties  of  England.  It  was 
decided,  therefore,  to  ask  the  Scots  to  send  a  force  equal  to  what 
might  be  raised  in  England  in  order  to  counterbalance  the  army 
which  parliament  was  compelled  to  raise  but  which  it  feared  would 
pass  into  the  king's  hands.  To  Pym,  Hampden,  and  other  radical 
leaders,  moreover,  with  the  Irish  revolt  confronting  them,  with 
disquieting  rumors  of  the  king's  perfidy  coming  from  Scotland, 
and  the  increasing  strength  of  the  party  of  reaction  in  the  Houses, 
it  seemed  necessary,  if  what  had  been  won  was  to  be  saved,  not  to 
allow  the  king  to  obscure,  or  the  nation  to  forget,  the  real  ground 
upon  which  the  quarrel  had  been  begun.  In  November  1641, 
therefore,  they  brought  before  the  House  a  monster  document  of 
two  hundred  and  six  clauses,  known  as  the  Grand  Remonstrance. 

This  document  was  designed  primarily  as  an  appeal  to  the 
nation.     It  was  in  reality  a  vigorous  arraignment  of  the  king  and 


1641]  THE    GRAND    REMONSTRAKCE  677 

defense  of  the  parliament,  accusing  the  king's  councillors  and  the 
bishops  of  deliberately  attempting  to  overthrow  the  laws  of  the 
kingdom  and  restore  the  papacy.  It  proposed,  moreover,  for  the 
future  that  the  royal  councillors  should  be  named  in  accordance 
with  the  wishes  of  parliament ;  and  that  a  convention  or  assembly 
of  Protestant  divines,  both  English  and  foreign,  be  called  together 
*'to  consider  all  things  necessary  for  the  peace  and  good  govern- 
ment of  the  churches;"  the  results  of  the  work  of  the  ecclesiastical 
assembly  were  to  be  confirmed  by  parliament  and  thus  made  the 
law  of  the  land.^ 

Such   a  measure,  proposed  at  such  a  time,  could  have  but  one 
result;  it  at  once  completed  the  division  in  the  ranks  of  the  parlia- 
mentary party  which  had  been  threatened  by  the  agita- 

Breakinthe     ^.  ^.        r^      ^  -,    -.^  ,    t^-m      i-    i.i  j- 

pariiamen-  tion  over  the  Itoot  and  Branch  Bill  of  the  precednig 
session.  Reconciliation  was  henceforth  impossible. 
The  new  Episcopal  party  gathered  its  strength  for  the  issue,  and  the 
struggle  began.  On  the  22d  of  November  the  battle  opened  at 
noon  and  waged  until  the  falling  shadows  of  a  bleak  November  day 
compelled  the  ushers  to  bring  in  candles ;  afternoon  passed  into 
evening;  still  the  debate  thundered  on.  At  midnight  the  Remon- 
strance was  carried  by  a  majority  of  eleven  votes  in  a  house  of 
307  members.  But  so  evenly  were  the  two  parties  balanced, 
that  when  a  motion  was  made  by  the  victors  to  print,  that  is 
virtually  to  send  out  the  appeal  to  the  nation,  the  minority 
returned  to  the  conflict  and  the  storm  broke  out  again  with 
greater  fury  than  ever.  So  intense  was  the  excitement,  that  at 
times  twenty  members  were  on  their  feet  at  once,  shouting  and 
waving  hats  and  swords  like  madmen.  Finally  at  four  o'clock  of 
the  morning  of  the  23d,  all  disputed  points  were  waived  by  an 
adjournment,^  and  this  memorable  session  of  the  Long  Parliament 
closed.  "The  Civil  War  was  all  the  nearer  for  that  night's  work. " 
Two  days  later  the  king  returned  to  London.  The  reaction  had 
been  gaining  ground  rapidly.  The  wealthier  citizens  of  London 
were  restless   under   the   heavy  taxation  which   parliament   had 

^  For  this  remarkable  document  and  the  king's  reply,  see  Gardiner 
Const.  Docs.,  pp.  127-158. 

2  The  motion  to  print  was  not  carried  until  Dec.  15. 


678  THE    CIVIL   WAR  [ciiarlesI. 

recently  imposed  upon  them,  and  Episcopalians  everywhere  saw  a 
threat  of  persecution  in  the  program  laid  down  by  the  Grand  Re- 
monstrance. On  the  1st  of  December  the  lengthy  doc- 
iondw*^  ument  was  presented  to  the  king  and  on  the  23d  he  re- 
turned an  answer,  in  which  he  acknowledged  nothing  and 
granted  nothing.  In  the  meanwhile  Charles  had  sought  to  assure 
the  opposition  by  renewing  his  pledge  to  govern  according  to  law, 
and  maintain  the  church  of  Elizabeth  and  King  James.  But  even 
the  king's  friends  could  hardly  take  his  promises  seriously  when 
he  continued  to  belie  them  in  his  acts.  He  placed  his  guard 
around  the  Parliament  House  under  the  command  of  Dorset,  and 
December  23,  the  day  of  his  reply  to  the  Grand  Eemonstrance, 
dismissed  Balfour,  the  lieutenant  of  the  Tower  who  had  refused 
to  allow  Strafford  to  escape,  appointing  in  his  place  Lunsford,  a 
notorious  bully.  The  excitement  at  Westminster,  therefore,  was 
not  allayed;  in  the  palace  yard  collisions  were  frequent  between 
the  king's  guard  and  mobs  of  Puritan  sympathizers,  who 
swarmed  there  whenever  the  cry  was  raised  that  parliament  was  in 
danger.  So  great  was  the  excitement  that  Charles  was  compelled 
at  last  to  remove  Dorset's  guard  and  turn  the  safe  keeping  of 
parliament  over  to  tlie  magistrates  of  Westminster.  Lunsford  also 
was  soon  after  removed  from  the  command  of  the  Tower. 

The  Grand  Remonstrance  had  now  drawn  the  lines  sharply  in 
the  House.  The  majority  of  the  Root  and  Branch  reformers  was 
small,  but  it  was  determined  and  could  be  depended 
mSrS^me  ^^'  Charles,  however,  still  controlled  the  Lords  by 
cemtm-'iSti  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^^^  bishops,  whosc  solid  vote  would  always 
give  him  a  working  majority  with  which  to  defeat  any 
hostile  mea^ire  which  might  pass  the  House.  But  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  boisterous  mobs  which  daily  surged  about  the  Parlia- 
ment House,  blocking  the  ways  and  preventing  egress  or  ingress, 
the  courage  of  the  men  of  peace  failed  them,  and,  pleading  that 
their  lives  were  in  danger,  they  refused  longer  to  attend  the  sit- 
tings of  parliament.  On  the  29th  of  December  twelve  bishops, 
headed  by  Williams,  the  recently  made  archbishop  of  York, 
formally  protested  against  the  legality  of  all  proceedings  under- 
taken during  their  absence.     To  their  surprise  their  protest  was 


1641]  THE    FIVE    MEMBERS  679 

answered  by  an  impeachment;  the  Lords  sustained  the  impeach- 
ment and  the  seats  were  vacated.  With  Williams  and  his 
fellow  bishops  in  the  Tower,  the  Upper  House  passed  permanently 
under  the  control  of  the  opposition. 

The  king  was  now  desperate;  he  could  no  longer  dissolve 
parliament  at  will;  the  withdrawal  of  the  bishops  had  deprived 
The  "/ii'c  ^^^  ^^  ^^®  ^^^^  means  of  checking  the  Commons  in  a 
7amiar^'  Constitutional  manner.  Still  he  vacillated.  He 
1642.  sought  to  win  Pym  by  offering  him  the  chancellorship 

of  the  exchequer,  but'two  hours  later  gave  the  office  to  Culpepper ; 
Falkland,  who  had  headed  the  opposition  to  the  Root  and  Branch 
faction  in  parliament,  he  made  Secretary  of  State.  To  add  to  his 
disquiet,  the  king  learned  that  the  Commons  were  considering  a 
plan  for  impeaching  the  queen  for  treason.  Her  danger  was  real ; 
no  one  knew  how  many  of  the  facts  connected  with  her  intrigue 
with  the  pope,  with  the  leaders  in  the  Army  Plot  or  with  the  Irish 
rebels,  were  in  the  hands  of  Pym  and  Hampden.  Urged  at  last 
by  the  imminence  of  the  crisis,  Charles  determined  to  save  the 
queen  by  striking  first,  and  on  the  3d  of  January,  1642,  impeached 
Lord  Kimbolton  and  five  members  of  the  House,  Pym,  Hampden, 
Holies,  Haselrig,  and  Strode,  **for  having  traitorously  invited  a 
foreign  power  (the  Scots)  to  invade  England."  The  right  of  the 
king  to  impeach  a  member  of  the  House  was  by  no  means  clear, 
and  the  Commons  paid  no  attention  to  the  demand  of  the  king  for 
the  delivery  of  the  five  members.  The  morning  passed  and  noth- 
ing was  done ;  then  about  three  in  the  afternoon,  after  the  king 
had  given  every  opportunity  for  the  five  marked  men  to  get  out 
of  his  way,  he  led  a  noisy  throng  of  armed  men  through  the 
streets  to  the  House  and  demanded  the  five  members.  Advancing 
to  the  Speaker's  chair,  he  turned  and  looked  about  the  room. 
He  was  not  a  coward.  He  had  left  his  escort  without  and  he  stood 
there  alone  facing  the  Commons.  * 'Where  are  they?"  he  asked 
Speaker  Lenthall.  But  Lenthall,  assuming  the  position  of 
respect  in  the  presence  of  majesty  which  convention  prescribed, 
firmly  but  respectfully  refused  to  use  "eye  or  tongue,"  save  as 
the  House  should  direct  him.  Again  Charles  looked  the  silent 
House  in  the  face  and  then  retired,  baffled,  beaten.     It  was  the 


680  THE    CIVIL    WAR  [chakles  l. 

falsest  of  all  the  false  steps  which  he  had  yet  taken  during  the 
eighteen  years  of  his  reign.  As  he  turned  to  leave  the  House, 
the  ominous  silence  was  broken.  Cries  of  "Privilege!"  "Priv- 
ilege!" attended  him  into  the  lobby.  The  House  rose  in  tumult  and 
followed  the  five  members  into  the  city,  where  the  sympathy  of 
the  people  promised  them  protection.  Charles,  however,  was  for 
once  overawed ;  and  not  knowing  what  the  Commons  might  do  in 
their  desperation,  or  where  they  might  attempt  to  strike  next,  on 
the  10th  of  January  he  retired  to  Hampden  Court,  abandoning 
his  capital  and  the  resources  of  the  state  to  the  parliament.  On 
the  11th  the  Commons  returned  in  triumph  to  Westminster. 

"War  was  now  certain  unless  the  king  should  yield  at  all  points. 
The  radical  majority  of  the  parliament  had  triumphed  and  pro- 
ceeded at  once  to  secure  its  triumph  by  assuming: 
The  Militia  control  of  the  military  resources  of  the  governmeut. 
It  first  sent  a  bill  to  the  king  which  "disabled  all 
persons  in  holy  orders  from  exercising  any  temporal  jurisdiction  or 
authority."  Charles,  possibly  hoping  that  this  would  quiet  the 
waters,  consented;  thus  agreeing  to  the  permanent  exclusion  of 
the  bishops  from  the  Lords.  But  the  House  was  not  satisfied, 
and  next  sent  him  a  Militia  Bill,  which  called  upon  him  to  sur- 
render to  parliament  the  entire  control  of  the  militia,  the  only 
armed  force  in  the  kingdom,  by  allowing  parliament  to  appoint  its 
officers.  The  king,  however,  would  go  no  farther.  "No,  not  for 
an  hour!"  was  his  angry  answer.  The  House  then 
Ordi^ncT  determined  to  abandon  the  form  of  a  bill  and  push 
through  the  measure  as  an  ordinance  of  parliament, 
that  is  to  enforce  it  without  the  king's  consent.  This  of  course 
was  revolution,  pure  and  simple,  and  on  the  king's  part  there  could 
be  only  one  reply.  He  had  already  sent  his  wife  and  children  out 
of  the  kingdom,  and  on  August  22,  he  raised  the  royal  standard 
at  Nottingham.     It  was  the  sign  that  civil  war  had  begun. 

The  war  which  was  now  to  desolate  England  for  ten  years  is 
known  in  English  History  as  the  "Great  Rebellion"  or  the 
"Great  Civil  War."  Sometimes  taken  with  the  stirring  events  of 
the  epoch  which  precedes  and  the  epoch  which  follows,  it  is  called 
the  "Puritan  Revolution."    The  name  is  not  inapt,  for  a  religious 


1641]  ISSUES   OF   THE    WAR  681 

purpose  was  quite  as  prominent  in  the  minds  of  the  contending 

parties  as  a  civil  purpose.     The  fears  of  a  restoration  of  the  papacy, 

which    pursued   the  Puritans,  were  so    mixed    up   in 

wf  i^i?^        their  minds  with  a  desire  to  secure  the  civil  rights  which 

War,  the  ^ 

i^sw"^  the  king  had  violated,  that  they  looked  upon  themselves 
as  fighting  for  Protestantism  fully  as  much  as  for 
political  liberty.  The  lovers  of  the  Prayer  Book  and  Episcopacy, 
on  the  other  hand,  although  they  mistrusted  Charles  and  con- 
demned his  past  tyrannies,  believed  that  they  must  support  him  or 
be  prepared  to  accept  any  restrictive  laws  which  the  Puritans 
might  see  fit  to  impose.  For  the  same  reason  the  entire  body 
of  English  Catholics,  who  were  certain  to  be  persecuted  if  the 
Puritans  were  allowed  to  rule  the  state,  although  they  had  no  rea- 
son to  expect  much  from  the  Episcopal  party,  thought  it  safer  to 
take  their  stand  with  them  and  support  the  king.  But  all  Puritans 
of  whatever  stripe,  Presbyterians,  Independents,  Separatists, 
Brownists,  or  Anabaptists,  men  who  believed  in  Root  and  Branch 
measures,  the  great  mass  of  the  **God  fearing"  yeomanry,  the 
tradesmen  of  the  towns,  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  parliament. 
Thus  the  religious  lines  were  distinctly  drawn.  The  political 
issue,  however,  though  confused  with  the  religious  in  the  minds 
of  most,  was  by  no  means  lost  sight  of.  Here  too  the 
iJsuf^^Th^^  radical  leaders  in  parliament  had  left  no  middle  ground 
Sftf'"^'""  ^^^  '"^^^y  subject  of  the  king.  On  the  2d  of  June  they 
had  sent  to  Charles  at  York  nineteen  propositions,  in 
which  they  demanded  that  they  be  allowed  to  name  the  king's  council, 
his  officers  of  state,  his  lieutenants  of  fortresses,  and  his  judges; 
that  he  confirm  the  Militia  Ordinance  and  permit  them  to  reform 
the  church  in  accordance  with  their  ideas;  that  is,  parliament 
virbually  asked  the  king  to  surrender  what  was  left  of  royal 
authority,  leaving  him  little  more  than  the  name  and  dignity  of 
king.  Now  there  were  many  men,  especially  among  the  nobility, 
who,  while  they  had  no  sympathy  with  the  methods  of  Laud  or  the 
Court  of  Star  Chamber,  and  had  voted  steadily  with  the  majority 
for  the  long  list  of  abolitions  in  the  first  session  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment, wliile  they  had  little  belief  in  Charles  personally  and  had 
even  voted  for  the  attainder  of  Wentworth,  yet  loved  the  king- 


682  THE    CIVIL    WAR  [ Charles  I. 

ship  with  a  great  and  patriotic  love,  as  the  symbol  of  the  unity  and 
strength  of  the  nation,  and,  with  no  feigned  alarm,  now  beheld  the 
Puritan  leaders  bent  apparently  upon  humiliating  the  crown  to 
the  dust.  Charles  had  made  concessions,  and  these  men,  among 
whom  were  Hyde  and  Falkland,  believed  that  he  had  gone  far 
enough.  They  had  made  a  brave  fight  against  the  Eoot  and 
Branch  Bill,  and  again  against  the  Grand  Remonstrance,  and  they 
now  knew  that  the  time  for  debate  had  passed.  When,  therefore, 
Charles  raised  his  standard  in  August,  these  men,  including  a 
full  majority  of  the  Lords,  were  ranged  at  his  side. 

The  social  lines  which  divided  the  two  camps  were  by  no  means 
so    clearly    drawn.      The  rufiSers,  the  thorough-going  courtiers, 

soldiers  of  fortune  many  of  them,  and,  like  the  king's 
Vme!^^^^^       nephews  Prince  Eupert  and  Prince  Maurice,   of  noble 

blood,  the  gay  worldlings  of  the  court  who  hated 
Puritanism  and  despised  Puritans  by  instinct  and  by  training, 
and  who  cared  not  a  straw  for  the  principles  of  religion  or  liberty, 
were  to  be  counted  for  the  king.  And  yet  it  would  be  an  error  to 
represent  the  struggle  as  a  war  of  classes.  There  was  no  distinct 
appeal  to  rival  social  elements  as  in  the  later  French  Revolution ; 
and,  although  the  majority  of  the  nobility  and  the  gentry  were 
with  the  king,  these  classes  were  also  well  represented  on  the  other 
side;  their  representatives  furnished  the  generals  and  statesmen, 
who  were  to  conduct  the  counsels  of  the  parliamentary  cause  to  a 
triumphant  issue.- 

Geographically,  also,  the  lines  were  nowhere  distinctly  drawn. 
London  was  the  stronghold  of  the  Puritans,  and  York  of  the  king. 

The  south  and  east  were  overwhelmingly  for  the  par- 
^aUinS'       liament.     The  north  and  west   including  Wales   were 

for  the  king.  And  yet  during  the  war,  there  was  more 
or  less  fighting  and  bloodshed  in  almost  every  county  in  the  king- 
dom. All  in  all,  however,  geographically  the  advantage  was  with 
the  parliament.  It  controlled  the  most  opulent  and  populous 
counties  and  thus  readily  found  men  and  money  for  its  armies. 
It  controlled  the  great  seaport  populations  of  the  south,  and  thus 
not  only  carried  with  it  the  fleet,  but  also  was  able  to  recruit  its 
strength  as  more  ships  or  seamen  were  needed.      It  could  also 


1642]  DKIFTING   INTO  WAR  G83 

guard  the  coasts,  prevent  the  king  from  getting  supplies  by  sea, 
while  it  transported  its  troops  at  will,  and  threw  them  into  any 
seaport  town  threatened  by  the  land  forces  of  the  king. 

For  three  months  previous   to  the  setting  up  of   the  royal 
standard  the  country  had  been   steadily  drifting  into  war.      In 

April  Charles  had  attempted  to  get  possession  of  the 
SS^war         great  arsenals  of  Hull,  but  Ilotham,  the  parliamentary 

governor,  had  refused  him  admission,  and  the  military 
stores  consisting  of  a  complete  equipment  for  sixteen  thousand 
men  were  brought  to  London.  In  the  first  week  of  July,  parlia- 
ment had  appointed  a  Committee  of  Safety,  of  which  the  prominent 
members  were  the  two  Puritan  nobles,  Essex  and  Saye  and  Sele, 
and  the  Commoners,  Pym,  Hampden,  Holies,  and  Waller;  ten 
thousand  men,  also,  were  levied  for  immediate  service  and  Essex 
appointed  commander-in-chief.  On  the  loth  blood  was  shed  at 
Manchester,  where  Lord  Strange  had  undertaken  to  interfere  with 
some  townsmen  who  were  attempting  to  carry  out  the  Militia 
Ordinance.  Four  days  before,  the  House  had  already  declared 
Charles  responsible  for  beginning  war;  and  on  the  18th  of  August 
they  had  further  declared  those  who  supported  the  king,  traitors. 
During  all  this  time  there  had  been  more  or  less  pretense  of 
negotiation,  but  parliament  had  little  confidence  in  the  result,  and 

had  continued  to  push  forward  its  preparations  for 
SepUmber^,'  armed  resistance.  Kimbolton,  Hampden,  Holies,  and 
^^'*^'  others,  raised  regiments  at  their  own  expense.     The 

eastern  counties  formed  an  alliance  to  defend  parliament,  known  as 
the  Eastern  Association.  London,  also,  raised  eight  thousand  men 
and  put  them  in  the  field.  On  September  6  the  last  lingering 
hope  of  averting  the  conflict  by  negotiation  was  abandoned,  and  on 
the  7th  the  royal  governor.  Goring  surrendered  Portsmouth  and 
all  its  stores  to  Sir  William  Waller,  a  member  of  the  Committee 
of  Safety.  Parliament  now  had  twenty  thousand  men  under  its 
orders  and,  two  days  after  the  capture  of  Portsmouth,  sent  Essex 
forward  with  the  purpose  of  immediately  attacking  the  king  at 
Nottingham. 

Charles,  however,  had  no  thought  of  risking  all  upon  a  single 
encounter  at  this  stage  of  the  conflict;  the  levies  from  Wales  and 


684 


THE   CIVIL   WAR 


[chahles  I. 


the  northern  counties,  moreover,  had  not  yet  joined  him.  He  had 
therefore  retired  towards  Shrewsbury  on  the  7th.  Essex  followed 
him,  throwing  garrisons  into  Northampton,  Coventry, 
paigTof'  and  Warwick,  and  took  up  a  station  at  Worcester,  where, 
Edgehiii.  ^  short  time  before,  the  first  serious  encounter  of 
the  war  had  already  taken  place  in  which  Rupert's  horse  had 
easily  scattered  one  of  the  newly-raised  cavalry  regiments  of  the 
parliament.  By  the  12th  of  October  the  king's  western  and 
northern  levies  had  reached  him,  and  with  fourteen  thousand  men 
he  thought  himself  strong  enough  to  begin  the  march  upon  Loq- 


Battle  of  EDGE  HILL  ^ 

Sunday  Oct,  23,  1642. 


Parliamentary  irmy 

Worse 
foot 


Kings  Army 

Horse    ■■■ 

Foot  C;^iB 


don.  Essex  hurried  after  with  a  slightly  inferior  force,  and  on  the 
22d  of  October  found  the  king  in  a  strong  position  on  Edgehill. 
On  the  afternoon  of  Sunday  the  23d  the  king  led  his  army  down 
from  the  hill  to  meet  his  foes.  Eupert  again  easily  routed  the 
Puritan  horse,  but  the  Puritan  infantry  held  their  own,  and  when 
at  dnsk  Rupert  returned  from  the  pursuit  he  found  the  king's 
men  withdrawing  to  Edgehill.  The  battle,  however,  was  inde- 
cisive, for  the  complete  demoralization  of  Essex's  cavalry  compelled 
him  to  retire  to  Warwick  the  next  day,  while  the  king's  army  once 
more  resumed  its  march,  passing  through  Oxford  and  Reading. 
Yet  his  movements  were  so  slow  that  Essex  was  not  only  able  to 


1642,  1643]  CAMPAIGN    OF    EDGEHILL  685 

follow  him  again,  but  reached  a  strong  position  on  his  flank  at 
Kingston.  Charles,  however,  did  not  care  to  try  the  mettle  of  the 
sturdy  Puritan  infantry  a  second  time,  and  instead  of  turning 
aside  to  measure  swords  with  Essex,  pushed  straight  on  to  Lon- 
don. At  Brentford,  eight  miles  from  Westminster,  Rupert  again 
scattered  the  Puritan  horse,  but  two  miles  farther,  at  Turnham 
Green,  the  king  found  the  trained  bands  of  London  drawn  up  in 
dense  masses  across  his  path.  With  Essex  so  near  he  feared  to 
chance  a  battle  and,  after  a  useless  cannonade,  retired  to  Oxford. 
Here  he  established  his  headquarters  for  the  rest  of  the  war,  set- 
ting up  a  government  and,  January  1044,  calling  together  a  royalist 
parliament,  composed  mostly  of  the  members  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment who  had  fled  from  Westminster. 

Thus  ended  the  first  campaign  of  the  war.     It  had  been  inde- 
cisive and  left  matters  about  where  they  stood  on  September  7. 

It  had  revealed  to  Charles,  however,  the  determined 
c^pailn  spirit  of  the  men  who  defied  him;  it  had  also  revealed 
of  1642.  ^^  ^YiQ  Puritan  leaders  the  immense  superiority  of  the 

royalist  horse.  During  the  winter  the  two  armies  of  Essex  and 
Charles  faced  each  other  between  Oxford  and  London,  but  nothing 
was  done.  There  were  also  some  futile  attempts  at  negotiation, 
but  no  revival  of  confidence,  due  partly  to  the  continued  efforts  of 
Charles  to  get  troops  over  frofn  Ireland,  and  also  to  his  efforts  to 
sow  dissensions  among  the  parliamentary  leaders. 

As  the  spring  came  on  fighting  began  all  over  England.     In 
the  main  it  went  against  the  parliament.     Some  petty  victories  of 

the  early  year  were  more  than  offset  by  later  losses. 
Tl^tTJ!}'.^    Essex  took  Reading  but  hesitated  to  advance  on  Oxford. 

On  the  16  th  of  May  Sir  Ralph  Hop  ton  defeated  the 
earl  of  Stamford  at  Stratton  and  secured  Cornwall  for  the  king. 
On  the  18th  of  June  Hampden  received  his  death  wound  at  Chal- 
grove  Field,  in  a  futile  attempt  to  cut  off  a  band  of  raiders  under 
Prince  Rupert;  *'a  gallant  man,  an  honest  man,  au  able  man,  and 
second  to  none  living."  On  the  30th  of  June  William  Cavendish 
Earl  of  Newcastle  defeated  Lord  Fairfax  at  Adwalton  Moor,  a  vic- 
tory which  left  Hull,  already  closely  besieged,  the  only  parliamen- 
tary stronghold  in  Yorkshire.     On  the  5th  of  July  and  again  on 


686  THE    CIVIL   WAR  [oharles  i. 

the  13th,  Hopton,  the  victor  of  Stratton,  defeated  Waller,  who  had 
been  holding  the  Severn  valley  in  order  to  prevent  the  Welsh  from 
reinforcing  the  king  at  Oxford,  and  on  the  26th  Rupert  took 
Bristol. 

Charles  now  proposed  that  Newcastle  and  Hopton  bring  their 
victorious  armies  and  join  with  him  for  a  march  on  London.  But 
the  Cornish  men  would  not  leave  their  homes  to  the 
Gloucester,  mercy  of  the  powerful  garrisons  of  Plymouth  and 
Exeter;  the  Yorkshire  men  were  as  unwilling  to  march 
south  until  Hull  had  been  reduced.  The  garrison  of  Gloucester, 
also,  held  the  bridge  over  the  lower  Severn,  and  the  Welshmen 
would  not  march  to  London  until  the  town  had  been  taken. 
Charles,  therefore,  contrary  to  his  better  judgment,  was  compelled 
to  engage  in  a  series  of  sieges  against  cities  for  the  most  part  with 
an  open  seaboard.  Prince  Maurice,  Rupert's  younger  brother,  was 
sent  against  Plymouth  and  Exeter;  Newcastle  pressed  the  siege  of 
Hull;  while  the  king  with  his  main  army  marched  upon  Glouces- 
ter. Pym  called  upon  London  for  an  army  to  relieve  Gloucester, 
and  the  trained  bands  promptly  responded,  giving  him  an  army  of 
fifteen  thousand  men.  Rupert's  cavalry  failed  to  check  the  advance 
and  on  September  8  Essex  marched  into  the  city.  From  the 
first  the  Puritans  had  felt  a  deep  sense  of  dependence  upon  God ; 
they  were  fighting  his  battles;  **G5d  had  called  them  to  do  the 
work."  The  timely  arrival  of  Essex,  therefore,  when  only  three 
barrels  of  gunpowder  were  left  in  the  city,  was  looked  upon  as  a 
special  interposition  of  Providence,  and  the  grateful  citizens  in- 
scribed above  the  gate,  *'A  city  assaulted  by  men  but  saved  by 
God." 

It  was  the  crisis  of  the  war.  The  relief  of  Gloucester  saved  Ply- 
mouth and  Hull,  possibly  London  also;  for  had  these  cities  fallen, 
The  crisis  ^^  ^^^  probability  London  could  not  have  resisted  the 
passed.  combined  force  which  the  king  would  then  have  con- 

centrated on  the  lower  Thames. 

Charles  now  manoeuvred  to  prevent  the  return  of  Essex  to  Lon- 
don ;  the  result  was  the  first  battle  of  Newbury,  fought  on  the 
20th  of  September,  twenty-seven  miles  from  Oxford.  The  foot 
wrestled  for  hours  from  hedgerow  to  hedgerow.     Rupert's  cavalry 


1643]  OLIVER   CROMWELL  687 

as  usual  scattered  the  Puritan  horse.  He  then  turned  upon  the 
Londoners,  but  for  once  his  terrible  cavalry  had  found  a  foe 
F*  b  tti  worthy  of  their  mettle.  When  night  came  the  Puri- 
fe^embe^'  tan  infantry  still  held  their  ground.  They  had  lost 
20, 1643,  heavily  but  the  king's  losses  were  greater,  among  them 

the  gallant  Lord  Falkland.  The  king  withdrew  to  Oxford,  leav- 
ing the  way  open  to  London. 

The  triumph  at  Newbury  of  the  Puritans,  or  *' Roundheads,"  as 
the  gay  '*  Cavaliers"  of  Rupert  had  begun  to  call  them,  was  fol- 
lowed three  weeks  later  by  a  successful  sortie  of  the 
Puritan)^  in     garrisou  of  Hull,  which  compelled  Newcastle  to  raise 

the  North  '  jt 

the  siege.  On  the  same  day,  the  11th  of  October,  Kim- 
bolton,  recently  become  earl  of  Manchester,  won  a  decisive  victory 
at  Winceby.  This  battle  is  famous  as  the  first  to  bring  Oliver 
Cromwell   into  prominence. 

This  remarkable  man,  destined  to  be  the  great  man  of  the  cen- 
tury, a  quiet,  unobtrusive  squire  of  Huntingdonshire,  had  been 

sent  up  to  the  Long  Parliament  from  Cambridge  bor- 
Cromweii        ^^g^^»  having  already  appeared  at  Westminster  in  1G28 

and  again  in  the  Short  Parliament  in  1640.  He  was 
not  a  talker ;  and  although  he  had  supported  Hampden  and  Pym 
steadily  in  the  voting,  his  position  as  a  member  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment had  not  been  prominent.  But  when  the  time  for  action 
came,  he  went  down  to  his  home  to  take  part  in  the  organization 
of  the  Eastern  Association.  Although  a  cousin  of  Hampden  and  a 
member  of  parliament,  he  sought  for  himself  no  higher  position  in 
the  army  than  that  of  a  single  captain  of  cavalry.  He  was  present 
at  Edgehill  and  had  managed  to  hold  his  troop  together,  one  of  the 
few  cavalry  companies  that  did  not  flee  at  the  first  charge  of  the 
cavaliers.  He  saw,  moreover,  the  reason  of  the  worthlessness  of 
tlie  Puritan  horse.  **Your  troops"  he  said  to  Hampden  '*are 
most  of  them  decayed  serving  men  and  tapsters,  and  such  kind  of 
fellows,  and  their  troops  are  gentlemen's  sons  and  persons  of 
quality.  Do  you  think  that  the  spirits  of  such  base  and  mean 
fellows  will  ever  be  able  to  encounter  gentlemen  that  have  honor, 
courage,  and  resolution  in  them?"  In  the  months  following  Edge- 
hill  Cromwell  had  returned  to  his  home  and  there  brought  together 


688  THE    CIVIL   WAR  [charlbs  I. 

a  cavalry  regiment  of  a  very  different  mettle.  As  he  himself 
expressed  it,  he  proposed  to  match  "men  of  religion,"  against  the 
**king's  gentlemen  of  honor."  The  result  was  the  organization 
of  the  famous  '^ Ironsides;"  a  body  of  men  who  possessed  the 
loftiest  religious  enthusiasm,  tempered  and  hardened  by  the 
severest  discipline.  At  Winceby,  Cromwell  and  his  famous  regi- 
ment led  the  van  of  Manchester's  army.  From  this  time  he  and 
his  men  are  conspicuous  figures  in  the  war;  equal  to  Rupert's 
terrible  cavaliers  "in  dash  and  daring,"  and  more  than  equal  in 
drill  and  self-restraint. 

In  December  the  parliament  sustained  a  serious  loss  in  the 
death  of  Pym,  who  had  become  the  virtual  leader  of  the  adminis- 
tration but  had  succumbed  to  the  anxieties  and  burdens 
League  and  of  his  position,  laying  his  life  on  the  altar  of  English 
liberty  as  surely  as  Eliot  or  Hampden.  As  his  last 
service  he  had  secured  the  formal  alliance  of  the  parliament 
with  the  Scots  in  the  "Solemn  League  and  Covenant,"  by  which 
the  English  bound  themselves  to  support  a  Scottish  army  in  Eng- 
land, and  to  reform  the  Church  of  England  "according  to  the 
example  of  the  best  reformed  churches," — a  phrase  understood  by 
the  Scots  to  mean  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Vane,  however,  who 
hated  intolerance  and  saw  clearly  that  "new  presbyter"  was  "only 
old  priest  writ  large,"  insisted  on  adding  the  clause  "and  according 
to  the  Word  of  God."  This  was  a  mere  subterfuge,  adopted  in 
order  to  leave  the  whole  matter  open,  since  the  "Word  of  God" 
when  consulted  by  Independents  would  not  favor  the  Presbyterian 
system.  The  Scots,  however,  apprehended  no  difficulty  because 
the  Presbyterian  party  in  England  was  much  larger  than  the  Inde- 
pendent party,  and  an  assembly  of  Presbyterian  divines  had' 
already  met  at  Westminster  in  July,  1643,  and  were  busily  engaged 
in  making  a  plan  for  the  reform  of  the  English  Church  on  a 
Presbyterian  basis. 

Charles  also  in  the  meanwhile  had  been  seeking  allies,  and  in 
September  had  entered  into  a  preliminary  truce  with  the  Irish, 
known  as  the  Cessation  of  Arms.  Thus  the  king  was  in  the  pop- 
ular mind  more  than  ever  allied  with  the  cause  of  the  supporters 
of  the  pope;    while  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  also  helped 


1644] 


MARSTO]^   MOOR 


689 


to  strengthen  the  common  belief  that  the  struggle  was  for  Prot- 
estantism against  "popery,  prelacy,  superstition,  heresy,  schism, 
and  profaneness. "  The  Irish  truce,  however,  brought 
rn^iiSh^  very  little  advantage.  It  released  the  English  army 
Tfwc'essa-  which  had  been  stationed  in  Ireland,  but  the  troops  had 
tionofArms.  Y^Q^j.^iy  reached  England  when  they  were  routed  by  Fair- 
fax at  Nantwich,  and  the  majority  of  the  survivors  at  once  took 
service  under  the  parliament. 


On  the  19th  of  January  the  Scots  under  David  Leslie  crossed 
the  border  twenty  thousand  strong,  and  uniting  with  Fairfax,  suc- 
ceeded  in   shutting  up   in  York   Newcastle    and   the 
M?)!lryuiu     army  with  which  he  had  swept  Yorkshire   the  year 
^^^^^-  before.     In  April  they  were  joined  by  Manchester  with 

the  army  of  the  Eastern  Association.  Charles  fully  realized 
the  importance  of  saving  Newcastle,  and  accordingly  ordered 
Rupert  to  raise  an  army  and  advance  to  his  relief.  On  the  30th 
of  June  Rupert  and  his  troopers  reached  Knaresborough  on  the 
Nidd.  When  the  allies  heard  of  his  approach  they  raised  the 
siege  of  York  and,  advancing  across  Marston  Moor,  took  up  their 
station  at  Skip  Bridge,  a  short  distance  below  Knaresborough. 


690  THE    CIVIL   WAR  [chahles  I. 

But  Rupert  by  a  hasty  flank  march,  passing  the  Swale  at  Thorn- 
ton Bridge,  gained  the  left  bank  of  the  Ouse,  entered  the  city,  and 
joined  Newcastle  before  the  allies  could  stop  him.  It  was  a  mas- 
terly movement.  York  was  saved  and  the  king's  cause  was  once 
more  in  the  ascendant.  Rupert,  however,  who  now  commanded 
both  royalist  armies,  was  determined  to  fight,  and  leading  out  the 
combined   forces,   faced   tlie   allies    on   Marston    Moor.      When 

Rupert  had  completed  his  formation,  the  day  was  done, 
July  2..  and,  as  the  enemy  were  apparently  quiet  and  determined 

to  act  on  the  defensive,  he  decided  to  postpone  the 
battle  until  the  morning;  ranks  were  broken  and  supper  was 
ordered.  The  enemy,  however,  watchful  and  alert,  looking  down 
upon  the  camp  of  Rupert  from  the  higher  ground  which  they  had 
held  since  morning,  and  divining  liis  change  of  plan,  decided  to 
seize  the  moment  of  inattention  and  attack  at  once.  On  the  left 
wing  Cromwell's  horse  supported  by  Leslie,  for  the  first  time  met 
the  famous  cavaliers  of  Rupert  and  after  a  stubborn  contest  proved 
their  superiority  by  driving  them  from  the  field.  On  the  right  wing, 
however,  the  Fairfaxes  were  beaten  by  Goring.  The  Scots  in  the 
center  were  also  beginning  to  give  way ;  when  Cromwell,  keeping  his 
men  well  in  hand,  returned  from  the  pursuit  of  Rupert,  and  at  once 
attacked  Goring  and  drove  him  from  the  field;  then  rallying 
Fairfax's  men  he  came  to  the  relief  of  the  Scots.  This  movement 
decided  the  day.  Newcastle's  infantry  fought  desperately;  some 
regiments  perished  to  a  man,  but  they  were  unsupported  and 
heroism  could  not  save  them.  NcAvcastle  fled  to  Flanders. 
Rupert  with  his  shattered  cavalry  succeeded  in  getting  back  to  the 
Severn.  The  allies  had  won  the  first  decisive  engagement  of  the 
war;  the  north  now  passed  into  their  hands. 

In  the  south  affairs  were  not  going  so  well  for  the  parliament. 
While  Leslie  and  Fairfax  were  besieging  Newcastle  in  York,  Waller 

had  marched  out  of  London  at  the  head  of  the  trained 
campaign^  bands,  intending  to  unite  with  Essex  for  a  joint  attack 
of  1644.  upon  the  king  at  Oxford.     When  they  learned,  how- 

ever, that  Charles  had  slipped  away  into  Worcestershire,  it  was 
determined  to  leave  Waller  to  carry  on  the  siege,  while  Essex 
marched  into  the  southwest.     Charles  saw  his  advantage,  and  at 


1644J  LOSTWITHIEL  691 

once  turning  upon  Waller,  beat  him  at  Cropredy  Bridge  and  so 
discouraged  his  raw  levies,  that  they  retired  to  London.  Charles 
then  hurried  after  Essex  and  surrounded  him  at  Lost- 
'A^^ust^w^  withiel.  The  foot  were  compelled  to  surrender;  the 
cavalry  cut  their  way  through  to  Plymouth;  Essex 
made  his  escape  to  London  by  sea. 

Thus  the  reverses  of  Charles  in  the  north  were  offset  somewhat 
by  his  successes  in  the  south.  If  he  had  lost  an  army  at  Marston 
Moor,  the  Puritans  had  lost  an  army  at  Lost  withiel. 
R^it^of  II  -j^Q  ]^ad  lost  the  northern  counties,  the  Puritans  had 
lost  the  western  counties.  Leslie  might  have  led  his 
Scots  into  southern  England  and  more  than  made  good  the  loss  of 
Essex's  infantry,  but  the  royalist  earl  of  Montrose  was  creating 
such  a  diversion  in  Scotland  that  Leslie  dared  not  pass  the  Humber 
when  he  might  soon  be  needed  beyond  the  Tweed  to  save  the  Low- 
lands. 

The  parliamentary  leaders,  while  thus  unable  to  concentrate 
their  forces  and  take  advantage  of  their  great  victory  at  Marston 
Moor,  were  also  divided  among  themselves  as  to  the 
ammiume  ultimate  object  of  the  war.  The  conduct  of  the  war 
lary  leaders,  bad  been  entrusted  to  a  joint  committee  of  both  king- 
doms. The  committee,  however,  was  large  and 
unwieldy,  and  seriously  divided  upon  ecclesiastical  questions  but 
more  seriously  upon  the  final  issues  of  the  war.  The  Presby- 
terians at  heart  were  royalists  and  desired  only  to  bring  the  king 
to  terms.  The  Puritan  nobles,  moreover,  were  thoroughly  alarmed 
at  the  democratic  tendencies  which  the  war  was  developing,  and 
did  not  wish  to  crush  the  king  altogether,  lest  the  rising  tide  of 
revolution  sweep  away  their  privileges  as  well  in  the  overthrow  of 
the  monarchy.  The  Independents,  however,  had  no  sympathy 
with  the  lingering  royalist  sentiment  of  their  allies,  and,  while  they 
had  not  yet  advanced  so  far  as  to  desire  the  destruction  of  the 
king,  much  less  the  monarchy,  saw  clearly  that  their  lives  or  their 
property  could  be  secure,  only  after  they  had  completely  crushed 
the  last  vestige  of  royalist  military  power  and  restored  peace  to  the 
nation  upon  their  own  terms. 

These  dissensions  were  soon  to  bear  fruit  on  the  field  of  battle. 


692  THE    CIVIL   WAR  [charles  L 

After  Marston  Moor,  Manchester  and  Cromwell,  leaving  Fairfax 
with  the  Scots  to  reduce  Pomfret  and  Newcastle-on-Tyne  and 
The  second  watch  the  progress  of  affairs  in  Scotland,  had  marched 
mwhury.  south  to  prevent  the  return  of  Charles  from  the  west 
drSmweUand  and  protect  London.  They  met  Charles  at  Newbury 
Manchester.  ^^  October.  The  Puritan  army  was  greatly  superior, 
and  only  the  unwillingness  of  Manchester  to  crush  Charles  alto- 
gether, prevented  Cromwell  and  Waller  from  repeating  the  triumph 
of  Marston  Moor.  The  inertness  of  Manchester  at  once  brought 
the  quarrel  of  Independents  and  Presbyterians  to  a  head.  Crom- 
well brought  charges  against  Manchester  in  the  House,  and  Man- 
chester replied  by  preferring  counter  charges  against  Cromwell. 
The  quarrel  rapidly  developed  into  a  struggle  to  get  possession  of 
the  army. 

In  this  struggle  the  Presbyterian  majority  apparently  had  their 

own  way  at  first,  and  on  November  24,  parliament  sent  to  the  king 

at  Oxford  a  series  of  twenty  propositions  to  serve  as  a 

Negotiations    ,.«  ,.,.  ^-r«^,i  >  -    ,- 

atuxbri^e,  basis  lor  negotiation.  On  January  30,  the  negotiations 
were  formally  opened  at  Uxbridge,  and  continued  for 
three  weeks.  They  failed,  however,  chiefly  because  the  Presby- 
terian commissioners  demanded  that  Charles  should  take  the  cove- 
nant; the  demand  that  he  should  give  up  the  command  of  the 
militia  was  hardly  less  objectionable.  The  failure  of  negotiation 
naturally  produced  a  reaction,  and  parliament,  with  renewed  deter- 
mination to  win,  addressed  itself  to  the  reorganization  of  the  army. 
The'^New  ^^^  February  it  passed  the  '*Xew  Model  Ordinance"  and 
S^I^'^The  -allowed  it  in  April  by  the  famous  "Self-Denying  Ordi- 
•^^^ordi^^'  iia^^ce."  By  the  one,  it  proposed  to  enlist  a  new  army 
nance."  ^f  14^000  foot,   6,000  liorse  and   1,000  dragoons;  the 

recruits  were  to  be  taken  from  among  the  veterans  of  Essex  and 
Waller  and  Manchester,  and  were  to  serve  to  the  end  of  the  war; 
strict  discipline  was  to  be  introduced  and  regular  wages  pre- 
scribed. Commissions  were  given  for  merit  only,  and  the 
gentlemen  officers,  who  had  heretofore  monopolized  all  the  appoint- 
ments, were  compelled  to  share  their  honors  with  ''plain  russet 
coated  captains,"  who  had  given  evidence  of  their  ability  to 
command  men  in  the  tumult  of   battle.     The  officers  also  were 


1645]  EXECUTION    OF    LAUD  693 

compelled  to  take  the  covenant.  By  the  second  ordinance  it  was 
enacted  that  all  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  who  were  also  mem- 
bers of  parliament,  should  resign  their  commissions  within  forty 
days.  In  this  way  it  was  proposed  to  weed  out  Manchester  and 
Essex,  but  unfortunately  Cromwell  also  was  included.  Sir 
Thomas  Fairfax,  the  son  of  Lord  Fairfax,  who  had  proved  his 
ability  in  the  northern  campaigns  with  his  father,  was  made 
commander-in-chief.  A  rank  of  lieutenant-general,  carrying 
with  it  the  command  of  the  horse,  was  created  but  significantly 
left  vacant. 

One  other  event  shows  the  increasing  strength  of  the  extreme 

party  at  "Westminster.     On  the  10th  of  January,   the  little   old 

man,  whose  mischievous  itching  for  reforms  had  done 

Executiminf  '  .  ° 

Laud,  Jan-     80  much  to  stir  UD  the  present  strife,  was  taken  from 

uary  lo,  1645.    ,,^  iii-T,  «,. 

the  lower  where  he  had  been  confined  smce  1G41,  and 
executed  under  sentence  of  the  Lords.  His  death  was  a  simple  act 
of  vengeance.  His  influence  had  long  since  disappeared;  unlike 
Strafford,  there  was  no  occasion  to  fear  him. 

Charles  in  the  meantime,  while  Fairfax  was  organizing  the 
'*New  Model,"  as  the  reconstructed  army  was  called,  had  begun 

the  campaign  by  leaving  Oxford,  where  he  was  blockaded 
June  14,         by  Fairfax,  to  attack  Leicester.     If  successful  he  would 

1645.  . 

gain  a  central  position  of  great  advantage.  Fairfax 
marched  north  with  the  idea  of  forcing  a  battle.  On  June  13 
he  was  joined  by  Cromwell,  who,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  offi- 
cers and  men  of  Fairfax's  command,  had  been  appointed  by  parlia- 
ment to  the  still  vacant  post  of  -lieutenant-general.  The  next  day 
was  fought  the  battle  of  Naseby,  in  which  the  New  Model  com- 
pletely justified  the  wisdom  of  its  projectors,  destroying  the  royal- 
ist army  and  leaving  only  a  shattered  remnant  of  the  horse  to  draw 
off  with  Rupert  and  the  king.  But  more  serious  to  the  king's 
cause  than  the  defeat,  was  the  capture  of  a  box  of  secret  dis- 
patches by  which  the  whole  history  of  his  intrigues  with  the 
French  and  the  Irish  became  known,  and  the  little  lingering  confi- 
dence of  the  English  in  his  good  faith  completely  destroyed.  Shires 
where  thousands  had  sprung  to  arms  when  the  king  first  unfurled 
his  banner,  refused  to  fight  longer  for  the  perfidious  Stuart. 


694 


THE   CIVIL   WAR 


[charlbs  I. 


Montrose  in 
Scotland, 
September, 
1644  to  Sep- 
tember, 1645. 


Battle  of  NASEBY 
July  14,  1645 


In  Scotland  the  victories  of  Montrose  still  gave  the  king  some 
slight  hope.  Montrose  had  left  York  after  Marston  Moor  and  made 
his  way  across  the  border  disguised  as  a  groom.  Once 
in  the  Highlands  he  had  pTpt  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Macdonalds.  Then  followed  a  series  of  daring  and 
brilliant  mana3uvres  in  which  he  defeated  the  Covenant- 
ers, September  1,  at  Tippermuir,  and  again,  September  13,  at 
Aberdeen.      These  victories   cleared   the   eastern   Lowlands   and 

brought  the 
Gordons  to  his 
side.  Early  in 
February  he 
overthrew  the 
Campbells  un- 
der Argyll  at 
Inverlochy. 
The  report  of 
these  victories 
compelled  Les- 
lie to  send  two 
of  his  best  offi- 
c  e  r  s  ,  Baillie 
and  Hurry,  to 
revive  the 
drooping  spir- 
its of  the  Cov- 
enanters, and 
check  the  vic- 
torious career  of  Montrose.  They  were  no  match,  however, 
for  the  energetic  young  royalist  commander,  and,  after  a  long 
series  of  manoeuvres,  were  beaten  at  Auldearn,  May  9,  again  at 
Alford,  July  2,  and  finally  at  Kilsyth,  August  15.  These  victories 
made  Montrose  master  of  the  Lowlands.  But  unfortunately  his 
Highlanders,  after  their  custom,  insisted  upon  going  home  to 
secure  their  booty,  and  left  him  with  a  much  weakened  force  to 
meet  David  Leslie  in  person,  who  was  hastening  up  from  the  south 
with  the  veterans  who  had  fought  at  Marston  Moor      Montrose 


1645]  ROWTON    HEATH  695 

was  attacked  at  Philiphaugh,  near  Selkirk,  September  13,  and  his 
small  army  completely  routed.  In  one  day  the  fruit  of  all  his 
victories  had  been  swept  away  and  nothing  was  left  for  the  young 
commander  but  to  get  out  of  the  country  as  quickly  as  possible. 
His  youth,  his  single-hearted  devotion  to  the  king,  his  rapid  suc- 
cesses, the  suddenness  and  completeness  of  the  overthrow,  mark 
his  career  as  one  of  the  most  romantic  chapters  of  the  war. 

The  end  of  the  war  was  now  in  sight.     On  July  15,  a  month 
after  Naseby,  Fairfax  had  defeated  Goring  at  Langport.     Mont- 
rose, however,  at  the  time  was  still  in  the  high-tide  of 

The  end  of  .    ,  -,    -,     ^  -,        ,  •  *  •  •    ,  i       i  • 

theFirxt        victorv  and  held  out  a  promise  of  success,  if  the  kiuff 

Civil  War.  7  o 

could  only  join  forces  with  him.  Charles  accordingly 
was  hurrying  north  with  his  last  army,  when,  September  24,  he 
was  stopped  near  Chester  and  again  defeated  at  Rowtoii 
HeaSTsen-  H®'^^^^-  ^  ^^^  days  later  came  news  of  the  disaster  at 
umher,24,  Philiphaugh,  and  the  king  returned  to  Oxford,  satis- 
fied that  his  kingdom  was  not  to  be  saved  by  the  appeal 
to  arms.  Ilis  armies  had  been  destroyed  or  scattered.  He  had 
made  arrangements  witli  Edward  Somerset,  Earl  of  Glamorgan,  to 
bring  over  ten  tliousand  Irish  soldiers,  but  Glamorgan  had  been 
wrecked  on  the  Lancashire  coast.  The  Irish  allies  of  Charles  did 
not  appear,  and  the  project,  when  known,  only  added  to  the  bitter- 
ness of  his  enemies.  His  scheme  for  securing  continental  help 
fared  no  better.  Henrietta  Maria  had  succeeded  in  hiring  the 
services  of  ten  thousand  men  of  the  duke  of  Lorraine,  but  neither 
the  Dutch  nor  the  French  would  supply  the  necessary  ships  for 
getting  the  duke  and  his  mercenaries  over  the  sea.  To  add  to 
the  discomfiture  of  Charles,  he  had  scarcely  reached  Oxford,  after 
the  retreat  from  Rowton  Heath,  when  he  heard  that  Bristol 
had  been  stormed  and  Prince  Rupert  had  surrendered.  In  the 
spring  of  1G46  the  army  of  the  west  also  surrendered  to  Fairfax, 
and  in  June  the  Puritans  took  possession  of  Oxford.  Although  a 
few  detached  castles  still  held  out,  Charles  was  in  despair,  and 
determined  to  throw  himself  upon  the  old-time  loyalty  of  the 
Scots,  in  hope  that  he  might  find  better  terms  with  them  than 
with  the  parliament.  Accordingly  in  May,  he  suddenly  appeared 
in  the  Scot  camp  before  Newark,  the  last  of  the  midland  fortresses 


696 


THE    CIVIL   WAR 


Tcharles  I. 


to  resist,  and  there  gave  himself  up.  They  received  him  kindly 
and  sent  him  to  Newcastle,  to  be  kept  as  a  sort  of  hostage  until 
the  questions  which  the  war  had  raised  between  the  two  kingdoms 
should  be  settled.  Harlech,  the  last  of  the  royalist  strongholds, 
continued  to  hold  out  until  the  next  year.  The  "First  Civil 
War"  was  ended. 


CONTEMPORARIES  OF  THE  EARLY  STUARTS 

1603-1650 


KINGS  OF  FRANCE 

Henry  IV.,  <?.  1610 
Louis  XIII.,  rf.  1643 
Louis  XIV. 


KING  OF  SWEDEN 

GustaATis  Adolphus,  1611- 
1632 


KINGS  OF  DENMARK  AND 
NORWAY 


Christian  IV.,  d.  1648 
Frederick  IIL 


BRANDENBURG 

Frederick    William,    the 
Great     Elector,       1640- 


THE  PALATINATE 

Frederick  IV.,  the  Up- 
right, rf.  1610 

Frederick  V.,  son-in-law 
of  James  I.,  d.  1633 


KINGS  OF  SPAIN 

Philip  III.,  d.  1621 
Philip  IV. 


EMPERORS 

Matthias,  d.  1619 
Ferdinand  II.,  d.  1637 
Ferdinand  III. 


POPES 

Paul  v.,  1605-1621 
Gregorv'  XV.,  1621-1623 
Urban  VIIL,  1623-1644 
Innocent  X.,  1644-1655 
Alexander  VII.,  1655-1667. 


EMINENT  FOREIGNERS 

(NOT  SOVEREIGNS) 

Wallenstein,  d.  1634* 
Richelieu,  c?.  1642 
Descartes,  d.  1650 
Mazarin 
Moliere 


MEN  EMINENT  IN  THE  ENGLISH   STRUGGLE 


Francis  Bacon,  d.  1626 
Edward  Coke,  d.  1634 
John  Eliot,  d.  1632 
Thomas  Wentworth.  Earl 

of  Strafford,  d.  1641 
John  Hampden,  d.  1643 
Lucius   Cary,   Vi-scount 

Falkland,  d.  1643 


John  Pym,  d.  1643 

William  Laud,  Archbish'p 
of  Canterbury,  d.  1645 

Robert  Devereux,  Earl  of 
Essex,  d.  1646 

Ferdinando  Fairfax,  Bar- 
on Fairfax,  d.  1648 


Still  Living  in  1650 

Thomas  Fairfax 

Alexander  Leslie,  Earl  of 
Leven 

David  Leslie,  Lord  New- 
ark 

John  Milton 

Harry  Vane 

Rupert,  Prince  of  the 
Palatinate 

Oliver  Cromwell 

Edward  Hyde 

Etc.,  etc. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    PARLIAMENT   AND   THE    ARMY 

CHARLES  I..  1646-16^ 
THE  COMMONWEALTH,  1649-1653 

The  Long  Parliament  was  now  to  suffer  the  fate  of  most  revo- 
lutionary bodies  which  have  been  compelled  to  call  into  being  a 
powerful  army,  in  order  to  overthrow  its  enemies  or  sup- 
p^rmHSnt  P^^^  ^^^  authority.  It  became  the  victim  of  its  own 
Mo(M^^^^  creature;  and,  although  a  specious  disguise  of  parlia- 
mentary authority  was  still  maintained,  the  government 
was  at  first  controlled,  and  at  last  administered  altogether,  by  the 
handful  of  officers  who  had  won  its  battles  and  controlled  the 
affections  and  confidence  of  its  soldiers.  The  successive  steps  by 
which  the  New  Model  became  the  actual  ruler  of  England,  consti- 
tute the  subject  matter  of  the  second  chapter  of  the  Revolution. 
After  the  surrender  of  the  king  there  was  every  reason  to 
expect  a  speedy  and  definite  settlement  of  the  troubles  of  the  king- 
doms. The  parliament  had  conquered,  and  Charles 
?h6%cot8'^^  might  choose  between  granting  its  demands  or  abdi- 
cation. But  unfortunately  for  Charles  he  had  not 
surrendered  to  the  Scots  for  the  purpose  of  ending  the  strife. 
He  hoped,  rather,  by  appealing  to  the  old  enmity  of  Scotsmen  and 
Englishmen,  to  draw  the  Scots  to  his  support,  and  thus  be  able 
once  more  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  royalist  army.  The 
king  soon  found,  however,  that  he  had  seriously  underestimated 
the  devotion  of  the  Scots  to  the  popular  cause.  Instead  of  hurry- 
ing home  with  their  guest,  they  determined  to  act  with  the  Eng- 
lish parliament.  In  July  the  joint  demands  were  presented. 
The  New-  Charles  was  to  be  restored  to  his  throne,  but  he  must 
Sn  j3S^'  ^^^®  ^^®  covenant  himself  and  consent  to  an  act  impos- 
1646.  ing  it  upon  his  subjects,  abolish  Episcopacy,  consent  to 

the  enforcement  of  the  laws  against  Roman  Catholics,  and  sur- 
render the  control  of  the  militia  and  the  fleet  for  twenty  years. 


698  PARLIAMENT   AND    THE    ARMY  [chablesI. 

The  friends  of  Charles,  even  the  queen,  urged  him  to  moderation; 
but  he  was  blinded  by  the  fatuous  hope  of  securing  peace  without 
committing  himself  to  any  definite  promises,  and  allowed  the 
opportunity  to  slip  by  in  aimless  hedging  and  bandying  of  words. 

The  Scots  became  disgusted  and,  in  their  irritation, 
Jcmuary,       turned  the  king  over  to  the  English,  and  went  home. 

They  estimated  the  expense  to  which  the  war  had  put 
them  at  £400,000;  this  parliament  agreed  to  pay  and  at  once 
voted  the  first  installment  of  £200,000.  Charles  was  brought  into 
Northamptonshire  and  lodged  at  Holmby  House. 

The  wise  moderation  of  the  Scots  was  in  marked  contrast  with 
the  hard-headed  turbulence  of  the  English  sectaries.     The  body  of 

divines  at  Westminster  had  now  been  sitting  since  July 
Srtosa^"  1^^^5  ^"^?  since  the  Presbyterians  were  in  overwhelm- 
^Modei"         ^^^  majority,  had  been  steadily  working  out  a  plan, 

which  proposed  virtually  to  substitute  Presbyterianism 
for  the  Laudian  system.  A  part  of  their  work  had  already  been 
adopted  by  the  parliament  where  the  Presbyterians  were  also  in 
the  majority. 

The  New  Model,  however,  in  which  Independents  largely 
preponderated,  and  in  whose  ranks  no  difference  had  ever  been 
made  between  the  adherents  of  the  several  Puritan  sects,  was  not 
pleased,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  express  disapproval  of  measures 
which  savored  of  persecution.  The  parliament  could  not  mistake 
the  awakening  spirit  of  insubordination,  and  in  alarm  proposed  to 
disband  the  soldiers,  on  the  plea  that,  since  the  war  had  ended,  it 
was  unnecessary  to  continue  the  expense  of  such  a  large  military 
establishment.  There  was,  however,  besides  the  religious  interest 
a  very  clear  financial  interest  at  stake  in  which  every  soldier 
regardless  of  his  faith  was  interested.  There  was  due  the  New 
Model,  for  its  services  to  the  government,  an  arrears  of  £300,000, 
but  parliament,  in  its  eagerness  to  get  rid  of  the  now  thoroughly 
insubordinate  army,  proposed  to  send  the  soldiers  home  upon 
the  payment  of  one-sixth  only  of  the  arrears.  The  result  was  to 
precipitate  the  very  mutiny  which  the  parliamentary  leaders  so 
much  dreaded.  The  soldiers  as  one  man  determined  not  to  be 
disbanded  until  their  claims  for  back  pay  had  been  settled  in  full. 


1647]  THE  DECLARATION-  OF   THE    ARMY  699 

They  elected  agents,  known  as  "agitators/'  to  look  after  their 
interests,  and  prepared  to  resist.  At  first  Cromwell  hesitated.  He 
was  both  an  officer  and  a  member  of  parliament,  and  did  all  in 
his  power  to  bring  about  an  accommodation.  But  when  this  failed, 
with  Fairfax  he  threw  his  whole  influence  on  the  side  of  his  old 
comrades  in  arms.  The  parliamentary  leaders  in  great  fear 
turned  to  the  king  and  called  upon  the  Scots  to  assist  them  in 
restoring  the  Stuart.      The  terms  which  they  offered  the  king 

were  not  known,  yet  they  could  not  carry  on  the 
of  the  hiiiti,     negotiations  so  secretly  that  their  purport  could  not  be 

divined,  and  Cromwell  at  once  sent  Cornet  Joyce  with  a 
detachment  of  cavalry  to  Holmby  to  secure  the  king's  person. 
Joyce's  force,  however,  was  hardly  sufficient  to  hold  the  king  in 
case  of  an  attempt  at  rescue,  and  on  June  4,  acting  upon  his  own 
responsibility,  he  set  out  with  his  charge  for  Newmarket  where 
the  near  neighborhood  of  the  army  promised  better  security. 

Parliament  was  now  thoroughly  alarmed;  but  while  the  mem- 
bers were  talking  wildly  of  arresting  Cromwell  and  of  bringing  the 
TheDeciara-  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  trained  bands  of  London  in 
*A?my^^^^  order  to  destroy  the  New  Model,  the  army  had  begun 
June  15.  to  draw  nearer  to  the  city.  The  advance  of  the  army, 
as  well  as  the  indifference  of  the  trained  bands,  seemed  for  the 
moment  to  bring  the  parliament  to  its  senses,  and  it  consented 
to  ask  the  army  to  state  its  grievances.  On  the  fifteenth  of  June 
the  Council  of  the  Anny,  a  body  composed  of  the  general  officers 
and  four  representatives  chosen  from  each  regiment,  sent  out 
from  Fairfax's  headquarters  at  St.  Albans  their  reply.  The 
Declaration  of  the  Army,  in  which  they  demanded  an  early  disso- 
lution of  the  Commons;  that  a  limit  should  be  fixed  for  the 
duration  of  parliaments  in  the  future,  that  the  right  of  petition 
be  acknowledged,  and  that  religious  toleration  be  guaranteed  within 
certain  limits.  The  Declaration  was  followed  by  an  arraignment 
of  eleven  members  of  the  House  by  name,  and  a  demand  for  their 
expulsion.  Parliament  was  in  no  mood  to  accept  measures  so 
humiliating,  but  with  every  passing  day  it  became  more  evident 
that  it  had  no  force  to  pit  against  the  New  Model;  the  eleven 
obnoxious  members,  among  whom  were  Holies  and  Waller,  were 


700  PARLIAMENT   AND   THE    ARMY  [charlesI. 

allowed  to  withdraw,  and  certain  recent  resolutions  hostile  to  the 
army  were  ordered  to  be  torn  from  the  records. 

For  a  time  matters  promised  to  mend;  the  "purification"  of 
the  House  had  restored  Presbyterians  and  Independents  to  a 
somewhat  more  even  balance,  and  although  the  army 
Modeimters  Continued  to  lie  within  easy  reach  of  the  city,  the 
Ai'imte.  advance  was  stayed.  The  leaders,  however,  were  still 
sore  tried  by  the  mingled  duplicity  and  indecision  that 
continued  to  mark  the  counsels  of  parliament,  which  one  day  was 
ready  to  grant  all  that  the  army  asked  and  the  next  day  destroyed 
the  effect  of  its  concessions  by  the  intrigues  of  its  members. 
Still,  Cromwell  and  the  other  officers  hesitated  to  march  upon  the 
city,  hoping  against  hope  to  settle  all  difficulties  by  peaceable  means. 
But  on  July  26,  the  intrigues  of  the  Presbyterian  leaders  suc- 
ceeded at  last  in  bringing  on  a  great  reaction  in  the  city;  a  mob  of 
apprentice  boys  broke  into  the  houses  of  parliament  and  compelled 
the  frightened  members  to  undo  the  legislation  of  the  past  few 
weeks,  that  had  been  more  friendly  to  the  soldiers,  and  to  recall  the 
eleven  members.  The  speakers  of  both  Houses  and  many  of  the 
Independents  fled  to  the  army.  The  moment  which  many  had 
foreseen  had  at  last  come.  The  officers  hesitated  no  longer,  and  on 
the  6th  of  August  the  New  Model  took  possession  of  the  city.  Par- 
liament like  the  king  was  now  at  its  mercy. 

The  leaders  of  the  army,  however,  particularly  Fairfax,  Crom- 
well, and  Ireton,  had  no  wish  to  establish  a  military  dictatorship,  and, 
in  despair  of  securins^  a  peaceful  settlement  of  affairs 

The  Heads  of  i      i      t-i       i  T  . 

thePropos-  through  the  Presbyterian  parliament,  had  already  turned 
directly  to  the  king,  and  on  the  28th  had  formally  sub- 
mitted to  him  a  plan  known  as  The  Heads  of  the  Proposals,^  which 
had  been  drawn  up  by  Ireton  and  adopted  by  the  Council  of  the 
Army  on  the  16th.  By  this  plan  they  offered  to  restore  the  king 
upon  condition:  1.  That  parliament  should  be  called  every  two 
years  and  continue  in  session  for  at  least  one  hundred  and  twenty 
days.  2.  That  a  new  distribution  of  members  of  the  Commons 
should  be  made  "according  to  some  rule  of  proportion,"  which 
should  abolish  the  representation  of  "decayed  towns."      3.    That 

^Gardiner,  Const  Docs.,  pp.  232-241. 


1647]  THE    ENGAGEMENT  701 

parliament  should  control  the  militia  for  ten  years.  4.  That  for 
the  same  period  parliament  should  appoint  the  crown  minis- 
ters. 5.  That  the  jurisdiction  of  bishops  be  abolished,  but  that 
the  Covenant  should  not  be  obligatory.  6.  That  all  men  except 
papists  be  given  liberty  to  worship  God  in  their  own  way.  7. 
That  a  general  act  of  oblivion  be  passed. 

This  was  the  opportunity  of  Charles  to  save  his  crown.  He 
was,  however,  still  infatuated  with  the  idea  of  his  personal  impor- 
tance ;  he  saw  that  another  civil  war  was  at  hand,  and  believed 
that,  sooner  or  later,  one  side  would  be  compelled  to  call  upon  the 
royalists  for  help,  and  then  he  might  make  his  own  terms. 
Accordingly  he  rejected  The  Heads  of  the  Proposals,  and  continued 
his  secret  intrigues  with  the  Scots. 

In  the  meanwhile  all  things  were  not  progressing  smoothly 
even  within  the  army.     A  determined  band  of  extremists  saw  in 

the  conciliatory  propositions  of  the  leaders,  the  evidence 
IheMn^^md  ^^  ^  treachery  deeper  even  than  that  of  the  parliament, 
^^nv^^^^'  ^^^    ^^   their    bitterness    denounced    Cromwell   as   a 

'* Judas,"  and  clamored  for  the  trial  of  Charles  on  the 
charge  of  treason.  Cromwell,  however,  was  still  disposed  to  use  all 
his  influence  to  save  the  king.  But  Charles,  who  was  not  ignorant 
of  the  clamors  of  the  soldiers,  instead  of  throwing  himself  upon 
the  good  faith  of  the  officers,  fled  from  Hampton  Court  and  finally 
sought  refuge  with  Robert  Hammond,  the  parliamentary  governor 
of  the  Isle  of  Wight.  He  was  lodged  in  Carisbrooke  Castle,  where 
he  soon  found  that  he  was  again  a  prisoner  and  under  more 
restraint  even  than  at  Hampton  Court.  He  managed,  however, 
to  keep  up  secret  negotiations  with  a  reactionary  party  of  nobles 
in  Scotland,  who  had  recently  come  into  power,  and  on  December 

26,  signed  the  fatal  ''Engagement"  by  which  he 
menf^^^'  "engaged"  to  set  up  Presbyterianism  in  England  for 

three  years,  and  root  out  Anabaptists,  Separatists, 
Independents,  and  other  heresies  of  all  kinds. ^  The  Scots  on  their 
part  "engaged"  to  invade  England  and  cooperate  with  Charles  in 
overthrowing  the  existing  parliament  and  reestablishing  his 
authority.     Then  a  "full  and  free  parliament"  was  to  be  sum- 

^  Gardiner,  Const.  Docs.,  pp.  259-364. 


702  PARLIAMENT    AND   THE    ARMY  [charlksI. 

moned,  in  order  to  secure  a  permanent  peace.  The  intrigue  was 
not  known  at  the  time,  but  the  results  were  soon  felt.  Parlia- 
ment had  already  sent  to  Charles  its  ultimatum,  known  as  the 
Four  Bills;  these  were  now  rejected.  Parliament,  angered 
beyond  endurance,  broke  with  the  Scots,  reestablished  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  and  on  January  15  passed  the  Vote  of 
No  Addresses  by  which  it  shut  off  all  further  communication  with 
the  king  under  the  penalty  of  high  treason.  It  was  a  serious 
moment.  Even  in  London  there  was  no  small  royalist  reaction, 
caused  in  part  by  fear  of  the  army,  and  in  part  by  the  disgust  of 
the  people  at  being  compelled  to  keep  up  the  war  taxes,  and  also 
by  general  dissatisfaction  with  the  self-seeking  parliament. 

In  the  summer  of  1648  risings  occurred  almost  simultaneously 
in  Kent,  Sussex,  Essex,  Wales,  and  the  northern  counties.  Bat 
the  Scots  were  not  yet  ready  to  act,  and  left  the 
Civil  War''  Anglicans  and  Presbyterians  of  England  to  sustain  the 
egun,  .  j^ggij^j^^j^gg  ^f  ^\^q  revolt  alone.  Tlie  English  people, 
however,  were  weary  of  the  war;  few  outside  of  the  gentry  and 
the  towns  thought  seriously  of  arming  for  a  new  struggle;  while 
even  among  those  who  rallied  at  the  magic  call  of  the  king's 
name,  there  were  few  capable  of  leadership,  and  nothing  to  match 
the  splendid  discipline  and  morale  of  the  New  Model.  On  the 
other  hand  the  renewal  of  hostilities  in  England,  the  defection  of 
a  great  part  of  the  fleet,  and  the  rumor  of  the  engagement  of  the 
king  with  the  Scots,  at  once  forced  parliament  and  army  to  put 
by  their  suspicions  and  turn  a  united  front  to  the  common  foe;  at 
the  same  time  the  party  of  the  extremists  within  the  army,  who 
had  been  calling  for  the  trial  of  the  king,  became  more  active  and 
their  influence  irresistible.  In  a  great  prayer  meeting  held  by  the 
army  before  departing  for  the  war,  Cromwell  confessed  that  he 
had  been  at  fault  in  attempting  to  negotiate  with  Charles  at  all, 
and  the  entire  assembly  resolved  ''that  it  was  their  duty,  if  ever 
the  Lord  brought  them  back  again  in  peace,  to  call  Charles  Stuart, 
that  man  of  blood,  to  an  account  for  the  blood  shed  in  the  war." 

In  this  grim  mood  the  New  Model,  more  terrible  than  ever, 
marched  under  Fairfax  and  Cromwell  to  put  down  the  new 
royalist  uprising.     Fairfax,  by  throwing  himself  before  the  royalist 


1648]  THE    SECOND   CIVIL   WAR  'J'03 

insurgents  in  Kent,  effectually  prevented  their  friends  in  Lon- 
don, from  whom  much  had  been  expected,  from  making  any 
QDeratiom  demonstration  in  their  favor.  On  Jnne  1,  he  forced 
of  Fairfax      them  to  fi^^ht   at   Maidstone.       The  survivors   retired 

and  Crom-  o 

well.  ii^to  Colchester  in  Essex  and  closed  the  gates  in  hope  of 

holding  out  until  the  Scots  came  to  their  relief.  Cromwell  in  the 
meanwhile  had  marched  into  Wales  and,  by  a  few  rapid  blows, 
crushed  the  rising  before  it  was  fairly  upon  its  feet.  He  then 
hurried  north  to  meet  the  Scots,  who  by  this  time  had  crossed 
the  border  and  united  with  the  northern  insurgents.  Theirs  was 
no  such  army,  however,  as  had  followed  Leslie  into  England  six 
years  before.  The  old  covenanters  of  the  duke  of  Argyll's  follow- 
ing would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  friends  of  the  '*non 
covenanted  king,"  and  the  new  army,  though  considerable  in 
number,  was  undrilled  and  poorly  equipped.  Hamilton,  more- 
over, the  royalist  leader,  had  little  military  skill  to  pit  against  such 
a  master  as  Cromwell.  The  two  armies  met  at  Preston  August 
17;  Cromwell  outgeneraled  Hamilton  completely,  beating  one 
detachment  on  the  17th,  and,  by  seizing  the  bridges  over  the  Kib- 
ble and  Darwen,  cut  off  the  retreat  of  the  remainder  and  com- 
pletely routed  them  the  next  day  at  Wigan  and  Winwick.  The 
infantry  laid  down  their  arms  at  Warrington;  the  cavalry  sur- 
rendered at  Uttoxeter.  On  the  27th  of  August  Colchester 
surrendered  to  Fairfax,  and  all  armed  resistance  on  the  land  was 
at  an  end. 

The  renewal  of  the  Civil  War,  the  needless  shedding  of  the 
blood  of  their  comrades,  had  put  the  New  Model  in  a  very  danger- 
Pride's  ^^^^  temper.     After  the  fall  of  Colchester  the  royalist 

cemher^^  leaders,  Lucas  and  Lisle,  were  immediately  court  mar- 
^^'■^-  tialed  and  shot.     Hamilton  and  other  officers  who  took 

part  in  the  northern  rising  also  were  executed  in  the  following 
spring;  nor  were  the  army  leaders,  now  fully  conscious  of  their 
power,  inclined  to  be  more  constitutional  in  their  methods  of 
dealing  with  parliament  or  the  king.  Parliament  was  still 
inclined  to  renew  negotiations  with  the  idea  of  restoring  the  king, 
but  the  army  would  hear  of  no  action  that  had  not  for  its  object 
the  bringing  of  Charles  Stuart,  the  "man  of  blood"  to  justice. 


704  PAKLIAMENT    AND    THE    ARMY  [chaklbsI. 

The  Commons,  however,  insisted,  and  on  December  5  declared  for  a 
reconciliation.  At  this  the  officers  became  desperate;  and  on  the 
6th  Ireton  directed  Colonel  Pride,  who  had  charge  of  the  guard 
which  had  been  placed  at  Westminster  Hall,  to  exclude  the  chief 
Presbyterian  members.  Pride  did  his  work  so  thoroughly  that 
hardly  sixty  members  were  left  sitting.  Cromwell  returned  to  Lon- 
don that  evening. 

The  parliament,  now  no  longer  "S'  parliament,  but  only  the 
maimed  instrument  of  the  army,  which  later  its  enemies  in  derision 
styled  the  "Rump,"^  determined  to  proceed  with  the 
crmtesa^^^  trial  of  the  king;  and  on  January  1,  1649  proposed  to 
ff'jmiicefor  ^^^^^^  ^  Special  High  Court  of  Justice  for  that  pur- 
ih^kim'^^  pose.  The  few  lords  who  remained  at  Westminster, 
who  had  not  yet  lost  all  sense  of  self-respect,  protested 
and  refused  their  consent.  Their  consent,  however,  was  a  matter 
of  little  moment.  The  day  had  gone  when  the  army  could  be 
deterred  from  its  purpose  by  any  mere  technicalities.  Cromwell 
fairly  expressed  the  contempt  of  his  comrades  for  forms  when  he 
declared:  "We  will  cut  off  the  king's  head  with  the  crown  upon 
it;"  and  the  Commons,  now  the  mere  mouthpiece  of  the  army,  in 
reply  to  the  opposition  of  the  Lords,  announced  that  "the  people 
were  under  God  the  source  of  all  power,  and  that  the  House  of 
Commons  being  chosen  by  the  people,  formed  the  superior  power 
in  England,  having  no  need  of  either  king,  or  House  of  Lords." 
They  then  proceeded  to  establish  the  High  Court  of  Justice,  con- 
sisting of  one  hundred  and  thirty  commissioners.^  Cromwell  of 
course  was  a  member  of  this  court,  as  also  Fairfax,  Ireton,  Harri- 
son, and  Hutchinson;  John  Bradshaw  was  made  president. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  High  Court  of  Justice  was  held  on 

the  9th  of  January.     Many  of  the  commissioners  had  no  relish  for 

their  task,  and  when  on  the  20th  Charles  was  finally 

Tridl  and 

death  of  the     brought  in  to  Westminster  Hall,  only  sixty  members 

remained  at  their  post.     Fairfax  and  Sir  Henry  Vane 

were  among  those  who  had  retired.     Charles  denied  the  authority 

*  The  term  was  first  used  in  1059  upon  the  restoration  of  the  Long 
Parliament. 

2 Gardiner.  Const.  Docs.,  pp.  268-270. 


1649]  EXECUTION    OF   THE    KING  705 

of  the  unusual  tribunal  and  refused  to  plead.  The  judges,  how- 
ever, went  through  the  mockery  of  hearing  evidence  in  order  to 
prove  that  Charles  Stuart  had  raised  an  army  against  the  parlia- 
ment and  taken  part  in  the  Civil  War.  On  the  27th  the  court 
gave  its  decision,  declariug  Charles  Stuart  to  be  *'a  tyrant,  traitor, 
murderer,  and  public  enemy  to  the  good  people  of  this  nation," 
and  fixed  the  death  penalty.  Fifty-nine  members  of  the  court 
set  their  names  to  the  death  warrant.^  On  the  30th  of  January 
the  condemned  king  was  led  out  to  Whitehall  to  die.  Men  beheld 
his  quiet  mien  and  gentle  dignity,  and  forgot  his  crimes  against 
the  public  law  of  the  land.  And  when  the  tragedy  was  over,  and 
the  masked  executioner  held  up  the  gory  trophy  of  his  art  and 
shouted  to  the  horror  stricken  crowd,  *' Behold  the  head  of  a 
traitor,"  the  people  were  ready  to  believe  that  they  had  witnessed 
the  death  of  a  martyr  to  the  church  and  the  constitution.  Within 
a  few  days  a  book  appeared  under  the  striking  title,  Eikon 
liasilike,  *Hhe  Royal  Image,"  which  purported  to  have  been  writ- 
ten by  the  king  himself  during  his  captivity.*  The  book  did  much 
to  increase  the  growing  impression  of  the  piety  and  sincerity  of 
the  king's  character,  and  enthrone  him  in  the  hearts  of  many  with 
almost  religious  devotion.  Even  the  skill  and  eloquence  of  Milton, 
who  replied  in  the  interests  of  the  Independents  in  the  Eikono- 
klastes,  *Hhe  Image  Breaker,"  could  not  dispel  the  halo  which 
the  tragedy  of  his  death  had  placed  around  the  head  of  the  fallen 
king.  Eleven  years,  however,  were  to  elapse  before  the  reaction 
should  bear  fruit  in  the  Restoration.  The  **man  of  blood"  was 
gone,  but  the  man  of  iron  nad  arisen  in  his  place. 

If  the  Independent  minority  who  had  struck  down  the  king, 
thought  that  this  act  would  contribute  to  the  settlement  of  the 
troubles  of  the  hour,  they  soon  found  that  they  were 
^rpartiS!^  seriously  mistaken.  With  the  New  Model  at  their 
back,  they  had  little  to  fear  in  the  way  of  revolt,  but 
by  what  salves  were  they  to  heal  the  gaping  wound  which  they 
had  left  in  the  body  of  the  constitution?  By  what  steps  were 
they  to  abandon  the  unconstitutional  ground  upon  which  they 

'Gardiner,  Const  Docs.,  pp.  287-291. 

2  The  book  is  attributed  to  John  Gauden,  afterward  bishop  of  Exeter. 


*70G  PARLIAMENT   AND   THE   ARMY  [thk  commonwealth 

themselves  had  been  standing  during  the  past  twelve  months, 
and  restore  the  state  once  more  to  the  rule  of  law  and  order? 
This  would  have  been  difficult  enough,  had  they  represented  the 
majority  of  the  nation,  or  were  they  themselves  united  in  opinion, 
or  free  from  jealousies  or  suspicions.  But  unfortunately  the 
nation  was  no  longer  with  them,  and  they  themselves  were  broken 
up  into  almost  as  many  parties  as  there  were  leaders.  There  was 
a  party  of  visionary  Republicans,  headed  by  Vane,  who  saw  in  the 
present  moment  a  chance  to  exploit  their  theories.  There  were 
the  Levellers  Avho  wanted  to  see  a  thorough-going  democracy 
introduced  in  politics  and  in  society.  There  were  Monarchists, 
Army  men,  and  all  shades  and  varieties  of  each,  all  striving  for 
power  as  a  means  of  realizing  their  ideals.  There  was,  moreover, 
a  small  group  of  practical  men,  most  prominent  among  whom  was 
Cromwell,  who  had  no  theories  to  exploit,  but  who  yet  had  little 
sympathy  with  outworn  forms,  and  wished  to  use  the  de  facto 
government  as  it  then  existed  as  the  means  of  restoring  order  and 
peace. 

In  their  ideas  upon  religion  and  church  government,  the  party 
in  power  were  even  more  hopelessly  divided  than  upon  political 
issues.  George  Fox  and  his  disciples  of  the  * 'inner 
divSns  light,"  continued  to  puzzle  and  exasperate  the  author- 
ities; Unitarianism  had  taken  firm  root,  and  the  Bap- 
tists were  fast  becoming  one  of  the  most  powerful  wings  of  the 
Independent  body.  Liberty  of  conscience  and  freedom  in  specula- 
tion, also,  had  produced  a  new  crop  of  strange  sects,  of  whom  noth- 
ing remains  to-day  save  their  uncouth  names.  The  "Familists," 
the  ''Ranters,"  the  "MuggletonianSy"  and  "the  Fifth  Monarchy 
Men,"  had  each  their  fervent  and  fanatical  disciples.  The  Mes- 
siah, also,  was  announced  at  various  points. 

The  economic  life  of  the  nation  had  suffered  seriously  as  a 
result  of  the  Civil  War.  Thousands  of  individuals  had  been 
ruined;  public  works  had  been  abandoned,  in  cases 
eiy£?Ln  destroyed  altogether;  among  those  that  had  suffered 
seriously  was  the  great  work  begun  by  the  earl  of  Bed- 
ford in  1634  for  the  draining  of  the  Fen  country.  Thousands 
of   acres   had   been   thrown   out   of   cultivation.     Little   respect 


1649]  THE    AGKEEMENT   OF   THE    PEOPLE  707 

was  shown  to  the  civil  law;  crime  and  violence  had  increased 
steadily ;  murder,  arson,  and  highway  robbery,  were  common  events 
of  daily  life.  These  were  only  symptoms  of  a  deeper  malady,  the 
general  decay  of  civilization.  The  best  intellects  had  given  their 
attention  to  the  all-absorbing  struggle  of  the  war  and  were  bent 
upon  destruction  rather  than  creation.  Puritanism,  moreover,  in 
its  grim  determination  to  save  the  present  from  the  evils  of  the 
past,  had  passed  more  and  more  under  the  sway  of  an  unlovely 
asceticism,  which  made  war  upon  art  as  it  had  made  war  upon  the 
king,  with  all  the  intolerance  and  lack  of  discrimination  of  the 
religious  devotee.  Parliament  had  enjoined  by  ordinance  the 
defacement  of  the  statues  in  the  churches  and  the  destruction  of 
the  market  crosses,  the  breaking  of  stained  windows  and  the  over- 
throw of  high  altars.  Even  music  had  not  escaped  these  enemies 
of  all  that  appealed  to  the  artistic  sense;  and  literature,  if  it  would 
meet  the  favor  of  the  official  censor,  must  eschew  all  attempts  at 
wit  or  beauty,  and  deck  itself  in  the  meaningless  cant  and  dribble 
of  the  day, — the  accepted  symbols  of  godliness. 

It  was  time,  therefore,  that  a  strong  and  efficient  government 
should  be  established,  founded  upon  law  and  supported  by  the 
loyalty  of  the  people.  But  how  was  this  possible  when  the  laws 
plainly  prescribed  *' King,  Lords,  and  Commons"  as  the  most  con- 
spicuous instruments  of  legal  government,  and  ''King,  Lords,  and 
Commons"  had  been  swept  away;  when  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  were  not  loyal  and  the  army  was  the  only  power  in  the  land 
capable  of  exercising  any  authority  at  all,  which  from  the  nature 
of  the  case  must  be  illegal  and  revolutionary. 

In  January  while  the  king's  case  was  still  pending,  the  council 

of  officers  had  presented  to  the  body,  which  still  called  itself  a 

parliament,  a  plan  for  reconstructing  the  government, 

imf>iesthe      called  the  "Agreement  of  the  People."*     The  first 

''Agreement  , .   .  »    , ,  •         ,  -,     ,^         t        ^    ,.  j.    ,^ 

of  the  Pea-  article  of  this  plan  proposed  the  dissolution  of  the 
existing  parliament  in  the  coming  April;  but  the 
Rump  had  its  own  program  to  carry  out,  and  quietly  ignoring 
the  demand  of  the  officers  for  an  early  dissolution,  on  February 
13,  appointed  a  Council  of  State  to  exercise  the  executive  func- 

1  Gardiner,  Const.  Docs.,  pp.  270-282. 


708  PARLIAMENT    AND    THE    ARMY  [the  Commonwkalth 

tions  of  government.  On  March  17  it  proceeded  to  abolish  the 
office  of  king,  and  declared  any  one  who  attempted  to  assist  the 
heirs  of  Charles  Stuart  to  regain  the  crown,  to  be  traitors  to  the 
state.  On  March  19  it  also  abolished  the  House  of  Lords,  declaring 
it  to  be  "useless  and  dangerous,"  and  on  May  19,  it  declared  "the 
people  of  England  and  of  all  the  dominons  and  territories  there- 
unto belonging  .  .  .  to  be  a  Commonw^lth  and  Free  State  by  the 
supreme  authority  of  this  nation."^  If,  however,  the  Rump  had 
apparently  ignored  the  Agreement  in  refusing  to  abolish  itself 
also  among  the  rest  of  the  wreckage  of  Charles's  reign,  the 
leaders  had  no  wish  to  cut  loose  from  the  army.  Not  only  were 
Cromwell  and  Fairfax  made  members  of  the  Council  of  State,  but 
in  the  ordinance  of  March  17,  the  Rump  formally  pledged  "to 
put  a  period  to  the  sitting  of  this  present  parliament  as  soon  as 
may  possibly  stand  with  the  safety  of  the  people  that  hath 
betrusted  them,"  and  of  "the  government  now  settled  in  the  way 
of  a  Commonwealth." 

This  hesitation  of  the  Rump  to   vote  its  own  death  warrant, 
was  not  due  altogether  to  an  unworthy  desire  on  the  part  of  its 

members  to  cling  to  power  as  long  as  possible.  The 
and  the  danger  to  the  "betrusting"  people  was  real,   to  say 

nothing  of  the  new  Commonwealth.  If  they  should 
allow  the  people  to  elect  a  new  parliament,  in  their  present  temper 
there  could  be  no  question  as  to  what  kind  of  parliament  would 
be  returned ; — a  parliament  which  would  at  once  undo  all  that  had 
been  done,  proclaim  Charles  II.,  reestablish  Episcopacy,  and  begin 
a  long  series  of  confiscations,  executions,  and  a  general  persecution 
of  Independents.  The  men  in  the  army,  however,  who  had 
secured  the  adoption  of  the  Agreement  by  the  council  of  officers, 
were  not  satisfied.  They  represented  the  dangerous  element  known 
as  Levellers,  who,  under  the  guidance  of  men  like  "Free-born 
John  Lilburne,"  had  been  made  to  see  the  real  drift  of  affairs,  and 
declared  that  the  laws  were  overthrown  and  "the  military  power 
thrust  into  the  very  office  and  seat  of  civil  authority."  This  was 
true  enough,  but,  unfortunately  for  their  influence,  Lilburne  and 
his  followers  had   begun  the  propaganda  of  an  uncompromising 

^  For  this  series  of  documeuts,  see  Gardiner,  pp.  394-397, 


1649]  THE   LEVELLERS  709 

and  impossible  democracy,  which  was  to  be  adopted,  not  only  in 
the  state,  but  in  the  army,  and  which  would  certainly  result  in  the 
subversion  of  all  order,  social  or  military.  That  Cromwell,  who 
had  heretofore  been  regarded  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  army,  was 
made  a  member  of  the  Council  of  State,  did  not  increase  the 
popularity  of  the  Kump  with  the  Levellers,  for  Cromwell  had 
now  become  the  special  object  of  their  scorn  and  suspicion.  **You 
will  scarce  speak  to  Cromwell,"  declared  the  arch  Leveller,  Lil- 
burne,  "but  he  will  lay  his  hand  on  his  breast,  elevate  his  eyes, 
and  call  God  to  record.  He  will  weep,  howl,  and  repent,  even 
while  he  doth  smite  you  under  the  fifth  rib."  The  council,  how- 
ever, feared  the  Levellers  more  than  they  feared  any  possible 
ambition  of  Cromwell,  and  turned  to  him  as  the  one  man  who 
was  able  to  save  the  state  and  society  from  these  seventeenth  cen- 
tury anarchists.  "You  must  break  these  people  in  pieces,"  said 
Cromwell,  "if  you  do  not,  they  will  break  you."  Here  is  the 
secret  of  CromwelFs  later  power.  The  air  was  quivering  with 
revolution  yet  to  come;  the  wildest  theories  were  abroad;  theories 
which  threatened  the  very  foundations  of  society.  The  state  was 
drifting  without  a  helmsman ;  a  strong  man  was  needed  to  save 
the  old  social  order  from  total  wreck.  In  spite,  therefore,  of 
the  warning  of  the  Levellers,  who  shrieked  that  Cromwell  would 
make  himself  king,  all  the  conservative  elements  still  in  power 
turned  to  him,  the  child  of  the  revolution,  and  called  upon  him 
to  save  them  from  the  forces  which  they  themselves  had  unchained. 
The  discontent  was  widespread;  mutinous  outbreaks 
took  place  in  London,  Banbury,  and  Salisbury.  But 
Cromwell  and  Fairfax,  under  the  commission  of  the  council,  crushed 
them  with  an  unsparing  hand.  Yet  there  were  only  three  execu- 
tions,— a  cornet  and  two  corporals.  Lilburne  already  was  in  the 
Tower  and  in  October  was  tried  on  the  charge  of  stirring  up  treason 
in  the  army,  but  acquitted.  The  rest  of  the  mutineers  were  received 
again  into  the  ranks.  Cromwell,  with  his  practical  common  sense, 
his  deep  conservative  instincts,  saw  that,  with  Ireland  in  uproar, 
Scotland  hostile,  and  the  great  mass  of  the  English  people  disloyal 
and  ready  to  take  advantage  of  the  first  sign  of  weakness  on  the 
part  of  the  government,  it  was  no  time  to  be  discussing  theories  of 


710  PAELIAMENT    AND    THE    ARMY  [the  Commonwealth 

government,  or  quarreling  as  to  the  ultimate  forms  by  which  the 
state  should  be  administered.  The  Enmp,  therefore,  was  left  to 
continue  its  revolutionary  powers  for  four  years  longer,  while  he 
turned  with  the  New  Model  to  complete  the  work  which  it  had 
begun.  ^ 

The  Irish,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  begun  a  revolt  in  1641 

which  had  soon  drifted  into  a  war  of  Catholics  against  Protestants, 

of  the  original  Celtic  inhabitants  and  the  old  Anglo- 

im  the  Civil    ^^rman  aristocracy  against  Anglicans   and  Puritans. 

War,  1641-      But  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  England  had  en- 

1649.  " 

tirely  changed  the  earlier  character  of  the  struggle.  In 
1642  a  "General  Assembly  of  the  Catholic  Confederates"  was  held 
at  Kilkenny, — a  sort  of  National  Irish  Parliament.  It  entrusted 
the  government  to  a  "Supreme  Council"  and  made  Owen  O'Neil 
commander-in-chief.  It  was  with  this  government  that  Charles 
concluded  the  Cessation  of  1643,  that  stirred  up  so  much  bitter- 
ness at  home.  In  1645  Charles  sent  to  Ireland,  as  his  agent,  the 
earl  of  Glamorgan,  to  get  the  Catholic  Confederates  to  send  help 
to  him  in  England.  In  return,  by  the  "Glamorgan  Treaty,"  he 
virtually  consented  to  the  reestablishment  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  Ireland.  During  these  years  of  trouble,  the  unenviable  post  of 
king's  deputy,  or  lieutenant,  had  been  held  by  a  high-minded  Irish 
noble,  James  Butler,  who  was  first  Earl,  and  then  Marquis,  and 
finally  Duke,  of  Ormond.  He  was  able  and  popular,  a  staunch 
royalist,  and  kept  up  a  brave  fight  against  overwhelming  odds.  In 
1647  Dublin  was  surrendered  to  the  Puritans  and  Ormond  retired 
to  England.  Then,  also,  the  Anglo-Norman  Lords  and  the 
native  Irishry  began  to  fall  out  over  the  question  of  the  restoration 
of  the  papal  authority.  The  death  of  the  king,  however,  had  at 
once  healed  all  differences.  Ormond  had  returned  the  year  before 
and,  under  pledge  of  removing  the  disabilities  of  the  Irish  Cath- 
olics, had  already  rallied  the  Catholic  Lords  and  the  Protestant 
royalists  to  his  support.  When  news  reached  him  of  the  end  of 
the  fatal  tragedy  at  Whitehall,  he  had  proclaimed  Charles  II.,  and 
even  the  Ulster  Presbyterians  had  joined  his  standard.  He  was 
further  strengthened  by  the  accession  of  royalist  refugees  from 
England;  the  fleet,  also,  the  greater  part  of  which  had  gone  over 


7  MANZ-Chicmgo 


1649]  CROMWELL   IN    IRELAND  711 

to  the  king  at  the  outbreak  of  the  second  Civil  War,  was  brought 
around  to  the  coast  by  Prince  Rupert  and  awaited  to  assure  the 
new  King  Charles  a  safe  landing  whenever  he  should  appear. 
The  parliamentary  general,  George  Monk,  still  held  Dundalk,  and 
the  gallant  Colonel  Michael  Jones  held  Dublin;  but  these  two 
posts  were  almost  the  only  footholds  which  the  Commonwealth 
had  continued  to  retain,  and  even  these  were  besieged  by  the  Irish 
in  overwhelming  numbers.  If  Ireland,  therefore,  were  to  be  saved 
to  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  reaction  in  England  prevented  from 
securing  here  an  important  base  for  the  future,  action  must  be 
taken  at  once. 

The  government  turned  to  Cromwell  and  found  him  and  his 
Ironsides  just  as  ready  to  fight  royalists  in  Ireland  as  in  Eng- 
land. When,  however,  Cromwell  landed  on  the  15th 
Cromweiun  ^^  August,  the  cHsis  was  already  passed.  Dundalk  had 
Ireland,  1649.  fallen,  but  Colonel  Jones  had  made  a  sortie  with 
his  little  garrison  of  five  thousand  men  and  so  com- 
pletely shattered  Ormond's  force,  that  when  Cromwell  appeared, 
the  Irish,  instead  of  meeting  him  in  the  open  field,  retired  behind 
the  high  walls  of  such  fortresses  as  Drogheda  and  Wexford,  in  hope 
of  tiring  him  out  by  a  series  of  vexatious  sieges.  But  they  hardly 
knew  the  man  with  whom  they  were  now  dealing.  On  the  3d  of 
September  Cromwell  appeared  before  Drogheda,  and  on  the  10th 
summoned  its  garrison  of  2,800  men,  the  flower  of  Ormond's 
English  soldiery,  to  surrender.  The  garrison  refused,  and  the 
next  day  Cromwell  took  the  place  by  assault.  No  quarter  was 
given;  every  man  in  arms  was  slaughtered  outright,  save  a  few 
who  were  shipped  off  as  slaves  to  the  sugar  plantations  of  the  Bar- 
badoes.  The  men  of  the  cassock  who  were  found  in  the  city 
suffered  the  fate  of  the  soldiers.  Cromwell's  excuse  for  this  mas- 
sacre was  that  it  would  deter  others  from  resistance  and,  by  short- 
ening the  war,  *'tend  to  prevent  the  effusion  of  blood  in  the 
future."  The  next  month  the  garrison  of  Wexford  suffered  the 
fate  of  the  defenders  of  Drogheda.  It  was  not  necessary  to  repeat 
the  bloody  lesson  a  third  time.  To  most  of  the  garrisons  the  sum- 
mons to  surrender  was  sufficient.  While  Cromwell  was  thus 
vigorously  putting  down  the  royalists  on  the  land,  Blake  was  push- 


712  PARLIAMENT    AND    THE    ARMY  [the  Commonwkalth 

ing  the  royalist  navy  upon  the  Irish  seas  until  Eupert  was  glad  to 
retire  to  Portugal.  In  March  Cromwell  returned  home  at  the 
urgent  summons  of  parliament,  and  left  the  completion  of  his  work 
to  Ire  ton.  The  English  who  remained  suffered  severely  from 
fever;  some  of  their  best  men  died ;  among  them  Jones,  and  finally 
Ireton  himself.  But  the  hope  of  the  Stuarts  of  securing  help  in 
Ireland  had  vanished ;  and  with  the  Stuart  passed  also  the  last 
chance  of  a  successful  Irish  revolt.  The  Catholic  form  of  worship 
was  suppressed;  the  lands  of  the  Celtic  proprietors  were  confiscated 
and  turned  over  to  Puritan  veterans  or  sold  to  speculators, 
"Undertakers,"  who  promised  to  find  settlers.  An  iron  rule  was 
introduced,  rapine  and  murder  punished,  and  peace  once  more 
reigned  over  the  desolate  country. 

Cromwell  had  been  called  home  by  the  threat  of  a  new  war 
with   Scotland.      After  the  overthrow  of   Hamilton  at  Preston, 

Argyll,  supported  by  the  old  Covenanters,  who  had  here- 
Charles  and    tofore  actcd  with  the  English  parliament,  once  more 

gained  control  of  the  government  and  renewed  for  the 
moment  the  old  understanding.  The  Scots,  however,  were  not 
pleased  by  the  late  drift  of  affairs  in  England  and  when  they  heard 
of  the  execution  of  the  king,  as  they  were  an  independent  people, 
they  at  once  invited  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  be  their  king,  but  stipu- 
lated that  he  take  the  Covenant.  Prince  Charles  was  at  this  time 
about  twenty  years  old,  with  a  well  established  reputation  for 
general  frivol ousness  and  insincerity.  He  was  witty,  keen,  and 
with  many  intellectual  qualities  of  a  high  order,  but  utterly  lack- 
ing in  the  moral  fiber  necessary  to  success  in  a  desperate  under- 
taking. Between  him  and  the  Scottish  Covenanters  there  could 
be  little  in  common;  nor  was  he  eager  to  seize  a  crown  tagged 
with  their  hated  Covenant.  He  preferred,  therefore,  to  make  an 
effort  to  secure  the  prize  in  such  a  way,  that  he  should  be  bound 
by  no  promise.  Accordingly  he  secretly  commissioned  Montrose 
to  try  his  fortunes  again  in  the  Highlands,  and  raise  if  possible 
the  old  royalists  whom  he  had  so  often  led  to  victory  in  1645. 
The  clans,  however,  showed  little  enthusiasm  for  the  rising, 
and  the  few  men  whom  Montrose  brought  with  him  from 
Holland  and  the  Orkneys,   were  easily  dispersed  at  Corbiesdale. 


3  MASZ-Chic»go 


' ! 
Hi 

' 

\ 

i 


^4-5 


t't 


1650]  CROMWELL    IN    SCOTLAND  713 

Montrose  was  soon  after  betrayed  by  a  Highland  chieftain,  brought 
to  Edinburgh,  and  there  hanged  at  the  Market  Cross.     Charles 

was  mean  enough  to  repudiate  the  high-souled  warrior, 
April  27,    '    who  had  so  nobly  laid  down  life  in  his  service,  and, 

seeing  that  there  was  no  chance  of  securing  the 
crown  by  means  of  a  royalist  rising,  accepted  the  terms  of  the 
Covenanters  swallowing  the  National  Covenant  as  well  as  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  He  gave  his  word,  moreover, 
to  act  always  with  the  parliament  and  to  establish  Presbyterianism 
both  in  England  and  in  Ireland.  He  landed  at  Speymouth  the 
month  after  Montrose's  death. 

The  Rump  in  the  meanwhile  had  been  following  the  drift  of 
events  in  Scotland  with  watchful  heed ;   they  knew  that  Charles 

would   never  be   satisfied   with   Scotland    alone,    and 

Retirement        ^    ,  -       -,  -^ 

of  Fairfax,     determined  to  strike  at  once  and  expel  him  before  he 

Cromwell  in     -,      -,  ^  -,     •,  ,  , 

mpreme         had  gathered  the  strength  of  his  little  kingdom.     Fair- 

command.         -  ,  .       i  •  •        i      i  . 

fax,  who  up  to  this  point  had  retained  his  commission 
in  the  army,  objected  to  violating  the  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant  upon  the  ground  of  mere  *' human  probabilities,"  and 
threw  up  his  commission  rather  than  lead  in  a  war  against  his  old 
allies.  Cromwell  was  at  once  advanced  to  the  vacant  post  of  Lord 
General. 

Li  July  1650  Cromwell  crossed  the  border  with  an  army  of  six- 
teen thousand   men  supported  by  the  fleet,  which  followed  the 

coast  to  furnish  them  with  supplies  on  the  march,  for 
ScSK"*^    the  Scots  as  usual  had  completely  wasted  the  country. 

He  found  the  Scots  under  the  command  of  David 
Leslie,  in  a  strong  position  near  Leith,  but,  after  manoeuvering  for 
a  month  without  dislodging  them,  he  was  compelled  to  retire  to 
Dunbar.  Leslie  followed  him  warily  and  seized  the  Hill  of  Doon 
above  Dunbar,  at  the  same  time  sending  a  detachment  to  seize 
Cockburnspath,  a  sort  of  Thermopylae,  where  the  Lammermuir 
range  comes  down  to  the  sea,  leaving  scarcely  room  for  a  coach 
to  pass ;  the  way  was  so  narrow  that  a  handful  of  determined  men 
might  hold  it  against  an  army.  There  were  only  two  ways  for 
Cromwell  to  get  out  of  the  difficulty;  he  might  storm  the  enemy's 
position  on  Doon  Hill,  or  he  might  embark  his  troops  and  steal 


714 


PARLIAMENT    AND    THE    ARMY  [the  Commonwkalth 


away  by  sea.  But  fortunately  for  Cromwell,  Leslie,  who  had 
grown  overconfident,  possibly^  and  feared  only  the  escape  of  the 
English,  on  September  2,  moved  down  into  the  low  ground  by 
the  sea  in  order  to  get  within  striking  distance  should  the  enemy 
attempt  to  decamp.  Cromwell  saw  his  advantage  and  under  cover 
of  the  night  following,  which  was  dark  and  stormy,  brought  his 
army  into  position  to  attack  Leslie's  right  wing  on  the  flank.  The 
attack  began  at  four  in  the  morning;  the  Scots  were  taken  entirely 


Firth 


^or^j, 


'<^WMbM 


by  surprise;  many  of  the  officers  had  sought  shelter  from  the 
storm  in  neighboring  farmhouses  and  were  not  with  their  regi- 
ments. The  right  wing  was  doubled  back  upon  the  center  and  soon 
the  whole  body  was  thrown  into  hopeless  confusion.  At  daybreak 
the  entire  Scottish  army  was  scattered  among  the  Lammermuir 
hills,  and  Cromwell's  road  to  Edinburgh  lay  open.  It  was  one  of 
the  most  masterly  actions  of  the  war  and  displayed  Cromwell's 
military  genius  at  its  best.     He  had  turned  what,  on  the  evening 


165l]  WORCESTER  '  715 

of  the  2d  of  September,  promised  to  be  a  humiliating  defeat  into  a 
splendid  victory.^  Edinburgh  opened  its  gates  and  before  the  end 
of  the  year  all  southern  Scotland  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  English. 
From  Dunbar  Leslie  retired  to  Stirling  where  he  again  took  up 
a  position  too  strong  to  be  assailed  in  front  and  in  close  communi- 
cation with  the  northern  districts  which  lay  behind 
vades  Eno-  liim.  CromwcU  in  order  to  turn  Leslie's  position 
crossed  the  Forth,  and  placed  himself  in  his  rear. 
The  movement,  however,  left  the  road  into  England  open;  Leslie 
thought  he  saw  an  opportunity,  by  making  a  rush  for  the  border, 
of  getting  into  England  before  Cromwell  and  encouraging  a  gen- 
eral rising  in  the  name  of  Charles  IL,  who  had  been  crowned  King 
of  Scotland  at  Scone  in  January.  In  August,  therefore,  Leslie 
suddenly  broke  camp,  and  began  a  series  of  forced  marches  for 
the  border.  Cromwell,  leaving  Monk  in  Scotland,  hurried  after 
Leslie  with  his  main  body,  sending  Lambert  ahead  to  turn  him 
from  London.  Lambert  easily  outmarched  the  Scots  and,  passing 
Leslie  while  he  was  still  in  Cheshire,  seized  all  the  roads  to  Lon- 
don. Leslie  was  thus  forced  into  the  valley  of  the  Severn.  Here 
in  the  past  the  Stuarts  could  always  count  upon  a  strong  following, 
but  the  Englisli  of  the  Severn  had  no  liking  for  this  king  who 
came  upon  them  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  Scotsmen.  Fairfax 
came  from  his  retirement  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
militia.  Everywhere  the  country  was  rising,  and  on  September 
3d,  just  one  year  after  Dunbar,  Leslie  found  himself  at  Worcester, 
confronted  by  Cromwell  with  thirty  thousand  men.  His  own 
force  did  not  exceed  eleven  thousand.  The  Scots  faced  these 
tremendous  odds  and  fought  with  the  heroism  of  despair.  Leslie, 
Derby,  and  Lauderdale  were  taken.  Only  a  remnant  of  the  army 
managed  to  get  back  to  Scotland.  Charles,  assisted  by  English 
royalists,  who  had  refused  to  fight  for  him,  escaped  from  the 
field,  and,  after  six  weeks  of  wandering,  through  a  series  of 
romantic  adventures  which  have- long  since  attracted  the  eye  of 
the  novelist,  at  last  reached  Brighton  and  got  away  to  France. 
The  submission  of  Scotland  followed ;  the  Presbyterian  Assemblies 

*For  a  recent  important  contribution  upon   Dunbar,  see  Firth,   Tlie 
Battle  of  Dunbar,  in  Transactions  of  Royal  Historical  Society,  1900. 


716  '  PARLIAMENT    AND    THE    ARMY  [thk Commonwealth 

were  suppressed,  and  Argyll,  after  holding  out  a  year  in  his  castle 
of  Inverary,  agreed  that  Scotland  should  be  united  with  England 
into  a  Commonwealth  without  king  or  lords.  Cromwell,  after  'Hhe 
crowning  mercy,"  as  he  styled  the  victory  of  Worcester,  returned 
to  London  and  quietly  assumed  his  old  duties  in  connection  with 
the  several  committees  of  the  council. 

While  Cromwell  had  been  establishing  the  authority  of  the 

Commonwealth  within  the  British  Islands,  Admiral  Blake,  hardly 

less  eminent  in  naval  warfare,  had  been  extending  its 

The  Com-  ,.  ^.  ^_^     .    '      ^    .  ^  „  -, 

monweaith      prestige  upon  the  seas.     He  had  driven  Rupert  from  tlie 

fill    fhP     ^Pft^  -L  C-J  X  X 

Irish  coast,  followed  him  to  the  Tagus,  and  finally  com- 
pelled him  to  cross  the  Atlantic,  where  Rupert  hoped  to  find  shelter 
among  the  English  harbors  in  the  West  Indies.  When,  however, 
Rupert  appeared  in  the  western  seas  at  the  end  of  May  1652,  he 
found  that  the  last  colony  had  submitted  to  the  Commonwealth 
and  that  the  English  ports  in  the  new  world  also  were  closed  to 
him.  Rupert  had  no  recourse  left  save  to  throw  himself  upon  the 
hospitality  of  the  French.  He  was  received  of  course,  for  the 
French  have  always  loved  Englishmen  who  fight  against  England. 
As  soon  as  his  squadron  was  refitted,  he  again  faced  the  open  sea, 
looking  for  English  merchantmen ;  a  career  of  piracy  was  virtually 
all  that  was  left  for  the  dashing  cavalier.  But  the  storms  of  the 
tropics,  however,  were  to  prove  more  fatal  than  the  guns  of  Blake, 
and  after  losing  the  great  part  of  his  fleet  in  a  hurricane  off  the 
rocks  of  Anegadas,  he  returned  to  Europe  early  tbe  next  year,  to 
disband  his  crews  and  sell  his  few  surviving  ships  to  the  French. 
Wherever  the  English  flag  floated,  on  land  or  sea,  the  Common- 
wealth was  now  recognized. 

The  Commonwealth  had  never  been  popular  in  the  courts  of 
Europe.     Yet  Spain  had  no  motive  for  interfering  in  the  domestic 

affairs  of  England  and  soon  recognized  the  new  govern- 
"Srmwmm  mcnt.  The  young  king  of  France,  on  the  other  hand, 
in  Europe.  ^^^  ^  cousin  of  the  exiled  Stuart,  and  the  sympathies 
of  the  court  were  easily  enlisted  in  his  favor.  French  and  English 
merchantmen,  also,  as  usual  in  troubled  times,  had  begun  to  prey 
upon  each  other,  and  the  English  had  licensed  this  piracy  by  issu- 
ing regular    letters  of    reprisal.      The  French  government  was 


1650,  165l]  ENGLAND    AND   THE    DUTCH  717 

grieved  very  naturally,  and  refused  to  recognize  the  Common- 
wealth unless  the  letters  of  reprisal  were  withdrawn. 

In  the  Hague  it  might  be  expected  that  England  would  find 
friends.     But  a  series  of  grievances,  sprung  of  commercial  rivalry 

and  dating  back  as  far  as  the  reign  of  James  I.,  had 
S  n'ttOMe"^  been  nourished  by  both  people,  and  had  kept  alive  a 

feeling  of  bitterness,  which  had  more  than  once  been 
fanned  into  acts  of  open  hostility.  The  Stadholder  William  II., 
moreover,  was  the  son-in-law  of  Charles  I.,  and  had  given  asylum 
to  English  royalists  as  freely  as  the  French ;  some  of  the  hot-headed 
followers  of  Montrose,  who  had  fled  hither  after  Philiphaugh  and 
had  been  roused  by  the  execution  of  the  king,  in  May  16-1:9  had 
murdered  the  envoy  of  the  new-made  republic,  three  days  after 
his  arrival  at  the  Hague.  The  Dutch  government,  instead  of  offer- 
ing redress  for  this  outrage,  presented  a  formal  remonstrance 
against  the  execution  of  the  king.  In  1650  William  II.  died,  and 
although  the  Hollanders  refused  to  continue  the  office  of  Stad- 
holder, the  change  did  not  increase  the  influence  of  England,  since 
the  supreme  authority  in  the  States -General  of  the  Seven  Prov- 
inces, rested  in  the  hands  of  a  body  of  rich  merchants,  who  par- 
ticularly cherished  all  the  old  grudges  and  more  than  ever  feared 
the  commercial  activity  of  the  English.  In  1651  the  Dutch  saw 
these  fears  fully  justified  in  the  passage  by  the  English  parliament 
of  the  famous  act  known  afterward  as  the  First  Navigation  Act. 
By  this  act  foreign  vessels  were  forbidden  to  bring  into  an  English 
port  any  goods  other  than  those  produced  in  their  own  countries. 
The  measure  was  not  aimed  particularly  at  the  Dutch,  but  was 
designed  rather  to  favor  the  English  carrying  trade.  But  it 
affected  the  Dutch  most,  for  they  had  become  the  common  car- 
riers of  Europe,  and  were  vigorous  competitors  of  the  English  in 
their  own  ports.  Henceforth  no  Dutch  merchantmen  could  bring 
into  England,  or  take  out  to  the  English  colonies,  anything  save 
the  products  of  the  Low  Countries.  A  far  more  serious  cause  of 
quarrel  lay  in  the  claim  of  the  English  privateers  of  the  right  to 
seize  and  bring  into  port  for  trial  Dutch  vessels  suspected  of  carry- 
ing French  goods.  English  sailors,  moreover,  were  not  over  nice 
in  handling  Dutchmen,  and  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  put 


718  PARLIAMENT    AND    THE    ARMY  [the Commonwealth 

them  to  the  torture  to  force  a  false  acknowledgment  of  French 
goods.  In  1652  these  seizures  rapidly  increased,  and  the  Dutch 
saw  their  carrying  trade,  which  was  the  chief  source  of  their 
wealth,  in  danger  of  utter  destruction.  Another  cause  of  irrita- 
tion, also,  was  given  by  the  English  revival  of  the  old  Plantagenet 
claim  to  sovereignty  over  the  British  seas.  The  Dutch  were  not 
to  fish  in  the  seas  without  paying  a  tribute  for  the  privilege,  and 
flag  and  sail  must  be  dipped  whenever  a  Dutch  vessel  passed  an 
English  flag  Avithin  these  waters.  The  most  serious  of  these 
grievances,  however,  was  the  claim  of  a  right  to  seize  Dutch  ves- 
sels in  search  for  French  goods.  The  English  were  undoubtedly 
acting  within  the  old  law ;  for  the  principle,  which  is  now  com- 
monly accepted,  that  the  flag  covers  the  goods  except  in  case  of 
contraband  of  war  had  been  only  recently  introduced  by  the  Dutch 
themselves  in  their  treaty  with  Spain  of  1648. 

At  the  opening  of  1652,  therefore,  the  two  countries  were 
rapidly  drifting  into  war.  The  Dutch  have  always  been  a 
proverbially  patient  people,  but  the  English  tyranny  on 
^war  ^^®  ^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^^  passing  beyond  the  limits  even  of  a 
Dutchman's  patience.  Yet  the  Dutch  navy  was  but 
poorly  prepared  for  war  and  the  government  hesitated  to  instruct 
its  admiral,  the  famous  van  Tromp,  to  resist.  However,  when 
questioned  about  his  custom  of  dipping  the  flag,  his  answer  had 
an  ominous  sound:  "When  the  English  are  the  stronger,  then  we 
lower  the  flag,  otherwise  not."  The  government  evidently  was 
satisfied  and  left  the  old  sea  dog  to  settle  the  matter  in  his  own 
way. 

The  English  council  had  been  by  no  means  a  unit  in  pressing 
these  obnoxious  measures  upon  the  Dutchmen.  The  army  as 
usual  was  jealous  of  the  navy  and  had  little  interest  in 
Cromwell  to  a  War  whicli  must  be  fought  at  sea.  To  Cromwell  and 
Dutch  war.  Q^]^gj.g^  ^  ^^r  with  the  Dutch  seemed  almost  like  a  war 
upon  their  own  kindred ;  at  one  time  a  Utopian  scheme  of  uniting 
the  two  republics  into  one  great  commonwealth,  had  found  con- 
siderable favor  with  the  council,  and  envoys  had  been  actually 
sent  to  the  Hague  to  broach  the  matter.  Vane  and  others,  how- 
ever, who  were  deeply  interested  in  building  up  English  commerce 


1653]  THE    FIRST   iDUTCH    WAR  719 

and  looked  upon  the  war  as  the  surest  way  of  accomplishing  this 
end,  carried  their  point,  and  the  Dutch  were  left  the  alternative, 
either  to  fight  or  submit. 

In  May  hostilities  were  begun  by  Blake  and  Van  Tromp  off  Folk- 
stone.  In  July  parliament  declared  war.  Several  minor  engage- 
ments occurred  during  the  summer  and  early  autumn 
ijutciiwar  without  any  particular  advantage  on  either  side,  but  on 
hepun,May  the  30th  of  November  1G52  Van  Tromp,  after  eight 
hours  of  hard  fighting  off  Dungeness,  with  ninety  ships 
defeated  Blake  with  forty  ships.  The  blow  was  so  serious  that  tlie 
English  feared  that  a  blockade  of  the  Thames  would  follow.  The 
peace  party,  toward  which  Cromwell  himself  leaned,  who  depre- 
cated a  war  with  their  fellow  Protestant  republic  as  the  height  of 
folly  for  both  countries,  urged  a  speedy  peace,  but  Vane  and  Mar- 
tin were  still  all-powerful  in  the  Rump  and  the  council,  and 
instead  of  suing  for  peace,  sent  out  a  new  fleet  under  Blake,  Dean, 
and  Monk.  On  the  18th  of  February,  off  Portland  Bill,  the  Eng- 
lish fell  in  with  Van  Tromp  in  convoy  of  the  Bordeaux  fleet,  and, 
in  a  running  fight  of  three  days,  completely  discomfited  him, 
capturing  eleven  ships  of  war  and  thirty  merchantmen. 

The  reversal  of  the  fortunes  of  war,  however,  came  too  late  to 
save  the  Rump.  It  had  never  been  popular ;  nor  had  it  been  able 
to  court  popularity  by  diminishing  taxation.  It  had 
dUi'mmae-  attempted  to  save  those  who  were  loyal  to  the  Common- 
Runw^^^*^^^  wealth  from  some  of  the  burdens  of  the. war  by  despoil- 
ing the  *'Malignants,"  as  the  royalists  were  called,  either 
confiscating  their  estates  outright  or  imposing  a  ruinous  compo- 
sition. But  the  injustice  of  these  acts  had  only  reacted  upon  the 
Rump,  and  charges  of  corruption  and  favoritism,  too  well  founded 
in  many  instances,  were  freely  circulated  and  believed.  Outside 
of  Westminster,  moreover,  certain  wild  plans  of  reform  were  daily 
winning  new  adherents,  particularly  in  the  army.  Conspicuous 
among  these  reformers  were  the  Fifth  Monarchy  Men,  to  whom 
belonged  some  men  of  considerable  influence,  as  Major  General 
Harrison.  They  believed  that  the  second  coming  of  Christ  was  at 
hand,  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  godly  to  use  force  in  ushering 
in  that  event  by  establishing  the  rule  of  the  saints  on  earth.     The 


'j'^O  t»ARLiAMENT    AND    THE    ARMY  [the  Commonwealth 

propagation  o-f  siicli  views  naturally  increased  the  general  dissatis- 
faction with  the  Kamp,  whose  rule  had  now  come  to  be  regarded 
as  responsible  for  the  slow  pace  with  wiiich  the  hoped-for  social  and 
religious  reforms  had  appeared.  The  members  cared  little  for  the 
dissatisfaction  of  the  country,  but  they  knew  that  they  could  not 
defy  the  sentiment  which  was  growing  in  the  army.  \Yhen,  there- 
fore, the  battle  of  Worcester  brought  the  army  home  again,  and 
the  leaders  once  more  began  to  take  an  active  part  in  politics,  the 
Eump  was  forced  to  act,  and  in  November  1651,  it  definitely  fixed 
upon  November  3,  1654,  as  the  day  when  it  would  formally  retire. 
The  members  then  turned  their  attention  to  closing  up  tlieir  work 
and  preparing  for  their  successors.  In  February  1652  they  passed 
an  act  of  oblivion  which  was  to  cover  all  offenses  of  both  parties 
prior  to  the  battle  of  Worcester.  They  made  provision,  also,  for 
the  payment  of  all  sums  due  the  soldiers.  They  still  feared  a 
free,  popular  election,  however,  such  as  the  army  demanded,  and 
in  August  Sir  Henry  Vane  introduced  a  measure  by  which  the 
present  members  were  to  retain  their  seats  and  new  writs  were 
to  be  issued  only  for  those  election  districts  wliich  had  been  deprived 
of  representation  by  Pride's  Purge,  or  by  death,  or  other  cause; 
the  new  members  further  were  to  be  approved  by  the  old  Eump. 

The  *' Perpetuation  Bill,"  as  it  was  called  in  derision  by  the 
enemies  of  the  Rump,  which  proposed  not  to  elect  a  new  parlia- 
ment, but  simply  to  recruit  the  old  one,  naturally  did 
2VjeRwwi/)  not  satisfy  the  army.  The  leaders  protested,  and  in 
April 20,  hope  of  reaching  a  compromise,  a  series  of  informal 
conferences  were  held  in  which  the  matter  was  dis 
cussed  freely  between  Vane,  Whitelock,  and  others  of  the  Eump, 
and  Cromwell,  Harrison,  and  other  representatives  of  the  army.  On 
the  evening  of  April  19,  1653,  a  conference  had  been  held  at  Crom- 
well's lodgings  and  had  broken  up  as  usual  without  an  agreement, 
but  with  a  tacit  understanding  that  another  conference  should  be 
held  before  final  measures  were  taken.  When,  therefore,  the  next 
morning,  word  was  brought  to  Cromwell  that  parliament  was 
about  to  pass  the  bill  after  all,  he  summoned  a  company  of  the 
men  who  had  long  learned  to  obey  him  without  a  question,  and 
went  with  them  to  the  parliament  house.     Leaving  his  men  in  the 


1653]  THE    RUMP   EXPELLED  721 

lobby  he  entered  the  House.  As  he  belonged  there  and  was 
dressed  in  citizen's  clothes,  his  entry  probably  attracted  little 
notice.  For  awhile  he  listened  to  the  debate  and  waited;  but 
when  the  motion  was  made  for  the  third  reading,  he  arose  and 
began  to  speak.  At  first  his  manner  was  quiet  and  under  full 
control.  But  as  he  continued  to  speak  of  the  injustice,  the  self- 
seeking,  and  abuse  of  high  power,  of  the  men  who  sat  before  him, 
he  warmed  to  his  work  and  with  soldier  like  bluntness  singled  out 
Vane,  Martin,  and  others  as  the  objects  of  direct  attack.  The  first 
surprise  of  the  members  passed  off,  and  Sir  Peter  Went  worth 
arose  to  call  the  daring  debater  to  order,  but  Cromwell  turned 
upon  him  and  shouted,  *'Come,  come,  sir!  we  have  had  enough  of 
this !  I  will  put  an  end  to  your  prating !"  Then  facing  the  door,  he 
bade  Harrison  call  the  soldiers.  The  doors  flew  open;  arms 
gleamed  in  the  old  hall,  and  the  Rump  was  ignominiously  turned 
out  into  the  world.  Neither  the  Rump  nor  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment, however,  was  yet  to  pass  into  history.  Under  the  law  of 
its  own  making  none  but  the  Long  Parliament  could  dissolve  the 
Long  Parliament. 


CHAPTER    V 

CKOMWELL   AND    THE    PROTECTORATE 

OLIVER     CROMWELL,    J653-1658 
RICHARD  CROMWELL,  165ti-1659 

Cromw ell's  position  was  now  a  difficult  one.  All  the  old  recog-' 
nized  agents  of  government  had  been  swept  away;  King,  Lords, 
and  finally  Commons,  each  in  succession  had  been 
Cmmweif  swept  into  the  pit  of  its  own  digging.  Cromwell  was 
the  general  of  the  army ;  but  when  had  a  general  gov- 
erned England  by  right  of  his  military  commission?  Even  the 
Rump  had  been  sanctioned  in  the  minds  of  thousands  of  English- 
men by  some  last  clinging  shreds  of  legality,  associated  with  the 
sacred  name  of  parliament  which  it  still  bore  and  with  the  legis- 
lative functions  which  it  had  continued  to  exercise; — name  and 
functions  which  doubtless  had  obscured  in  the  minds  of  many  the 
real  fact  that  since  the  death  of  the  king  the  actual  governor  of 
England  had  not  been  parliament  at  all,  but  the  army.  But  now 
the  bald  truth  could  no  longer  be  disguised;  the  revolution  had 
degenerated  into  a  successful  military  mutiny;  the  army  had 
turned  upon  its  legal  superiors,  driven  them  from  power,  and 
assumed  direct  control  of  all  the  resources  of  the  state.  In  the 
nature  of  things,  however,  this  new  order  could  not  be  permanent; 
mere  physical  force  alone,  without  legal  authority,  could  not  long 
command  the  obedience  of  Englishmen.  But  what  should  take 
its  place?  Could  a  form  of  government  be  devised,  which  would 
satisfy  the  popular  respect  for  law,  save  Cromwell  from  the  oppro- 
brium of  instituting  military  rule,  and  thus,  by  anticipating  the 
inevitable  reaction,  save  the  Commonwealth? 

This  was  the  problem  which  confronted  Cromwell  when,  on  that 
memorable  April  morning  of  1653,  he  returned  to  his  lodgings 
with  the  key  to  the  Parliament  Hall  in  his  pocket.  Some  hoped, 
and  perhaps  expected,  that  Cromwell  would  make  himself  king. 

722 


1653]  THE    PROVISIOKAL   COUNCIL  723 

They  saw  no  hope  for  the  country,  no  protection  for  business  or 
trade,  unless  a  strong  hand  should  seize  and  direct  the  state;  and 
who  could  do  this  better  than  Cromwell?  It  was  due 
views  of  the  no  doubt  to  this  vcry  natural  enthusiasm  for  the  suc- 
cessful general  that  Cromwell's  portrait,  adorned  with 
three  crowns,  mysteriously  appeared  in  the  London  Stock  Ex- 
change, with  these  significant  lines  written  underneath : 

"Ascend  three  thrones,  great  Captain  and  Divine: 
By  the  will  of  God,  Oh  Lion,  for  th'are  thine."  * 

But  such  a  consummation  of  the  revolution  could  only  be  sup- 
ported and  maintained  by  the  army,  and  Cromwell  was  too  shrewd 
to  adopt  a  course  which  would  commit  him  altogether  to  the 
army  as  the  sole  support  of  his  authority.  The  army  was  as  full 
of  visionaries  and  ^-cranks"  as  an  Independent  *' prophesying" 
meeting;  the  great  mass  of  the  soldiers,  moreover,  had  no  wish  to 
see  the  Rump  replaced  by  a  one-man  power.  Some  of  the  gen- 
erals, as  Ludlow  in  Ireland,  much  as  they  disliked  the  Rump,  had 
openly  expressed  the  strongest  disapproval  of  the  act  of  the  23d; 
and  others  who  acquiesced,  were  known  to  disapprove,  while  states- 
men like  Vane,  Martin,  and  Bradshaw,  who  had  been  turned  out 
with  the  Rump,  were  deeply  offended  and  might  be  expecte'd  to 
make  trouble  sooner  or  Liter.  Some  hoped  that  Cromwell  would 
restore  the  old  order  by  bringing  back  the  Stuarts;  others,  that  he 
would  call  a  free  parliament ;  but  whatever  view  men  took  of  the 
future,  all  saw  that  for  the  moment  Cromwell  was  master  of  the 
situation  and  it  was  for  him  to  say  what  should  replace  the  Rump. 
Fortunately  for  the  peace  of  England,  Cromwell  had  no 
theories  to  exploit,  but,  with  the  same  practical  sagacity  with 
which   he    had   won   his    battles,  addressed   the   new 

The  provi- 

sumai  cqun-  task  which  confronted  him.  On  April  29  he  called 
about  him  a  provisional  Council  of  State,  consisting  of 
seven  men  from  the  army  and  three  civilians.  The  **Decem- 
virate,"  as  the  royalists  called  the  new  council,  was  apparently  as 
representative  a  body  as  Cromwell,  under  the  circumstances,  was 

^  There  were  ten  lines  in  all.     For  full  stanza  see  Gardiner,  Common- 
wealth and  Protectorate,  II,  p.  238. 


724  -  THE    PROTECTORATE  [ 


Olivkr  Ckomwell 


able  to  bring  together.  He  offered  a  seat  to  Fairfax,  and  would 
have  invited  Vane  also,  if  the  officers  had  permitted  it.  As 
constituted,  the  council  was  sharply  divided  into  two  parties:  the 
friends  of  Cromwell,  who  wished  at  once  to  make  him  protector  if 
not  king;  and  the  men  who  suspected  Cromwell,  of  whom  the  leader 
was  Harrison  who  was  irrevocably  opposed  to  a  one-man  govern- 
ment and  wished  to  put  the  administration  in  the  hands  of  "the 
saints."  But  the  man  who  held  the  balance  of  power,  was  *'Bot- 
tomless"  Lambert; — an  epithet  which  Cromwell  had  fixed  on  him 
because  of  his  sphinx  like  reticence  in  expressing  his  real  views. 
He  had  great  influence  among  the  common  soldiers,  and  even 
among  the  royalists,  who  conceived  the  idea  that  he  was  secretly 
in  favor  of  bringing  back  tlie  Stuarts. 

Much  as  Cromwell  disliked  Harrison's  plan  of  turning  the 
government  over  to  a  Sanhedrim  of  pious  fanatics,  the  uncertainty 
„     .  .  which  attended  Lambert,  the  desirability  of  securing 

Promsionfor  7  ./  o 

calling  a        the  Support  of  Harrison  and  his  followers,  induced  him 

parliament.  ^  ^  ,  ■ 

at  last  to  consent  to  giving  the  "saints"  a  trial.  The 
Independent  ministers  in  each  county  of  England  were  invited  in 
the  name  of  the  General  and  the  Council  of  the  Army,  to  consult 
with  their  congregations  and  submit  the  names  of  such  persons  as 
they  considered  fit  to  sit  in  parliament;  the  nominees  must  be 
faithful,  fear  God,  and  hate  "covetousness," — the  Puritan's  name 
for  political  corruption.  On  the  28th  of  May  the  replies  were  all 
in,  and  the  council  proceeded  to  select  129  representatives  for  Eng- 
land. To  them  were  added  five  for  Ireland  and  six  for  Scotland. 
"For  the  first  time  in  history  a  body  was  to  meet  in  the  name  of 
the  three  peoples." 

The  Council  of  State,  now  increased  to  thirteen  members, 
busied  itself  in  the  meantime  with  the  ordinary  routine  of  govern- 
ment. There  was  much  to  be  done  in  the  way  of 
mfJuncu.  i"eform,  but  Cromwell  and  the  other  members  evidently 
had  fully  accepted  the  merely  provisional  nature  of 
their  powers,  and  refrained  from  prejudicing  or  anticipating  any 
of  the  measures  of  the  nominees  to  whom  they  intended  to  commit 
the  real  work  of  government.  One  departure  from  this  policy  is 
worthy  of  notice.     Bear-baiting  and  bull-baiting  had  long  since 


1653]  THE    XOMIKATED    PARLIAMENT  725 

aroused  the  disapproval  of  the  Puritan  conscience,  not  because  the 
custom  gave  ''pleasure  to  the  spectators,"  but  because  it  fostered 
immorality.  The  provisional  council,  therefore,  while 
mppressed^  Waiting  for  the  assembling  of  the  new  parliament, 
thought  the  matter  urgent  enough  to  act  at  once,  and 
accordingly  ordered  the  obnoxious  custom  to  be  suppressed,  and 
appointed  a  committee,  of  which  Colonel  Pride  was  a  member,  to 
carry  the  order  into  effect. 

The  body  of  nominated  commissioners,  for  parliament  it  can 
hardly  be  called,  at  last  assembled  on  July  4.  One  of  the  mem- 
The  ''Nomi'  ^®^^  from  London  was  a  Baptist  preacher,  leather  mer- 
^'Li?«e '^  chant,  and  politician,  who  was  apparently  well  known 
Parliament  Jq  the  city,  and  whose  unfortunate  name,  Praise-God 
Barbone,  doubtless  had  already  been  the  subject  of  many  a  merry 
jest.  x\t  all  events  the  name  was  now  too  much  for  the  wags,  who 
straightway  christened  the  assembly  **Barebone's  Parliament." 
As  might  be  expected  from  the  method  of  selection,  the  great  body 
of  the  nominees  were  men  of  the  very  highest  integrity.  Some 
possessed  real  ability ;  but  the  most  were  lacking  in  practical  wis- 
dom. In  his  address  at  the  opening  session,  Cromwell  told  them 
that  they  had  been  invited  to  rule  England  because  they  were 
godly.  It  was  soon  to  be  proved,  however,  that  godliness,  at  least 
of  their  kind,  was  not  the  fittest  qualification  for  the  office  of 
legislator  in  such  troubled  times. 

On  July  5  the  nominees  took  up  their  quarters  in  the  old 
House  of  Commons  and  proceeded  to  organize.  Francis  Rous,  the 
Failure  of  ^uthor  of  the  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  so  long 
nated^Pariior  ^^^cd  in  the  Puritan  churches,  was  elected  Speaker;  and 
merit  Cromwell,   Lambert,   Harrison,  and  Desborough    were 

invited  to  take  seats  as  members.  On  the  6th  the  commission 
voted  to  call  itself  a  parliament,  and  later  continued  the  authority 
of  the  existing  Council  of  State  to  November  3d,  at  the  same 
time  increasing  the  number  of  councillors  to  thirty-one.  Crom- 
well, being  a  member  both  of  the  parliament  and  the  council,  as 
well  as  General  of  the  army,  retained  his  position  of  central  influ- 
ence. Harrison,  however,  was  the  natural  leader  of  the  enthusiasts 
in  the  House,  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  had  gathered  about 


726  THE    PROTECTORATE  [omveb  Ceomwell 

him  a  considerable  party,  not  a  majority,  bu .  earnest,  aggressive, 
and  strong  enough  to  have  their  way  in  most  ordinary  sessions, 
when  the  fall  membership  was  not  present.^  After  the  routine  of 
organizing  the  government  was  completed,  the  members  addressed 
themselves  to  the  serious  reforms  which  demanded  their  attention. 
Very  soon,  however,  it  became  evident  to  the  outsiders,  if  not  to 
themselves,  that  they  were  peculiarly  unfitted  for  the  work  to 
which  they  had  been  appointed.  In  all  their  number  was  not  to 
be  found  a  single  practicing  lawyer;  lawyers  apparently  were 
scarce  among  '*the  godly  kind."  Nevertheless,  Barebone's 
Parliament  went  at  its  work  with  sublime  self-confidence.  Most 
of  the  proposed  reforms,  however,  it  must  be  admitted,  although 
all  more  or  less  radical,  were  certainly  sound,  and  have  since  been 
ado2)ted  by  succeeding  parliaments  even  to  the  abolition  of  the 
Court  of  Chancery.  Thus  they  proposed  to  establish  county 
courts  for  the  recovery  of  small  debts ;  they  abolished  imprison- 
ment for  debt ;  they  declared  in  favor  of  paying  salaries  to  judges, 
instead  of  supporting  them  by  fees ;  they  compelled  the  registra- 
tion of  marriages,  births,  and  deaths;  made  marriage  a  civil  rite; 
attempted  to  simplify  land  tenures,  and  desired  to  establish  an 
improved  system  of  poor  houses.  They  proposed,  also,  to  do  away 
with  the  appointment  to  church  livings  by  private  persons,  as  well 
as  the  whole  system  of  tithes.  Such  reforms,  sensible  as  they  seem 
to-day,  were  too  vigorous  for  the  seventeenth  century.  The  law- 
yers, the  clergy,  the  country  gentry,  Lambert,  even  Cromwell  him- 
self at  last,  looked  on  in  consternation.  Yet  Cromwell,  the  only 
man  who  had  the  power  to  interfere,  hesitated.  It  would  not  do 
to  invade  the  Parliament  House  with  soldiers  a  second  time.  Some 
of  his  friends,  however,  including  Lambert,  who  had  now  thrown  all 
his  support  on  the  side  of  Cromwell,  decided  to  relieve  the  General 
of  his  embarrassment,  and  on  the  12th  of  December  bv  preconcerted 
arrangement  came  together  at  an  unusually  early  hour  and,  vot- 
ing to  give  back  their  authority  to  Cromwell,  declared  the  assembly 
at  an  end.  When  the  other  members  arrived,  they  found  that  they 
had  been  dissolved  by  their  own  act  and  nothing  was  left  for  them 

^  A   list   published   in   Gardiner,  II. ,  259  makes  the  number  of  the 
"moderates"  84;  of  the  "advanced  party"  60. 


1653]  THE   INSTKUMENT  OF    GOVERNMENT  727 

but  to  acquiesce  and  go  home.  The  whole  nation  gave  a  sigh  of 
relief;  the  lawyers  of  the  Inns  of  Court  celebrated  the  event  with 
boisterous  rejoicings. 

It  is  too  much  to  believe  that  Cromwell,  shrewd  as  he  undoubt- 
edly was,  had  foreseen  how  the  experiment  of  Harrison  and  the 

saints  would  turn  out ;  but  had  he  foreseen  it,  he  could 
merit  of  not  havc  adopted  a  course  which  would  have  contributed 

more  to  his  own  strength,  or  more  certainly  driven  the 
men  of  property  to  him  for  protection  against  the  possibilities  of 
further  revolution,  which  lurked  in  the  vagaries  of  radicals  like 
Ilarrison.  Even  Lambert  saw  that  the  only  hope  of  saving  the 
state  lay  in  Cromwell.  When,  therefore,  on  December  IG,  Lam- 
bert came  forward  with  a  scheme  which  placed  monarchical  power 
in  the  hands  of  Cromwell,  all  except  the  extreme  sectaries  and 
those  who  had  opposed  the  dissolution  of  the  Long  Parliament, 
were  ready  to  accept  it  as  the  wisest  possible  solution  of  the  pres- 
ent difficulty.  This  plan,  embodied  in  "The  Instrument  of  Gov- 
ernment,"^ is  particularly  interesting  to  an  American,  because  it 
based  political  authority,  not  upon  the  law  of  custom,  but  upon  a 
written  constitution  as  in  the  United  States,  and,  if  not  the  first,^ 
is  certainly  the  second  of  its  kind  of  modern  times.  It  provided  for 
the  three  kingdoms  a  common  government  to  consist  of  a  chief 
executive  to  be  styled  the  Lord  Protector;  a  Council  of  State  of 
not  more  than  twenty-one  members,  nor  less  than  thirteen ;  and  a 
parliament  of  one  House,  consisting  of  4G0  members,  thirty  of 
whom  were  assigned  to  Ireland  and  thirty  to  Scotland.  Oliver 
Cromwell  was  named  in  the  document  as  the  first  Lord  Protector, 
and  was  further  declared  to  hold  the  ofiice  for  life.  The  office, 
however,  was  not  to  be  hereditary,  and  upon  his  death,  the  coun- 
cil were  to  appoint  a  successor.  The  members  of  the  Council  of 
State,  also,  were  named  in  the  document  to  the  number  of  fifteen. 
In  case  of  death  or  removal  of  a  member  for  any  cause,  the  parlia- 
ment was  to  submit  to  the  council  six  names,  from  which  they  in 
turn  were  to  select  two ;    from  these  the  protector  should  appoint 

*  See  Gardiner,  Const.  Docs. ,  pp.  314-325. 

2  American  writers  are  accustomed  to  claim  this  honor  for  the  Funda- 
mental Orders  of  Connecticut  of  1638-39, 


728  THE    PROTECTORATE  [oliver Cromwell 

one  to  fill  the  vacancy.  In  case  of  corruption  or  malfeasance,  a 
joint  committee  of  parliament  and  council  were  to  investigate  and 
pronounce  punishment,  "which  punishment  might  not  be  pardoned 
or  remitted  by  the  Lord  Protector."  The  parliament  was  to  be 
elected  by  a  new  apportionment  based  upon  population,  in  which 
the  ** small  boroughs"  were  to  be  no  longer  allowed  a  representa- 
tion. Those  who  possessed  a  property  of  the  value  of  £200  were 
to  be  electors  in  the  shires,  provided  they  were  not  Catholics,  or 
had  not  fought  against  parliament.  The  Lord  Protector,  assisted 
by  the  Council  of  State,  was  to  exercise  full  executive  power, 
including  the  command  of  the  army  and  navy.  Before  the  meeting 
of  the  first  parliament  the  council  might  also  issue  ordinances 
which  should  have  the  force  of  law  until  parliament  could  take 
action  upon  the  same.  In  general,  parliament  was  to  be  the  sole 
law-making  body,  having  full  legislative  power,  save  as  limited  by 
the  terms  of  the  Instrument.  Bills  were  to  be  presented  to  the 
protector  for  his  consent.  •  If  he  saw  fit  to  object,  the  pai'liament 
was  bound  to  consider  his  opinion,  but  he  had  no  right  of  absolute 
veto.  His  consent,  moreover,  must  be  given  within  twenty  days, 
or  "satisfaction  to  the  Parliament  within  the  time  limited,"  other- 
wise such  acts  became  law  without  the  consent  of  the  protector. 
A  new  parliament  must  be  elected  every  three  years,  and  in  case 
the  proper  officers  failed  to  issue  the  writs  within  the  prescribed 
time,  then  the  sheriff  and  local  officers  were  to  proceed  without 
writs  and  hold  elections  as  though  writs  had  been  issued.  The 
power  of  dissolution  rested  with  the  protector,  but  no  parliament 
could  be  dissolved  until  it  had  been  in  session  for  at  least  five 
months.  All  who  professed  "faith  in  God  by  Jesus  Christ"  were 
to  be  protected  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion  as  long  as  they  did 
not  interfere  with  others  or  disturb  the  public  peace,  "provided 
this  liberty  be  not  extended  to  Popery  or  Prelacy."  So  far  there 
is  nothing  in  this  constitution  which  Washington,  in  all  his  unself- 
ish integrity  and  magnanimous  confidence  in  the  judgment  of  the 
people,  might  not  have  given  under  similar  circumstances.  But 
the  meat  of  the  nut,  of  which  all  the  other  forty-one  articles  are 
after  all  only  the  husk,  lies  in  the  XXVII  Article,  which  reveals 
the  same  old    military  boot  still  planted  upon  the  neck  of  the 


1653]  THE   PROTECTORATE   ESTABLISHED  729 

prostrate  nation,  which  no  amount  of  polishing  or  furbishing  can 
disguise  or  make  more  attractive.  By  this  article  it  was  prescribed 
that  a  standing  army  of  30,000  men  was  to  be  regularly  sup- 
ported by  parliament,  likewise  "a  convenient  number  of  ships  for 
guarding  of  the  seas;"  £200,000  per  annum  were  to  be  raised 
to  meet  the  ordinary  expenses  of  government,  not  to  be  * 'taken 
away  or  diminished,  nor  the  way  agreed  upon  for  raising  the  same 
altered,  but  by  the  consent  of  the  Lord  Protector  and  the 
parliament."  Ostensibly  the  Instrument  of  Government  was 
designed  *'to  set  up  a  sort  of  strictly  limited  monarchy  and  a 
strictly  limited  parliament,  mutually  dependent  on  each  other,  so 
as  to  prevent  the  danger  of  either  party  becoming  supreme."  In 
reality  it  did  nothing  of  the  sort,  but  put  almost  unlimited  power 
into  the  hands  of  Cromwell.  When  parliament  was  in  session,  a 
check,  apparently,  was  placed  at  his  side,  but  the  fact  that  parlia- 
ment was  forbidden,  without  his  consent  to  reduce  the  standing 
army,  enormous  for  these  times,  and  that  the  army  was  placed  by 
formal  law  entirely  under  his  control,  completely  nullified  the 
independent  authority  of  parliament,  and,  in  reality,  reduced  any 
opposition  which  it  might  offer,  to  the  nature  of  advice  or  at 
best  a  protest.  The  council,  however,  adopted  the  Instrument, 
and,  on  the  16th  of  December  1653,  Cromwell  was  solemnly  inau- 
gurated in  Westminster  Hall. 

There  were  not  lacking  those  who  saw  through  the  tissue  of  the 

new  constitution  which  the  friends  of  Cromwell  had    given  the 

Commonwealth.      Some  of  them  were  the  politicians 

Reception  of        ^        ^      -,  ii         t,.  -itt^t 

the  imtru-  who  had  opposcd  the  dissolution  of  the  Lonff  rarlia- 
ment,  but  they  were  without  influence  and  the  new  pro- 
tector could  affoi'd  to  ignore  them.  But  when  Harrison  and  the 
officers  of  his  way  of  thinking  declared  that  they  had  been  deceived 
and  cheated,  the  case  was  more  serious,  and  the  protector  at  once 
clapped  Harrison  and  his  friends  into  prison  and  deprived  them  of 
their  commissions.  Whatever  others  might  think,  Cromwell  evi- 
dently had  taken  the  Instrument  of  Government  seriously,  and 
henceforth  there  was  to  be  no  trifling  with  his  dignity  or  question- 
ing of  his  motives.  In  general,  the  nation  apparently  was  satis- 
fied :  if  the  Stuarts  could  not  be  brought  back,  the  mad  career  of 


730  THE    PROTECTORATE  [oliveb  Chomwell 

revolution  at  least  was   stayed  and  a  strong  hand   grasped  the 
reins. 

The  Instrument  of  Government  provided  that  the  first  par- 
liament should    meet  in  the  following   September.      During  the 
intervening  months  Cromwell  turned  to  the  task  of  ius- 

The  adminis-    , .  „   .  ,  .        ,  .     ,  '' 

tratmn  of  tifjing  the  new  arrangement  in  the  minds  of  the  public 
by  the  efficiency  and  moderation  of  the  measures  which 
he  adopted  for  the  peace  and  relief  of  the  country.  The  Dutch 
War  naturally  demanded  his  first  attention.  The  war  had  never 
been  popular ;  its  advocates  had  advanced  the  plea  that  it  was  to 
favor  British  commerce,  but  its  effect  had  been  to  destroy 
DutchWar.  ^^i^i^h  commerce  almost  entirely.  Moreover,  Crom- 
well himself  had  never  favored  the  war,  so  that  when 
the  victory  of  February  1653  had  been  followed  by  a  second  vic- 
tory in  June,  and  a  third  in  July,  in  which  Van  Tromp  was  killed, 
the  way  was  open  for  closing  the  war  upon  terms  most  favorable 
to  England.  Unfortunately,  however,  during  the  days  of  the 
Nominated  Parliament,  the  proposal  of  terms  on  the  English 
side  lay  with  the  Council  of  State  where  Cromwell  had  by  no 
means  held  a  free  hand,  although  his  influence  was  always  great, 
and  the  council  would  be  satisfied  with  nothing  but  a  complete 
submission  and  amalgamation  of  the  Netherlands  with  Eng- 
land. This  was  later  changed  to  a  proposal  of  alliance  against  all 
states  which  sustained  the  Inquisition,  in  which  the  two  great 
Protestant  naval  states  were  to  indemnify  themselves  by  formally 
partitioning  the  colonial  fields  of  Asia  and  America;  England  was 
to  surrender  her  East  India  Company's  possessions  to  the  Dutch, 
and  they  in  turn  were  to  assist  England  in  driving  the  Spaniards  out 
of  the  Western  Hemisphere.  Finally,  however,  even  these  demands 
were  pared  down  to  a  simple  defensive  alliance,  a  recognition  of 
England's  supremacy  in  the  British  seas,  and  a  secret  clause  by 
which  the  Estates  of  Holland  were  to  exclude  the  Honse  of 
Orange  permanently  from  the  stadholderate.  Claims  for  dam- 
ages which  had  been  incurred  by  both  sides,  not  only  during  the 
war,  but  during  the  long  period  of  trade  rivalry  preceding,  were, 
for  the  most  part,  to  be  adjusted  by  commissioners.  On  April  19, 
1654  the  treaty  was  ratified  by  the  protector. 


1654]  REFORMS   OF   CROMWELL  731 

The  Dutch  War  and  the  negotiations  which  followed,  reveal  the 
approach  of  an  era  in  whicli  the  advantages  of  trade  and  commerce, 
rather  than  religious  enmities,  push  to  the  front  as  the 
atiwMd^^      great  cause  of  international  struggle.     The  old  objects 
of  warfare  have  not  yet  been  altogether  put  aside,  but 
they  no  longer  dominate.     The  light  of  the  morning  is  in  the 
words  in  which  Cromwell  outlined  to  the  Dutch  commissioners  the 
advantages  of  a  policy  of  alliance  for  both  people:  The  interests  of 
both  nations  consisted  in  the  welfare  of  commerce  and  navigation ; 
the  industry  of  the  Dutch  ought  not  to  be  prevented,  but  the 
English  could  not  be  deprived  of  the  advantages  which  nature  had 
given  them  in  the  way  of  good  harbors  and  geographical  situation  ; 
the  world  was  wide  enough  for  both  peoples;  if  they  could  only 
"thoroughly  well  understand  each  other,"  their  countries  would 
become  the  markets  of  the  world  and  dictate  their  will  to  Europe. 
With  the  same  clear-sighted  energy  the  protector  turned  to 
domestic  affairs.     The  church  naturally  first  attracted  his  atten- 
tion.    Here  anarchy  had  reigned  for  years.     Each  con- 
and  the  gregation  followed  the  form  or  service  which  it  chose, 

church.  o     o  » 

and  livings  were  held  by  all  sorts  of  clergymen,  from 
the  followers  of  the  old  Anglican  form  to  the  radical  Independents. 
Parliament  had  practically  replaced  the  Covenant  by  the  *' Engage- 
ment," by  which  a  clergyman  simply  bound  himself  to  be  faithful 
to  the  Commonwealth.  Many  abuses  had  crept  in,  however,  and 
many  unworthy  men  had  taken  advantage  of  the  absence  of  super- 
vision to  secure  livings.  But  this  was  no  part  of  Cromwell's 
idea  of  toleration,  and  in  March  1654,  he  created  by  ordinance 
a  commission  of  thirty-five  members,  called  "Triers,"  to  pass  upon 
the  personal  character  and  sufficiency  of  all  nominees  for  livings.  A 
second  ordinance,  issued  in  August,  appointed  commissioners  in  each 
county  to  eject  men  of  scandalous  lives  who  already  held  livings. 

The  protector  also  turned  his  attention    to   tlie    courts   and 
appointed  a  mixed  commission  of  lawyers  and  laymen  to  consider 

the  present  abuses  and  difficulties,  and  reduce  the  over- 
re/wms  grown  bulk  of   the  Common    Law  to    some  practical 

form.  To  relieve  the  Court  of  Chancery,  which  had 
escaped  the  "Root  and  Branch"  work  of  the  Nominated  Parlia^ 


732  THE    PROTECTOEATE  [ 


Oliver  Cromweli. 


merit,  he  empowered  other  courts  to  try  equity  cases  until  the 
docket  had  beeu  cleared. 

In  Ireland  Cromwell  steadily  pursued  the  later  English  policy 
which  had  been  inaugurated  by  Chichester  and  Falkland.     His 
lieutenant,  Fleetwood,   and  after  him  Cromwell's  son 
admiMra-     Henry,  ruled  with  an  iron  hand.     The  men  who  were 
^Ireland  implicated   in   the   earlier   massacres   were   hanged   or 

banished  and  their  estates  confiscated.  The  confisca- 
tions at  the  expense  of  Catholics  continued  steadily  to  the 
advantage  of  the  English  soldiery  and  the  Adventurers.  Crom- 
well would  "meddle  with  no  man's  conscience,"  as  he  wrote 
to  the  governor  of  New  Ross  in  1649,  yet  apparently  in  his 
scheme  of  toleration  he  had  no  place  for  the  Mass.  The 
Catholic  religion  was  virtually  proscribed  and  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  priests  continued.  The  Irish  parliament,  also,  was 
abolished. 

The  same  vigor  was  shown  by  the  protector  in  the  administra- 
tion of  Scottish  affairs.  Here  the  Eump  had  placed  an  able  lieu- 
tenant in  George  Monk,  who  after  the  disaster  off 
and  Scot-  Dungeness  had  been  transferred  to  the  navy  where  he 
served  during  the  rest  of  the  war  as  "General  at  Sea," 
and  proved  himself  as  able  as  upon  land.  After  the  close  of 
the  war  Cromwell  sent  him  back  to  his  old  command  in  Scotland, 
where  much  rough  work  still  remained  to  be  done  in  the  reduction 
of  the  Highland  clansmen  who  had  rallied  about  General  Middle- 
ton  and  were  making  a  forlorn  stand  for  Charles  II.  Monk  proved 
himself  an  adept  at  mountain  warfare  and  it  was  not  long  before 
he  compelled  the  last  clansman  to  lay  by  his  claymore  and  wait  for 
better  times  for  his  beloved  "Charlie."  Presbyterianism  was 
dethroned  and  all  Protestant  faiths  were  placed  upon  an  equal 
footing  before  the  laws.  By  the  bigoted  Scots,  however,  toleration 
was  regarded  with  little  favor;  nor  could  the  benefit  which  Scot- 
land received  from  the  Navigation  Act,  or  the  right  of  free  trading 
with  the  English  colonies,  the  substantial  results  of  which  were 
manifested  by  an  unexampled  era  of  peace  and  prosperity,  make 
the  Scotsman  see  in  the  Cromwellian  rule  anything  more  than  "a 
wicked  paltering  with  error  and  sin." 


1654J  CROMWELL'S   FIRST    PARLIAMENT  733 

For  nine  months,  now,  the  affairs  of  the  new  government  had 
been  progressing  most  successfully.  An  unpopular  war  had  been 
ended;  abroad  the  English  flag  was  respected  as  it  had 
CromweWs  ^^^^  ^GQn  since  the  days  of  Elizabeth ;  at  home  peace  and 
administra-  qujet  reigned;  the  laws  were  honored,  and  trade  and 
commerce  were  rapidly  recovering  from  the  paralysis 
whicli  had  attended  the  Civil  War.  The  supreme  test  of  the  new 
constitution,  however,  was  yet  to  come. 

The  first  Protectorate  parliament  met  on  September  3,  1G54. 
The  protector  had  carried  out  his  agreement  in  good  faith,  and 
the  new  parliament  represented  fairly  the  several 
first  uariia-  Protestant  factions  of  the  state :  Presbyterians,  Royal- 
ists, Republicans,  and  Cromwellians.  Bradshaw  and 
Haselrig  were  there,  and  Vane  was  denied  a  seat  only  by  his  own 
reluctance  to  submit  to  the  Protectorate.  As  soon  as  the  mem- 
bers were  assembled,  the  Presbyterians  and  Republicans  joined 
forces  to  strike  at  the  root  of  CromwelPs  authority,  claiming  the 
right  to  revise  the  Instrument  of  Government,  and  denying  to  the 
protector  the  coordinate  authority  sanctioned  by  the  existing 
settlement.  Cromwell  reminded  the  members  of  the  conditions 
upon  which  they  had  accepted  oflftce,  and  insisted  that  each  mem- 
ber should  pledge  himself  not  to  attempt  to  alter  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment. About  two  hundred  and  thirty  members  signed  the 
agreement ;  the  rest  were  excluded  from  the  House.  The  most 
of  those  who  refused  to  pledge  themselves  were  Independents. 
The  Presbyterians  were  thus  left  in  control,  and,  while  not  nomi- 
nally attacking  the  Instrument,  yet  continued  to  discuss  its  terms, 
specially  limiting  the  provisions  for  securing  religious  toleration, 
and  going  out  of  their  way  to  take  up  the  case  of  a  demented 
Quaker,  named  Biddle,  who  had  managed  to  give  special  offense  by 
the  way  in  which  he  aired  his  views.  Five  lunar  months  had  now 
passed  and  nothing  had  been  done.  Even  the  voting  of  much- 
needed  supplies  for  the  army  and  navy  had  been  neglected,  and 
Cromwell  in  despair  determined  to  take  advantage  of  the  right 
conferred  upon  him  by  the  Instrument,^  and  on  January  22, 
1655,  dissolved  his  first  parliament. 

^Cromwell  has  been  accused  of  violating  the  Instrument  here;  but 


734  THE    PEOTECTORATE  [oliver  Cromwell 

Cromwell  had  acted  technically  within  the  powers  conferred 
upon  him  by  the  new  constitution.     Yet  he  lost  many  friends. 

The  unlovely  jangle  of  the  military  spur  had  been  heard 
absSfniie  ^g^^^?   ^^^^  however  small  the  sympathy  which    men 

might  have  with  the  conduct  of  the  parliament,  it  was 
apparent  to  all  that  any  parliament  could  be  but  a  paper  parlia- 
ment so  long  as  a  word  from  the  protector  was  sufficient  to  send 
the  members  packing  again.  Plots  broke  out  among  the  Levellers 
in  the  army.  The  royalists  were  greatly  encouraged;  in  March 
it  was  necessary  to  use  the  military  to  put  down  an  insurrec- 
tion at  Salisbury.  The  leaders  were  executed.  Merchants,  also, 
refused  to  pay  the  imposts,  on  the  plea  that  the  government  had 
no  right  to  levy  taxes  without  an  act  of  parliament,  and  appealed 
to  the  courts.  But  Cromwell  promptly  dismissed  the  judges 
whose  loyalty  he  had  reason  to  doubt,  exactly  as  Charles  I.  had 
done  in  the  days  of  Hampden  and  ship  money.  He  went  a 
step  beyond  Charles  or  even  Wentworth,  and  virtually  placed  all 
England  under  martial  law;  dividing  the  country  into  eleven  dis- 
tricts and  placing  over  each  a  major  general,  responsible  only  to 
the  protector  and  the  council.  A  tax  of  ten  per  cent  w^as  levied 
upon  the  royalists  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  new  military  gov- 
ernors and  their  assistants.  Cromwell,  further,  turned  upon  the 
Episcopalian  clergy,  whom  he,  with  justice  perhaps,  suspected  of 
sympathizing  with  the  recent  revolts,  and  forbade  them  to  teach  in 
a  public  or  private  school,  or  to  preach  or  to  administer  the  sacra- 
ment, or  to  use  the  Prayer  Book.  The  major  generals  also  carried 
things  with  a  high  hand,  organizing  the  militia,  collecting  taxes, 
and  imprisoning  the  enemies  of  the  government  without  resort  to 
civil  forms,  and  in  a  short  time  peace  and  order  were  restored. 
Englishmen  had  refused  to  accept  the  compromise  which  the 
army  had  offered,  which,  as  Cromwell  doubtless  wished,  in  time 
might  possibly  have  established  a  constitutional  government  in 
fact  as  well  as  in  theory ;  they  were  now  compelled  to  obey  Crom- 
well as  a  military  despot. 

Blackstone,  and  after  him  Plallam,  long  ago  pointed  Qut  that  by  English 
law  a  "month"  was  always  to  be  taken  as  a  lunar  month  unless  other 
wise  specified. 


1654-1656]  THE   SPANISH   WAH  735 

In  the  autumn  of  1654  war  had  virtually  begun  between  the 
Commonwealth  and  Spain.     The  causes  of  the  war  are  not  easily 

understood.  The  weakness  of  Spain  was  well  known  to 
The  Spanish   European  statesmen ;    Spain,  moreover,  was  a  Catholic 

country,  and  Cromwell's  Puritan  conscience  would  feel 
none  of  those  qualms  which  disturbed  him  when  news  was  brought 
of  the  victories  of  Blake  and  Monk  over  the  Protestant  Dutch- 
men. But  there  were  other  reasons  for  war  which  any  modern 
statesmen  would  wholly  approve,  such  as  the  stubborn  refusal  of 
Spain  to  recognize  the  right  of  England  to  trade  in  the  West  Indies 
even  with  her  own  colonies,  or  the  refusal  to  exempt  Englishmen 
from  the  laws  of  the  Inquisition.  The  latter  fact  alone,  perhaps,  is 
sufficient  explanation.  For  whatever  vacillation  Cromwell  may 
have  shown  in  supporting  other  principles  wliich  are  supposed  to 
be  characteristic  of  his  foreign  policy,  upon  this  point  he  was 
always  definite:  Protestant  Englishmen  abroad  were  not  to  be 
interfered  with  on  account  of  their  religion.  The  fact,  further- 
more, that  France  agreed  to  grant  toleration  to  Englishmen,  is 
sufficient  to  explain  the  French  alliance  of  1657  which  gave  England 
Dunkirk,  and  brought  a  division  of  the  New  Model  to  the  conti- 
nent to  show  Frenchmen  and  Spaniards  what  war  was  like. 

The  chief  incidents  of  the  Spanish  War  are  soon  told.     In 
1655  Penn  and  Venables  took  Jamaica  and  added  it  permanently 

to  the  list  of  English  possessions  in  the  New  World. 
iiieidentsof  In  February  1650,  Spain  formally  declared  war,  and  in 
War.  April  1657  Blake  performed  his  famous  feat  at  Santa 

Cruz  which  rivaled  Drake's  exploit  of  1587.  Pass- 
ing the  batteries  which  guarded  the  entrance  he  sailed  into  the 
harbor,  and,  after  a  stubborn  fight,  burned  and  sank  a  fleet  of 
sixteen  Spanish  galleons,  and  then  retired  without  the  loss,  of 
a  ship. 

In  the  meanwhile  Cromwell  had  been  compelled  by  the  needs 
of  his  foreign  war  to  summon  another  parliament.     It  met  in 

September  1656  and  mav  be  fairlv  taken  as  represent- 

Thc  second  j  j  r 

parliament     ing  the  height  of  Cromwellian  influence.     The  vigorous 

of  Cromivell.         &  &  & 

foreign  policy  of  Cromwell,  the  declaration  of  war  by 
the  Spanish  king,  the  exploits  of  Blake,  a  procession  of  twenty- 


736  THE    PROTECTORATE  [ 


Oliver  Cromwell 


eight  cart  loads  of  bullion,  the  plunder  of  the  Spanish  treasure 
fleet,  grinding  and  creaking  through  the  streets  of  London  on 
their  way  to  the  Tower,  had  revived  again  traditions  which  had 
come  down  from  the  days  of  Elizabeth,  and  appealed  powerfully 
to  the  patriotic  sentiment  of  all  classes;  at  the  same  time  sub- 
stantial peace  and  prosperity  at  home  had  gone  far  to  reconcile 
many  of  the  malcontents  to  the  new  order.  Nevertheless  the 
council  found  it  necessary  to  deny  seats  to  about  one  hundred  of 
the  returned  members  whose  anti-Cromwellian  sentiments  were 
regarded  as  a  menace  to  good  order,  leaving  the  new  parliament 
so  thoroughly  Cromwellian  that  for  several  months  nothing  hap- 
pened to  disturb  the  placid  current  of  routine.  The  members 
showed  their  sympathy  with  the  protector  by  voting  large  supplies 
and  declaring  plots  against  his  life  to  be  treason.  Cromwell  on 
his  part  was  not  behind  them  in  giving  evidence  of  his  good  faith 
and  confidence.  When  they  refused  to  approve  the  act  of  the 
council  which  had  created  the  "government  by  major  generals," 
he  promptly  recognized  the  right  of  interference  as  prescribed  in- 
the  Instrument  and  withdrew  the  major  generals. 

In  March  1657,  however,  all  earlier  effusions  of  confidence  were 
outdone.  The  parliament,  as  a  part  of  a  general  plan  known  as 
the  Petition  and  Advice^  \>j  ^hich  it  was  proposed  to 
"^^d^d^^  reorganize  the  government  somewhat  more  in  accord- 
ance with  ancient  English  traditions,  formally  agreed 
by  a  vote  of  123  to  63,  to  confer  upon  the  protector  the  title  of 
king.  Cromwell  was  not  only  to  assume  the  title  of  king  with 
power  to  nominate  his  successor,  but  parliament  was  henceforth  to 
consist  of  two  houses, — an  elected  "House  of  Commons,"  and  a 
second,  styled  the  "Other  House,"  the  members  of  which  were  to 
be  appointed  by  the  king  for  life.  Additions  to  the  Council  of 
State  were  to  be  made  by  the  king  with  the  consent  of  the  council 
and  parliament.  It  was  also  proposed  to  give  to  the  government 
a  yearly  income  of  £1,300,000  to  be  continued  during  the  life  of 
the  king.  Toleration  was  to  be  assured  to  all  except  Papists, 
Prelatists,  and  blasphemers. 

Out  of  respect  for  his  old  comrades  in  arms,  who  had  no  wish 
to  serve  a  "King  Oliver"  any  more  than  they  had  to  serve  a  King 


1657]  THE   PETITION^   AND   ADVICE  737 

Charles,  Cromwell  refused  to  accept  the  royal  title,  and  his  par- 
liament dropped  the  offensive  word  from  the  new  constitution. 
In  this  form  Cromwell  accepted  the  Petition,  and 
ZitZ-^  on  June  26,  1657,  was  solemnly  installed  for  the 
stalled  under  second  time  as  Lord  Protector  of  the  Commonwealth. 

the  Petitum. 

Cromwell  was  now  king  in  everything  except  in  name; 
the  title,  the  very  crown,  had  been  offered  to  him  and  it  had 
been  his  to  decline  it.  Strange  to  say,  moreover,  Presbyterians, 
Royalists,  and  some  of  the  nobles,  honestly  desired  to  see 
thePeti-  the  change  wrought.  A  king,  it  was  said,  was  neces- 
sary in  order  to  govern  England ;  all  the  laws  and  insti- 
tutions presupposed  a  king,  depended  on  a  king,  and  could  not  be 
fitly  administered  without  a  king.  But  the  army  said.  No;  and 
even  Cromwell  must  bow  to  the  army.  So  he  pushed  the  tempting 
bauble  from  him,  for  he  dared  not  step  out  from  the  strong  plank 
upon  which  he  had  stood  so  securely  these  many  years,  and  trust 
himself  to  a  party  composed  of  men  who  had  been  for  the  most 
part  his  enemies.  But  even  as  it  was,  he  soon  found  he  had  taken 
a  step  which  he  could  not  retrace.  Lambert,  the  author  of  the 
original  Listrument,  claimed  that  he  had  been  deceived  and 
refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance.  But  more  serious  trouble 
followed  when  the  parliament  reassembled  for  its  sec- 
Dissoiution  oud  sessiou  in  January  1658.  The  members  who  had 
parliament,  been  excluded  from  the  first  session  had  been  allowed 
to  return.  A  number  of  Cromwell's  friends,  also,  had 
been  transferred  to  the  new  House  of  Lords.  Thus  an  assembly 
which  six  months  before  had  offered  a  crown  to  Cromwell,  was 
transformed  into  a  body  pugnaciously  hostile  to  kings  and  lords  on 
principle.  Haselrig  opened  an  attack  upon  the  new  House  of 
Lords;  the  Commons  sustained  him,  refusing  to  recognize  '*the 
Other  House"  or  transact  any  business  with  them.  The  govern- 
ment was  at  once  thrown  into  confusion ;  everything  came  to  a 
standstill ;  and  on  February  4  Cromwell  in  great  disgust  dis- 
solved his  second  parliament.  He  warned  the  members  that  they 
were  only  playing  into  the  hands  of  the  king  of  Scots ;  as  for  him- 
self he  was  sick  of  the  whole  business,  and  declared  with  a  pathos 
which  has  the  ring  of  sincerity:  **I  would  have  been  glad  to  have 


738  THE    PROTECTORATE  [olivku  Cuomwell 

lived  under  my  woodside,  to  have  kept  a  flock  of  sheep,  rather 
than  undertake  such  a  government.'" 

The  strong  man,  in  short,  was  breakiog  under  the  load  which 
he  had  assumed.  Ills  which  he  had  contracted  among  the  north- 
^   ,^  ,        ern  lowlands  in  the  campaign  of  Dunbar  had  ever  since 

Death  of  r-     n 

Cromwell,  been  hard  upon  his  track.  On  August  6  his  favorite 
daughter  Elizabeth  Claypole  died.  The  unremitting  care 
which  he  had  given  her  in  her  last  illness,  and  the  new  burden  of 
grief  which  entirely  overwhelmed  him,  were  too  much  for  his 
failing  strength;  he  followed  her  by  just  four  weeks,  dying  on  his 
lucky  day,  the  double  anniversary  of  Dunbar  and  Worcester. 

Thus  passed  the  man  whom  the  world  is  just  beginning  to 
understand.  He  was  a  practical^  h  ard  -fi  sted^fmnnwi  ^  yet 
capable  of  tenderness  almost  feminine.  In  will,  he 
Crmmueii.^^  was  gigantic,  inflexible;  in  intellect,  slow,  unimagi- 
native, but  profound;  in  thought,  conservative,  yet 
progressive;  in  purpose,  sincere  and  upright;  yet,  in  spite  of  all, 
he  was  doomed  at  last  to  stand  alone,  because  in  an  age  of  fanati- 
cism he  was  the  only  fanatic  who  remained  sane.  In  his  idea  of 
religious  toleration  he  was  a  man  of  .the  nineteenth  century.  He 
succored  the  Quakers.  He  tried  to  save  the  poor  madman 
James  Naylor,  who  imagined  himself  the  Messiah.  He  tried  to 
protect  the  Unitarians,  from  whom  the  ordinary  Puritan  drew 
back  in  horror  as  blasphemers ;  he  allowed  Episcopalians  to  live  in 
peace;  he  permitted  the  Jews  to  return  to  England,  for  the  first 
time  since  their  expulsion  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  He  promised 
Mazarin  that,  as  soon  as  possible,  he  would  secure  toleration  for 
Catholics  also.  As  Cromwell  belongs  to  the  nineteenth  century 
in  his  ideas  of  religious  toleration,  in  his  political  toleration  he 
belongs  to  the  twentieth  century.  "He  was  a  republican  who  had 
no  hatred  for  monarchy  as  an  institution;  he  was  a  monarchist 
who  helped  to  establish  a  republic  as  the  only  refuge  from  the 
tyranny  of  a  bad  king.  He  was  a  radical  who  hated  radicalism,  a 
Leveller  who  hoped  to  bring  back  a  House  of  Lords."  At  a  time 
when  the  revolution  was  forcing  all  sorts  of  political  theories  into 
luxuriant  growth,  he  remained  without  theories  himself,  and 
sought  to  select  from  the  wreckage  of  the  older  system,   only 


PERSONAL   TRAITS   OF   CROMWELL  739 

what  was  durable,  and  what  promised  best  to  restore  order  and 
peace  and  liberty  to  the  England  which  he  loved.  It  is  no  marvel 
that  men  who  thought  that  they  held  a  monopoly  of  truth, 
regarded  him  sometimes  as  wicked  and  self- seeking,  sometimes  as 
a  time-serving  hypocrite,  but  always  as  lukewarm. 

He  is  described  as  of  ** great  and  majestic  deportment  and 
courtly  presence."     He  loved  the  manly  sports  of  hunting  and 

horsemanship.  He  loved  music,  delighted  in  art,  and 
fram^^        was  fond  of  surrounding  himself  with  learned  men. 

On  public  occasions  none  could  be  more  dignified;  yet 
he  knew  also  how  to  unbend  when  within  the  inner  circle  of 
friendship;  he  could  make  doggerel  verses  to  amuse  his  children, 
could  crack  rough  jokes  or  smoke  a  pipe  with  his  friends.  He 
hated  affectation.  "Paint  me  as  I  am,"  he  said  to  Lely,  "rough- 
ness, pimples,  and  warts,  otherwise  I  will  not  pay  you  a  farthing." 
Like  Washington,  "his  temper  was  terrible  when  aroused;"  then 
strong  men  trembled  in  his  presence.  In  religion  he  was  sincere 
and  ardent;  in  private  life  he  was  simple  and  loving.  He  had 
nothing  of  Napoleon's  vanity  in  his  public  achievements;  he 
thought  little  of  his  place  in  history;  he  was  not  "the  child  of 
destiny,"  but  simply  "a  mean  instrument  to  do  God's  people 
some  good." 

At  forty-two  he  was  a  plain  Huntingdonshire  squire.  Yet  at 
forty-three  he  took  up  the  study  of  war  and  soon  secured  a  place 

among  the   world's    greatest   captains.      At  fifty  he 

turned  to  politics  and  soon  won  for  himself  a  place 
among  "the  most  vigorous  and  resourceful  of  statesmen."  Guided 
by  the  sure  instincts  of  a  great,  strong  nature,  enthusiastic,  yet 
always  practical,  he  advanced  step  by  step  to  that  position  from 
which  for  him  there  was  no  escape  save  death.  It  is  true  that  he 
won  his  place  by  the  sword,  that  he  ruled  by  the  sword;  and  yet 
only  the  sword  could  save  England  from  anarchy  and  secure  the 
fruit  of  that  liberty  for  which  a  generation  of  Englishmen  had 
struggled. 

On  the  death  of  Cromwell,  his  eldest  son  Richard  passed  quietly 
to  the  vacant  post  of  protector.  Thurloe,  the  protector's  secre- 
tary, who  had  most  to  do  with  bringing  forward  the  new  Crom- 


740  THE    PROTECTORATE  [richard  Cromwell 

well,  boasted  "that  not  a  dog  wagged  his  tongue,  so  great  was 

the  calm."     And  yet  the  threat  to  the  peace  of  England  lay  in 

the  neutral  character  of  the  man  whom  Thurloe  had 

Richard  . 

Cromwell,       douc  most  to   Drinff  forward.     No  man  could  be  more 

Protector. 

unfitted  for  the  post  for  which  he  had  been  chosen.  He 
knew  nothing  either  of  war  or  politics;  he  was  idle,  easy-going, 
and  without  enthusiasm,  indifferent  to  any  business  more  serious 
than  hunting  or  horse  racing. 

In  January  1659,  the  third  protectorate  parliament  assembled. 

The  members  from  England  and  Wales  had  been  elected  by  the 

old  constituencies   as  represented  in  the  Lon^  Parlia- 

The  third 

protectorate    mcut,  rotteu  boroughs  and  all.     The  thirty  members  for 
Janimry,  '     Ireland  and  the  thirty  for  Scotland,  however,  had  been 

chosen  as  in  the  first  two  protectorate  parliaments. 
The  parliament  in  the  main  favored  the  new  protector,  but  the 
army  was  disappointed  that  one  should  be  placed  over  it  who 
was  no  soldier,  and  who  did  not  even  belong  to  the  "godly  kind." 
Fleetwood  and  Desborough,  the  one,  Kichard's  brother-in-law,  and 
the  other,  his  uncle,  proposed  to  take  from  the  protector  his  mili- 
tary powers  by  making  Fleetwood  commander-in-chief.  Richard 
demurred;  the  Commons  sought  to  strengthen  his  opposition. 
But,  when  the  officers  came  to  him  and  offered  him  the  choice  of 
the  support  of  the  army  or  the  parliament,  he  was  forced  to  yield, 
and  on  April  22  dissolved  his  parliament,  even  before  it  had  voted 
the  usual  supplies. 

The  dismissal  of  the  third  protectorate  parliament  was  a  fatal 
mistake.     Richard  was  not  strong  enough  to  face  the  storm  which 

an  attempt  to  levy  taxes  without  parliamentary  sanc- 
reSmed^^  tiou  would  Create.  So  a  parliament  of  some  kind  must 
nrotect&rate    ^®  called,  and  in  May  the  Rump,  which  Cromwell  had 

so  summarily  driven  out  in  1653,  was  allowed  to  return 
to  Westminster.  Thus  the  revolution  had  begun  to  retrace  its 
steps.  Vane,  Bradshaw,  Scot,  and  Haselrig,  ardent  republicans 
all,  became  at  once  the  men  of  the  hour.  This  undoubtedly  was 
what  the  army  wanted,  for  the  old  republican  spirit,  which  Oliver 
had  repressed  with  so  much  difficulty,  was  once  more  supreme 
among  the  soldiers.     The  Rump  very  naturally  addressed  itself  to 


1659]  THE    RUMP   RESTORED  741 

the  restoration  of  the  republic,  and  after  making  arrangements  to 
pay  the  protector's  debts,  insisted  that  he  lay  down  his  office,  and 
he,  apparently  nothing  loath  to  be  rid  of  an  honor  which  had 
brought  him  only  trouble  and  sleepless  nights,  left  Whitehall  on 
May  25,  never  to  return.  He  retired  into  private  life,  too 
harmless  to  be  molested  in  the  several  revolutions  which  followed, 
and  died  at  last  at  a  green  old  age  in  1712. 

While  the  Rump  was  thus  winding  up  the  affairs  of  the  pro- 
tectorate ill  a  bloodless  counter  revolution,  the  war  which  repre- 
sents   Cromwell's    foreign   policy   was    coming   to    a  successful 

close.  In  1657  Cromwell  had  agreed  to  send  over 
fcJi%f^"^"  ^^^  thousand  of  his  Ironsides  to  join  the  French  in 

an  attack  upon  what  was  left  of  Spain's  possessions  in 
the  Low  Countries.  Mardyke  was  soon  taken  and  in  1658  the  vic- 
tory of  the  Dunes  forced  the  surrender  of  Dunkirk,  and  the  next 
year  Spain  made  her  peace  with  France  by  the  Treaty  of  the 
Pyrenees.  England  received  Dunkirk,  and  France,  Roussillon  and 
Artois,  as  the  spoils  of  the  war.  It  has  been  customary  to  censure 
Cromwell's  intervention  as  a  serious  blunder.  The  results  cer- 
tainly favored  France  far  more  than  England,  and  possibly  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  future  power  of  Louis  XIV.,  raising  up  in 
the  place  of  moribund,  bankrupt  Spain  a  new  rival  to  England  in 
the  France  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Yet  only  prophetic  wis- 
dom could  have  foreseen  this  issue  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  All  the  traditions  of  the  century  past  pointed  to  Spain 
and  not  to  France  as  the  foe  of  England ;  to  cripple  Spain  was  to 
assure  the  future  not  only  of  England  but  of  Protestant  Europe. 


CHAPTER    VI 


THE    STUART    REST0KATI02!?" 

THE  COMMONWEALTH,  1659,  1660 
CHARLES  IL,  1660-1667 


The  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  followed  the  abandonment  of 
the  protectorate  as  a  political  necessity.     The  Rump,  reduced  to 

about  forty  members,  was  again  in  power,  and  although 
ti!)n^poiit-  ^^  straightway  assumed  all  its  former  airs,  declaring 
wai  neces-       the  acts  of  the  protectorate  illegal,  and  commanding 

the  major  generals  to  refund  the  taxes  which  they  had 
collected,  no  one  took  the  fussy  little  oligarchy  seriously,  nor 
could  any  stretch  of  friendly  imagination  regard  it  longer  as  a 
parliament,  or  devise  any  theory  by  which  it  might  be  regarded  as 
a  legal  government.  By  whom  then  should  the  authority  of  the 
state  be  exercised?  Should  a  new  Instrument  of  Government  be 
struck  out  and  some  new  experiment  of  military  rule  be  tried?  If 
the  great  Oliver  were  still  alive,  this  might  be  possible;  but  he 
was  gone  and  the  mould  was  broken.  Moreover,^  in  the  collapse  and 
utter  prostration  which  had  followed  the  over-tension  and  over- 
excitement  of  revolution,  in  the  complete  failure  of  so  many 
schemes  for  curing  the  ills  of  church  and  state,  the  nation  had 
lost  confidence  in  itself.  More  serious  still,  it  had  lost  that  splen- 
did moral  energy  which  had  inspired  it  to  attempt  great  things,  and 
now  sighed  for  the  old  tutelage.  Hence,  long  before  the  year  1659 
had  run  out,  the  hopelessness  of  attempting  to  continue  the  Com- 
monwealth was  generally  apparent,  and  the  most  had  begun  to 
look  for  the  return  of  the  Stuarts  and  the  reestablishment  of  the 
old  monarchy  as  the  quickest  way  out  of  a  bad  business; — the 
surest  way  of  establishing  order  and  confidence  upon  a  permanent 
foundation. 

743 


1659]  MONK    MARCHES    UPON    LONDON  743 

In  the  Slimmer  some  dignity  was  imparted  to  the  Rump  by  the 
prompt  suppression  of  a  royalist  rising  in  Cheshire,  where  Sir 
George  Booth,  a  Presbyterian,  and  a  member  of  the 
SecWmof  Long  Parliament,  had  managed  to  get  a  considerable 
OcM!er^%59  ^^^^^  ^^^^^  ^^^  ^e\d.  Lambert,  however,  was  the  real 
hero  of  the  war,  and  an  ill-advised  attempt  to  remove 
him  and  Desborough,  revealed  the  slender  platform  upon  which 
the  new  power  of  the  Eump  actually  rested.  Lambert  simply 
marched  his  men  down  to  AYestminster,  and  turned  the  self-styled 
parliament  out  with  even  less  ceremony  than  Cromwell  had  used  in 
1653.  Lambert  and  Fleetwood  then  essayed  to  play  over  again 
the  role  of  the  Great  Protector.  But  the  feeble  imitation  of  the 
roar  of  the  dead  lion  only  excited  derision  and  contempt.  The 
authority  of  the  self-appointed  leadere  was  defied;  their  right  to 
collect  taxes  denied;  and  at  last  even  their  own  soldiers  grew  rest- 
less and  disgusted  with  the  farce.  Then  the  leaders  fell  into  an 
aimless  wrangle  among  themselves,  and  finally  in  December  Fleet- 
wood in  sheer  desperation  again  brought  back  the  Rump. 

In  the  meanwhile  disquieting  rumors  were  reaching  London 
from  Scotland,  where  George  Monk  was  still  in  command,  sup- 
ported by  the  old  Commonwealth  army  of  occupation. 
marches  from  He  was  a  silcnt  man,  who  knew  how  to  keep  his  coun- 

Scotlaiid.  .  T    .    .  t  .      , 

sels;  a  simple  soldier,  neither  politician  nor  fanatic,  but 
shrewd  enough  to  see  what  the  outcome  of  so  much  indecision  and 
weakness  must  be.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  had  been 
in  the  king's  service  in  Ireland,  had  crossed  over  with  the  army  in 
1044,  and,  after  the  defeat  at  Nantwich,  with  many  others  had 
taken  service  under  the  parliament.  His  ability  was  recognized 
by  Cromwell;  he  rose  rapidly  and  bore  no  unimportant  part  in 
establishing  the  prestige  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  had  steadily 
supported  Cromwell  but  he  was  not  pleased  with  the  drift  of  affairs 
at  Westminster  after  the  protector's  death  and  was  also  not  slow 
to  express  his  disapproval  of  the  conduct  of  the  generals.  On 
January  1,  1660  he  crossed  the  border.  Lambert  advanced  to 
Newcastle  to  hold  the  Tyne,  but  his  soldiers  refused  to  support 
him  and  showed  their  ill  will  by  frequent  desertions ;  and  when 
in  addition  to  these  discouragements  Lambert  learned  that  Fair- 


744  THE    EESTOllATIOJq^  [chablesII. 

fax  had  raised  the  Yorkshire  militia  in  his  rear,   he  saw  that 
resistance  was  useless  and  allowed  Monk  to  march  upon  London. 

When  Monk  entered  the  city,  he  found  it  in  wild  uproar.  Its 
representatives  had  been  among  the  Presbyterian  majority  who  had 
been  expelled  from  the  Long  Parliament  in  1648  and 
SSthe  ^^^  ^^^y  council  had  now  taken  the  broad  ground  that, 
^^^'^^^*^^*^- "since  they  were  denied  representation  in  parliament, 
they  would  pay  no  taxes  until  the  vacancies  had  been 
filled.  Monk  saw  the  justice  of  their  claim;  he  felt  also  that  only 
by  a  new  parliament  could  the  existing  difficulties  be  settled.  On 
February  16,  therefore,  he  declared  for  a  free  and  full  parliament 
and  compelled  the  Rump  to  call  back  the  excluded  members.  The 
moderate  party  were  thus  again  brought  into  power.  They  pro- 
ceeded to  appoint  Monk  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and 
Montague  admiral  of  the  navy,  imprisoned  Lambert  and  Vane, 
ordered  tlie  election  of  a  new  parliament,  and  then,  March  16, 
1660,  voted  their  own  dissolution.  Thus  at  last  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment by  its  own  act,  was  properly  dismissed  into  history;  and 
for  the  first  time  in  twenty  years  the  legal  voters  of  England  had 
an  opportunity  to  express  their  opinions  in  a  free  general  election. 

There  could  be  little  doubt  as  to  what  kind  of  government  the 
new  parliament  would  favor.  But  no  effort  was  made  to  control 
the  elections  or  commit  the  members.  Monk  had  kept 
'wmof^Breda  ^^^^  ^^^  counsels,  declaring  that  if  his  shirt  knew  what 
was  in  his  head,  he  would  burn  his  shirt.  Charles  in 
the  meanwhile  was  at  Breda  in  North  Brabant,  surrounded  by  a 
little  court  of  exiles  who  had  continued  to  cling  to  the  Stuart 
House  in  the  midst  of  its  misfortunes.  Their  turn  was  at  last 
coming.  Charles,  however,  was  under  the  control  of  wise  coun- 
sellors, and  on  April  4  he  issued  from  his  asylum  the  famous 
Declaration  which  still  farther  cleared  the  air  and  helped  to  win 
the  confidence  of  the  hesitating.  He  promised  a  general  pardon, 
but  left  exceptions  to  be  made  by  parliament  as  well  as  the  final 
disposition  of  confiscated  estates.  He  also  pledged  himself  to 
support  a  measure  for  the  full  payment  of  the  arrears  which  were 
due  Monk's  soldiers  and  to  receive  them  into  his  service.  He 
promised  further  that  "no  man  should  be  disquieted  for  differences 


1660]  THE   CONVENTION    PARLIAMENT  745 

of  opinion  in  matters  of  religion  which  do  not  disturb  the  peace  of 
the  realm,"  and  that  he  would  accept  any  act  which  parliament 
might  pass  with  this  object  in  view. 

The  new  parliament,  which  assembled  on  the  25th  of  April,  is 
known  as  the  "Convention  Parliament"  because  the  writs  had  not 

been  issued  in  the  king's  name  and  to  that  extent  were 
hm^of^uie  technically  irregular.  The  Lords,  with  the  exception 
PaiMammt     ^^   ^^®   bishops,    who   had   been    legally   excluded   by 

statute,  assembled  in  their  old  accustomed  place.  Here 
the  cavalier  spirit  naturally  ran  high;  but  in  the  Commons,  since 
the  Malignants,  or  radical  cavaliers,  were  still  disqualified,  the 
more  conservative  royalists,  represented  mostly  by  the  Presby- 
terians and  moderate  Episcopalians,  were  in  the  majority.  The 
Declaration  of  Breda,  in  which  Charles  had  virtually  left  the  future 
adjustment  of  affairs  to  parliament,  particularly  appealed  to  this 
body,  who,  while  it  wished  to  get  away  from  Cromwellianism, 
had  no  wish  to  see  the  principles  of  Laud  or  Strafford  reinstated. 
In  spite,  therefore,  of  an  attempted  revolt  by  Lambert  who  had 
escaped  from  the  Tower,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  Ilaselrig  and 
Ludlow,  in  spite  of  the  tracts  of  Milton  who  frantically  urged 
upon  the  people  the  advantages  of  the  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment, in  spite  even  of  the  efforts  of  Fairfax  and  ^lanchester  who 
would  hold  Charles  off  until  more  definite  pledges  had  been 
secured,  the  parliament  declared  that  "according  to  the  ancient 
and  fundamental  laws  of  this  kingdom,  the  government  is  and 
ought  to  be,  by  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,"  and  invited  Charles 
Stuart  to  assume  the  royal  authority. 

On   the   28th  of  May    IGGO,  his   thirtieth   birthday,   Charles 
entered  London.     He  is  described  as  tall,  dark,  with  prominent 

features;  not  handsome,  yet  fascinating  in  manner  and 
Character  brilliant  in  speech,  abounding  in  patience  and  good 
Charles II.     humor,   and  of  marvelous  tact.      But  under  all   this 

charming  exterior  he  concealed  a  nature  which  was 
selfish,  unscrupulous,  deceitful,  and  capable  of  the  grossest 
debauchery.  For  ten  years,  however,  he  had  now  been  before  the 
public,  and  these  baser  elements  of  his  nature  were  well  under- 
stood.    Cromwell  had  said,  when  asked  to  treat  with  him,  "He  is 


746  THE    EESTORATIOI^  [ 


Charles  II. 


SO  damnably  debauched,  that  he  would  ruin  us  all."  Yet  Charles 
was  no  fool;  under  an  exterior  which  made  him  appear  always 
trifling  and  indifferent,  he  concealed  a  natural  sagacity,  certainly 
an  unusual  trait  in  a  Stuart.  He  had  also  been  tutored  to  good 
purpose  by  the  events  of  his  chequered  career,  and  had  no  wish 
to  "set  out  on  his  travels  again."  He  had  studied  well  his 
father's  career,  and  saw  that  his  father's  mistake  lay  in  allowing 
himself  to  appear  as  the  responsible  agent  in  carrying  out  his 
policy  of  repression.  He  deliberately  adopted,  therefore,  the 
wiser,  if  not  the  more  honorable  policy,  of  throwing  all  respon- 
sibility upon  his  ministers,  and  keeping  himself  in  such  a  position, 
that  he  might  at  any  time  disclaim  their  acts.  This  policy  he 
had  already  inaugurated  when  he  had  so  heartlessly  left  poor 
Montrose  to  suffer  for  his  devotion  in  1650. 

At  his  coronation  Charles  made  Edward  Hyde,  his  old  tutor 
and  the  companion  of  his  wanderings.  Earl  of  Clarendon  and 
advanced  him  to  the  position  of  chancellor.  At  this 
of^Chalflt''^  time  Hyde  was  fifty-one  years  old.  He  had  been  a 
member  of  the  Long  Parliament  and  had  voted  for  the 
attainder  of  Strafford.  But  like  Falkland  and  others,  he  was 
devoted  to  the  Anglican  Church,  and  had  quarreled  with  the 
radical  reformers  over  the  Root  and  Branch  Bill,  thus  making  the 
first  division  in  the  Long  Parliament  and  ultimately  creating  a 
king's  party.  Of  others  who  received  the  new  king's  favors  were 
Monk  who  was  made  Duke  of  Albemarle,  and  Charles's  brother, 
James  Duke  of  York,  who  was  made  Lord  High  Admiral.  James 
was  a  convert  to  Catholicism  and  as  devoted  to  religion  as  the  king 
was  indifferent.  With  him  was  associated  the  Commonwealth 
admiral,  Montague,  who  was  made  Earl  of  Sandwich.  Anthony 
Ashley  Cooper,  another  Commonwealth  man,  was  made  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  and  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Lord  Ashley. 

The  Convention  Parliament  at  once  took  up  the  business  of 
adjusting  the  kingdom  to  the  new  order,  proceeding  upon  the 
lines  suggested  by  the  Declaration  of  Breda.  An  Act  of  Indem- 
nity and  Oblivion,  covering  all  offenses  committed  since  the  out- 
break of  the  Civil  War,  prepared  for  the  proclamation  of  a  general 
amnesty,  from  which  only  those  were  exclnded  who  had  brought 


1660]  THE   CONVEKTIOX    PARLIAMENT  747 

the  Ifite  king  to  his  death.     The  bodies  of  Cromwell,  Ireton,  Pride, 
and  Bradshaw  were  taken  from  their  graves  and  hung  in  chains 

from  tall  gibbets,  while  London  roared  with  applause. 
Fi'fcfmlen-  ^J"^?  Blake,  who  had  died  on  the  way  home  from  Vera 
ment"'^^^^'     ^^^^z,  the  mother  of  Cromwell,  and  others   were    torn 

from  their  resting  places  at  Westminster  and  tlirown 
into  a  common  pit.  Then,  having  glutted  their  ghoulish  vengeance 
on  the  dead,  the  avengers  turned  upon  the  living.  Twenty-nine 
were  held  for  trial.  Harrison  and  nine  others  were  condemned 
to  death.  Martin  was  imprisoned  in  Chepstow  Castle  where  he 
died  in  1G81.  Haselrig  and  Lenthall  were  declared  incapable  of 
office  for  the  rest  of  their  lives;  Whitelock  was  left  to  die  in 
obscurity.  Lambert  and  Vane,  who  were  not  regicides,  were 
spared  for  the  present.  The  marvel  is  that  more  did  not  suffer; 
but  Charles  took  no  delight  in  blood-shedding  for  its  own  sake. 
He  was  shrewd  enough,  moreover,  to  see  that  moderation  would 
make  him  no  enemies  while  an  unseemly  vindictiveness  might. 

A  far  more  difficult  question  to  settle  was  the  disposal  of  the 
claims  to  the  forfeited  estates.     Those  who  had  fought  for   the 

father  and  shared  the  exile  of  the  son  surely  ought 
Z(£^^^^^  ^^^^  ^^  ^^  ^^^^  "^  penary.     Yet  the  new  king,  after  the 

promise  of  indemnity  and  oblivion,  could  not  deprive  the 
present  holders  of  lands  which  had  in  most  instances  been  obtained 
by  open  purchase.  Moreover,  the  men  who  had  restored  Charles 
were  in 'many  cases  the  very  men  who  had  profited  most  by  the 
parliamentary  forfeitures.  In  general  no  rule  was  established  and 
the  individual  cavaliers  were  left  to  fight  the  matter  out  in  the 
courts  and  get  what  redress  they  could.  To  them  the  Restoration 
had  offered  only  a  cold  cake;  bitterly  they  commented  on  the 
humanity  of  the  Convention  Parliament;  the  Act  of  Indemnity 
they  called  "an  Act  of  Indemnity  for  the  king's  enemies  and  an 
Act  of  Oblivion  for  his  friends." 

The  difficult  task  of  paying  off  and  dismissing  the  old  Crom- 
wellian  soldiers  was  next  taken  in  hand  and  entrusted  to  Monk. 
He  performed  his  work  so  well  that  in  a  very  short  time  the 
veterans  of  the  Commonwealth  wars  had  returned  to  their  old 
peaceful  occupations.     The  prejudice  against  a  standing  army  was 


748  THE    RESTORATION  [charlesH. 

as  strong  as  ever,  and  it  was  at  first  intended  to  disband  all  the 
regiments,  but   an   outbreak  of  a  small  band  of  Fifth  Monarchy 

enthusiasts,  who  by  the  violence  and  suddenness  of 
Fwcomnum-  ^^®i^  attack  terrorized  London  for  a  few  hours,  impressed 
bandecL^'^       upon  the  government  the  importance  of  having  a  body 

of  disciplined  men  within  call.  Three  regiments, 
therefore,  in  all  about  five  thousand  men,  were  retained.  These 
regiments  were  Monk's  own  regiment,  the  famous  "Cold  Stream 
Guards,"  a  newly  organized  regiment  know^n  as  "The  King's 
Horse  Guards,"  and  a  third  regiment  stationed  as  a  garrison  at 
Dunkirk.  They  were  uniformed  in  the  famous  scarlet  coat,  which 
had  already  been  worn  by  Cromwell's  Ironsides  in  the  French 
campaign.  With  the  artillery  they  formed  the  nucleus  out  of 
which  has  developed  the  modern  regular  army  of  the  British 
Empire.  In  order  still  further  to  remove  all  temptation  to  revolt, 
parliament  directed  the  dismantling  of  the  walls  and  fortresses  of 
all  the  inland  towns  of  England.  The  walls  of  Oxford,  York,  and 
Chester,  however,  were  spared  for  the  sake  of  the  loyalty  of  these 
cities  to  the  late  king. 

The  Convention  Parliament  was  by  no  means  a  body  of  mere 
blind   reactionaries.      They   had   no   wish   to   restore   again    the 

machinery  of  the  old  arbitrary  government  of  Charles 
RevMion^    I.,  which  the  Long  Parliament  had  swept  away.     The 

Star  Chamber  and  the  Court  of  High  Commission  were 
left  to  rest  in  their  graves.  No  effort  was  made  to  revive  ship 
money  or  benevolences  or  forced  loans;  no  one  raised  the  question 
of  the  right  of  the  crown  to  levy  taxes  without  the  consent  of  the 
nation  given  through  its  representatives.  Even  the  Privy  Council 
might  not  venture  again  to  issue  its  ordinances  as  laws  upon  sub- 
jects where  parliament  had  spoken.  So,  also,  the  vast  body  of  out- 
worn feudal  precedents  which  Charles  I.  had  sought  to  revive  in 
the  interests  of  his  treasury,  were  now  formally  and  finally  abol- 
ished; and  the  old  medieval  system  of  subsidies  was  abandoned 
for  the  system  of  regular  assessments  which  the  Commonwealth 
had  introduced.  To  indemnify  the  king  for  the  surrender  of 
feudal  revenues,  he  received  an  hereditary  excise  on  liquors,  which 
then  amounted  to  about  £300,000.     Thus,  although  the  Common- 


1660]  THE    CAVALIER    PARLIAMENT  749 

wealth  had  gone,  the  work  of  Coke  and  Eliot,  of  Hampden,  Pym, 
Vane,  and  Cromwell,  was  not  to  be  undone.  England  had  at  last 
shaken  herself  loose  from  feudalism  and  the  middle  ages;  her 
people  had  established  their  right  to  make  their  own  laws  and  levy 
their  own  taxes  for  the  needs  of  government.  The  entire  tissue  of 
prerogative  theories  had  been  riven  and  blown  away  in  the  storms 
of  the  Revolution.  Hereafter,  when  law  is  violated  by  the  crown 
or  its  officers,  it  is  done  by  fraud  or  open  violence,  but  not  under 
the  pretext  of  superior  right. 

On  December  29, 16G0,  Charles  dissolved  his  first  parliament, — 

his  "healing  and  blessed  parliament"  as  he  called  it;  and  on  May 

8,  his  second  parliament  met.     The  royalist  reaction  in 

The  Cnvnlier 

Parliament,  the  Country  had  now  progressed  so  far  that  very  few  of 
the  moderate  men  of  the  first  parliament  had  been 
returned.  Instead,  a  body  of  bitter  reactionaries  came  together, 
"more  jealous  for  royalty  than  the  king,  more  jealous  for  Episco- 
pacy than  the  bishops,"  and  determined  to  take  vengeance  on  their 
old  enemies  and  ignore  all  the  acts  of  the  Long  Parliament  which 
had  not  been  sanctioned  by  the  formal  assent  of  King,  Lords,  and 
Commons.  Of  the  acts  which  had  been  passed  before  1G42  and 
had  received  the  sanction  of  the  king,  only  two  were  repealed ;  but 
the  repeal  of  these  two,  the  Triennial  Act  and  the  act  which 
excluded  the  bishops  from  the  House  of  Lords,  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  second  Stuart  Despotism.  Two  other  acts  also  revealed  the 
drift  of  the  new  parliament.  It  was  declared  that  the  command 
of  the  militia  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  king  and,  further,  that  even  a 
defensive  war  against  the  king  was  unlawful. 

So  eager  was  the  new  parliament  for  vengeance  that  the  gov- 
ernment could  with  difficulty  persuade  it  to  confirm  the  various 
conciliatory  measures  of  the  last  parliament.     It  was 

Execution  of  .!;  ,,1  tti 

Sir  Henry      determined   to    have   blood;    and   Lambert    and  Vane 

Vane,  1662.  .  .  .   ,  '  „  _         , 

were  brought  to  trial  on  a  charge  of  treason.  Lambert 
escaped  the  death  penalty,  only  to  be  imprisoned  for  life,  but 
Vane  was  condemned  to  a  traitor's  death.  That  more  victims  did 
not  suffer  was  due,  not  to  the  temper  of  parliament,  but  to  Charles 
himself,  who  had  no  sympathy  with  what  his  over  ardent  friends 
called  "justice." 


750  THE    RESTOKATION  [cuarles  ll. 

The  burning  question  of  the  hour  was  still  the  old  question  of 
chiirch  settlement.     The  majority  of  the  nation,  perhaps,  would 

have  been  well  pleased  with  a  settlement  upon  the  basis 
Ziemenfof  ^^  some  such  plan  as  Cromwell  had  favored,  known  as 
timi^^^^^^     the  '* Comprehension,"  because  it  comprehended  all  the 

various  Protestant  bodies,  leaving  the  bishop  to  be 
simply  an  overseer  of  the  church,  associated  in  his  diocese  with  a 
council  of  presbyters  but  shorn  of  all  authority  as  lord.  Charles 
had  practically  declared  for  such  a  scheme  when  he  was  playing 
for  the  support  of  the  Presbyterians.  As  far  as  his  own  religious 
preferences  were  concerned  he  leaned  towards  Catholicism;  his 
dissolute  life,  moreover,  put  an  insurmountable  barrier  between 
himself  and  the  leaders  of  the  Presbyterian  party.  Presbyterian- 
ism,  he  had  said,  was  "no  religion  for  a  gentleman."  If  he  must 
choose.  Episcopacy  from  his  point  of  view  would  be  the  least 
objectionable.  Charles,  therefore,  now  that  he  had  won  his  throne 
again,  could  have  no  other  motive  save  the  honor  of  his  word, 
which  never  weighed  heavily  with  him,  in  resisting  the  efforts  of 
Clarendon  and  his  Cavalier  Parliament,  who  were  determined  to 
restore  the  whole  Anglican  system.     Their  purpose  was  embodied 

in  a  series  of  tyrannical  acts  known  as  the  "Clarendon 
d^CodT^"^  Code."^    Of  these  the  "Corporation  Act,"  passed  in 

1661,  required  all  local  borough  officials  to  receive  the 
communion  according  to  the  rites  of  the  church,  take  the  oaths 
of  supremacy,  allegiance,  and  nonresistance,  and  renounce  the 
Covenant;  the  "Act  of  Uniformity,"  passed  in  May  1662  , required 
all  beneficed  clergy  to  use  the  Prayer  Book,  and  further  threatened 
to  deprive  of  their  livings  all  who,  not  having  been  ordained  by  a 
bishop,  should  fail  to  secure  such  ordination  before  the  24th  of 
August  following, — St.  Bartholomew's  Day. 

When  the  fatal  day  of  August  arrived,  some  two  thousand  men, 
rather  than  be  faithless  to  conscience,  turned  their  backs  upon 
their  pleasant  homes  and  went  out,  many  of  them  with  families,  to 


1  They  were  The  Corporation  Act,  1661,  The  Act  of  Uniformity,  1662, 
The  Conventicle  Act,  1664,  and  The  Five  Mile  Act,  1665.  See  Gee  and 
Hardy,  pp.  594-623. 


1662]  THE   DISSENTERS  751 

penury  and  actual  want ;  for  beyond  a  few  months'  salary  no  other 
relief  was  given.  The  two  thousand  clergymen  included  Pres- 
The found-  hyterians,  Independents,  and  Baptists,  "probably  the 
hod'^'^o?^  most  zealous  ministers  of  the  gospel  in  England," 
'"Dissenters."  henceforth  to  be  merged  in  the  great  body  of  "Dissen- 
ters."  Of  dominant  Puritanism  we  hear  no  more.  Even  the 
Presbyterian  renounced  all  hope  of  enforcing  his  scheme  of  gov- 
ernment upon  the  nation,  and  looked  only  for  some  form  of  tolera- 
tion by  which  he  might  be  left  in  peace  in  his  peculiar  form  of 
worship. 

It  was  impossible,  however,  to  keep  such  men  from  preaching 
or  attempting  to  minister  to  those  of  their  flock  who  clung  to 
them  in  their  misfortune.  Yet  even  here  the  hostility 
o/D^ntS-s  ^^  ^^^  Cavalier  Parliament  followed  them.  The  "Con- 
venticle Act"  of  May  1G64  declared  that  any  meeting  of 
more  than  five  person's  for  religious  worship  in  ways  other  than 
those  prescribed  by  the  church  was  an  "illegal  conventicle;"  the 
first  offense  to  be  punished  by  fine  and  imprisonment,  the  second 
offense  by  a  heavier  fine  and  longer  imprisonment,  and  the  third 
offense  by  a  fine  of  £100,  or  transportation  for  seven  years.  The 
Conventicle  Act  was  followed  in  October  10G5  by  the  "Five  Mile 
Act"  which  forbade  the  dissenting  clergyman  to  teach  in  any  school, 
or  to  come  within  five  miles  of  any  corporate  town  or  any  place 
where  he  had  once  been  pastor.  The  local  magistrates,  that  is  the 
Cavalier  squires,  who  were  empowered  to  convict  without  a  jury 
and  condemn  even  to  the  sentence  of  transportation,  administered 
the  acts  with  cruel  zeal.  Spies  and  informers  did  not  hesitate  to 
use  the  cloak  of  piety  in  order  to  ply  their  nefarious  trade.  The 
Dissenters  would  not  yield  their  right  of  worshiping  God  in  their 
own  way.  Thousands  were  cast  into  the  filthy  and  unhealthy  dens 
which  passed  for  prisons,  where  the  weak  and  the  infirm  quickly 
succumbed  and  the  strong  came  forth  after  a  few  months 
fmiandfhe  ^^^^en  in  body  if  not  in  spirit.  John  Bunyan,  the  vil- 
PrSiS.'**'  ^^^^  pastor  of  Bedford,  passed  eleven  years  in  the  vil- 
lage jail.  It  was  during  this  period  that  he  sent  forth 
his  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  to  comfort  and  direct  his  fellows  in 
persecution  on  their  way  to  the  Celestial  City.     The  lot  of  the 


752  THE    RESTORATION"  [charles  IL 

Quakers  was  particularly  hard.  Their  gentle  manners,  coupled 
with  the  most  indomitable  obstinacy  in  refusing  to  take  the  ordi- 
nary court  oaths,  at  first  puzzled  and  then  roused  the  fury  of  the 
country  squires.  Some  four  hundred  of  them  at  one  time  lay  in 
the  London  jails,  and  a  thousand  or  more  in  the  other  prisons  of 
the  country. 

Laud  himself  could  hardly  have  done  more.     Yet  there  is  this 

difference  to  be  noted  between  the  work  of  Laud  and  that  of 

Clarendon.     The  Clarendon  Code  was  due  not  so  much 

The  worTi  of  .  .  .  ,..,..  ,„, 

Laiidand  to  reliffious  animositv  as  to  political  animositv.  The 
Laudian  persecutions  were  carried  on  without  parlia- 
ment and  contrary  to  the  laws,  hut  the  Restoration  persecutions 
Avere  carried  on  by  the  special  sanction  of  parliament  and  under 
the  laws.  The  Laudian  persecutions  were  supported  by  the  king 
and  his  bishops,  and  continued  in  spite  of  the  protest  of  the 
nation;  the  Restoration  persecutions  were  supported  by  a  power- 
ful national  party  who  had  their  way  in  spite  of  a  good-natured 
king,  who  was  too  shrewd  to  interfere,  but  who  of  himself  would 
have  preferred  toleration.  Laud,  moreover,  aimed  to  make  the 
church  independent  of  parliament,  but  the  authors  of  the  Restora- 
tion persecutions  were  interested  rather  in  asserting  the  authority 
of  the  restored  parliament  over  those  elements  of  the  nation  which 
they  justly  regarded  as  responsible  for  the  excesses  of  the  Civil 
War.  Although  eager  to  restore  the  church  as  the  buttress  of 
Cavalierism,  they  had  no  desire  to  put  the  clergy  back  upon  the 
pedestal  from  which  the  Puritans  had  once  thrown  them  doAvn. 
The  very  parliament  which  passed  the  Clarendon  Code,  in  1662 
took  from  the  Convocation  the  right  of  ecclesiastical  taxation  and 
vested  it  in  the  House  of  Commons,  where  clergymen  were  not 
allowed  to  sit ;  thus  merging  the  last  of  the  group  of  powers,  which 
had  constituted  the  dignity  of  the  once  great  First  Estate,  in  the 
fiscal  and  political  powers  of  the  body  which  had  come  to  repre- 
sent the  common  nation. 

The  age  in  fact  was  anything  hut  a  religious  age.  The  nation 
was  drifting  rapidly  from  its  old  moorings,  and  coming  to  look 
upon  all  theological  divergences,  not  by  any  means  with  indiffer- 
ence, but  as  a  matter  of  personal  politics  rather  than  personal  reli- 


1661]  THE    RESTORATION    IN   IRELAND  753 

gion.  The  real  religion  of  the  governing  class,  the  only  religion 
in  fact  which  ever  took  hold  upon  the  imagination  of  the  Cavalier, 
j^  ,.  ,  was  a  sort  of  king-worship,  which  all  bat  apotheosized 
ufe^Jf'^^  the  late  king  and  forced  the  church,  in  return  for  sup- 
hngjand.  port  and  protection,  to  take  up  the  propaganda  of  mon- 
archy as  the  form  of  government  specially  pleasing  to  God,  with  the 
accompanying  doctrines  of  divine  right,  passive  obedience,  and 
nonresi  stance. 

In  Ireland  the  restoration  of  royal  authority  was  a  simple  mat- 
ter, but  the  conflict  of  cross  interests  made  the  final  adjustment  of 

claims  and  titles  even  more  difficult  than  in  England. 
Wminire-      In  the  first  place  there  was  the  great  garrison  of  Crom- 

wellian  veterans  and  their  friends,  who  had  settled  in 
the  most  choice  parts  of  the  island.  Then  there  were  the  loyal 
Cavaliers  who  had  sacrificed  all  for  the  king,  and  who  naturally 
expected  to  be  rewarded  to  the  extent,  at  least,  of  getting  back  the 
lands  which  they  had  lost  in  consequence  of  their  loyalty.  In  the 
third  place  there  were  a  few  royal  favorites  as  the  king's  brother 
James  Duke  of  York,  Albemarle,  and  others,  to  whom  the 
king  had  made  large  promises  of  Irish  lands ;  and  finally  there  was 
the  older  Celtic  Catholic  population,  who  had  reason  to  think  that 
their  loyalty  to  the  Stuarts  deserved  protection  at  least.  The 
high-minded  Ormond,  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  nobly  wrestled  with 
the  problem.  He  dared  not  disturb  the  old  Cromwellian  soldiers, 
lest  he  rouse  them  to  open  revolt,  and  by  the  Act  of  Settlement, 
1G61,  confirmed  them  in  their  present  possessions  as  well  as  the 
English  Adventurers  who  had- settled  under  the  pledge  of  Charles 
I.  A  new  adjustment,  four  years  later,  evened  matters  up  some- 
what between  the  Cromwellian  settlers  and  the  royalists ;  but  the 
Catholic  Irish  population  were  left  in  possession  of  less  than  one- 
third  of  the  island.  An  even  more  serious  matter  for  Ireland  was 
the  dissolution  of  the  union,  an  act  which  committed  England  to 
her  later  Irish  policy,  with  all  the  vexing  questions  growing  out 
of  it,  depriving  Ireland  of  the  benefit  of  the  Navigation  Act  and 
preparing  the  way  for  a  systematic  and  deliberate  policy  of  fatten- 
ing English  farmers  and  merchants  at  the  expense  of  Ireland. 
This  policy  began  to  bear  fruit  in  16G5  when  the  English  parlia- 


754  THE   EESTO RATION"  [cuarles  ii. 

merit  forbade  the  Irish  to  export  to  England  either  cattle,  or  meat, 
or  butter,  thus  cutting  off  Ireland  from  the  possibility  of  develop- 
ing as  a  grazing  country,  for  which  both  soil  and  climate  specially 
adapted  her.  The  restoration  of  the  Irish  parliament  further 
prepared  the  seeds  of  future  bitterness  by  placing  the  Celtic 
Catholic  population  at  the  mercy  of  laws  made  by  the  Protestant 
minority,  who  now  held  the  great  part  of  the  lands  of  the  island 
and  controlled  the  local  parliament.  The  Anglican  Church, 
hated  alike  by  Irish  Presbyterian  and  Irish  Catholic,  was  also 
brought  back  to  add  still  another  element  of  discord  and  misery  in 
the  future.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  wrongs  of  the  pe'ople,  in  spite  of 
disturbances  caused  by  "Eapparees"  and  "Tories,"^  for  twenty- 
five  years  after  the  return  of  the  Stuarts  the  land  was  substantially 
at  peace  and  there  was  much  prosperity  for  the  Protestant  settlers 
of  the  north,  although  little  for  the  subject  Celts  of  the  south  and 
west. 

The  Scots  had  never  liked  the  Cromwellian  union,  partly 
because  Cromwell  had  maintained  it  in  a  somewhat  arbitrary  way, 
and  partly  because  the  Scots  were  still  by  tradition 
suspicious  of  the  English,  l^he  abandonment  of  the 
union,  therefore,  followed  at  once  upon  the  withdrawal  of  Monk's 
army,  and  Scotland  again  became  a  separate  state,  bound  to 
England  only  by  the  possession  of  a  common  king.  Like  Ire- 
land she  lost  the  benefit  of  the  Navigation  Act,  the  privilege 
of  trade  without  restriction  in  the  English  colonies  as  well  as 
freedom  of  trade  with  England,  but  she  got  back  her  precious 
ministry  and  her  parliament.  All  acts  passed  subsequent  to  1632 
were  swept  away  by  the  "Rescissory  Act."  The  bishops  were 
restored,  but  without  their  powers  or  the  fatal  Liturgy  of  Laud. 
The  royalists,  however,  were  not  willing  to  stop  with  merQ  reac- 
tionary legislation.  The  blood  of  Montrose  was  still  unavenged, 
and,  to  satisfy  the  cry  for  vengeance,  Argyll  was  arrested  in  Lon- 
don and  hurried  back  to  be  put  to  deatt  upon  the  nominal  charge 
of  complicity  in  the  death  of  Charles  I.     The  Presbyterian  clergy, 

1  Bands  of  desperate  outlaws,  who  sought  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of 
the  Irish  people  by  preying  upon  the  settlers  of  English  blood. 


1662]  THE    RESTQRATIOISr    IK    SCOTLAND  755 

who  had  protested  against  the  promise  of  toleration^  given  in  the 
Declaration  of  Breda,  found  themselves  like  their  English  brethren 
compelled  either  to  accept  the  hated  Episcopacy  or  to  face  a  life 
burdened  with  persecution  or,  at  best,  penury.  All  political  power, 
both  administrative  and  legislative,  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  com- 
mittee, nominated  by  the  crown  and  composed  of  a  set  of  men 
among  whom  the  ruffians,  Middleton  and  Lauderdale,  soon  became 
conspicuous,  whose  native  coarseness  and  overbearing  brutality 
were  not  improved  by  a  habit  of  almost  perpetual  drunkenness. 
**It  was  a  mad,  roaring  time."  Middleton  and  Lauderdale  let 
loose  their  troopers  to  hunt  down  the  Covenanters  among  the 
western  hills  and  moorlands.  The  spirit  of  these  Covenanters, 
however,  was  quite  different  from  that  of  the  inoffensive  Quaker 
or  even  the  nonconformist  of  the  south.  Persecution  did  not 
make  them  meek ;  the  preacher's  cloak  as  often  covered  a  sword 
or  pistol  as  a  Bible,  and  the  stealthy  gathering  for  prayer  was 
more  than  once -the  prelude  to  a  fierce  battle  with  the  king's  men. 
The  spirit  of  such  men  could  not  be  broken,  even  when  the  High- 
landers were  sent  into  their  homes  to  dragoon  them  into  submis- 
sion. 

The  Restoration  made  little  difference  in  the  foreign  policy  of 
England  so  far  as  alliances  were  concerned,  but  its  spirit  was  very 

different.  Clear-headed  Englishmen,  including  Claren- 
tinnandfor-  ^^^^  himself,  already  saw  the  menace  to  England  of  the 
ErwUind^'^^  growing  power  of  France,  but  Charles  saw  only  the 

immediate  benefit  which  the  support  of  the  French 
monarchy  promised  him.  In  1662  he  married  the  Catholic  princess, 
Catharine,  who  was  a  sister  of  the  king  of  Portugal,  the  old  ally 
of  France  against  Spain.  Bombay  and  Tangier  came  to  England  as 
the  price  which  Portugal  paid  for  this  alliance.  The  English 
were  not  pleased  with  the  increase  of  their  Catholic  allies,  and 
when,  the  same  year,  Charles  parted  with  Dunkirk,  the  Great  Pro- 
tector's last  acquisition,  selling  it  to  the  French  for  £250,000, 
even  the  bliadest  of  royalists  felt  some  chagrin  in  comparing  the 
subservient  position  assumed  by  his  beloved  king  with  that  inde- 
pendent dignity  which  Cromwell  had  maintained  in  the  face  of 
other  nations. 


756  THE    RESTORATpN  [ 


Charles  II. 


Charles  had  received  popular  support  in  an  attack  which  the 

Convention    Parliament  had  made   upon   the   carr}ung  trade   of 

Holland  in  renewing  the  old  "Navigation  Act"  of  the 

Renewal  of       -r>  ^ni 

cnmmerciai     Rump.     Charles,  also,  was  determined  that  his  sister's 

attack  upon 

Holland.        son  should   DC  restored    to  the    Stadholdership,  from 

Second  Dutch      ,  .   ,       ,        t^ 

War,  1665-  which  the  Dutch  Eepublicans,  the  brothers  De  Witt, 
were  keeping  him.  Old  trade  jealousies,  too,  hardly 
allayed  by  a  treaty  which  Clarendon  made  in  1662,  burned  as 
fiercely  as  ever.  Hostilities  soon  began  both  in  Africa  and  in 
America,  wherever  English  and  Dutch  merchants  or  colonists  came 
into  contact.  Clarendon  struggled  against  the  war  spirit,  but  the 
merchant  influence  w^as  too  strong  for  him,  and  for  two  years  the 
English  and  Dutch  carried  on  a  desperate  contest  on  the  seas. 
The  English  navy  was  paralyzed  by  mismanagement  and  knavery, 
and  vast  sums  were  squandered  to  no  purpose.  The  heroes  of  tlie 
war  on  the  English  side  were  the  veterans  Rupert  and  Albemarle; 
on  the  Dutch  side  De  Ruyter.  The  war  closed  with  the  peace  of 
Breda,  July  1667,  leaving  England  in  possession  of  New  Amster- 
dam, which  had  been  taken  by  Admiral  Holmes  early  in  the  Avar. 
It  was  rechristened  New  York  in  honor  of  the  king's  brother,  the 
Lord  High  Admiral,  and  at  once  took  a  high  place  among  the 
important  English  colonies  in  the  New  World.  Charles's  ally, 
Louis  of  France,  had  supported  the  Dutch  in  the  war,  first  because 
the  merchant  oligarchy  who  ruled  Holland  and  opposed  the  Prince 
of  Orange,  were  French  both  in  policy  and  in  sympathy,  and 
second  because  he  did  not  wish  to  have  his  English  protege  grow 
so  strong  that  he  could  not  be  controlled. 

While  England  was  engaged  in  the  Dutch  War,  there  occurred 
one  of  those  visitations,  always  mysterious  in  an  era  when  little  was 
known  of  the  simplest  laws  of  sanitation,  but  to-day 
Via  ue^md  ^6^dily  ascribed  to  the  open  sewers,  lack  of  drainage, 
polluted  water,  and  filthy  tenements,  the  common 
features  of  life  in  a  European  city  down  to  the  present  century. 
In  the  summer  of  1665,  it  is  estimated,  over  one  hundred  thou- 
sand persons  perished  in  London;  whole  families  were  swept 
away ;  business  was  abandoned  and  all  who  could,  fled  the  city. 
The  streets  were  deserted  by  day,  and  at  night  the  silence  was 


1666,  1667]  THE   GKEAT   FIRE  757 

broken  only  by  the  dismal  creaking  of  the  dead-cart,  and  the  yet 
more  dismal  cry  of  the  driver,  as  from  time  to  time  he  stopped 
his  cart  and  summoned  the  terrified  watchers  within  to  bring  out 
their  dead.  In  marked  contrast  with  the  conduct  of  the  Episco- 
palian clergy,  the  dissenting  clergymen,  Presbyterian,  Bap- 
tist, and  Independent,  returned  to  the  doomed  city  to  minister 
to  their  old  parishioners  in  their  day  of  mourning.  Some  even 
preached  from  the  vacant  pulpits  of  the  deserted  city  churches. 
When  the  terror  had  passed,  and  the  skulkers  returned,  the  only 
reward  which  parliament  vouchsafed  to  the  heroic  men  who  had 
braved  death  in  the  performance  of  duty  was  the  "Five  Mile 
Act." 

London  had  hardly  recovered  from  the  paralysis  which  attended 
the  plague,  when  there  fell  upon  the  city  another  calamity,  which 

was  in  all  probability  a  blessing  in  disguise  and  prevented 
Fire,  Septem-  the  return  of  the  pestilence.     At  two  o'clock  of  tlie 

morning  of  September  2,  1666,  a  fire,  the  result  of  a 
mere  accident,  broke  out  in  a  bake  shop  in  Pudding  Lane;  a 
violent  gale  was  blowing,  and  the  flames  rapidly  swept  through  the 
city.  The  fire  raged  for  four  days,  burning  eighty-nine  churches, 
including  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  13,200  houses,  leaving  two 
hundred  thousand  persons  homeless,  and  subsiding  only  after 
four-fifths  of  Old  London  had  been  laid  in  ashes.  Curiously 
enough  the  Catholics  were  charged  with  burning  the  city,  and  a 
monument  was  erected  to  commemorate  the  awful  crime.  The 
charge  rested  upon  no  evidence;  the  Dissenting  ministers  or  the 
king  might  have  been  accused  with  equal  justice.  It  shows  how 
deeply  the  old  enmity  and  suspicion,  born  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
had  eaten  into  the  very  blood  of  the  nation.  Hatred  of  Catholics 
was  the  birthright  of  the  new  generation  of  Englishmen. 

Thus  far  Clarendon  had  in  the  main  been  responsible  for  the 
conduct  of  the  Restoration  government.     He  was  an  able  man  of 

affairs  and  a  loyal  minister;    but  he  was  not  a  great 

The  fall  of  ^     ^  ^  ^     -,-,..      .  rr.^  -r^  , 

Clarendon,      statesman  nor  a  successful  politician.      The  Presby- 
terians   could    never  forgive   him  for  the  Clarendon 
Code;  the  royalists  could  not  forget  his  honest  adhesion  to  the  Act 
of    Indemnity.      From    Charles,   however,   he   might   reasonably 


76S  THE    RESTORATION  [chaulesII. 

expect  a  cordial  support;  his  long  tried  friendsliip,  Ins  real  service 
to  the  Stuarts  in  exile,  his  no  less  real  service  in  organizing  and 
establishing  the  restored  government  upon  a  solid  basis,  could  not 
be  ignored  by  a  man  who  had  any  sense  of  personal  honor.  There 
was  little,  however,  in  common  between  the  high-minded  royalist, 
who  drew  his  conceptions  of  duty  and  loyalty  from  the  age  of 
Elizabeth,  and  the  dissolute  and  easy-going  king  of  thirty,  who 
was  more  bent  upon  getting  funds  with  which  to  keep  his  mis- 
tresses in  good  humor  than  he  was  upon  preserving  England's 
prestige  abroad  or  equipping  fleets  to  fight  her  battles.  Claren- 
don, moreover,  never  took  any  pains  to  conceal  his  disapproval  of 
the  unclean  creatures  who  surrounded  the  king,  nor  of  the  license 
of  the  court  which  the  king  so  shamelessly  encouraged.     An  open 

breach  between  the  king  and  his  faithful  minister  had 
mmipinlm^' ^^^^^^^^  ^^  December  1G62,  when  the  king,  taking 
iS^^'  advantage  of  the  adjournment  of  parliament,  published 

a  declaration  softening  somewhat  the  harshness  of  the 
recent  Act  of  Uniformity  by  permitting  individuals  to  violate  the 
law  without  punishment.  Charles  had  little  sympathy  with  the 
humble  Dissenters,  but  he  hoped  to  protect  the  prominent  Catholics 
of  his  court.  When  parliament  met  again,  it  at  once  compelled 
the  king  to  withdraw  his  declaration.  In  this  first  serious  quarrel 
between  Charles  and  parliament.  Clarendon  took  sides  against 
the  king  and  openly  opposed  him  in  the  House  of  Lords.  As 
long  as  Clarendon  had  the  support  of  parliament,  however,  the 
king  feared  to  interfere  with  his  minister.  But  a  late  misfor- 
tune of  the  Dutch  War,  in  which  a  Dutch  fleet  had  entered  the 
Medway  and  burned  an  English  fleet  at  Chatham,  the  disgraceful 
sale  of  Dunkirk,  for  both  of  which  Charles  was  to  blame  and  not 
Clarendon,  the  Great  Plague  and  the  Great  Fire,  for  which  neither 
was  to  blame,  turned  the  popular  tide  against  the  minister.  Even 
the  parliament,  royalist  as  it  was,  had  grown  weary  of  a  man  who 
had  declared  that  "its  power  was  more,  or  less,  or  nothing,  as  the 
king  pleased  to  make  it. "  When,  therefore,  on  the  10th  of  October 
1067,  Clarendon  was  impeached  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords 
as  the  scapegoat  for  the  disasters  of  the  Dutch  W^ar,  he  stood 
alone.     Of  the  twenty-one  articles  brought  against  him,  no  one 


1667]  THE   FALL   OF   CLARENDON  759 

was  really  serious ;  and  yet,  knowing  the  men  with  whom  he  had 
to  deal,  he  saw  that  his  only  safety  lay  in  flight.     On  the  con- 
tinent he  spent  his  last  days  in  completing  his  celebrated  work, 
'The  History  of  the  Great  Rebellion.''     He  died  in  1674. 

The  fall  of  Clarendon  marks  the  close  of  a  distinct  period  in 
the  reign  of  Charles  II.  Clarendon  had  sought  to  restore  the  king- 
ship ;  but  to  restore  the  old  kingship  of  the  Tudor  period  was  no 
longer  possible,  for  the  king  must  henceforth  govern  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  parliament.  At  first  this  was  not  understood;  the  parlia- 
ment was  more  loyal  to  the  kingship  idea  than  Charles  himself. 
But  "the  honeymoon  of  the  Restoration  was  now  over  and  only  an 
uneasy  wedlock  remained;"  the  Cavalier  Parliament  had  lost  its 
*' impulsive  loyalty,"  and  soon  degenerated  into  the  parliament 
known  by  the  less  honorable,  but  no  less  merited,  name  of  the 
''Pensionary  Parliament,"  whose  loyalty  could  never  be  depended 
on  by  the  king  without  a  preliminary  course  of  careful  nursing 
and  manipulation.  The  king  on  his  part  shaped  his  policy  more 
and  more  definitely  towards  the  restoration  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  while  the  parliament  rallied  what  little  sense  of  self- 
respect  remained,  to  defy  him  and  impeach  his  ministers. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    BIRTH    OF   THE    WHIG    PARTY 

CHARLES  II.,  1667-1685 

The  history  of  the  last  eighteen  years  of  the  reign  of  Charles 
II.  turns  upon  the  efforts  of  the  king,  firsts  to  secure  toleration 
for  the  Catholics,  and  second^  to  defeat  the  schemes  of  a 
WMg%c!rty.  Powerful  party  of  reaction,  which  proposed  to  exclude 
his  brother  from  the  succession  on  account  of  his 
adhesion  to  the  Catholic  faith.  The  purpose  of  Charles  appenls 
powerfully  to  the  love  of  fair  play  of  the  present  age;  especially 
since,  in  order  to  secure  the  equal  standing  before  the  laws  of 
his  co-reiigionists,  he  was  willing  to  confer  the  same  boon  upon 
Protestant  Dissenters.  But  unfortunately,  when  Charles  saw  that 
he  could  not  gain  his  ends  through  regular  constitutional  methods, 
he  resorted  to  the  devious  ways  of  secret  treaties  with  the  French, 
and  thus  in  the  minds  of  Englishmen  identified  himself  and  his 
cause  with  the  sins  of  Louis  XIV.  against  the  public  law  of 
Europe,  and  brought  on  a  powerful  anti-Catholic,  anti-French 
reaction,  which  in  time  gave  birth  to  a  new  political  party  sworn  to 
exclude  Catholics  of  whatever  degree  from  all  part  in  the  govern- 
ment at  home,  and  to  check  the  aggressions  of  Louis  XIV.  abroad 
by  setting  bounds  to  the  further  expansion  of  France. 

After  the  fall  of  Clarendon  Charles  undertook  for  a  time  to  be 
his  own  chief  minister.  He  found  the  council,  however,  which 
now  consisted  of  about  fifty  members,  too  unwieldy  for 
''Cahair  easy  manipulation,  and  dropped  into  a  habit  of  con- 
sulting informally  a  group  of  special  favorites,  a  council 
within  the  council,  before  submitting  matters  of  importance  to 
the  larger  body.  Five  men  enjoyed  this  special  confidence  during 
most  of  the  time  between  the  impeachment  of  Clarendon  and  the 
beginning  of  the  career  of  Danby;    Clifford,  Arlington,  Bucking- 

760 


1668]  THE   CABAL  761 

ham,  Ashley,  and  Lauderdale.  When  arrayed  in  this  order,  the 
initial  letters  spelled  the  unfortunate  word  "Cabal,"  which  was  at 
once  fastened  upon  the  junto  as  appropriately  descriptive  of  their 
aims  and  underhand  methods.  Of  the  five,  two,  Clifford  and 
Arlington,  were  Catholic  at  least  in  sympathy ;  one,  Lauderdale, 
was  the  renegade  Covenanter  who  since  1663  had  been  virtually 
dictator  in  Scotland;  one,  the  cleverest  of  them  all.  Lord  Ashley, 
was  a  renegade  Commonwealth  man,  who  as  plain  Anthony  Ashley 
Cooper  had  served  in  the  Barebones  Parliament,  a  sort  of  political 
infidel  who  had  tried  all  parties  and  believed  in  none;  and  last, 
the  son  of  the  old  favorite  of  Charles  I.,  George  Villiers  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  "the  maddest,  wittiest,  most  profligate  man  in  Eng- 
land." ^  Men  of  such  widely  divergent  principles,  and  of  no  prin- 
ciples at  all,  could  never  form  a  strong  coalition;  they  could  not 
form  a  ministry  in  the  modern  sense,  for  they  rarely  acted  together 
and  never  had  the  confidence  of  parliament;  they  did  not  consti- 
tute a  secret  council,  for  the  king  never  trusted  them  all  at  once. 
They  were  simply  a  group  of  favorites  such  as  had  surrounded 
Edward  IL  or  Richard  IL,  who  owed  their  power  largely  to 
personal  and  individual  influence  over  the  king.  They  were 
the  kind  of  men  who  are  commonly  produced  by  revolution, 
thorough-going  spoilsmen,  bound  to  no  policy,  always  watching 
for  the  least  veering  of  the  wind,  and  ready  to  trim  sail  accord- 
ingly. 

Soon  after  the  Cabal  came  into  power,  Louis  XIV.  began  to 
push  forward  his  ambitious  scheme  of  enlarging   France  at  the 

expense  of  those  territories  of  Spain,  Lorraine,  and  the 
Alliance         Empire,  which  lay  between  him  and  the  Rhine.     He 

found  a  plausible  pretext  for  seizing  the  Spanish 
Netherlands  in  the  plea  that  these  lands,  in  consequence  of  the 
death  of  Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  had  "devolved"  upon  his  daughter^ 
the  French  Queen,  to  the  exclusion  of  her  younger  brother,  the 
sickly  Spanish  king,  also  a  Charles  II.  In  the  war  which  fol- 
lowed, known  as  the  "War  of  Devolution,"  the  French  easily 

^  For  Macaulay's  brilliant  portraits  of  the  members  of  the  Cabal,  see 
"Essay  on  Sir  William  Temple. " 


762  BIRTH    OF   WHIG    PARTY  [charlesII. 

overran  Flanders.  The  Dutch,  however,  had  no  desire  to  see  the 
powerful  French  monarchy  advance  to  their  very  doors,  and  in 
1668,  through  the  offices  of  Sir  William  Temple,  succeeded  in 
securing  an  alliance  with  England  and  Sweden  against  the  further 
aggressions  of  France.  The  menace  was  sufficient ;  Louis  had  his 
own  colonial  possessions  to  protect;  he  had  no  wish  to  enter  into 
a  war  in  which  the  two  most  powerful  navies  of  Europe  would  be 
arrayed  against  him;  and  by  the  Treaty  of  Aachen,  1668,  grace- 
fully restoring  a  great  part  of  the  territories  which  he  had  seized, 
ostensibly  yielded  his  claims  upon  the  Spanish  Netherlands.  Yet 
Louis  had  changed,  not  his  purpose,  but  only  his  method  of 
attack.  He  saw  that  before  he  could  seize  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands he  must  crush  Holland,  and  accordingly,  to  attain 
Treaty  of  this  end,  he  first  bought  Sweden  and  England  out  of 
the  Triple  Alliance;  he  also  secured  the  non-interfer- 
ence of  the  Empire  by  .promising  upon  the  death  of  his  sickly 
brother-in-law,  the  Spanish  Charles  II.,  to  share  with  Leopold, 
the  emperor,  the  plunder  of  Spain.  In  England  the  course  of 
events  greatly  favored  Louis.  In  1668  Charles,  supported  by 
the  entire  Cabal,  attempted  to  persuade  parliament  to  enact  a 
*' Comprehension  Bill,"  designed  to  "comprehend"  some  of  the 
nonconformist  bodies  within  the  established  Church  and  secure 
general  toleration.  Parliament,  however,  not  only  rejected  the 
Comprehension  Bill,  but  in  1670  reenacted  the  Second  Con- 
venticle Act,  and  increased  the  severity  of  some  of  its  measures. 
Charles,  therefore,  in  despair  of  securing  toleration  for  Catholics 
by  constitutional  measures,  after  a  secret  consultation  with  the  duke 
of  York,  Arundel,  and  the  two  Catholic  members  of  the  Cabal, 
determined  to  appeal  to  Louis.  Here  was  Louis's  opportunity,  and 
he  quickly  took  advantage  of  it.  In  June  1670  the  two  powers 
signed  the  secret  Treaty  of  Dover,  in  which  Charles  agreed  to 
unite  with  Louis  in  making  war  upon  the  Dutch,  and  Louis  agreed 
to  pay  him  £230,000  per  annum  and  give  him  control  of  thirty 
French  ships.  Charles,  furthermore,  was  to  declare  himself  a 
Catholic,  "as  soon  as  the  affairs  of  his  kingdom  should  permit." 
Louis  on  his  part  if  needed  was  to  support  Charles  in  England 
with    six    thousand   French    troops   and   a    further    subsidy   of 


1672]  THE   TREATY   OF   DOVER  763 

£134,000.  If  Charles  of  Spain  died  without  male  issue,  Charles 
of  England  was  to  support  Louis  in  seizing  the  Spanish  domin- 
ions, and  receive  in  payment  Ostend,  Minorca,  and  certain  terri- 
tories in  America.  Charles  was  fully  aware  of  the  dangerous 
nature  of  his  contract  with  Louis  and  carefully  kept  the  secret 
even  from  the  non-Catholic  members  of  the  Cabal,  tricking  them 
with  a  sham  treaty,  which  was  published  in  1672  as  the  real 
Treaty  of  Dover. 

At  the  opening  of  1672  Louis  and  Charles  were  ready  to  carry 

out  their  joint  plot  against  the  Netherlands  and  against  the  laws 

of  England.     Parliament  had  not  been  in  session  for 

carry  out       ten  mouths   and    although  it   had   provided    liberally 

Tredti/of       for  the    English  fleet  before  adjournment,  additional 

Dover,  1672.       „,  ^        ,^  -,.,-., 

funds  were  necessary  for  the  meditated  attack  upon 
Holland.  At  Clifford's  suggestion  Charles  adopted  an  expedient, 
called  '*the  Stop  of  the  Exchequer,"  which  Colbert,  Louis's 
The  ''Stop  great  finance  minister,  had  recently  used  with  success. 
Exchequer r  The  plan  was  to  fatten  the  treasury  by  the  simple  expe- 
1672.  '  dient  of  not  paying  out  the  interest  due  upon  loans 
which  the  goldsmiths,  the  bankers  of  the  era,  had  lent  to  the  gov- 
ernment on  the  security  of  the  revenues.  Tho  money  did  not 
belong  to  the  goldsmiths  but  to  the  people,  ** widows  and 
orphans"  many  of  them,  who  had  entrusted  this  money  to  the 
goldsmiths  in  the  capacity  of  bankers.  The  result,  however,  was 
not  exactly  what  Charles  had  planned ;  the  depositors  were  ruined 
of  course,  but  the  credit  of  the  government,  also,  was  shattered. 
The  panic  was  so  great,  that  two  days  later  Charles  had  to  promise 
that  at  least  one-half  of  the  accrued  interest  should  be  paid. 
Nevertheless,  the  "locking  of  the  Exchequer"  left  in  the  treasury 
about  £1,300,000  for  present  need.  For  this  brilliant  financial 
operation  Clifford  was  raised  to  the  peerage  and  appointed  Lord 
High  Treasurer. 

On  March  15,  Charles  undertook  a  still  more  unpopular 
measure,  in  issuing  a  second  Declaration  of  Indulgence  in  which 
he  "suspended  the  execution  of  all  and  all  manners  of  penal  laws 
in  matters  ecclesiastical  against  whatsoever  sort  of  nonconformists 
or  recusants."     In  this,  unlike  the  attempt  of  ten  years  earlier, 


764  BIRTH    OF    WHIG    PARTY  [Charles ii. 

Charles  was  supported  by  his  chief  ministers ;  in  reward  he  made 
Ashley  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  and  before  the  year  was  out  also 
Secrnid  Dec-  appointed  him  Lord  Chancellor.  Two  days  before  the 
indulgence  Declaration,  the  English  Admiral  Holmes  attacked  the 
March  15,  Dutch  Smyrna  fleet  which,  unsuspicious  of  danger, 
was  leisurely  pursuing  its  way  up  the  Channel,  and 
on  March  28,  war  was  declared.  It  was  like  a  thunder  clap  from 
a  clear  sky;  the  Dutch  were  unprepared  and  taken  entirely  by  sur- 
prise.    The  French  rapidly  overran  the  southern  prov- 

Joint  attack     7  ^ 

of  Emiand     mces,  and  migrht  have  taken  Amsterdam  had  they  not 

and  France  i      i     ■        •  i      i         • 

upon  the         wasted  their  time  on  the  less  important  border  towns. 

Dutch  1672' 

When  they  reached  the  sea  provinces  De  Witt,  the  Grand 
Pensioner,  cut  the  dikes  and  by  flooding  the  country  forced  the 
French  to  withdraw.  The  people,  however,  believed  that  De  Witt 
and  his  brother,  who  had  been  heretofore  pronounced  in  their 
French  sympathies,  were  responsible  for  the  war  and  its  miseries. 
Riots  broke  out  in  the  cities ;  De  Witt  was  torn  to  pieces  by  a 
furious  mob;  the  government  of  merchant  princes  which  had 
ruled  the  country  for  twenty-two  years  was  overthrown  and  the 
Stadholderate  restored. 

The  new  Stadholder  was  William,  Prince  of  Orange.     On  his 
father's  side  he  was  a  great-grandson  of  the  famous  William  the 

Silent ;  on  his  mother's  side  he  was  a  grandson  of  Charles 
^Orange.      ^'  ^^  England,  and  after  the  children  of  James  Duke 

of  York,  the  next  heir  to  the  English  throne.  He  is 
described  as  a  sickly,  thoughtful  young  man  of  twenty-two;  cold, 
unattractive,  and  distant  in  manner,  but  a  daring  statesman  and 
capable  of  devising  and  carrying  out  the  greatest  political  combi- 
nations. Some  of  his  countrymen  were  for  giving  up  the  struggle 
with  France  altogether,  and,  putting  their  families  and  their 
wealth  on  board  their  ships,  migrating  as  a  nation  to  their  pos- 
sessions in  Java.  But  William  had  no  thought  of  turning  his 
back  upon  the  dreary  little  land  which  his  fathers  had  won  from 
the  Spaniard ;  sooner  than  yield,  he  declared  to  Buckingham,  he 
would  die  on  the  last  dike. 

While  the  French  found  themselves  thus  baffled  on  the  land, 
the  English  were  not  rendering  them  much  assistance  on  the  seas. 


1672]  THE  TEST   ACT  765 

In  June  1672  the  duke  of  York  had  barely  held  his  own  against 
De  Ruyter  in  South  wold  Bay  on  the  coast  of  Suffolk.     In  1673 

the  Dutch  retook  New  York  and  renamed  it  after  their 
S^imr       heroic    Stadholder,    New    Oraage.       In  August   they 

won  a  substantial  victory  off  the  Texel. 
At  the  opening  of  1673  the  English  parliament  assembled  after 
a  recess  of  twenty  two  months.  It  found  its  work  very  definitely 
cut  out.  The  old  anti-Catholic  feeling  was  thoroughly  aroused, 
and  the  members  began  an  attack  both  upon  the  Declaration  of 
Indulgence  and  upon  the  Dutch  War.  They  did  not  question 
the  king's  right  to  pardon  an  individual  who  had  been  convicted 
of  violating  a  law,  but  they  denied  his  right  to  grant  a  wholesale 
pardon  before  the  commission  of  crime;  a  right  which  amounted 
virtually  to  the  power  of  annulling  any  law  which  parliament 
might  pass  Even  the  Protestant  nonconformists  joined  in  the 
protest  and  refused  to  accept  relief  at  the  expense  of  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  English  Constitution,  which  required  that 
all  laws  be  made  by  the  consent  of  King,  Lords,  and  Commons. 
**I  had  much  rather  see  the  Dissenters  suffer  by  the  rigor  of  the 
law,  though  I  suffer  with  them,"  said  the  heroic  Alderman  Jjove, 
*'than  see  all  the  Laws  of  England  trampled  under  the  foot  of  the 
Prerogative."  Charles  saw  that  it  was  useless  to  persist;  the 
Protestant  members  of  the  Cabal,  especially  Shaftesbury  who  had 
by  this  time  got  some  inkling  of  the  real  nature  of  the  league 
with  Louis,  urged  the  recall  of  the  offensive  proclamation,  and  on 
March  8,  it  was  withdrawn. 

Parliament,  however,  had  no  thought  of  stopping  simply  with 
the  withdrawal  of  the  Declaration.     The  people  were  furious  and 

parliament  determined  to  strike  back  at  the  king  and 
AH'' am  the  ^^^  Catholic  ministers  by  passing  a  "Test  Act,"  which 
Cabal  ^^       provided  that  all  persons  holding  any  office  under  the 

crown,  must  at  once  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and 
supremacy,  publicly  receive  the  sacrament  according  to  the 
Anglican  custom,  and  disavow  belief  in  transubstantiation.  This 
act,  unlike  most  previous  acts  of  the  kind,  made  the  test  com- 
pulsory and  made  no  exception  in  favor  of  peers.  The  act  effec- 
tually put  an  end  to  the  influence  of  the  Cabal.     By  the  terms  of 


766  BIRTH   OF   WHIG    PARTY  [charlesU, 

the  Test  Act  the  Catholic  members  were  forced  to  withdraw. 
Shaftesbury,  who  was  now  thoroughly  aroused  by  the  trick 
which  had  been  played  upon  him  by  the  sham  Treaty  of  Dover, 
had  supported  the  Teet  Act,  and  was  dismissed  in  November. 
Buckingham  was  dismissed  under  pretext  of  the  opposition  of 
the  Commons,  but  really  because  he  had  fallen  under  the  disfavor 
of  one  of  the  king's  mistresses.  The  duke  of  York  also,  who  in 
1669  had  publicly  announced  his  conversion  to  the  Catholic  faith, 
was  debarred  by  the  Test  Act  and  was  forced  to  resign  the  position 
of  Lord  High  Admiral.  This  was  the  most  signal  triumph  of  the 
opposition.  The  next  step  of  parliament,  after  demolishing  the 
Cabal,  was  to  put  a  stop  to  the  Dutch  War,  and  in  1674  they 
compelled  Charles  to  withdraw  from  the  French  alliance  and 
accept  the  Peace  of  Westminster. 

Louis's  plans  were  working  out  on  the  continent  with  hardly 
better  success.     Instead  of  having  Holland  at  his  mercy,  he  had 
found    himself   ultimately    confronted   by  a   powerful 
French-  coalition,  made  up  of  Holland,  Brandenburg,  Spain, 

and  the  Empire,  with  the  possibility  that  it  would 
soon,  be  Joined  by  his  late  allies.  This  coalition  was  the  work  of 
the  new  Stadholder,  who  had  devoted  all  his  splendid  powers  to 
arousing  Europe  against  French  ascendency.  He  had  not  been 
successful  in  war,  however,  and  despite  his  heroic  efforts  the 
French  continued  to  win  victories.  Louis  might  succeed,  therefore, 
if  he  could  only  keep  the  English  from  actively  joining  the  league 
against  him.  To  this  he  gave  his  whole  attention.  Sir  Thomas 
Osborne,  who  was  made  Earl  of  Danby  in  1674  and  had  succeeded 
to  a  position  of  control  in  the  government  after  the  collapse  of  the 
Cabal,  accepted  the  principles  of  the  Triple  Alliance,  and  prob- 
ably would  have  led  parliament  into  an  active  espousal  of  the 
cause  of  the  Dutch,  had  not  the  Protestant  parliament  feared  to 
trust  the  king  with  the  command  of  an  army,  lest  he  use  it  to  carry 
out  the  plan,  for  which  they  now  generally  gave  him  credit,  of 
trying  to  force  Catholicism  upon  England.  Louis,  however, 
could  hardly  feel  safe  against  the  threatened  interference  of  Eng- 
land, and,  to  secure  Charles,  made  with  him  a  new  secret  treaty  in 
which  he  agreed  to  pay  the  English  king  £100,000  a  year  on 


1676-1678]  i)AKB1f  767 

condition  that  he  make  no  engagement  with  any  foreign  power 
without  his  consent.     The  danger,  however,  was  still  very  great, 

that  the  anti-French   sentiment   of  parliament   would 

throw  all  caution  to  the  winds  and  force  Charles  to  begin 
war,  in  spite  of  his  promises  or  the  bribes  which  he  had  taken. 
In  1677  an  English  army  was  actually  assembled  to  be  used  against 
France,  and  in  November  Danby  secured  the  marriage  of  Mary, 
the  eldest  daughter  of  the  duke  of  York,  to  Louis's  arch  enemy, 
William,  the  Stadholder.  Louis  saw,  therefore,  that  it  was  useless 
to  seek  to  control  the  foreign  policy  of  England  longer,  and  in 
1678  succeeded  in  securing  the  Treaty  of  Nimwegen,  which  put 
an  end  to  the  war  but  left  in  his  hands  Franche-Oomte,  the  **free 
county"  of  Burgundy,  and  twelve  of  the  cities  of  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  including  Cambrai  and  Ypres. 

Danby  had  been  in  power  now  five  years.  He  had  managed  to 
keep  his  place  by  the  cleverest  time-serving.     He  had,  moreover, 

coolly  adopted  bribery  as  a  regular  means  of  encourag- 
vower  *^       ^"S  ^  reluctant  parliament,    not  only  freely  using  tlie 

royal  patronage,  but  directly  and  unblushingly  setting 
aside  a  certain  part  of  the  royal  income  each  year  for  buying 
parliamentary  votes.  Clifford  had  used  bribery,  it  is  said,  as  a 
means  of  influencing  parliamentary  action,  but  Danby  reduced 
corruption  to  a  system.  It  is  also  to  be  noticed  as  a  curious  coin- 
cidence, that  about  this  time  the  English  constituencies  ceased 
paying  regular  salaries  to  their  representatives  in  parliament. 
Seats  were  so  much  in  demand  at  the  by-elections  that  no  direct 
pecuniary  compensation  was  necessary  to  bring  forward  aspirants 
for  political  honors;  it  was  pretty  well  understood  that  a  seat  in 
piirliament  carried  with  it  ample  rewards  far  beyond  any  petty 
wages  offered  by  tax  burdened  constituencies. 

By  a  skillful  manipulation  of  his  '* system  of  influence"  Danby 
had  managed  to  gather  to  his  support  a  considerable  party,  very 
respectable  in  numbers  if  not  in  character,  known  as  the  "Court 
Party,"  whose  ostensible  platform  was  the  support  of  the  Church 
of  England,  the  strengthening  of  the  royal  prerogative,  and  a 
friendly  attitude  toward  the  Dutch.  There  was  little  sincerity, 
however,  in  their  pretensions;  and  their  leader  did  not  hesitate  to 


768  BiRtH    OF    WHIG    PARTY  [cuaules  il. 

use  his  alleged  friendship  for  the  Dutch  as  a  means  of  blackmail- 
ing Louis,  even  acting  as  Charles's  agent  in  negotiating  the  secret 
treaties  of  this  era.  The  Court  Party,  however,  were 
Partir^and  ^^  ^^  means  left  to  have  their  own  way,  or  to  secure 
p^artv'^^^^  all  the  plunder  for  themselves.  There  had  been  no  gen- 
eral election  since  1661,  bat  the  change  in  the  temper 
of  the  country  had  been  reflected  somewhat  by  a  corresponding 
change  in  the  temper  of  many  members  of  the  Cavalier  Parliament ; 
vacancies  also  had  occurred  from  time  to  time  and  new  members 
had  been  returned  who  represented  even  more  directly  the  changing 
sentiment  of  the  people.  The  struggle  over  the  Declaration  of 
Indulgence  and  the  Test  Act  had  also  given  to  the  opposition 
some  coherence,  revealed  to  the  leaders  their  strength,  and  fur- 
nished them  with  a  definite  platform.  In  distinction  from  the 
Court  Party  they  were  called  the  "Country  Party." 

The  first  serious  tilt  of  the  Country  Party  with  the  government 
occurred  in  1675.     Danby  thought  to  get  rid  of  the  men  in  parlia- 
ment whom  he  could  not  reach  by  his  system  of  influ- 
re^ttanc'e       ^^^®  ^J  securing  a  sort  of  political  Test  Act,  known  as 
Biii^prii,      the    ''Placemens"    or    ^'Nonresi stance    Bill,"    which 

1675.  ' 

proposed  to  require  every  officer  in  church  or  state,  and 
every  member  of  parliament,  to  declare  upon  oath,  that  it  was 
unlawful  to  take  up  arms  in  the  king's  name  against  the  king's 
person  or  those  commissioned  by  the  king,  and  that  "he  would 
not  at  any  time  endeavor  the  alteration  of  the  government  in 
church  or  state."  The  bill  was  defeated  largely  by  the  efforts  of 
Shaftesbury,  who  upon  retiring  from  the  council  had  taken  his 
place  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and,  putting  all  his  abilities  of  debate 
and  intrigue  at  the  service  of  the  Country  Party,  had  from  the 
first  been  recognized  as  a  leader.  He  was  beaten  in  the  Lords  by 
the  vote  of  the  bishops,  but  only  to  carry  on  the  fight  in  the 
Commons,  where,  supported  by  the  opposition  leaders,  he  managed 
to  get  the  two  Houses  embroiled  over  a  question  of  privilege,  and 
raise  such  a  storm  that  Charles  was  obliged  to  prorogue  parlia- 
ment before  the  bill  was  put  to  a  final  vote. 

In    November,    four    months   later,  parliament    again    came 
together;    but  the  quarrel  was  renewed  as  bitterly  as  ever,  and 


1678]  TITUS   GATES  769 

Charles  quickly  adjourned  the  House,  this  time  for  fifteen  months. 
The  agitation  outside  of  parliament,  however,  still  continued. 
The  chief  center  of  disturbance  were  the  coffee  houses ; 
fwmef^^^  an  institution  which  had  come  in  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  new  beverage  from  Turkey.  At  these 
houses  wits  and  politicians  gathered  to  regale  themselves  with 
the  brain  clearing  drink,  and  discuss  the  issues  of  the  day.  In 
December  Charles  attempted  to  close  the  coffee  houses  on  the 
ground  that  they  encouraged  ''false,  malicious,  and  scandalous 
reports. "  But  the  attempt  raised  such  an  uproar  that  the  procla- 
mation was  hastily  withdrawn.  When  parliament  assembled  again 
in  1677  the  Country  Party,  believing  that  their  strength  would 
be  greatly  increased  by  a  new  general  election,  attempted  to  force 
a  dissolution,  but  the  leaders  only  got  into  the  Tower  for  their 
pains.  Buckingham,  Salisbury,  and  Wharton  were  soon  released, 
but  Shaftesbury  was  locked  up  for  more  than  a  year.  With  all  this 
by-play,  the  frequent  and  prolonged  adjournments,  the  imprison- 
ment of  Shaftesbury,  Louis  had  much  to  do.  His  money  worked 
the  secret  wires ; — to  what  extent  will  never  be  known.  Charles 
was  evidently  fast  losing  control  of  his  Long  Parliament;  yet 
Louis  did  not  want  a  new  parliament,  for  he  well  knew  that  in  the 
present  temper  of  the  country,  its  first  act  would  be  to  declare 
war  against  France.  Charles  did  not  want  a  new  parliament  for 
he  was  equally  certain  that  a  new  House  of  Commons  would  at 
once  begin  a  vigorous  attack  upon  the  Catholics.  Hence  Louis 
bribed  freely  and  Charles  was  perfectly  willing  to  take  his  money. 
At  this  stage  of  the  quarrel  a  new  weapon  was  suddenly  put  in 
Shaftesbury's  hands.  In  August,  1678,  one  Titus  Gates,  a  clerical 
adventurer,  who  had  been  first  Separatist,  then  Anffli- 

The  Papist  ^    J      ,,  .       -.1  .    .      V.    .1     1-    • 

plot  of  can,  and  iinally  a  pretended  convert  to  Catholicism, 

Titus  Oates.  '  ^         ui  4.  .       •  i,-  .  f 

came  forward  with  a  most  astonishing  story  of  a 
Catholic  plot,  in  which  Charles  was  to  be  murdered  and  the  duke 
of  York  made  king,  London  was  to  be  burned,  the  Protestants 
butchered,  and  the  old  faith  established  by  French  soldiers.  Gates 
named,  also,  a  number  of  people  who  were  privy  to  the  plot,  finally 
even  the  queen  herself.  The  story  carried  its  refutation  in  its 
very  extravagance;  but  in  the  excited  condition  of  the  popular 


T'J'O  BIRTH   OF   WHIG    PARTY  [chaulks  ir 

mind,  men  were  ready  to  believe  anything.  Other  knavish  in- 
formers as  Bedloe  and  Dangerfield  also  took  advantage  of  the 
general  panic,  and  joined  Gates  in  the  profitable  trade  of  swearing 
away  the  lives  of  Catholics;  the  jails  were  filled  with  suspects; 
judges  browbeat  juries  into  giving  verdicts,  and  a  number  of 
victims  were  sent  to  the  gallows. 

When  parliament  met  in  October  the  excitement  was  still  at 
its  height,  and  Shaftesbury  cunningly  seized  the  moment  to  secure 

the  passage  of  a  "Parliamentary  Test  Act,"  which 
Danb^^^"^      excluded  "Papists"  from  both  Houses  of  Parliament. 

The  duke  of  York  was  excepted  on  his  own  motion, 
but  only  by  two  votes.  Five  Catholic  lords,  also,  were  sent  to 
the  Tower.  The  opposition  then  turned  upon  Danby,  and  in 
December  impeached  him  upon  evidence  of  a  letter  furnished  by 
the  French  king  himself,  who  hated  Danby  and  regarded  him  as 
his  enemy.  In  this  letter,  acting  under  the  direction  of  Charles, 
Danby  had  instructed  the  English  ambassador  to  ask  for  money 
for  his  master.  Charles  was  eager  to  save  Danby  and  also  to  pre- 
vent inquiry,  which  might  lead  to  anything  but  pleasant  results  for 
himself,  and  finding  that  only  a  dissolution  would  do  it,  dissolved 
the  Cavalier  Parliament  on  the  24th  of  January  1679.  Eighteen 
years  of  misgovernment,  the  suspicions  connected  with  the  Dover 
Treaty,^  a  common  belief  in  the  purpose  of  Charles  and  his  brother 
to  restore  Catholicism  to  England  by  French  aid,  had  long  since 
cured  the  Cavalier  Parliament  of  its  gushing  royalism.  To  the 
last,  however,  it  retained  its  old  bitterness  against  all  kinds  of 
nonconformists,  and  no  small  part  of  its  later  enmity  to  Charles 
was  due  to  the  conviction  of  his  intended  treachery  to  the  Angli- 
can Church. 

The  apprehensions  of  Charles  and  Louis  were  now  fully 
realized.  When  the  new  parliament  came  together  in  March,  out 
of  nearly  five  hundred  members,  there  were  not  thirty  who  could 
be  depended  on  to  support  the  king.  It  was  well  known  that 
beside  the  attack  upon  Danby,  there  would  be  a  direct  attack 

^  The  existence  of  the  secret  treaty  of  Dover  was  not  definitely  estab- 
lished until  the  19th  century. 


1679]  IMPEACHMENT    OF    DANBY  771 

upon  the  king's  brother  and  an  effort  made  to  exclude  him  from 

the  succession.     This  to  Charles  was  now  the  all-important  issue, 

and  to  save  his  brother,  he  determined  to  yield  upon 

The  third  .  ,  .  .  ... 

parliament     all  miuor  poiiits,  in  hope  of  disarming  his  enemies  by 

of  Charles  II.  -vx-  mu-  v  -u  t      •  <l-         ^     ./ 

conciliation.  This  policy,  so  characteristic  of  the 
third  Stuart,  will  explain  the  victories  of  the  Country  Party  dur- 
ing the  next  few  months  and  the  serious  opposition  which  they 
finally  met  in  the  "Exclusion  Bill.'' 

The  impeachment  of  Danby  was  therefore  permitted  to  be 
resumed,  and  although  the  speedy  dissolution  of  the  third  parlia- 
ment prevented  the  trial  from  running  its  course,  it 
^nby's  lasted  long  enough  to  establish  several  new  principles 
of  grave  importance  from  a  constitutional  point  of  view. 
First,  it  was  determined  that  bishops  might  sit  in  the  House  of 
Lords  during  a  trial  which  involved  the  death  sentence,  but 
might  not  remain  when  the  time  came  for  passing  the  sentence ; 
second,  that  an  impeachment  might  be  carried  over  a  dissolution. 
But  third  and  most  important,  it  was  determined  that  a  direct 
order  of  the  king  might  not  be  pleaded  as  a  valid  defense, 
thus  'establishing  the  individual  responsibility  of  the  minister  to 
parliament  under  the  law.  Fourth,  when  Danby,  pushed  to  the 
wall,  finally  produced  a  royal  pardon,  this  also  was  swept  away, 
both  Houses  declaring  that  a  pardon  could  not  stop  an  impeach- 
ment. The  trial,  however,  was  never  completed.  The  dissolution 
in  May  left  Danby  in  the  Tower,  where  he  remained  until  1G84, 
when  Charles  released  him  on  bail. 

In  the  second  point  also  Charles  bowed  to  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  Country  Party.  He  allowed  them  to  attempt  a 
government,  not  of  their  own,  but  in  their  own  way. 
scheme  of  re-  ^'^®  P^^^  ^^^  Suggested  by  William  Temple,  who  had 
thTcounJii^  returned  from  his  brilliant  career  as  minister  to  the 
Netherlands,  to  throw  all  his  influence  with  the  Country 
Party.  The  new  council  as  organized  included  fifteen  great  offi- 
cers of  state  and  fifteen  gentlemen  of  independent  fortunes.  Their 
wealth  was  to  place  them  beyond  the  temptation  of  petty  bribery, 
their  personal  influence  and  dignity  were  to  save  them  from  the 
petty  clamors  and  attacks  of  the  Commons.     The  scheme,  how- 


772  BIRTH    OF   WHIG    PARTY  [gharlesH. 

ever,  did  not  work  very  well,  because  in  the  first  place,  a  council 
of  thirty  was  too  unwieldy,  and  enabled  Charles  to  resort  again  to 
the  old  Cabal  methods;  in  the  second  place,  the  members,  unlike 
the  modern  cabinet,  were  not  bound  to  support  any  one  political 
platform,  but  held  widely  divergent  views  upon  almost  every  topic 
that  was  presented  for  their  consideration,  effectually  preventing 
them  from  adopting  any  consistent  plan;  and  then  in  the  third 
place,  Shaftesbury  was  made  the  president.  Charles  would  not 
give  him  his  confidence,  and  the  minister  used  his  office  not  to 
serve"  the  king  but  to  humiliate  and  baffle  him. 

The  third  important  point  upon  which  Charles  yielded  was  the 

famous  "Habeas  Corpus  Act,"  *'for  the  better  securing  the  liberty 

of  the  subject  and  for  preventing  imprisonment  beyond 

Corpus  Act,     the  seas."      This  important  act  was  particularly  the 

1679.  X  J 

work  of  Shaftesbury  and  was  long  known  as  the 
"Shaftesbury  Act."  By  it  the  various  subterfuges  by  which  the 
crown  officers  were  accustomed  to  hinder  the  getting  of  a  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  were  forbidden  under  severe  penalties,  and  jailers 
were  enjoined  to  obey  the  writ  at  once.  The  custom,  which  had 
sprung  up  since  the  Restoration,  of  sending  political  prisoners  to 
places  outside  the  jurisdiction  of  the  English  courts,  as  Ireland, 
or  the  Channel  Islands,  in  order  to  avoid  the  writ,  was  also  forbid- 
den. Charles  did  not  like  the  act,  but  he  was  desperately  in  need 
of  popularity,  and  gave  his  consent  in  hope  of  atoning  somewhat  in 
the  popular  eyes  for  his  former  misdeeds. 

The  compliance  of  Charles  in  these  less  important  matters, 
however,  did  not  save  him  from  being  compelled  to  face  the  attack 

upon    his    brother.      Men   were    still    terrified   at  the 

The  Exclu-         ,  i  «        ^  •    i        i 

svmBiii,  thought  of  what  might  happen,  should  an  avowed 
"Papist"  like  the  duke  of  York  become  king.  In 
vain  Charles  offered  to  consent  to  any  moderate  measure,  which 
would  not  "tend  to  impeach  the  right  of  succession,  nor  the 
descent  of  the  crown  in  the  true  line."  In  the  presence  of  the 
terror  which  had  seized  upon  the  nation,  the  Commons  were  will- 
ing to  deny  the  doctrine  of  divine  right  altogether  and  on  the  21st 
of  May  1679,  pushed  to  a  second  reading  an  Exclusion  Bill, 
designed  "to  disable  the  duke  of  York  to  inherit  the  Imperial 


1679]  PETITIONERS   AND    ABHORRERS  773 

Crown  of  England."  The  second  reading  was  carried  by  a 
majority  of  79  votes,  and  five  days  later  Charles  dismissed  his  third 
parliament. 

This  step  Charles  had  taken  by  the  advice  of  the  inner  junto 
of  his  council ;  that  is  of  William  Temple,  Robert  Spencer  Earl 
of  Sunderland,  George  Savile  Earl  of  Halifax,  and 
pnHcl^of  Arthur  Capel  Earl  of  Essex,  who  persuaded  him  that  a 
adjourimient  ^^^  appeal  to  the  country  would  return  a  more  tract- 
able parliament.  Shaftesbury,  who  though  President, 
of  the  Council  was  not  in  the  confidence  of  the  king,  was  furious. 
He  swore  that  he  would  have  the  head  of  the  man  who  had  advised 
dissolution ;  yet  when  the  results  of  the  elections  were  known, 
it  was  found  that  the  fourth  parliament  was  going  to  be  even 
harder  to  handle  than  the  one  which  Charles  had  just  dismissed. 
Charles  did  not  dare  to  allow  them  to  assemble  at  all,  and  by 
a  series  of  postponements  managed  to  fight  off  the  issue  for  a 
whole  year. 

In  October  1G79,  Shaftesbury  was  again  dismissed  from  the  min- 
istry.    Without  a  government  position,  and  without  a  parliament, 
for  parliament  was  not  then  in  session,  he  fell  back 

Tlic  cfivu^tcn' 

irwofthe  ^  upou  the  tactics  of  Pym  in  1640,  and  inspired  a  series 
of  petitions  which  began  to  pour  into  London  from  all 
parts  of  the  country,  entreating  the  king  to  assemble  the  parlia- 
ment in  order  to  transact  the  business  of  the  kingdom.  Some  of 
these  petitions  originated  in  noisy  assemblies,  where  hot-headed 
agitators  thought  to  :^righten  the  king  by  a  show  of  violent  temper, 
and  in  December  Charles  by  proclamation  reinforced  an  act  of  1661 
against  ^'tumultuous  petitioning."  The  Court  Party,  also,  were 
not  idle,  and  counter  assemblies  were  held  and  counter  addresses 
sent  up  to  London,  ''abhorring  unseemly  interf-erence"  with  the 
prerogative  of  the  king  to  assemble  parliaments  when  he  would. 
Thus  arose  the  names  which  the  two  parties  now  assumed,  "Peti- 
tioners" and  "Abhorrers,"  soon  to  give  way  to  the  better  known 
"Whigs"  and  "Tories,"  which  have  stuck  to  them  and  their 
political  descendants  ever  since.  The  later  names  were  at  first 
nicknames,  which  ardent  orators  flung  at  each  other  in  the  heat 
of  debate  or  public  denunciation.    The  word  "Whig,"  or  "Whiga- 


774  BIRTH    OF   WHIG    PARTY  [chablbsII. 

more,"  was  the  name  by  which  the  bitter  Covenanters,  the  sour 
faced  bigots  of  southwestern  Scotland,  were  known;  while  the 
name  Tories  associated  the  defenders  of  James's  rights  with  the 
Irish  brigands,  who  infested  the  wild  regions  of  Ireland  and  ter- 
rorized their  Protestant  rulers  by  their  midnight  burnings  and 
murders.  The  names  were  new,  but  the  parties  had  existed  since 
the  fall  of  Clarendon. 

Lauderdale,  true  to  his  later  associations  in  the  Cabal,  had  so 
changed  the  earlier  attitude  of  the  Restoration  government  in 
The  Scots  Scotland  that  in  1669  he  allowed  the  Covenanting  min- 
^^lack  isters  to  return  to  their  posts  under  a  special  Declara- 

induJgence.'^  tiou  of  Indulgence  from  the  king.  But  the 
hard-headed  Covenanters  of  the  western  Lowlands  did  not  like  the 
Scotch  Declaration  any  better  than  their  English  brethren  liked  its 
southern  fellow;  they  called  it  the  "Black  Indulgence,"  and  refused 
to  give  up  their  "field  conventicles."  The  government  first  tried 
to  suppress  the  illegal  meetings  through  the  courts,  but  failing  in 
this,  in  1677  sent  John  Graham  of  Claverhouse  into  the  Clyde 
valley  with  a  band  of  8,000  Highlanders  to  see  what  could  be  done 
by  the  more  direct  methods  of  martial  law.  Claverhouse,  how^- 
ever,  succeeded  no  better  than  the  king's  justices,  and  after  the 
people  had  been  submitted  for  two  years  to  the  depredations  and 
outrageous  cruelties  of  his  crew  of  semi-barbarians,  they  were 
more  defiant  than  ever. 

A  brave  and  obstinate  people  had  now  been  irritated  beyond 
endurance,  and  when,  on  June  3,  1679,  Claverhouse  himself  was 
defeated  by  an  armed  congregation  which  he  had 
eronian  attempted  to  disperse  at  Drumclog,  it  was  the  signal 

for  a  general  rising  of  the  people  of  the  western  hills. 
Just  one  month-  before,  James  Sharp,  the  archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews,  who  was  the  chief  representative  in  Scotland  of  the 
hated  prelacy  of  the  south,  had  been  murdered  on  Magus  Moor 
by  a  fanatical  band  of  Covenanters.  The  government,  there- 
fore, was  not  in  a  gentle  mood  and  determined  to  crush  the 
rebels  without  mercy.  Assistance  was  asked  from  England  and 
a  force  of  fifteen  thousand  men  was  sent  over  the  border  in 
response. 


1679,  1680]  THE  KILLING  TIME  775 

Shaftesbury  at  the  time  was  still  a  member  of  the  council  and 
had  used  his  influence  to  secure  the  command  of  the  army  for 
James,  James   Duke   of    Monmouth,   an    illegitimate   son    of 

Mommuth.  Charles,  a  dissolute,  reckless  young  man,  but  with  many 
Br/mJune  ^^  ^^^  father's  winning  ways ;  he  was  politically  a  Protes- 
22, 1679.  tant,  and  thus  in  favor  with  the  Country  Party  who 

were  beginning  to  regard  him  as  a  possible  successor  of  Charles. 
Monmouth  put  down  the  rebellion  with  brilliant  success,  defeating 
the  insurgents  at  Bothwell  Brigg,  and  at  once  became  widely  pop- 
ular at  home;  even  in  Scotland  he  won  many  friends. 

The  increased  popularity  of  Monmouth,  showed  Charles  that 
he  had  made  a  mistake  in  sending  him  into  Scotland.  He  there- 
fore got  him  out  of  the  country  as  soon  as  possible  and 

ingtimfr  ^®"^  *^®  ^"^^  ^^  ^^^^  ^^  ^*^®  ^^^  place.  But  this  was 
only  mending  one  blunder  by  committing  a  greater 
blunder.  Scotland  in  the  year  1680  was  not  the  place  in  wliicli 
to  give  a  free  hand  to  a  man  of  the  narrow  and  vindictive  nature 
of  James,  if  he  were  to  win  popularity.  He  set  to  work  at  once 
in  his  own  fashion  to  end  Covenanting,  giving  to  Scottish  history 
the  era  which  northern  historians  have  grimly  named  the  "killing 
time."  The  Covenanters,  however,  did  not  blanch  in  the  pres- 
ence of  torture  or  execution.  In  1680  Richard  Cameron  their 
warlike  preacher-leader,  who  had  been  prominent  in  the  earlier 
days  of  trial,  returned  and  devoted  his  fiery  eloquence  to  rousing 
the  people  against  the  oppressor;  denouncing  the  perfidy  and 
cruelty  ^f  the  king  and  calling  upon  the  people  to  draw  the  sword 
in  the  name  of  God.  In  the  famous  *'Sanquhair  Declaration," 
which  he  issued  in  June  1680,  he  proclaimed  that  the  * 'perjury 
and  breach  of  the  Covenant"  by  Charles  and  James  had  absolved 
Scotsmen  from  all  bonds  of  allegiance.  Cameron  was  finally 
surprised  and  slain,  his  armed  retinue  dispersed,  but  his  fiery 
denunciation  of  the  Stuarts  was  not  forgotten  by  those  who  heard 
him,  and  was  to  bear  its  fruit  later. 

In  December  1679^Monmouth  returned  to  England  without  the 
king's  consent,  and  the  Whig  leaders  attempted  to  make  the  most 
of  his  passing  popularity.  Bells  and  bonfires  welcomed  him  to 
London  as  the  idol  of  the  people.     Gossip  began  to  whisper  marvel- 


776  BIRTH    OF   WHIG    PARTY  [charlesii. 

ous  stories  about  a  certain  *' black  box"  which  contained  the 
proofs  of  his  mother's  marriage  to  the  king.  Shaftesbury  and  his 
MonmmLth  f^i^nds  raised  the  cry  that  the  brilliant  5^oang  prince 
^mack  ^^^  ^^  ^®  dispossessed  simply  because  he  was  a  Protes- 

■^^•"  tant.    In  vain  the  king  protested  and  in  the  presence  of 

the  council  solemnly  denied  under  oath  the  fable  of  the  marriage. 
The  people  persisted  in  their  belief  and,  to  add  to  the  excitement, 
on  June  26,  1680,  Shaftesbury  accompanied  by  fourteen  prominent 
Whigs,  went  before  the  Grand  Jury  at  Westminster  and  formally 
presented  the  duke  of  York  as  a  ** Popish  recusant."  Nothing 
came  of  this  open  attack  on  the  duke,  however,  except  to  add  to 
the  disgust  of  Charles  and  to  arouse  anew  the  hatred  of  the  Tories 
for  the  Whigs. 

On  October  21,  1680,  the  fourth  parliament  of  Charles  II.  was 
at  last  allowed  to  assemble.  Upon  the  breakup  of  Temple's 
Thefourth  reorganized  council,  Halifax,  who  boasted  that  he  was 
^ofChS^^  neither  Whig  nor  Tory  but  a  "trimmer"  between  the 
ExMrni^  two  factions,  had  retained  the  chief  confidence  of  the 
Bill  king.     He  now  attempted  to  conciliate  the  Whig  Com- 

mons, by  proposing,  instead  of  the  Exclusion  Bill,  that  parliament 
should  enact  that  during  the  reign  of  a  Catholic  king  no  ecclesi- 
astical, civil,  or  military  appointment,  should  be  made  without  the 
consent  of  parliament  or,  when  parliament  was  not  in  session,  with- 
out the  consent  of  a  permanent  committee  of  forty-one,  appointed  by 
the  two  Houses.  But  the  Commons  would  have  nothing  but  the 
Exclusion  Bill  and  carried  it  almost  unanimously.  To^the  sur- 
prise of  every  one,  however,  the  Lords  rejected  the  bill  by  a  vote 
of  63  to  30. 

This  victory  for  the  king  was  the  result  of  a  great  speech  by 
Halifax,  who,  while  admitting  the  motive  of  the  Exclusion  Bill, 
presented  the  cause  of  Mary  and  her  able  husband ;  set- 
^e di/mtof  ^^^^S  forth  that  they  were  both  of  them  Protestants  and 
^sion^ma  ^^^  more  closely  identified  with  the  cause  of  Protestant 
resistance  to  Catholic  aggression  than  the  dissolute 
duke  of  Monmouth ;  that  at  best  the  reign  of  James  would  be 
short,  and  then  the  crown  might  pass  to  William  and  Mary  with- 
out doing  violence  to  the  cause  of  legitimate  succession.     The 


1681-1685]  THE   SECOND   STUART  TYRANNY  777 

Commons  were  not  pleased ;  they  demanded  the  expulsion  of  Halifax 
from  the  ministry,  refused  to  vote  any  supplies  to  the  crown, 
and  attempted  to  fasten  the  Great  Fire  of  London  upon  the 
Catholics.  Their  storming,  however,  frightened  no  one;  Halifax 
had  effectually  divided  the  councils  of  the  enemies  of  James  and 
broken  the  solid  front  of  the  Whigs.  The  tide  was  already  turn- 
ing, and  when  Lord  Stafford  was  sent  to  the  block,  the  last  victim 
of  the  Gates  panic,  the  crowds  at  the  execution  openly  expressed 
their  belief  in  his  innocence.  On  the  10th  of  January  Charles 
adjourned  parliament  and  on  the  18th  finally  dissolved  it. 

Charles,  however,  needed  supplies  and  in  March  ventured  to 

summon  the  third  of  his  short  parliaments  at  Oxford,  where  the 

royal  influence  was  far  stronger  than  at  London  and 

The  last 

parliament  where  Shaftcsbury  would  be  deprived  of  much  of  his 
ti.,  March  blustcr.  But  the  Whiff  members,  still  undaunted,  came 
up  to  Oxford  attended  by  bands  of  armed  followers, 
determined  to  push  the  Exclusion  Bill  at  all  hazards.  Men 
remembered  the  stirring  scenes  of  1G42,  and  believed  that  a  new 
civil  war  was  at  hand.  Charles  offered  to  consent  to  the  perpetual 
banishment  of  the  duke  of  York  and  that  the  Prince  of  Orange 
should  be  named  as  regent,  if  only  James  might  be  allowed  to 
retain  the  name  of  king.  Nothing  but  absolute  and  final 
exclusion  would  satisfy  the  belligerent  Whig  majority.  On  the 
eighth  day  of  the  session,  Charles,  satisfied  that  the  Commons 
would  accept  no  compromise  and  that  they  were  intent  upon  rush- 
ing through  the  Exclusion  Bill  at  whatever  cost,  dissolved  his  fifth 
parliament.  This  was  the  last  of  the  Exclusion  Bill.  It  was  also 
the  last  attempt  of  Charles  II.  to  manage  a  parliament. 

Charles  and  his  Tory  friends  were  now  masters  of  the  situa- 
tion; the  Whigs  had  been  overthrown;  Monmouth's  hopes  had 
The  Tory  ^^^^  destroyed  and  the  duke  of  York  saved.  The  posi- 
The^^^ond  ^^^^  ^^  Charles  at  this  time  has  been  compared  to  that 
f^Tnnw"  ^^  ^^^  father  in  1629;  but  in  reality  there  is  very  little 
1681-1685.  resemblance,  save  in  the  despotic  character  of  the  next 
and  last  era  of  his  reign,  which  is  justly  called  the  Second  Stuart 
Tyranny.  In  the  first  place  Charles  had  a  far  better  cause  than 
his  father.     Moreover,  unlike  his  father,  he  had  a  standing  army 


778  BIRTH   OF   WHIG    PARTY  [ 


Charles  11. 


at  his  command,  small  but  well  ordered,  and  recently  increased 
by  the  return  of  the  Tangier  garrison.  Louis,  also,  had  become 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  uniting  England  and  Holland  under 
the  regency  of  William  or  the  accession  of  Mary,  and  had 
hastened  to  furnish  Charles  with  another  subsidy  on  condition  that 
no  parliament  be  called  again  for  three  years.  Charles  was  thus 
independent,  and  found  himself  able  to  rule  without  resorting  to 
his  father's  offensive  methods  of  raising  a  revenue.  But  most, 
Charles  II.  was  supported  by  a  powerful  political  party  in  the 
nation,  whose  strength  was  increasing  daily;  the  result  of  the  dis- 
gust and  resentment,  which  was  felt  as  soon  as  men  fully  appre- 
ciated the  worthlessness  of  the  disclosures  of  Gates  and  his  fellow 
informers,  and  began  to  understand  how  Shaftesbury  and  his  sup- 
porters had  used  these  creatures  to  play  upon  the  terror  of  the 
populace  for  partisan  ends. 

The  Second  Stuart  Tyranny,  however,  began  very  much  like 

the  first.     Charles  first  issued  a  Declaration  in  which  he  attempted 

to  iustify  his  recent  acts,  and  then  proceeded  to  marshal 

Shaftesbury's  the  courts  to  punish  his  discomfited  foes.     The  first 

career.  ,      . 

victim  was  Stephen  College,  whose  only  crime  was  an 
over  loose  tongue.  An  Oxford  Tory  jury  convicted  him  of  treason 
and  the  Tory  judge  sentenced  him  to  be  hanged.  Neither  Charles 
nor  James,  however,  would  rest  as  long  as  the  archplotter,  Shaftes- 
bury, went  free.  In  July  Shaftesbury  was  arrested  and  thrown  into 
the  Tower,  but  the  sheriff  of  Middlesex  was  careful  to  secure  a 
Whig  Grand  Jury,  and  when  the  Case  was  presented  in  Novem- 
ber, the  Grand  Jury  refused  to  bring  in  an  indictment.  While 
Shaftesbury  was  in  prison,  vainly  calling  for  the  privilege  assured 
him  by  his  own  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  Dryden,  the  courtier-poet  of 
the  Restoration,  brought  out  his  ''Absalom  and  Achitophel,"  in 
which  he  painted  Shaftesbury,  the  Achitophel,  as  a  monster  of  craft, 
deceit,  and  audacious  cunning,  while  Monmouth,  his  Absalom, 
is  the  headless  dupe,  whom  the  unscrupulous  intriguer  leads 
astray.  As  long  as  the  Whigs  ruled  in  the  city,  Shaftesbury  was 
safe,  but  in  1681  the  court  by  underhand  means  secured  the  elec- 
tion of  a  Tory  mayor,  and  followed  this  in  1682  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  Tory  sheriffs.   Shaftesbury  saw  that  London  was  no  longer 


1683]  THE    RYE    HOUSE    PLOT  779 

safe,  and  made  good  his  escape  to  Holland,  where  he  died  in  the 
following  January. 

Before  his  departure  from  London,  Shaftesbury  had  planned  an 
insurrection   in   Monmouth's    favor.      But    Monmouth    did    not 

receive  the  encouragement  in  the  west  which  was 
Home  Pint,     expected,  and  the  other  conspirators  failed  to  act  at  the 

last  moment;  Monmoutli  was  arrested  and  the  scheme 
collapsed.  But  the  next  summer,  certain  overzealons  Whigs 
planned  to  assassinate  Charles  and  James  as  they  returned  to 
London  from  the  summer  races  at  Newmarket,  at  a  place  known 
as  the  *'Rye  House,"  near  Hadesdon  in  Hertfordshire.  The 
princes,  however,  returned  a  day  sooner  than  the  plotters  had 
expected  and  thus  the  plot  failed.  It  was  the  work  of  a  group  of 
obscure  Whigs,  but  it  was  so  mixed  up  witli  the  last  conspiracy  of 
Shaftesbury  that  many  nobler  men  were  easily  implicated  by  the 
excited  Tories  and  their  lives  sacrificed.  Among  them  was  Lord 
William  Russell,  the  early  leader  of  the  Country  Party  in  the 
Commons,  the  son  of  the  earl  of  Bedford,  a  man  of  blameless 
character  and  lamented  even  by  his  foes;  Algernon  Sidney,  also, 
who  still  clung  to  the  old  ideas  of  the  Commonwealth.  Essex  had 
been  arrested,  but  destroyed  himself  with  his  own  hands,  in  order, 
it  is  said,  to  prevent  the  trial  and  so  save  his  family  estates  from 
forfeiture.  The  trials,  in  which  the  brutal  methods  of  the 
infamous  Judge  Jeffreys  first  became  prominent,  were  parodies  of 
justice.  Sidney  was  condemned  upon  the  evidence  of  an  unpub- 
lished treatise  in  which  he  commended  the  insurrections  against 
Nero,  interpreted  by  the  judges  as  approving  an  insurrection 
against  Charles  II.  Monmouth  also  was  arrested,  but  his  father's 
love  for  him  saved  him  and  he  was  allowed  to  make  a  confession 
and  retire  to  Holland. 

While  the  royal  judges  were  thus  hunting  the  enemies  of  the 
king  to  earth,  Charles  was  turning  his  attention  to  securing  a  Tory 
Attack  of  parliament,  upon  which  he  might  call  when  Louis's  sub- 
charies  sidies  should  cease.      The  county  electors,   under  the 

upon  trie  -^  ' 

charters.  influence  of  the  reaction,  could  be  trusted  to  return 
Tories  to  parliament;  but  in  the  boroughs  the  right  of  electing  to 
parliament  was  genej-ally  in  the  hands  of  the  town  corporations. 


780  BIRTH    OF   WHIG    PARTY  [chablks  ll. 

which  were  not  only  Whig  strongholds  but  close  bodies  as  well, 
with  the  right  of  filling  vacancies  in  the  membership  whenever 
they  occurred.  Hence  the  town  corporations  remained  strongly 
Whig  in  spite  of  the  gathering  reaction  and  .would  be  pretty  sure 
to  return  Whigs  to  parliament  whenever  a  call  should  be  issued. 
Judge  Saunders,  a  Justice  of  the  Jeffreys  type,  proposed  to  Charles 
to  recall  the  charters  of  the  corporations  by  a  writ  quo  tvarratifo, 
and  to  restore  them  again  with  Tory  boards.  In  1683,  accord- 
ingly, proceedings  were  begun  against  London  and  followed  up  by 
attacks  upon  every  Whig  stronghold  of  the  kingdom.  Even  places 
like  Leeds,  which  sent  no  delegate  to  parliament,  and  the  distant 
American  colonies,  which  could  hardly  exercise  any  influence  at 
all  upon  the  political  atmosphere  of  England,  were  compelled  to 
give  up  their  charters,  so  thorough  and  far-reaching  were  Charles's 
plans  and  so  determined  was  he  to  scotch  the  Whig  serpent.  In 
returning  the  Toryized.  charters,  Charles  further  reserved  the 
right  of  confirming  the  elections  of  municipal  officers,  and  even  of 
naming  the  officers,  if  the  elections  were  not  satisfactory. 

Charles  was  now  as  absolute  as  a  king  could  be  who  held  his 
crown  under  the  forms  of  law.  Yet  he  could  not  discard 
altogether  the  theory  of  constitutional  restrictions.  Even  Jeffreys, 
who  boasted  that  he  had  made  all  the  charters  *'like  the  walls  of 
Jericho  fall  down  flat,"  had,  in  spoiling  the  cities  of  their  time- 
honored  privileges,  resorted  to  the  forms  of  law.  But  although 
in  theory  a  constitutional  monarch  still,  Charles,  like  the  Tudors, 
had  reached  a  point  where  he  need  not  be  overscrupulous.  The 
Triennial  Act  of  1641  had  been  repealed,  but  the  Second  Triennial 
Act,  1664,  had  again  prescribed  that  more  than  three  years  should 
not  intervene  between  parliaments.  Charles,  however,  had  no 
thought  of  burdening  himself  even  with  a  Tory  parliament,  until 
it  was  actually  necessary,  and  directly  violated  the  law  by  neglect- 
ing to  call  a  parliament  in  1684.  So,  too,  Danby,  who  during  these 
years  of  trouble  had  been  almost  forgotten  in  the  Tower, 
Charles  released,  and  in  open  defiance  of  the  Test  Act  recalled  his 
brother  to  the  council  and  once  more  established  him  as  Lord 
High  Admiral. 

At  the  opening  of  the  year  1685,  Charles  was  approaching  his 


1685]  DEATH    OF    CHARLES   II.  781 

fifty-fifth  birthday.  He  was  never  more  popular  among  his 
people.  He  had  won  in  the  long  struggle  with  the  Whig  reac- 
Deathof  ^^^^  ^^^^  could  afford  to  enjoy  his  triumph.  His  court 
FeSiS/i^'  ^^^  never  more  gay;  its  revels  never  madder,  nor  more 
6,1685.  profane,  nor  more  dissolute.     Never  had  the  fear  of 

God  been  more  completely  banished  from  *Hhe  glorious  gallery 
of  Whitehall."  Tiie  king  was  in  the  best  of  health,  hale  and 
hearty  at  fifty-five,  when  on  February  2  he  was  suddenly 
smitten  with  apoplexy  and  died  four  days  later,  with  his  last 
breath  confessing  his  secret  allegiance  to  the  faith  of  the  Catholic 
Church. 

Charles  narrowly  missed  being  a  great  king.     Once,  in  the  days 
when  he  was  on  better  terms  with  Shaftesbury,  he  had  said  to  the 

archplotter;  **  Shaftesbury,  you  are  the  greatest  rogue 
cSu8?^       in  my  dominion."      **0f    a  subject,   your  majesty," 

replied  Shaftesbury,  **I  believe  I  am."  For  ten  years 
these  two  masters  of  the  art  of  chicanery  had  been  matching  their 
wits,  and  Charles  had  won.  There  needs  no  better  test  of  the 
masterly  ability  of  the  man  who  under  a  veil  of  indifference  and 
frivolity  concealed  a  consummate  talent  for  intrigue  and  a  calcu- 
lating cynicism,  a  shrewd  ability  to  read  men  and  use  them, 
baffling  his  enemies  and  surprising  his  friends.  His  coolness  and 
perfect  self-control,  his  courage  in  the  presence  of  dangers  where 
his  greatest  statesmen  lost  their  heads,  his  strength  of  purpose 
were  as  marked  as  his  final  triumph  was  brilliant  and  overwhelm- 
ing. Yet  with  all  his  ability,  of  sense  of  honor,  of  personal  prin- 
ciple, he  knew  nothing.  Had  he  possessed  with  his  ability  any 
corresponding  moral  sense,  he  might  have  made  one  of  the  great- 
est kings  that  England  has  ever  honored  with  her  crown. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE    WHIG    REVOLUTION 

JAMES  II.,  1685-1689 

Charles  II.  had  left  no  children  by  his  wife,  Catharine  of 
Braganza,  and  since  all  opposition  to  his  brother's  succession  had 
been  silenced  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Whigs,  James 
James^T"^  now  passed  quietly  to  the  vacant  throne.  The  new 
reign  began  under  fairly  favorable  auspices.  James 
was  not  altogether  unpopular,  although  many  still  regarded  his 
accession  to  the  throne  as  a  national  calamity.  The  people,  more- 
over, had  no  wish  to  venture  again  upon  the  uncertain 
hcQinning  waters  of  civil  strife.  The  Widely  accepted  doctrines 
of  "divine  right"  and  ''nonresistance"  had  apparently 
forestalled  reaction,  and  there  was  no  reason,  in  existing  condi- 
tions at  least,  why  James  II.  should  not  round  out  the  full  num- 
ber of  his  years  as  king  of  England.  His  first  acts,  also,  helped 
to  inspire  confidence.  Soon  after  his  brother's  death  he  met  the 
Privy  Council  and  pledged  himself  to  ''preserve  the  government 
in  both  church  and  state  as  then  by  law  established."  Halifax 
thanked  the  king  in  the  name  of  the  conncil,  and  the  council 
published  the  speech  as  a  royal  proclamation.  Even  London 
received  the  word  in  good  faith ;  the  people  felt  that  they  had 
misunderstood  the  prince,  and  had  been  too  quick  to  listen  to 
the  base  maligning  of  his  enemies.  "We  have  the  word  of  a 
king,"  they  cried,  "and  of  a  king  who  has  never  been  worse 
than  his  word. "  So  great  was  the  loyal  enthusiasm  of  the  hour 
that  the  people  looked  on  with  indifference  while  Titus  Gates  and 
his  accomplices,  Dangerfield  and  Bedloe,  were  fined,  publicly 
lashed  into  unconsciousness,  and  imprisoned  for  life.  It  was  in 
accord  with  the  popular  mood  to  regard  this  punishment  as  none 
too  severe  for  such  base  criminals.     Even  the  exaction  of  the  cus- 

782 


1685]  BEGINNING   OF   TROUBLE  783 

toms,  which  by  law  should  have  ceased  with  the  death  of  Charles, 
was  recognized  by  the  most  outspoken  Whigs  as  necessary  in  the 
interests  of  commerce  as  well  as  the  state,  and  accepted  without 
complaint.  And  when  mass  was  once  more  publicly  celebrated  at 
Whitehall,  though  some  demurred  and  others  raised  their  voices 
in  protest,  the  most  felt  that  this  was  the  king's  matter,  and  that 
his  conscience  must  be  respected.  When  the  first  parliament 
assembled  in  May,  the  Houses  proceeded  to  give  this  universal 
loyal  sentiment  a  still  more  definite  expression;  they  voted  the 
new  king  for  life  a  grant  of  £1,900,000  per  annum,  which 
exceeded  by  £500,000  the  income  which  the  fulsome  loyalty  of  the 
Restoration  Parliament  had  seen  fit  to  bestow  upon  Charles  II. 
The  crime  of  treason  was  extended  to  embrace  any  attempt  to 
change  the  natural  law  of  succession.  A  petition  asking  for  the 
enforcement  of  the  laws  against  nonconformists,  also,  was  thrown 
out,  and  even  Shaftesbury's  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  probably  saved 
only  by  the  landing  of  Monmouth,  which  caused  an  immediate 
adjournment. 

The  troubles  of  the  new  reign  began  first  in  Scotland.     A  band 
of  Whig  exiles  had  infested  the  Dutch  court,  and  the  Stadholder, 

not  unwilling  to  show  his  good  will  towards  his  father- 
onf^mbUa  i^'^^w.  Compelled  the  exiles  to  leave  Holland.  They 
riiru^        gathered  at  Brussels,  and  here  devised  a  mad  scheme 

of  attempting  to  raise  Scotland  and  England  in  the 
name  of  Monmouth  as  the  rightful  heir  of  Charles  II.  Argyll, 
son  of  the  covenanting  Argyll  who  had  been  put  to  death  at  the 

Restoration,  sailed  first,  intending  to  raise  his  clans- 
o^Arouiito     men,    the    Campbells.      But   his   movements   were    so 

dilatory  that  the  deputies  of  James  early  learned  of  his 
arrival,  and,  by  throwing  the  Campbell  chieftains  into  prison  and 
seizing  the  outlets  of  the  Highlands,  effectually  prevented  him 
from  securing  the  help  upon  which  he  had  counted.  The  Camp- 
bells, however,  faithfully  responded  to  Argyll's  call;  but  he  was  so 
thoroughly  outgeneraled,  that  the  poor  fellows  were  dispersed  and 
sent  to  their  homes  without  having  an  opportunity  to  swing  their 
claymores  for  their  beloved  "Maccallum  More,"  ^  and  Argyll  him- 

^  The  name  by  which  Argyll  was  known  to  his  clansmen. 


784  THE  WHIG    REVOLUTION"  [jamesII. 

self  was  made  a  prisoner.  On  the  30th  of  June  he  was  led  through 
Edinburgh,  "bareheaded,  his  hands  tied  behind  his  back,  and 
followed  by  the  hangman."  It  was  not  necessary  to  stop  for  a 
trial;  he  was  already  resting  under  an  earlier  sentence,  and  was 
forthwith  executed.  The  other  leaders  who  accompanied  him, 
among  them  Rumbold,  an  old  Commonwealth  man,  prominent 
among  the  real  authors  of  the  Rye  House  plot,  suffered  the  same 
fate. 

On  the  11th  of  June,  six  days  after  the  capture  of  Argyll,  the 
second  of  these  ill-managed  and  ill-fated  expeditions,  led  by  Mon- 
mouth in  person,  landed  at  Lyme  in  Dorsetshire.  In 
Mfnimoutn,  a  proclamation,  cleverly  put,  the  leader  demanded  tol- 
eration for  Protestants,  the  repeal  of  the  Corporation 
Acts,  and  the  restoration  of  the  charters.  Some  two  thousand 
men  joined  him  from  the  neighboring  region,  and  with  them  he 
entered  the  manufacturing  districts  of  Somerset,  and  advanced 
to  Taunton.  His  ranks  were  soon  swelled  by  the  clothiers  of 
Somerset,  the  miners  of  the  Mendip  Hills,  and  the  simple  folk  of 
the  country  side,  but  the  supply  of  arms  which  he  had  brought 
with  him  was  soon  exhausted,  and  pitchforks,  flails,  and  scythes, 
the  peaceful  implements  of  husbandry,  had  to  do  duty  for  pike 
and  gun.  The  nobility  and  the  gentry  held  aloof.  They  had 
little  faith  in  Monmouth's  claim  to  be  a  legal  son  of  the  dead 
king;  they  were  also  more  intelligent,  and  foresaw  what  must 
happen  as  soon  as  the  rabble  which  followed  "King  Monmouth" 
should  come  face  to  face  with  the  king's  regulars. 

The  plan  of  Monmouth  was  to  push  on  to  Cheshire,  where  he 
was  assured  of  support.  Bub  at  Philip's-Norton,  he  was  turned 
back  by  the  king's  troops,  and  compelled  to  retire 
Juiu%6,  '  upon  r>ri(lgo\vater.  He  was  closely  followed  by  the 
roy.il  army  under  command  of  Louis  Duras  Earl  of 
Feversham,  and  John  Churchill.  Monmouth  knew  that  as  he 
could  not  advance,  he  must  fight  at  once,  and  on  the  night  of  July 
5,  determined  to  take  advantage  of  a  dense  fog  which  had  set- 
tled down  over  the  half  reclaimed  marshes  of  the  Sedgemoor  flats, 
and  make  a  desperate  attempt  to  surprise  Feversham  and  Churchill 
as  they  lay  in  their  camps.     The  undertaking  was  one  of  great 


1685]  SEDGEMOOE  785 

danger;  Monmouth's  troops  were  without  discipline  and  unac- 
customed to  the  voices  of  their  officers;  the  country  was  cut  up 
by  broad,  deep  ditches,  well  filled  with  water ;  it  was  so  dark  that 
a  pikeman  could  not  see  his  fellow  who  marched  in  the  rank  before 
him;  the  enemy,  moreover,  were  experienced  campaigners,  and 
knew  well  their  trade;  there  was  not  one  chance  in  a  thousand  of 
success.  Yet  in  the  very  boldness  of  the  enterprise,  there  was 
hope,  and  as  the  event  proved,  Monmouth's  plan  was  not  altogether 
foolhardy.  But  in  the  moment  when  his  men  were  rushing  upon 
the  foe,  a  broad  canal,  filled  with  black  water  to  the  brim,  sud- 
denly revealed  itself  in  the  darkness,  stretching  along  their  whole 
front  and  effectually  preventing  any  further  progress.  Lord 
Grey  with  Monmouth's  cavalry  fled,  but  the  infantry  stood  their 
ground  and  delivered  their  feeble  fire  at  the  regulars  across  the 
moat,  who,  from  behind  its  safe  cover,  answered  with  deadly 
precision.  Still  the  raw  farm  lads  held  their  own  until  Fever- 
sham  brought  up  his  artillery.  Then  they  broke  and  fled. 
Monmouth,  who  had  early  left  the  field,  was  taken  a  few  days 
later  in  the  New  Forest  and  brought  to  London.  Parliament  had 
already  passed  an  act  of  attainder,  so  that  there  was  no  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  an  immediate  execution.  He  was  beheaded  on 
Tower  Hill,  July  15. 

After  the  battle  Kirke,  the  colonel  of  the  Tangier  regiment, 
who  had  learned  his  trade  in  warring  with  Moslems,  had  succeeded 

Feversham  to  the  command,  and  let  loose  his  "Lambs" 
j^mhs'^and  ^^P^^^  ^^^®  peasants  of  the  west,  following  the  fugitives 
AssiS^^ms   ^^  tlieir  homes  and  hanging  them,  without  form  of  trial, 

over  their  own  door  steps.  Nothing  was  to  be  seen,  it 
was  said,  but  **forsaken  walls,  unlucky  gibbets,  and  ghostly  car- 
casses. The  trees  were  loaden  almost  as  thick  with  quarters  as 
leaves;  the  houses  and  steeples  covered  as  close  with  heads,  as  at 
other  times  with  crows  or  ravens."  The  jails,  also,  were  crowded 
with  the  trembling  victims.  James,  however,  was  not  satisfied, 
and  sent  out  a  commission  of  five  judges,  headed  by  the  terrible 
Jeffreys,  to  finish  Kirke's  work.  The  circuit  was  long  known  as 
the  "Bloody  Assize."  More  than  300  were  hanged,  and  upwards 
of  800  more  deported  and  sold  as  slaves  to  the  planters  in  the 


786  THE    WHIG    REVOLUTION  [james  ii. 

Barbadoes  and  Jamaica.  At  Winchester  the  commission  stopped 
to  try  and  execute  Alice  Lisle,  who  had  been  guilty  of  giving 
shelter  to  one  of  the  fugitives  as  he  fled  from  the  battle.  Sh.e 
was  advanced  in  years,  and  a  widow  of  one  of  Cromwell's  lords. 
Another  victim  was  Elizabeth  Grant,  who  was  convicted  of  a  like 
charge,  and  burned  alive  at  Tyburn.  When  Jeffreys  returned,  as 
a  reward  for  his  work,  he  was  made  Lord  Chancellor. 

The  influence  of  these  successes  upon  the  king's  mind  was 
soon  apparent.     The  failure  of  Monmouth  had  proved  that  the 

day  had  gone  by  when  insurgents  might  hope  to  cope 
umm  James     successfully  with  the  troops  of  the  king.     Only  trained 

soldiers  could  meet  the  "regulars"  of  the  government. 
The  nation,  moreover,  was  now  apparently  all  Tory.  The  doctrine 
of  nonresi stance  had  become  the  accepted  political  tenet,  not  of 
a  party,  but  of  the  English  people.  James  knew,  also,  that  in  an 
emergency  he  might,  like  his  brother,  depend  upon  the  support 
of  the  French  king  who  had  already  sent  him,  as  an  earnest  of  his 
good  will,  a  dole  of  £67,000.  His  obstinacy  and  intolerance  of 
opposition,  which  were  always  marked  traits,  increased  accord- 
ingly; he  began  to  cherish  visions  of  the  ultimate  restoration  of 
the  Catholic  faith  in  England,  and  saw  himself  again  in  possession 
of  those  prerogatives  which  the  crown  had  once  enjoyed  in  the 
days  of  Elizabeth  and  his  grandfather;  nor  was  it  long  before  he 
had  definitely  framed  a  policy  of  aggression  towards  the  laws  and 
the  ecclesiastical  establishment  of  England,  belying  his  recent 
fair  words,  and  putting  the  nonresistance  principles  of  his 
staunchest  Tory  friends  to  the  test; 

During  the  summer,  while  Jeffreys  was  browbeating  terrified 
witnesses  and  bullying  frightened  juries  into  giving  their  consent 

to  the  burning  of  old  women  and  the  hanging  of  sim- 
ti!mofT)w'  P^®  peasant  folk,  the  spirit  of  passive  endurance  w^iich 
Nantes  1685    ^^^  ^^  ^^^®  taken  possession  of  the  nation,  received  a 

yet  more  disquieting  shock  from  the  progress  of  events 
across  the  Channel.  Since  the  time  of  Henry  IV.  the  Protestants 
of  France  had  rested  securely  under  the  protecting  shadow  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes.  But  in  the  summer  of  1685,  Louis  XIV.  saw  fit, 
not  only  to  recall  this  Edict,  but  actively  to  enter  the  lists  against 


1685]  POSITION   OF  JAMES  787 

the  newly  outlawed  Huguenots,  and  summoned  all  the  machinery 
of  the  state  to  crush  religious  dissent.     It  was  one  of  the  most 

foolish  of  all  Louis's  acts  of  tyranny,  and  dealt  a  blow 
Effect  upon     ^q  q^q  prosperity  of  his  kingdom,  from  which  it  never 

recovered.  According  to  Evelyn,  the  famous  diarist, 
* 'even  the  Papists  did  not  approve  of  it. "  To  Louis's  ally,  the 
new  king  of  England,  it  was  even  more  serious.  Troops  of 
refugees,  who  a  short  time  before  had  been  among  the  most  pros- 
perous of  Louis's  subjects,  but  now  were  stripped  of  all  save  their 
lives,  began  to  reach  England.  They  were  at  once  taken  in  and 
cared  for  by  their  fellow  Protestants,  and  the  story  of  their  wrongs 
quickened  the  latent  distrust  wliich,  in  spite  of  the  prevailing 
Tory  doctrines,  Englishmen  had  always  felt  for  their  Catholic  king. 
They  did  not  stop  to  make  distinctions,  but  confounded  the  tyranny 
of  the  French  king  with  the  faith  which  was  still  proscribed  in 
England  by  the  accumulated  laws  and  traditions  of  a  century. 

When  the  parliament,  which  had  given  such  evidence  of  its 
loyalty  in   the   spring,   assembled  in  November,  its  temper  had 

perceptibly  changed.  James  asked  for  the  repeal  of 
temper  of       the  Test  Act  and  for  an  increase  in  the  standing  army, 

but  met  with  a  refusal  so  peremptory  that  he  did  not 
propose  a  third  measure,  which  he  also  had  in  mind,  the  repeal  of 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Act.  Even  the  council  had  taken  on  some- 
thing of  the  new  spirit  which  was  abroad;  so  that  the  king 
thought  himself  called  upon  to  dismiss  Halifax,  the  old  champion 
of  legitimate  succession.  Lawrence  Hyde,  Earl  of  Kochester,  the 
brother-in-law  of  the  king,  also  had  protested  against  some  recent 
acts,  which  might  be  regarded  as  a  public  sanction  of  the  mass, 
and,  although  Hyde  was  retained  for  a  short  time  longer,  he  fell 
under  the  king's  displeasure. 

The  contention  of  James  was  specious  enough :  that  subjects 
capable  of  being  useful  to  the  state  ought  not  to  be  debarred  from 

public  service  by  reason  of  their  creed,  and  that  all 
of^james^^^    religious  tests  as  a  qualification  for  office  ought  to  be 

removed.  The  motive  of  James,  however,  as  the 
sequel  proved,  was  not  so  commendable.  He  had  no  intention  of 
giving  the  great  nonconformist  body  a  share  in  the  government 


788  THE    WHIG    REVOLUTION  [james  ll. 

equal  to  their  influence,  or  commensurate  with  their  ability.  He 
proposed,  rather,  to  free  himself  from  the  shackles  of  the  religious 
test  in  order  that  he  might  use  the  patronage  of  the  crown  to 
entrench  the  Catholics  in  the  public  offices,  and  thus,  by  sur- 
rounding himself  with  a  group  of  Catholic  officials,  control  the 
state  to  his  liking.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  man  who 
inaugurated  the  "killing  time"  in  Scotland,  ever  had  any  real 
sympathy  with  the  principles  of  liberty  of  conscience,  or  freedom 
of  worship,  or  that  he  proposed  to  shelter  the  Protestant  non- 
conformists for  other  than  ulterior  motives. 

James  had  now  had  his  first  quarrel  with  parliament  and  had 
met  his  first  rebuff.     Under  similar  circumstances  his  predecessor 

would  have  quietly  dropped  the  matter  and  waited  for 
Act  and  the     the  present  revulsion  of  feeling  to  pass  away.     But  the 

obstinate  nature  of  James  was  aroused,  and  after  a 
brief  session  of  three  weeks,  he  prorogued  parliament,  and 
invoked  the  law  courts  to  assist  him  in  overthrowing  the  Test 
Act.  He  had  already  given  his  confidence  to  four  men  who  were 
in  full  sympathy  with  his  motives  and  had  had  more  influence  with 
him  than  his  councillors  of  state.  These  men  were  Richard  Tal- 
bot Earl  of  Tyrconnel,  who  was  familiarly  known  in  the  court  as 
*'Lying  Dick  Talbot,"  Henry  Jermyn,  Edward  Petre,  a  Jesuit, 
and  Eobert  Spencer  Earl  of  Sunderland,  a  cold  hearted,  corrupt 
man,  who  believed  in  nothing  but  himself,  and  was  ready  to  turn 
Catholic  to  please  the  king  if  that  were  the  next  thing  on  the 
slate.  It  was  by  the  advice  of  these  men  that  James  proceeded 
to  attack  the  Test  Act  through  his  dispensing  power,  looking  to 
the  subservient  judges  of  the  Kings  Court  to  give  his  position  the 
sanction  of  law.  A  friendly  suit  was  arranged  by  which  an  action 
was  brought  against  Sir  Edward  Hales,  a  Catholic  colonel,  by 
Godden,  his  coachman,  on  the  charge  of  accepting  a  commission 

in  the  army  in  disobedience  to  the  Test  Act.  The 
'case^wm       decision  was  given  in  June  1686.      Of  the  bench  of 

twelve  judges,  eleven  supported  the  Dispensing  Power 
of  the  king.  Chief  Justice  Herbert  declared  that  in  as  much  as 
the  laws  of  England  were  the  king's  laws,  it  was  for  him  to  dis- 
pense  with  penal  laws  in  particular  cases,  whenever  he  saw  fit. 


1686]  ATTACK   ON   THE   CHURCH  789 

Upon  the  basis  of  this  astounding  decision,  which  threatened  the 
entire  legislative  authority  of  parliament,  James  proceeded  at 
once  to  fill  all  possible  places  in  the  army  and  the  civil  service 
with  his  co-religionists. 

In  order  to  entrench  himself  in  the  state  church  the  king  fol- 
lowed  a   somewhat   similar   method.     As   the   royal   prerogative 

empowered  him  to  suspend  the  action  of  the  Test  Act 
onthf^^^  in  secular  cases,  it  was  claimed  also  that  the  authority 
Sr^'*'  which  the  Act  of  Supremacy  conferred  upon  the  king, 

empowered  him  to  suspend  the  Act  of  Uniformity  of 
Charles  II.  The  process,  however,  of  waiting  for  vacancies  in 
church  livings  in  order  to  fill  them  with  Catholics,  proved  too  slow 
to  satisfy  James,  who  was  now  thoroughly  warmed  to  his  work.  On 
July  14,  1686,  he  instituted  by  patent  a  ** Commission  for  the  Trial 
of  Ecclesiastical  Causes,"  expressly  empowering  it  to  exercise  its* 
authority,  "notwithstanding  any  law  or  statute  to  the  contrary." 
The  jurisdiction  of  the  new  court  did  not  extend  to  the  laity,  but 
so  far  as  the  clergy  were  concerned  it  was  virtually  a  revival  of 
the  old  Court  of  High  Commission.  It  was  composed  of  seven 
members.  Jeffreys,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  was  president,  and  no 
session  could  be  held  without  him.  The  king  of  course  had  no 
legal  right  to  create  such  a  court ;  it  was  not  only  a  direct  usur- 
pation of  powers  which  parliament  had  once  by  law  explicitly 
denied  the  crown ;  it  was  also  a  flagrant  invasion  of  the  rights 
which  Tory  churchmen  had  secured  for  themselves  as  a  reward  for 
their  support  of  the  Stuart  Restoration.  The  first  act  of  the  new 
court,  also,  showed  that  the  seven  commissioners  were  fully  deter- 
mined to  sing  to  the  score  which  the  king  had  set  them.  Dr. 
Sharp,  Dean  of  Norwich,  had  preached  a  sermon  in  which  he 
denied  that  obedience  to  the  papal  authority  was  necessary  to 
membership  in  the  body  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Henry  Comp- 
ton.  Bishop  of  London,  was  instructed  to  call  Dr.  Sharp  to  account 
for  his  unseasonable  words.  Compton,  however,  refused  and  was 
at  once  suspended  by  the  new  Court  of  High  Commission.  The 
old  Court  of  High  Commission  of  Elizabeth  had  been  set  up  to 
protect  the  legal  church  of  the  realm  against  the  annoying 
attacks  of  nonconformist  fanatics.     The  new  court  of  Jaiiies  was 


790  THE   WHIG    REVOLUTION  [ 


James  II. 


established  evidently  to  bind  the  tongues  of  churchmen  and  pre- 
vent any  unseemly  attacks  upon  the  religious  system  represented 
by  the  king. 

In  the  spring  the  movements  of  the  king  became  yet  more 
menacing,  and  popular  suspicion  and  discontent  continued  to  rise 
accordingly.  The  refusal  of  parliament  to  allow  James 
James  pre-  to  increase  his  standing  army  compelled  him  to  look 
resistance.  elsewhere  for  increased  military  support,  should  it  be 
needed.  Ireland  offered  a  most  favorable  recruiting 
ground  for  such  a  Catholic  army.  But  it  was  necessary  to  have  a 
Lord  Deputy  in  Ireland  who  would  not  be  unnerved  by  any  Eng- 
lish sympathies,  when  the  king  should  need  the  help  of  an  Irish 
army  in  England.  "There  is  work  to  be  done  in  Ireland,"  said 
James,  "which  no  Englishman  can  do."  Acccordingly  in  Feb- 
•ruary  the  elder  Hyde,  Lord  Clarendon,  was  recalled,  and  Talbot 
was  sent  out  in  his  place.  The  younger  Hyde,  Lord  Rochester, 
was  removed  from  the  council.  The  temper  of  London  James 
feared  somewhat,  and  marched  an  army  of  13,000  men  to  Houn- 
slow  Heath  and  there  encamped  them  in  order  to  overawe 
the  city.  In  the  meanwhile  he  continued  to  fill  all  the  high 
places  in  church  and  state  and  army  with  Catholics,  or  with 
lukewarm  Protestants  who  held  religious  principles  lightly  and 
responded  to  no  call  save  that  of  selfish  interest. 

James  now  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  begin  the  direct 
attack  upon  the  restrictive  religious  legislation  of  the  past  two 
generations.  On  April  4,  1687,  he  issued  his  famous 
uono'/in^^^'  ^declaration  of  Indulgence,  which  suspended  by  royal 
A'^rit4%687  pi'oclamation  all  the  laws  against  Catholic  or  Protestant 
Dissenters.  The  Declaration  on  the  one  hand  was  a 
defiance  to  the  old  high  church  party  who  had  given  birth  to  the 
Clarendon  Code;  on  the  other  it  was  a  direct  bid  for  the  support 
of  Protestant  Dissenters.  James  evidently  thought  that  the 
Tories  would  live  up  to  their  principle  of  nonresistance,  and  that 
the  Protestant  nonconformists  would  gladly  acquiesce  in  a  meas- 
ure so  clearly  in  their  interests.  But  he  was  soon  to  find  that  in 
both  cases  he  had  gravely  misread  human  nature.  When  he 
attempted  to  present  a  Benedictine  monk  to  the  University  of 


1687]  THE   DECLARATION  OF   INDULGENCE  791 

Cambridge  for  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  the  authorities  flatly 
refused  to  confer  the  degree  unless  the  candidate  should  take  the 
oath  prescribed  by  law ;  and  it  was  necessary  for  the  Commission 
for  the  Trial  of  Ecclesiastical  Causes  to  take  Dr.  Peck  ell,  the  vice 
chancellor  of  the  university,  in  hand.  The  occurrence  of  a  vacancy 
in  the  presidency  of  the  Fellows  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford, 
gave  James  another  opportunity  to  enforce  his  peculiar  views  of 
religious  liberty,  and  Oxford,  an  opportunity  to  practice  its  favor- 
ite doctrine  of  nonresistance.  James  attempted  to  force  upon 
the  Fellows,  Samuel  Parker,  the  recently  appointed  bishop  of 
Oxford,  who  was  in  sympathy  with  James's  religious  views.  But 
the  Fellows,  instead  of  submitting,  elected  Dr.  Hough,  their  own 
candidate.  Here  again  the  Commission  was  called  upon  to  inter- 
fere; and  Dr.  Hough  and  the  Fellows  who  supported  him  were 
summarily  turned  out.  The  nonconforming  bodies  were  no 
better  pleased  with  James's  efforts  in  their  behalf.  The  promise  of 
toleration  deceived  them  no  more  than  in  the  time  of  Charles  II. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few,  as  the  Quaker,  William  Penn,  all  took 
their  stand  with  the  Tory  churchmen.  Thus  the  aggressions  of 
James  were  slowly  but  surely  consolidating  against  him  a  deter- 
mined body  of  resistance,  in  which  Whigs  and  Tories,  regardless  of 
political  differences,  and  Anglican  churchmen  and  nonconformists, 
regardless  of  religious  differences,  stood  together  for  the  inviola- 
bility of  the  laws  of  the  land. 

On  the  surface,  however,  the  affairs  of  James  were  progressing 

well  enough.     With  men  like  Jeffreys  on  the  bench,  with  men  like 

Sunderland  and  Petre  to  advise  him,  and  men  like  I'al- 

James  ana       i  -n  i 

thecorpora-  bot,  iieversham,  and  Churchill  in  command  of  the 
army,  apparently  he  had  nothing  to  fear.  James's 
position,  however,  had  still  one  vulnerable  point,  and  he  now  gave 
his  attention  to  the  strengthening  of  this  point.  On  July  2,  1687 
he  dissolved  his  first  parliament,  which  he  had  not  allowed  to  sit 
since  December  1685,  and  at  once  set  about  getting  together  a 
new  parliament  better  to  his  liking.  He  detailed  certain  of  the 
Privy  Council,  and  sent  them  around  to  "regulate"  the  corpora- 
tions. His  eyes  were  not  yet  open  to  the  real  temper  of  the  Prot- 
estant nonconformists,  and  he  still  fondly  believed  that  if  they  had 


792  THE   WHIG    KEVOLUTION  [james  ll. 

the  opportunity,  they  would  join  the  Catholics  in  electing  the  kind 
of  men  he  wanted  for  his  parliament.  The  Tory  members  Avho  had 
been  added  to  the  corporations  in  1683,  therefore,  were  carefully 
excluded,  and  Protestant  nonconformists  put  in  their  places. 
The  justices  and  deputy-lieutenants  of  the  counties,  who  refused  to 
promise  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  the  king,  were  also  removed. 
Nearly  one-half  the  lords-lieutenant  were  allowed  to  resign  in  order 
that  Catholics  and  Dissenters  might  be  appointed  to  their  places. 
Non resistance  had  now  reached  its  limit.  The  remodeling  of 
the  corporations  and  the  filling  of  the  county  offices  with  the 
religious  friends  of  James  spread  consternation  every- 
Deciaratton  ^^^^^'  ^^  high  ran  the  feeling,  that  when  the  work 
aence^^  was  done,  and  the  membership  of  the  corporations  was 

remodeled  to  the  king's  liking,  even  his  obtuse  mind 
began  to  comprehend  the  real  temper  of  the  nonconformist  bodies, 
and  he  dared  not  issue  a  call  for  the  new  parliament.  Yet  he  had 
no  thought  of  yielding,  and  on  April  25,  1688,  with  the  sanction 
of  his  Privy  Council,  he  reissued  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence 
and  ordered  it  to  be  read  in  all  the  churches;  in  London,  on  the 
last  two  Sundays  of  May,  and  in  the  rest  of  the  kingdom,  on  the 
first  two  Sundays  of  June.  If  the  measure  were  designed  to  put 
the  doctrine  of  non resistance  to  the  test,  James  ought  to  have 
been  satisfied.  When  the  first  Sunday  appointed  in  May  came, 
only  four  of  the  clergy  of  London  read  the  Declaration,  and  in 
each  case  the  congregation  refused  to  stay  to  hear  the  proclama- 
tion. But  far  more  serious  than  the  action  of  individual  clergy- 
men or  congregations,  was  a  formal  petition  which  on  the  18th  of 
May  was  presented  to  the  king  by  seven  bishops,  in  which  they 
besought  him  not  to  force  them  or  their  clergy  to  break  the  law. 
The  seven  bishops  were  Sancroft,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Ken 
of  Bath  and  Wells,  White  of  Peterborough,  Trelawney  of  Bristol, 
Lloyd  of  St.  Asaph,  Turner  of  Ely,  and  Lake  of  Chichester. 
When  James  was  confronted  by  the  petition,  he  was  furious  at 
what  he  was  pleased  to  regard  as  the  raising  of  the  standard  of 
rebellion,  and  bitterly  taunted  the  petitioners  as  good  churchmen 
who  questioned  the  Dispensing  Power  of  the  king.  Tlie  act  of 
the  bishops,  however,  was  soon  to  bear  fruit.     Tory  churchmen, 


1688]  THE    SEVEN    BISHOPS  793 

now  that  their  bishops  had  protested,  no  longer  hesitated,  and 
when  the  first  Sunday  of  June  came,  scarcely  any  one  consented 
to  read  the  Declaration.  James  turned  his  wrath  upon  the  seven 
bishops,  and  on  the  8th  of  June,  sent  them  to  the  Tower,  on  a 
charge  of  publishing  a  seditious^ libel.  The  people  gathered  in 
vast   crowds   to   see  the  seven  quiet  faced   men  pass 

The  ovTcst 

ami  trial  of  under  guard  to  the  great  state  prison,  and  as  they 
passed  along  shouted  after  them  benedictions  and  pray- 
ers for  their  safety.  The  trial  was  brought  on  before  the  Court  of 
Kings  Bench  on  June  29.  The  crown  lawyers  in  order  to  prove 
the  indictment,  descended  to  trickery  in  which  the  clerk  of  the 
court  and  Sunderland  joined.  Late  at  night  the  jury,  which  had 
been  chosen  in  accordance  with  the  corrupt  methods  of  the  day, 
retired  to  consider  their  verdict.  Few  people  in  London  slept 
that  night.  The  city,  at  fever  heat,  waited  while  the  jury 
deliberated,  and  when  in  the  morning  the  foreman,  to  the  sur- 
prise of  all,  pronounced  the  talismanic  "Not  guilty,"  the  words 
were  caught  up  by  the  watchers  and  in  a  few  minutes  were 
shouted  by  waiting  multitudes  in  the  streets;  the  whole  city, 
Whigs  and  Tories,  churchmen  and  dissenters,  went  wild  with  joy. 
Even  the  soldiers  on  Hounslow  Heath,  who  had  been  called  to 
arms  to  suppress  mob  violence  if  need  be,  caught  the  contagion 
and  shouted  and  cheered  themselves  hoarse  with  the  townsmen. 
The  news  ran  like  wildfire  along  the  country  roads,  and  village 
after  village  caught  up  the  joyous  shout  of  triumph.  Even  from 
distant  Cornwall  came  back  the  refrain  of  the  Cornish  miners  who 
loved  the  sturdy  Bishop  of  Bristol  as  one  of  their  own  race: 

"  And  shall  Trelawney  die,  my  boys  ?  and  shall  Trelawney  die  ? 
Then  thirty  thousand  Cornish  men  will  know  the  reason  why." 

The  bishops  were  not  the  only  cause  of  all  this  popular  excite- 
ment.    Two  days  after  the  arrest  of  the  bishops,  Mary  of  Modena, 
the  second   wife  of  James,  had  ffiven  birth   to  a  son, 

The  birth 

of  James        James  Francis  Edward.     Under  the  intense  excitement 

Francis  Ed- 

ivarci  stiiart,  of  the  moment,  men  were  willine:  to  believe  any  extrav- 

June  10,  1688.  1      1        «  ,  ,  T  ,      ^     1     1 . 

agance,  and  the  fact  that  none  but  James  s  Catholic 
friends  were  present  to  greet  the  prince  on  his  arrival,  gave  color 
to  the  story,  which  was  soon  widely  believed,  that  the  prince  was 


794  THE    WHIG    REVOLUTION^  [James  II. 

not  a  royal  child  at  all,  but  had  been  smuggled  into  the  palace 
by  a  Jesuit  trick,  in  order  to  defeat  the  succession  of  James's 
eldest  daughter,  1>he  Princess  of  Orange.  The  rumor  was  without 
foundation;  but  the  ^appearance,  at  such  a  time,  of  a  direct  heir 
to  the  throne,  who  would  be  certain  to  be  reared  in  the  faith  of 
the  father  and  mother,  precipitated  the  crisis.  The  Protestant 
nation  had  up  to  this  point  endured  James,  because  they  thought 
his  reign  could  not  in  the  course  of  nature  last  long.  But  now 
they  saw  the  promise  of  a  Catholic  rule  indefinitely  prolonged, 
unless  prevented  by  immediate  action.  The  leaders,  however,  were 
wary.  The  fate  of  Monmouth's  revolt  had  shown  the  uselessness 
of  pitting  untrained  men  against  the  regular  army  of  the  king. 
They  turned,  therefore,  to  the  only  man  who  could  help  them,  who 
had  a  trained  army  at  command  and  whose  interests  might  incline 
him  to  prevent  the  theatened  Catholic  succession.  On  the  day 
after  the  acquittal  of  the  bishops,  seven  men,  regardless  of  any 
previous  party  affiliations,  sent  an  invitation  to  William  to  bring 
a  Dutch  army  into  England  and  save  the  nation  from  the  rule  of 
popery.  Of  the  seven  men  the  earls  of  Devonshire  and  Shrews- 
bnry,  Henry  Sydney,  brother  of  the  late  Algernon  Sydney,  and 
Admiral  Edward  Russell,  cousin  of  the  late  Lord  William 
Russell,  were  Whigs.  The  Tories  were  represented  by  Danby, 
Charles  II. 's  old  minister.  Lord  Lumley,  and  Henry  Compton, 
the  suspended  bishop  of  London.  The  message  it  is  said,  was 
carried  to  William  by  Admiral  Herbert  disguised  as  a  common 
seaman. 

When  the  letter  of  the  seven  reached  William  he  was  just  fac- 
ing another  great  war  with  Louis  XIV.  In  1686  he  had  com- 
pleted the  coalition  against  France,  known  as  the 
whiSlcon^^  League  of  Augsburg.  It  included  all  the  great  powers 
^miuam  ^^  Western  Europe;  Spain,  the  emperor,  the  North 
German  princes,  Sweden,  and  the  United  Netherlands. 
In  1687  Bavaria,  Saxony,  the  leading  princes  of  Italy,  and  even 
the  pope,  secretly  promised  their  support.  The  league  had  been 
formed  without  regard  to  ecclesiastical  lines  and  had  been  inspired 
solely  by  the  aggressions  of  Louis  upon  his  weaker  neighbors. 
The  letter  of  the  seven,  therefore,  offered  a  tempting  opportunity 


1688]  THE    LEAGUE   OF   AUGSBURG  795 

to  William ;  by  detlironing  James  he  might  detach  England  and 
Scotland  from  their  quasi  alliance  with  France,  and  by  adding 
them  to  the  League  complete  the  cordon  of  hostile  powers  which 
he  had  been  drawing  about  Louis.  It  was  an  opportunity  to  be 
greeted  with  fierce  joy  by  a  man  who  beheld  at  last  the  realization 
of  the  passion  of  his  life  within  his  grasp.  And  yet  the  dan- 
gers were  great.  A  direct  attack  upon  James  must  appear  to 
William's  Catholic  allies  as  a  direct  attack  upon  their  religion, 
and  might  lead  to  the  disruption  of  the  league  which  he  had  built 
up  at  the  cost  of  infinite  pains  and  patience.  Louis,  also,  could 
not  be  expected  to  look  on  in  apathy,  while  William  overthrew 
James  and  added  England  to  the  enemies  of  France.  Simply  the 
gathering  of  an  army  would  be  enough  to  arouse  the  wary  Louis's 
suspicion,  and  the  moment  the  Dutch  fleet  faced  the  Channel 
Louis  might  be  expected  to  throw  an  army  into  Holland.  But  an 
even  more  serious  difficulty  lay  at  home.  The  federal  government 
of  the  United  Netherlands  was  a  cumbrous  affair  resembling 
somewhat  the  government  of  the  United  States  of  America  under 
the  Articles  of  Confederation.  It  was  designed  to  foster  local 
liberties  rather  than  to  support  a  powerful  national  government. 
The  Stadholder  had  no  authority  to  levy  taxes  or  raise  troops  or 
declare  war  without  the  consent  of  the  States-General.  The  States- 
General,  moreover,  was  not  a  compact  body  like  the  present 
American  Congress,  but  a  loose  convention  of  envoys  or  delegates 
sent  from  the  various  provincial  states  all  mutually  independent. 
But  further,  a  fact  still  more  fatal  to  concerted  action,  each  pro- 
vincial state  was  in  like  manner  simply  a  confederation  of  smaller 
states,  each  of  which  reserved  the  right  to  pass  upon  the  acts  of  its 
representatives.  Before  the  Stadholder  could  act  constitution- 
ally, therefore,  he  must  take  every  city  of  the  confederation  into 
his  confidence  and  secure  its  consent.  Secrecy  was  of  course 
impossible.  The  old  pro- French  oligarchy  still  had  a  powerful 
following  in  many  of  the  cities,  especially  in  Amsterdam,  and 
French  gold  might  be  expected  to  play  an  important  part  in  rous- 
ing the  old  party  of  the  De  Witts  to  vigorous  opposition.  It  was 
a  task  from  which  a  man  even  of  William's  patience  and  deter- 
mination might  shrink. 


796  THE    WHIG    REVOLUTIOlf  [James  IL 

With  strange  blindness,  however,   Louis  himself  persisted  in 
removing  all  obstacles  from  the  path  of  William.     In  the  first 

place,  Louis  selected  this  moment  to  open  a  quarrel 
SmiJxjF  ^^^^  ^^^  P^P^  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  the  old  quar- 
vom^^^         rels  of  the  English  kings  with  the  pope  over  annates. 

He  had  compelled  the  French  clergy  to  support  him ; 
and  in  1682,  they  had  formally  declared  in  a  council  at  St.  Ger- 
mains,  that  kings  were  not  subject  to  the  pope  in  things  temporal. 
In  other  words  the  French  monarch  was  in  some  such  position  as 
Henry  YIIL  in  1533,  when  he  was  sending  Protestants  to  the 
stake  for  denying  the  authority  of  papal  doctrines,  and  Catholics, 
for  upholding  the  authority  of  the  pope.  •  In  1688  the  quarrel 
passed  into  open  rupture.  The  archiepiscopal  see  of  Cologne  was 
vacant.  The  pope.  Innocent  XL ,  and  the  emperor  had  united  upon 
a  candidate,  but  Louis,  who  had  no  wish  to  lose  the  control  which 
he  had  recently  secured  on  the  Lower  Ehine,  proposed  with  the 
support  of  a  French  army  to  set  up  at  Cologne  his  ally  Fiirsten- 
berg.  Bishop  of  Strasburg.  The  pope,  also,  had  not  only  disap- 
proved of  the  foolhardy  course  of  James  in  England,  but  was 
deeply  offended  by  his  partiality  for  the  Jesuits,  who  for  some 
time  had  been  in  ill  odorjvith  the  Holy  See.  Instead,  therefore, 
of  opposing  William,  the  pope  was  ready  to  support  him  with 
his  blessings;  he  had  shrewdly  discerned  that  the  interests  of 
Europe  lay  in  crippling  the  power  of  Louis  and  staying  the  hand 
of  James. 

With  the  same  blindness  Louis  persisted  in  strengthening  the 
anti-French  sentiment  among  the  Dutch  burghers,  by  foolishly 

forbidding:  his  own  people  the  use  of  Dutch  linens  and 
and  the  woolen    goods  or  even  the  eatmg  oi  Dutch    herrings 

unless  they  had  been  cured  with  French  salt.  And  as 
if  this  were  not  enough,  by  beginning  an  attack  upon  the  Pala- 
tinate far  from  the  Dutch  borders,  he  not  only  saved  William  from 
the  fear  of  immediate  invasion,  but  enabled  him  to  rely  with  con- 
fidence upon  the  support  of  the  "Great  Elector,"  Frederick 
William  of  Brandenburg,  who  although  he  lay  on  his  death  bed, 
yet  sent  forward  enough  troops  to  hold  Louis  in  check  and  thas 
protect  the  Netherlands. 


1688]  ENGLISH    SENTIMENT    AFFRONTED  797 

So  far  Louis  was  doing  all  that  he  could  to  help  William;  yet 
it  would  be  strange  if  James  also  could  not  lend  a  hand  in  the  last 
moment.  Louis  had  offered  James  the  support  of  his 
Loms^and  fleet,  and  announced  to  Europe  that  any  measures 
directed  against  James  would  be  regarded  as  a  declara- 
tion of  war  against  France.  But  James  with  touching  national 
pride  repudiated  the  insinuation  that  a  king  of  England  was  a 
dependent  upon  France  like  the  elector  of  Cologne ;  he  needed  no 
French  ships  and  would  take  care  of  himself  without  French  aid. 
Louis  took  the  snub,  left  James  to  himself,  and  bent  all  his  ener- 
gies upon  establishing  Fiirstenberg  in  Cologne. 

Thus,  one  by  one,  all  possible  obstacles  which  might  arise  in 
William's  path  from  sources  out  of  England,  were  removed. 
William,  however,  might  still  question  how  the  Eng- 
frtmStlna-  ^^^^^  would  regard  a  foreign  interference,  supported 
ImtimelT^^  ^^  ^  foreign  army.  Would  not  the  old  national  senti- 
ment, regardless  of  party  or  religious  division,  rally  to 
the  support  of  James  at  the  last  moment,  as  it  had  once  rallied  to 
the  support  of  Elizabeth  when  Catholic  and  Protestant  forgot 
their  differences  in  the  presence  of  the  Spanish  Armada?  But 
here  also  James  did  not  fail  him.  James  was  not  pleased  by  the 
way  in  which  his  English  soldiers  on  Hounslow  Heath  had 
approved  the  acquittal  of  the  seven  bishops.  He  broke  up  the 
camp,  therefore,  and  scattered  the  English  troops  in  detachments 
about  the  country,  while  he  brought  over  a  body  of  Irish  sol- 
diers to  overawe  the  capital.  English  national  prejudices  were 
thus  already  thoroughly  aroused,  but  in  a  way  which  would  lead 
the  people  to  hail  the  landing  of  an  army  of  Protestant  Dutch- 
men almost  as  fellow  countrj-men.  In  addition  to  this  affront  to 
national  pride,  always  tender  upon  the  subject  of  an  invasion  of 
England  by  Irish  soldiers,  James  gave  yet  another  fillip  to  Wil- 
liam's cause  by  ordering  that  the  names  of  all  clergymen  who  had 
refused  to  read  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  be  returned  to  the 
Ecclesiastical  Commission.  Some  10,000  of  the  English  clergy 
thus  saw  themselves  threatened  with  the  tender  mercies  of  Jeff- 
reys and  his  Court  of  High  Commission.  This  order,  with  the 
appearance  of  Irish  Catholic  soldiers  in  the  camp  before  London, 


798  THE    WHIG    REVOLUTIOK  [jamesII. 

completely  demolished  what  little  there  was  left  of  nonresistance 
sentiment.  All  England  was  ready  to  receive  William  and  his 
foreign  soldiers  with  open  arms.  Even  Sunderland  saw  that  the 
days  of  high  Tory  rule  were  over,  and  with  Churchill  sought  to 
make  friends  with  William  by  sending  him  secret  information  of 
the  progi'ess  of  affairs  at  Whitehall. 

Thus  "with  stern  delight  William  looked  on  while  his  adver- 
saries toiled  to  clear  obstacle  after  obstacle  from  his  path."  Even 
Amsterdam,  where  French  influence  was  always  strong, 
ofjame^^^  and  whos^  oligarchy  were  ever  suspicious  of  the  des- 
potic tendencies  of  the  House  of  Orange,  raised  no 
objection  when  the  States-General  was  called  upon  to  give  its 
consent  to  the  proposed  expedition.  James  had  heard  first  of 
the  warlike  preparations  of  William  from  Louis,  but  had  been 
inclined  to  credit  the  report  to  Louis's  desire  to  scare  him  into 
an  alliance  with  France  in  the  opening  struggle  with  the  pope. 
But  other  rumors  had  followed  fast,  and  at  last  the  unpleasant 
truth  was  forced  upon  his  obtuse  mind  that  unless  he  could  secure 
the  support  of  his  own  much  wronged  people,  nothing  could  save 
him.  In  the  forlorn  hope,  therefore,  of  conciliating  his  Eng- 
lish enemies,  James  began  a  series  of  sweeping  concessions;  the 
lords-lieutenant  and  magistrates  were  restored ;  Bishop  Compton 
was  allowed  to  resume  his  duties;  London  and  other  cities  and 
boroughs  w^ere  hurriedly  given  back  their  old  charters;  the 
Ecclesiastical  Commission  was  dissolved;  even  Dr.  Hough  and  the 
Fellows  of  Magdalen  were  reinstated.  He  further  announced  that 
he  depended  solely  on  the  loyalty  of  his  subjects,  and  offered  to 
give  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  genuineness  of  the  new  Prince 
James.  In  his  frantic  efforts  to  win  the  support  of  his  people,  he 
even  published  a  general  pardon.  But  it  was  too  late;  the  devil 
was  evidently  hard  sick  and  no  one  would  believe  now  in  his  profes- 
sions of  repentance. 

On  the  10th  of  October  William  issued  from  his  palace  at  Loo 
a  declaration  designed  to  justify  his  actions  in  the  eyes  of  Europe 
as  much  as  to  disarm  the  suspicions  of  the  English.  He  reviewed 
the  arbitrary  acts  of  James,  proclaimed  his  own  right  of  inter- 
vention as  the  husband  of  the  heiress  to  the  English  crown,  and 


1688]  LANDING    OF    WILLIAM  799 

assured  the  people  of  England  that  he  came  only  to  secure  a  free 
parliament,    pledging   himself   to  abide  by  its  decision.     On  the 

16th  of  October  he  set  sail  with  some  600  transports, 
S^/S^  ^^^  about  50  men-of-war  as  a  convoy.  Contrary 
wamm''^     winds,  however,  drove  him  back,  and  he  did  not  succeed 

in  reaching  England  until  November  5.  He  landed  at 
Brixham  in  Torbay,  and  with  the  little  army  of  13,000  which  he 
had  brought  with  him,  marched  to  Exeter,  where  he  waited  for 
the  gentry  of  the  west  to  join  him.  Few,  however,  came  to  him 
at  first;  the  memories  of  Sedgemoor  and  the  Bloody  Assizes  were 
too  fresh  upon  the  minds  of  the  western  people  to  permit  them  to 
respond  lightly  to  a  first  call  to  arms.  But  after  two  weeks  the 
outlook  began  to  brighten ;  good  news  also  reached  William  from 
the  north,  where  Danby  and  Devonshire  were  raising  the  people 
in  his  name  and  had  taken  possession  of  York  and  Nottingham. 
James  in  the  meanwhile  had  roused  himself  to  repel  the  inva- 
sion.    He  had  depended  upon  his  fleet  to  prevent  the  landing  of 

William,  but  the  storm  which  had  delayed  William  had 
ranks  of        held  tlie  king's  ships  in  the  Thames.     The  king  had 

also  gathered  an  army  of  about  40,000  men,  which  lay 
at  Salisbury,  where  he  joined  them  on  the  lOth,  preparatory  to 
disputing  the  eastward  march  of  William.  William's  army  bore 
no  comparison  to  that  of  James,  but  like  Henry  VII.  under  similar 
circumstances,  he  was  assured  of  wide  spread  disaffection  in  the 
camp  of  his  adversaries  and  boldly  pushed  forward.  At  Winchester 
the  advance-guards  met  and  a  slight  skirmish  ensued,  in  which 
James's  troops  were  routed.  Here  also  the  defection  of  James's 
supporters  began,  when  Viscount  Cornbury  went  over  to  William. 
He  was  followed  soon  after  by  Churchill.  At  Andover,  Prince 
George  of  Denmark,  husband  of  the  king's  second  daughter  Anne, 
also  left  the  royal  army.  James  was  disheartened  by  these  deser- 
tions, and  accepting  the  fact  that  he  could  not  depend  upon 
his  army,  began  his  retreat  upon  London.  When  he  reached  Lon- 
don he  learned  that  Anne  herself,  escorted  by  Bishop  Compton, 
had  joined  the  northern  insurgents.  "God  help  me,'*  cried  the 
ruined  man,  as  he  wrung  his  hands,  ''my  own  children  have 
deserted  me." 


800  THE   WHIG    EEVOLUTIOIs^  [jamesII. 

The  defection  of  his  children  seems  to  have  broken  the  spirit 
of  the  king,  and  he  thought  now  only  of  saving  his  throne  by  yield- 
ing.    He  promised  the  Lords  to  call  a  parliament  and 
James  in        directed  Lord  Chancellor  Jeffreys  to  draw  up  the  writs. 

Ijimdon.   His    ^-x       i  t  .  .  /  „,..    .  ,  .         , 

first  flight.  He  also  agreed  to  negotiate  with  William  and  appointed 
Halifax  with  two  other  commissioners  to  represent  him 
at  a  conference.  The  commission  met  William  at  Hungerford 
December  8,  but  instead  of  awaiting  the  result  of  the  conference, 
or  the  meeting  of  parliament,  on  the  morning  of  the  10th,  the  king 
sent  away  his  wife  and  son,  and  at  three  o'clock  of  the  morning 
of  the  11th  himself  stole  away  to  the  coast,  having  first,  with  a 
childish  idea  of  making  as  much  trouble  as  possible,  burned  the 
writs  for  the  call  of  parliament,  thrown  the  Great  Seal  into  the 
Thames,  and  left  orders  for  Feversham  to  disband  the  troops. 

As  soon  as  the  flight  of  the  king  was  known,  the  Lords 
assumed  the  government  of  the  city,  and  attempted  to  preserve 
The  "Irish  ^^'^^^j  pending  the  unfolding  of  the  next  act  of  the 
D^ember  revolution.  In  a  few  hours,  however,  the  populace 
12-13, 1688.  also  had  learned  of  the  flight  of  the  king,  and  for  a 
night  and  day  London  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  mob,  who  vented 
their  fury  in  a  senseless  looting  of  the  chapels  and  better  houses 
which  belonged  to  their  Catholic  fellow  citizens ;  even  the  embas- 
sies of  the  Catholic  powers  did  not  escape.  Then  followed  a  night 
of  panic,  long  known  as  the  "Irish  night,"  the  terrors  of  which 
were  as  senseless  as  the  former  fury.  The  rumor  had  spread  that 
the  disbanded  Irish  regiments  were  marching  to  sack  the  city,  and 
during  long  hours  London  waited  behind  closed  barricades, 
startled  by  every  unwonted  sound  and  expecting  each  moment  to 
learn  that  the  massacre  had  already  begun  in  the  streets.  In  the 
early  morning  of  the  12th  Jeffreys  had  been  found  hiding  in  a 
waterside  tavern  at  Wapping  where  in  the  disguise  of  a  sailor  he 
was  watching  his  chance  to  get  away,  and  only  the  interposition 
of  the  authorities,  who  bore  him  off  to  the  Tower,  had  saved  him 
from  being  torn  to  pieces  by  the  infuriated  mob.  A  diligent 
search  was  also  made  for  Petre,  but  he  had  made  his  escape  with 
better  success.  Finally  by  the  exertions  of  the  mayor  and  the 
city  officials    supported  by  the  Lords,  the   anarchy  was   allayed 


1688,  1689]  THE    CONVENTION  801 

and  a  messenger  sent  to  William  to  invite  him  to  march  into  the 
town. 

James,  in  the  meantime,  accompanied  by  Sir  Edward  Hales,  the 
man  whose  friendly  suit  with  his  coachman  had  broken  down  the 
Test  Act,  had  first  made  his  way  to  Vauxhall  and  then, 
fliiiMof  disguised  as  an  ordinary  country  gentleman,  had  got  a 

ship  and  started  down  the  river.  But  near  Shippey  he 
had  been  overhauled  by  some  common  seamen,  whose  suspicions 
were  aroused  by  the  evident  desire  of  the  party  to  escape  notice. 
They  were  not  certain  whether  they  had  caught  a  smuggler  or  a 
runaway  priest,  and  brought  the  king  to  Feversham.  Here  he  was 
recognized  and  returned  to  Whitehall.  William  was  not  pleased 
with  the  return  and  sternly  insisted  that  the  king  leave  Whitehall, 
and  on  the  18th  of  December  sent  his  Dutch  guards  to  escort  him 
to  Rochester,  where  he  had  every  opportunity  to  escape  if  he 
wished  it.  James  took  the  hint,  and  on  the  morning  of  December 
23,  left  England  forever,  joining  his  wife  and  son  in  France. 
Louis  gave  him  a  courteous  greeting,  assigned  the  palace  of  St. 
Germains  for  his  use  and  allotted  him  a  pension  of  £40,000. 

On  the  day  that  James  left  London,  William  entered  the  city 
and  took  up  his  quarters  in  St.  James  Palace.     The  streets  every- 
where were  gay  with  orange  ribbons ;  courtiers  flocked 
SdwT*^*     to  the  palace  to  make  their  peace  with  the  coming  man. 
Some  urged  William  to  claim  the  crown  at  once  by  right 
of  conquest ;  but  he  wisely  remembered  the  pledge  which  he  had 
made  at  Loo,  and  by  the  advice  of  an  irregular  assembly  composed 
of  the  Lords  and  some  gentlemen  who  had  been  members  of  par- 
liament in  Charles  XL's  time,  determined  to  call  a  Convention  as 
Monk  had  done  under  similar  circumstances  thirty  years  before. 
The  new  parliament,  known  as  *'the  Convention,"  met  January 
22,  1689.     Its  first  work  was  to  give  legal  sanction  to  the  pres- 
ent order.     It  was  not  as  easy  to  come  to  an  affreemeut 

The  second       .       ,    ,  .    .         ,  ,       «  -if. 

Convention  m  determining  the  future  government  of  the  kingdom. 
January  '  The  Whigs  were  in  a  majority  in  the  House,  but  the 
Tory  sentiment  among  the  Lords  was  still  strong.  The 
Commons  easily  carried  two  resolutions ;  the  first  declared  that 
James  had  broken  the  original  contract  of  king  and  people,  that 


802  THE    WHIG    REVOLUTIOI^  [.tames  il. 

by  withdrawing  himself  from  the  kingdom  he  had  virtually  abdi- 
cated, and  that  therefore  the  throne  was  vacant;  tlie  second,  that 
experience  had  taught  that  it  was  *'not  consistent  either  with  the 
safety  or  welfare  of  the  kingdom  to  be  governed  by  a  popish 
prince."  The  second  proposition  was  the  principle  of  the  Exclu- 
sion Bill,  but  the  old  Tory  Lords,  who  had  denied  the  theory  in 
1G81,  could  not  now  deny  the  fact.  It  was  carried  unanimously. 
The  first  proposition,  however,  was  not  to  be  so  easily  disposed  of. 
The  Tory  lords  refused  to  accept  a  declaration  which  conceded  the 
whole  Whig  theory  of  a  contract  between  king  and  people  as  the 
basis  of  government.  After  many  conferences  and  various  inef- 
fectual efforts  to  change  the  unfortunate  words  so  as  to  satisfy 
everybody,  the  Lords  finally  gave  way  and  the  Whig  resolutions 
were  adopted  in  their  original  form.  But  when  the  theory  of  the 
abdication  had  been  agreed  upon,  the  theory  of  the  new  succession 
was  still  to  be  settled.  The  Tories  fought  for  the  right  of  here- 
ditary succession;  and  to  satisfy  them  it  was  about  to  be  conceded, 
that  by  the  abdication  of  James,  Mary  as  his  heir  was  by  that  fact 
queen,  since  the  throne  could  never  be  *'vacant."  William  was  to 
be  named  regent.  Here,  however,  a  new  obstacle  was  found  in 
William  himself,  who  refused,  as  he  put  it,  to  be  made  *'his 
wife's  gentleman  usher;"  nor  was  Mary  content  to  accept  a 
position,  which  would  make  her  husband  her  subject.  There 
was,  therefore,  no  resource  left  but  to  accept  fully  and  without 
qualification  the  Whig  doctrine  of  the  right  of  parliament  to  deter- 
mine the  succession,  and  William  and  Mary  were  named  joint 
sovereigns,  but  "the  entire,  perfect,  and  full  exercise  of  the  royal 
power  and  government"  was  placed  wholly  in  William's  hands. 

The  revolution  was  now  complete.     Not  only  were  the  Whigs 

in  power,  but  the  Whig  theory  of  the  state  had  been  formally 

embodied  in  the  constitutional  law  of  England.     A  very 

The  ^^Decla-      .  ^      ^  ..  .jxi,j  t 

rationnf  important  work,  however,  remained  to  be  done.  In 
1660  the  Presbyterians  had  made  no  conditions  with 
Charles  II.  and  bittterly  had  they  repented  of  their  folly.  The 
Whigs  did  not  intend  to  repeat  the  blunder.  Accordingly  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Commons  hastily  drew  up  a  *' Declaration  of  Eight,", 
which  they  submitted  to  William  not  as  a  new  law,  but  as  a  sim- 


1689]  .  :n^ature  of  the  revolution  803 

pie  statement  of  the  rights  of  Englishmen  as  they  already  existed 
under  the  laws  of  the  land.  It  reviewed  the  violation  of  these 
laws  by  James,  and  so  served  also  as  a  formal  justification  of  the 
Revolution.  The  hurried  work  of  the  committee  was  accepted 
by  both  houses  almost  as  it  stood.  William  and  Mary  ratified  the 
act,  and  on  February  13  they  were  formally  tendered  the  crown 
and  proclaimed  King  and  Queen  of  England. 

At  last  England's  era  of  revolution  had  ended  with  the  victory 
of  the  parliament  and  the  Protestant  religion.  In  the  revolution 
of  1G49,  the  parliament  had  failed  because  the  Puri- 
oHhe^R^vT  ^^^  "^y^ng  of  the  Protestant  body  had  attacked  the 
^mo mid  1688  Episcopal  wing  and  so  given  the  king  a  party.  In  their 
attempt  further  to  secure  their  power  the  Puritans  had 
been  compelled  to  assume  unconstitutional  grounds,  and  thus  had 
arrayed  against  themselves  the  native  respect  of  Englishmen  for 
the  laws  and  traditions  of  the  past.  In  the  Revolution  of  1688  the 
king  stood  out  alone,  the  enemy  of  the  established  church  and  the 
enemy  of  the  laws.  Charles  II.  had  gathered  about  the  crown  a 
powerful  party,  the  fundamental  tenets  of  whose  political  faith 
were:  firsts  that  the  king  ruled  by  **indefeasible  hereditary  divine 
right;"  and  second^  that  to  resist  him  was  **wicked  and  unchris- 
tian." But  James  by  his  pitiable  ignorance  of  human  nature,  by 
his  still  more  pitiable  obstinacy,  in  four  short  years  had  managed 
to  squander  this  wealth  of  loyalty,  and  when  he  came  to  face  the 
nation,  was  politically  bankrupt. 

The  revolution,  also,  which  expelled  James  was  not  a  revolution 

in  the  sense  that  the  struggle  of  the  Long  Parliament  with  Charles 

I.  was  a  revolution.     It  did  not  result  in  any  chansre  in 

Nature  of  ^        t.    ^    ^i  i  i 

theremiu-      the  lorm  01  government.     But  though  no  change  was 

tmn  which  -,.!<.  i      -,     i  i     . 

deposed  made  m  the  lorm,  a  very  marked  change  was  made  m 

the  theory  of  government.  The  social  and  religious 
institutions  of  England  remained  unaltered,  but  the  views  which 
Englishmen  took  of  these  institutions,  and  of  their  relations  to 
the  king  and  to  themselves,  were  no  longer  what  they  had  been 
at  the  close  of  Charles  II. 's  reign.  Ostensibly  a  dynasty  com- 
mitted to  the  Catholic  faith  had  been  rejected  for  a  dynasty 
committed    to    the    Protestant    faith.    Yet    the   movement  was 


804  THE    WHIG    REVOLUTION  .  [jamesII. 

quite  as  much  political  as  religious;  it  was  inspired  quite  as 
much  by  hatred  and  suspicion  of  Louis  XIV.  and  the  theories  of 
monarchy  which  he  represented,  as  by  hatred  or  suspicion  of 
the  pope.  Its  parentage  dated  back  not  to  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles  or  the  Eoot  and  Branch  Bill,  but  to  the  Triple 
Alliance,  the  Test  Act,  and  the  Exclusion  Bill.  Its  tri- 
umph in  the  transfer  of  the  crown  to  William  and  Mary  by  act 
of  parliament,  established  as  a  part  of  the  fundamental  law  of  Eng- 
land those  principles  which  had  been  the  rallying  cry  of  the  infant 
Whig  party  in  the  days  of  Shaftesbury  and  Eussell,  but  which  had 
been  rejected  in  the  defeat  of  the  Exclusion  Bill,  and  stamped  as 
treason  in  the  exile  of  Shaftesbury  and  the  execution  of  Russell 
and  Sidney.  In  the  place  of  the  Tory  doctrines  of  "divine  right" 
and  "nonresistance"  the  nation  had  accepted,  as  the  only  work- 
able theory  for  a  constitutional  monarchy,  the  Whig  doctrine, 
that  the  king  is  only  an  official  who  rules  by  the  consent  of  the 
nation,  and  who  may  be  removed  by  the  same  power,  if  he  fail  in 
the  work  to  which  he  is  called. 


PART  IV— IMPERIAL  ENGLAND 

THE    ERA     OF    NATIONAL    EXPANSION 

1689  TO  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  19TH  CENTURY 


CHAPTER   I 

THE    BEGINNING    OF    PARTY    RULE    IN    ENGLAND    AND   THE 
FOUNDING    OF    BRITISH    FOREIGN    POLICY 

.  WILLIAM  AND  MART,  16H9-1694 
WILLIAM  III,  169*- 1702. 

THE  RIVAL  LINES  OF  STUART » 
Mary*  II.,  1558-1587 

James  I.,  1587-1625- 

\ 

i  i  i 

Henry,  d.  1612                         Charles  J.,  1625-1649                            Frederick  of  =  Elizabeth 
|_J Palatinate   | 

Charles  T I.,    Jamet<  II.,    Mary=William    Henrietta= Philip,    Rupert    Maurice    Sopliia 


1649-1685 


11)85-1701 


of  Orange                    Duke  of  m. 

Orleans  Elector 
(d.  1701)  of  Hanover 

James  III.,    Anne.    MARY=WiiiiiiAMlII.,    Anne  Maria=Victor  Amadeus  I 

1701-1765     1702-1714       1689-1702                                          I  of  Savoy,  First  George  I., 

King  of  Sardinia  1714 


Charles  III.,       Henry  IX.,  Charles  Emanuel  III. 

1765-1788  1788-1807  I 

Victor  Amadeus 

I 


Charles  IV.,  1807-1819  rict(yr,  1819-1824 

Francis  TV  ,  Duke=3f ary  III.,  1824-1840 
of  Modena [ 

Francis  I.,  1840-1875        Elizabeth  of  Austria=Ferdinand, 

d.  1849 


I    a. 

IV., 


Louis  of  Bavaria= Jfarj/  Iv.,  1875- ? 
Robert,  Prince  of  Wales, 

b.  1869 


'  The  names  in  italics  indicate  the  so-called  legitimate  sovereigns  of 
Great  Britain ;  the  dates,  the  time  when  each  was  lawfully  entitled  to  the 
crown  according  to  the  Jacobite  theory. 

2  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  according  to  the  legitimists'  theory  was  Mary 
II.  of  England. 

805 


806  BEGINNING    OF    PARTY    RULE  [william  and  Mary 

The  period  included  between  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary 
and  the  death  of  Anne  presents  a  continuous  theme  whether  viewed 
from  its  constitutional  or  its  international  aspects. 
ofthTera'of  ^^'^^^  ^^^  ^ne  point  of  view,  the  history  of  the  period  is 
Arme^^  ^^  ^^®  rccord  of  the  successes  of  the  Whig  leaders  in  secur- 
ing the  results  of  the  Revolution  at  home;  from  the 
other,  it  is  the  record  of  the  successes  of  William  and  the  generals 
of  Anne  in  securing  the  results  of  the  Revolution  abroad. 

At  heart  both  William  and  his  successor  were  in  sympathy  with 
the  Tory  ideas  of  royal  prerogative,  and  little  inclined  to  accept 
the  series  of  restrictions  with  which  their  parliaments 
Ann^f^rcld  sought  to  fcncc  them  round.  But  the  Toryism  of  the 
the^Whias  ^^^  ^^  Charles  and  James  still  cast  its  shadow  across 
the  Revolution  and  left  no  place  within  the  pale  of 
* 'divine  right"  and  *'nonresistauce"  for  the  "Dutch  usurper" 
and  his  wife  or  her  sister,  the  undutifol  children,  whose  crime 
was  not  justified,  but  made  blacker,  by  their  nearness  to  the  father 
and  brother  whom  they  had  supplanted.  Hence  both  William 
and  Anne,  like  Elizabeth,  though  in  sympathy  with  the  conserva- 
tive elements  of  their  time,  were  compelled  by  their  position  to 
cast  in  their  lot  with  the  radicalism  which  they  abhorred,  and 
submit  to  the  parliamentary  yoke,  albeit  never  with  meekness. 
And  just  as  Elizabeth,  though  at  first  more  than  half  Catholic,  by 
the  logic  of  her  position,  was  forced  to  establish  and  defend  Prot- 
estantism in  England,  so  William  and  Anne,  also,  although  Tory 
at  heart,  were  forced  to  further  the  great  Whig  idea  of  parlia- 
mentary government. 

The  Whig  leaders  on  the  other  hand   by  no   means  grasped 

the  full   significance  of  their  recent  triumph ;  they  hesitated  to 

s^ive  their  full  confidence  to  the  new  kinff,  in  the  first 

Attitude  of       ^^  ^  .  _  -,    .       XI 

the  Whig        place    becausc   ne  was   kmsr,   ana  m  the  second  place 

leddevs. 

because  he  was  "Dutch  William;"  nor  .could  they 
ever  forgive  him  for  the  crime  of  not  having  been  born  an 
Englishman.  They  had  at  first,  moreover,  only  a  half  heart  in 
his  foreign  wars;  and  yet,  as  the  logic  of  the  king's  position 
compelled  him  at  last  to  court  their  favor,  so  their  position  com- 
pelled them  also  not  only  to  support  him  bu.t  to  accept  his  foreign 


RESULTS   OF   CONCESSIONS  807 

wars  as  well.  Thus  it  came  about  that  the  half  Tory  king  and 
the  all  Tory  queen  consented  to  the  strengthening  of  the  parlia- 
ment at  home,  and  the  Whig  parliament  consented  to  the  strength- 
ening of  the  crown  abroad. 

The  results  of  this  mutual  surrender  of  sympathies  were  far- 
reaching.  In  the  first  place,  there  was  introduced  into  the 
customary  law  of  the  English  Constitution  the  principle 
^f,^™^^^o  of  party  rule  which  led  up  naturally  to  the  full  accept- 
ance  of  the  cabinet  system  in  the  reign  of  the  first 
Hanoverian  king.  In  the  second  place  England  was  ushered  into 
the  arena  of  European  political  strife  as  a  controlling  power ;  the 
now  antiquated  insular  policy  of  the  Tudors  was  displaced  by  the 
broader  and  more  aggressive  policy  of  modern  times,  and  the 
nation  led  out  by  easy  stages,  through  her  constantly  expanding 
commerce  and  waxing  colonies,  to  the  establishment  of  the  ocean 
empire.  Of  these  results,  the  first  may  be  regarded  as  the  culmi- 
nation of  the  era  of  struggle  passed,  the  final  triumph  of  the 
national  parliament  over  the  irresponsible  monarchy;  the  perma- 
nent substitution  of  the  king  by  parliamentary  sanction  for  the 
king  by  divine  right;  of  the  government  by  statutory  law,  for  the 
government  by  prerogative.  The  second  may  be  regarded  as  the 
opening  act  of  the  era  of  struggle  to  come,  which  was  to  continue, 
with  intermissions  of  varying  length,  to  the  final  triumph  at 
Waterloo,  and  end  at  last  in  the  establishment  of  the  permanent 
naval  and  commercial  supremacy  of  England  among  the  great 
powers  of  Europe. 

The  first  impetus  towards  this  larger  life  into  which  the  English 
race  were  now  to  be  fully  ushered,  came  from  the  commercial  and 
naval  enterprise  which  marked  the  closing  years  of  the 
of  modem  reign  of  the  great  Elizabeth.  It  was  then  full  time  that 
commercial  Englishmen  awoke,  if  they  were  to  have  their  share  of 
the  trade  of  the  new  worlds  which  the  discoveries  of 
Columbus  and  da  Gama  had  opened  up.  The  only  territory 
beyond  their  own  borders  which  they  effectively  held  were  Ireland 
and  the  Channel  Islands.  Even  the  Isle  of  Man,  which  had  passed 
under  the  overlordship  of  the  English  king  as  a  result  of  the  Scot- 
tish wars  of  Edward  I.,  was  still  held  in  the  semi-independent 


808  BEGINNIKG    OF    PARTY    RULE  [wiloam  axd  Mary 

relation  of  a  medieval  vassal  kingdom.*  Everywhere  the  ground 
was  preempted  by  ambitious  and  jealous  rivals.  Spain,  although 
she  had  already  entered  upon  her  decline,  still  maintained  her 
stubborn  monopoly  of  the  Western  seas,  closing  her  colonial  ports 
to  all  foreign  nations  and  treating  their  merchantmen  as  pirates, 
whenever  found  in  western  waters.  The  Dutch  had  successfully 
entered  the  field  held  by  the  decaying  commerce  of  Portugal,  dot- 
ting the  shores  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  of  Africa,  and  America  with 
their  trading  stations,  while  their  carriers  fretted  the  waters  of 
every  sea  and  crowded  English  vessels  even  in  their  own  home 
ports.  In  the  latter  days  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  however,  English 
seamen  and  merchants  had  fully  made  up  their  minds  to  have 
their  share  of  the  world's  trade,  and  henceforth  paid  little  heed 
to  claims  based  upon  the  preemptions  of  Dutch  or  Spanish.  In 
1600  the  English  East  India  Company  entered  the  eastern  seas 
and  challenged  the  Dutch  on  their  own  ground.  In  1612  they 
set  up  their  first  factory  at  Surat.  In  1639  they  built  another 
station  at  Madras  on  the  Coromandel  Coast,  and  in  1668  they 
became  possessed  of  the  island  of  Bombay.^  Its  insular  position  and 
magnificent  harbor  furnished  a  new  starting  point  in  the  history 
of  English  enterprise  in  India.  In  1690,  in  William's  reign,  the 
East  India  Company  also  got  possession  of  three  villages  on  the 
Hugli  known  as  the  Presidency  Towns^  the  site  of  the  later 
Calcutta.  They  made  little  effort,  however,  to  displace  the  Dutch 
in  Ceylon  or  the  archipelago.  The  teeming  interior  offered  a  far 
more  promising  field  for  commercial  enterprise,  and  in  a  short  time 
comparatively,  the  English  had  extended  their  traffic  over  the 
greater  part  of  India.  In  other  lands,  also,  foot  to  foot,  English 
seamen  and  merchants  wrested  his  trade  from  the  ubiquitous 
Dutchman.  In  Russia,  which  was  then  counted  among  the  bar- 
barous countries  of  the  world,  the  English  had  been  pioneers  in 
the  founding  of  the  Muscovy  Company  in  the  reign  of  Mary,  and 
although  confronted  with  many  discouragements  since,  they  had 

^  This  relation  continued  until  1765. 

2  This  was  a  part  of  the  marriage  portion  which  Catharine  of  Bra- 
ganza  brought  to  Charles  II.  in  1661.  In  1668  he  transferred  it  to  the 
East  India  Company. 


1612-1632]  ENGLAND    IN    WESTERN    HEMISPHERE  809 

held  their  own.  In  the  Baltic  Ijrade,  however,  the  Eastland  Com- 
pany was  confronted  by  Dutch  traders.  So  too  the  Royal  African 
Company^  which  was  specially  befriended  by  Charles  II.,  carried 
on  a  fierce  struggle  with  the  Dutch  for  the  control  of  the  slave 
trade  with  the  West  Indian  Colonies. 

In  the  western  seas  also,  the  English  had  their  triumphs. 
English  buccaneers,  *Hhe  first  apostles  of  free  trade,"  waged  a 
relentless  war  upon  the  Spanish  monopolists.  English 
Enginndin  colonists  souffht  out  the  fertile  islands  of  the  Lesser 
Hemisphere.  Antilles,  which  the  Spaniard  had  passed  by  altogether 
in  his  search  for  gold.  In  1G12  Bermuda  was  settled. 
In  1625  the  first  English  landed  at  Barbadoes  and  St.  Chris- 
topher, sharing  the  latter  with  tlie  French,  and  in  1G28  colonists 
began  to  overflow  into  the  neighboring  Nevis  and  Barbuda;  in 
1G32,  into  Antigua  and  Montserrat.  It  was  to  these  islands  that 
Cromwell  and  the  Long  Parliament  shipped  off  the  thousands  of 
Scotsmen  and  Irishmen  who  were  taken  in  the  later  battles  of  the 
Civil  War,  leaving  them  to  wear  out  their  lives  as  white  bond  slaves. 
Bristol  merchants  also  carried  on  a  nefarious  traffic  with  these  porta 
in  white  slaves,  which  they  obtained  by  a  heartless  system  of  kid- 
napping among  the  poorer  laboring  classes  in  England.  Here  also 
the  Eoyal  xVfrican  Company  found  a  ready  market  for  their  black 
slaves.  The  greatest  triumphs  of  English  trading  and  colonization 
enterprise,  however,  were  reserved  for  the  east  coast  of  North 
America,  where  in  the  seventeenth  century  were  planted  the 
famous  group  of  colonies  which  were  destined  to  grow  up  into  the 
United  States  of  America. 

There  was  little  in  the  beginnings  of  these  later  attempts,  to 
foreshadow  this  destiny.  The  Spaniards  and  the  French  had 
already  been  before  the  English  in  the  south  and  north.  The  Eng- 
lish had  scarcely  appeared  in  the  James  River,  before  the  Dutch- 
men also  appeared  in  the  Hudson  and  coolly  took  possession  of  the 
finest  harbor  on  the  whole  coast,  naming  the  surrounding  region 
New  Netherlands,  while  the  Swedes  soon  after  planted  their 
standard  on  the  lower  Delaware.  Then  came  the  opening  acts  of 
the  great  political  struggles  of  the  seventeenth  century  at  home; 
but  instead  of  weakening  colonial  enterprise,  these  struggles  gave 


810  BEGINNING    OF    PARTY    RULE  [william  and  Mart 

a  new  impetus  to  the  colonies  of  England  in  the  New  World  and 
soon  enabled  them  to  outstrip  all  rivals.  In  1655  the  war  of 
Cromwell  with  Spain  added  the  rich  island  of  Jamaica  to  what 
England  already  possessed  in  the  West  Indies.  Even  the  navigation 
laws,  although  resented  by  the  colonists  at  first,  by  strengthening 
English  commerce,  in  the  end  greatly  strengthened  the  English 
colonial  settlements.  Charles  11.  as-  well  as  Cromwell  fully 
appreciated  the  advantages  to  the  crown  and  the  nation  of  a 
vigorous  colonial  policy.  His  Dutch  wars  completed  the  line  of 
English  colonies  on  the  coast  by  securing  the  New  Netherlands 
and  the  Jerseys  as  permanent  English  possessions.  His  encourage- 
ment and  support  led  to  the  settlement  of  the  Carolinas  in  1663, 
and  to  Penn's  famous  experiment  on  the  Delaware  in  1681.  In 
1670,  at  the  instance  of  Prince  Rupert,  Charles  chartered  the 
Huclso7i  Bay  Company^  giving  it  a  monopoly  of  trade  and  settle- 
ment in  the  region  about  the  great  northern  inlet,  which  it  named 
Ruperfs  Land  in  honor  of  its  princely  patron. 

Thus   when  William  began  his  reign  English   enterprise  had 
already  laid   a   noble   foundation  for  the  development  of  future 

empire.  Though  late  in  the  field,  the  English  were 
AmMtmmof  everywhere  winning  their   way    by  superior  strength, 

superior  energy  and  ability,  too  often  supported  by 
**evil  daring"  or  stimulated  by  most  unscrupulous  greed.  They 
had  long  since  left  Portugal  far  behind  in  the  race;  they  had 
crippled  the  Dutch  carrying  trade  by  the  ''Navigation  Acts;"  they 
had  also  fought  the  Dutchmen  on  the  seas,  destroying  their  com- 
merce and  robbing  them  of  their  colonies;  and  in  1689  only  Spain 
could  boast  of  colonies  which  equalled  the  English  either  in  extent 
or  importance.  But  now  a  new  danger  began  to  threaten  these 
thrifty  offshoots  of  the  parent  tree.  France  as  yet  had  lagged 
behind  the  other  colonizing  nations  of  Europe.  She  had  planted 
some  trading  stations  along  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  her  pioneers 
had, penetrated  far  west  into  the  regions  of  the  Great  Lakes  and 
the  upper  Mississippi.  She  had  also  managed  to  secure  a  footing 
here  and  there  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  But  her  wars  at  home, 
the  ambition  of  her  kings  to  build  up  a  great  European  power,  had 
occupied  her  adventurous  spirits  in  home  fields  and  left  her  colonies 


1664-1681]  THE   FRENCH    I>^   THE   NEW   WORLD  811 

to  languish ;  few  of  them  had  passed  beyond  the  trading  station 
stage.  Louis  XIV.,  however,  as  a  part  of  his  general  plan  for 
the  expansion  of  French  influence,  had  determined  that  France  also 
should  take  her  place  among  the  great  commercial  and  colonizing 
powers.  His  personal  reign  had  hardly  opened  before  he  began  to 
cast  greedy  eyes  upon  the  Indies,  and  in  1664  he  chartered  the 
French  East  India  Company.  In  1681  La  Salle  pushed  across 
from  Lake  Michigan  to  the  Illinois  and,  passing  down  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi, finally  reached  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  claiming  for  his  sov- 
ereign the  whole  country  under  the  name  of  Louisiana.  To  secure 
this  vast  territory  would  enable  the  French  to  dominate  the  con- 
tinent of  North  America.  On  all  sides  French  enterprise  was 
quickening  with  life,  and  although  at  the  accession  of  William, 
Louis's  plans  were  not  yet  fully  developed,  English  merchants  were 
beginning  to  fear  the  French,  as  they  had  once  feared  the  Spaniard 
and  later  had  feared  the  Dutch.  It  took  no  seer,  tlierefore,  to  dis- 
cern the  nature  and  extent  of  the  next  struggle.  The  era  of  reli- 
gious wars  had  passed;  the  era  of  commercial  wars  had  already 
begun.  The  medieval  wars,  moreover,  had  been  petty,  confined 
to  feudal  forays  and  tedious  besiegements  of  fortress  cities.  The 
wars  of  the  early  modern -period  had  been  national  wars  in  which 
great  armies  had  been  mobilized,  and  pitched  battles  had  been 
fought;  but  compared  with  the  struggle  of  the  era  at  hand  the 
arena  had  been  limited,  the  results  insignificant.  Now  the  ocean 
as  well  as  the  continents,  was  to  be  the  field  of  battle;  the  firing 
line  was  to  girdle  the  globe,  and  the  spoil  of  battle  was  to  be  the 
commercial  supremacy  of  the  world. 

At  the  time  of  his  accession,  William  was  forty  years  old.     Like 
his  great  namesake,  the  Norman  William,   he  had  never  had  a 

boyhood.  He  had  entered  the  world  in  the  midst  of 
waiiamiii.  i'^t^'igi^G   and   revolution.       His    shoulders   were   early 

shaped  to  the  x3ares  of  state.  At  thirty  he  was  a  vet- 
eran, tried  in  council  and  experienced  in  war;  at  forty  he  was  a 
sage,  with  an  insight  into  the  political  and  social  movements  of 
his  times  which  was  almost  prophetic.  No  abler  man  ever  ascended 
the  English  throne.  Yet  he  was  cold,  reserved,  as  were  all  his 
race,  the  effect  of  which  was  heightened  by  an  indifferent  com- 


812  BEGINNING    OF   PARTY    RULE  [william  and  Mary 

mand  of  the  English  tongue.  He  did  not  know  how  to  arouse 
enthusiasm.  He  lived  among  a  people  who  were  nationally  bigoted, 
yet  he  made  no  effort  to  disguise  his  preference  for  the  land  of  his 
birth,  or  to  hide  his  lack  of  affection  for  the  land  of  his  adoption. 
His  health  was  frail;  his  body  was  frequently  racked  with  an 
asthmatic  cough,  which  compelled  him  to  seek  seclusion  whenever 
the  cares  of  state  or  of  war  gave  him  the  opportunity.  The 
part  of  the  affable  master,  therefore,  which  the  disreputable 
Charles  II.  could  play  with  such  grace  and  to  such  purpose,  was 
not  in  William's  repertoire,  and,  although  after  Mary's  death  he 
made  several  trips  through  the  country  and  succeeded  in  arousing 
some  show  of  enthusiasm,  he  was  never  a  popular  monarch. 

The  task,  moreover,  which  confronted  William  was  by  no 
means  simple.  Whigs  as  well  as  Tories  hesitated  to  commit  them- 
selves to  the  unqualified  support  of  the  new  monarch ; 
DiffleuMes  ^  the  Whigs  ou  principle  were  as  unwilling  to  strengthen 
pfmWm.  his  hands  as  they  had  been  to  strengthen  the  liands  of 
his  predecessor ;  the  Tories  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
king  whom  they  had  helped  to  undo,  did  not  wish  to  see  the  king 
de  facto,  so  thoroughly  established  in  his  position  as  to  remove 
all  hope  of  the  return  of  the  king  by -divine  right.  Then,  too, 
the  men  with  whom  William  had  to  deal  were  the  politicians  of 
the  Restoration,  and  the  corrupt  practices  of  a  generation  could 
not  be  unlearned  in  a  day.  He  found  himself  surrounded  by  a 
set  of  vile  fellows  who  must  be  managed  by  bribery,  or  not  at  all. 
The  reaction,  also,  which  is  always  sure  to  attend  any  violent 
popular  upheaval,  followed  in  this  case  almost  before  James  was 
out  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  Tory  leaders  would  probably  have 
taken  active  steps  to  bring  on  a  counter  revolution  at  once,  had  it 
not  been  for  James's  persistent  loyalty  to  the  Catholic  faith.  As 
it  was,  during  William's  entire  reign  there  was  much  desultory 
plotting,  a  wide  spread  treason  of  spirit,  if  not  of  overt  act,  and  a 
general  feeling  of  dissatisfaction,  that  at  times  influenced  even 
the  loyal  Whigs. 

William,  like  Charles  II.,  began  his  reign  with  a  Convention 
which  declared  itself  a  parliament.  The  members  were  of  course 
overwhelmingly  Whig,   as  the    first    Convention    parliament   had 


1689]  THE    BILL    OF    RIGHTS  '    813 

been  overwhelmingly  royalist,  and  soon  outstripped  the  king  in 
their  desire  to  punish  old  enemies.     They  managed,  however,  to 

place  upon  the  statute  books  some  excellent  laws  by 
'c^mvmum  ^^^^^  ^^^  principles  of  the  Eevolution  were  definitely 
iiwBm^of'  secured.  They  abolished  '^Hearth  Money,"  which  had 
o!S^^'  1689     ^^^^  levied  since  1653.    They  showed  their  Whiggism  by 

fixing  the  revenues  of  the  crown  at  one-third  less 
than  the  amount  which  a  Tory  parliament  had  given  to  James, 
and  also  by  limiting  the  grant  in  time.  William  felt  deeply  the 
lack  of  confidence  and  protested,  but  to  no  purpose.  The  Whigs, 
and  after  them  the  Tories,  persisted  in  the  custom  of  limited 
grants  in  order  to  compel  the  king  to  keep  the  promise  of  hold- 
ing frequent  parliaments,  which  he  bad  made  in  accepting  the 
Declaration  of  Eights.  A  similar  security  was  also  devised  in  fix- 
ing the  time  limit  to  the  military  powers  of  the  crown.  By  the 
Declaration  of  Rights  it  was  declared  to  be  unlawful  to  keep  up  a 
standing  army  in  time  of  peace  without  the  consent  of  parliament. 
It  was  also  declared  unlawful  to  suspend  the  ordinary  civil  courts 
in  order  to  enforce  military  discipline.  The  mutiny  of  a  Scottish 
regiment,  however,  showed  the  danger  of  adhering  too  literally  to 
this  restriction;  and  parliament  was  forced  to  pass  the  ''Mutiny 
Act"  which  fully  authorized  the  courts  martial,  but  by  limiting  the 
act  to  six  months  saved  the  valuable  principle  of  the  Declaration. 
Experience  has  fully  justified  the  wisdom  of  these  measures,  and 
each  year  since,  with  some  exceptions,  the  Mutiny  Act  and  the 
money  bills  have  been  regularly  renewed.  This  important  series 
of  constitutional  legislation  was  completed  in  October  1689  by  the 
passage  of  the  famous  Bill  of  Rights,  which  made  the  Declaration 
of  Rights  of  February  a  part  of  the  fundamental  law  of  England. 
The  religious  problem  was  as  difficult  to  settle  as  ever.  The 
Catholics  had  clung  to  James,  and,  in  the  nature  of  things,  had 

little  to  expect  from  the  new  order,  save  an  increased 

TheTolera-  -^     .     fi  i  mi.     t^     ^     x      ^ 

turn  Act,         seventy  in  the  recusancy  laws.    The  Protestant  noncon- 

1689- 

formists,  however,  had  stood  by  the  state  church  in  the 
day  of  trial,  and  they  certainly  had  some  reason  to  expect  a  light- 
ening of  the  burdens  which  a  cavalier  parliament  had  thrust  upon 
them.     But  magnanimity  was  not  a  weakness  of  the  Whig  leaders. 


814  BEGINNING    OF    PARTY    RULE  [william  and  Maby 

The  king,  who  was  tolerant  both  by  nature  and  by  policy,  desired 
to  see  the  Test  Act  abolished,  but  the  Whigs  gave  him  little  encour- 
agement. Daniel  Finch,  the  earl  of  Nottingham,  sought  to  solve 
the  difficulty  by  broadening  the  church  establishment  so  as  to 
include  the  less  radical  Dissenters,  but  met  with  no  success.  A 
Toleration  Act,  also  largely  the  work  of  Nottingham,  succeeded 
better.  By  this  act^  Protestant  dissenters  were  allowed  freedom 
of  worship  on  condition  that  their  meetings  be  held  in  registered 
meeting  houses  with  doors  open  to  all,  that  the  worshipers  take 
the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  and  that  the  minister 
subscribe  to  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  excepting  those  parts 
which  dealt  with  the  authority  of  the  church.  Baptists  were 
permitted  to  omit  also  the  article  which  affirmed  infant  bap- 
tism. Quakers  were  to  be  allowed  by  the  courts  to  affirm 
.instead  of  taking  the  oath.  Catholics  and  Unitarians  were 
excepted  from  the  benefits  of  the  act.  The  act  has  been  broadened 
from  time  to  time  since;  but  the  old  Test  Act  and  its  fellow  the 
Corporation  Act  remained  on  the  statute  books  until  1828.  Dis- 
sidents, whether  Catholic  or  Protestant,  were  not  admitted  to  the 
uniyersities  until  1871.  The  Toleration  Act  received  the  assent 
of  William  and  became  law  in  May  1689. 

While  the  moderates  were  thus  trying  to  'find  some  standing 
for  nonconformists  within  the  laws,  the  ranks  of  nonconformity 

received  a  new  accession  from  the  very  men  who  had 
\tror8*^'         most  bitterly  opposed  the  Toleration  Act.     Under  the 

lead  of  Archbishop  Bancroft,  a  body  of  about  three 
hundred  clergymen,  including  all  the  nonjuring  bishops  of  1689 
except  Trelawney,  refused  to  take  the  new  oaths  of  allegiance  and 
supremacy.  The  government  waited  a  year  for  these  "unrecon- 
structed" Tories  to  accept  the  new  conditions,  and  then  deprived 
them  of  their  livings.  The  nonjurors  insisted  on  regarding 
themselves  as  the  true  Church  of  England,  and  continued  as  a 
distinct  body  until  the  death  of  their  last  bishop  in  1805. 

Long  before  parliament  had  completed  the  adjustment  of  the 
laws  of  England  to  the  new  conditions,  it  had  become  evident  that 
to  establish  the  Revolution  in  the  other  parts  of  the  Stuart  domin- 

^Gee  and  Hardy,  Docs.,  p.  654, 


1680,  1690]  LONDONDERRY    AND    ENNISKILLEN  815 

ions,  something  more  vigorous  was  needed  than  the  enactment  of 
good  laws.     Tyrconiiel  had  assumed  the  duties  of  Lord  Deputy 

in  Ireland  in  1687.  He  hastened  the  work  of  placing 
lution  in         the  civil  and  military  offices  in  the  hands  of  the  Catholics ; 

a  Catholic  judiciary,  also,  reconstructed  the  Corpora- 
tions. This  work  had  now  continued  for  two  years  and  with  such 
success  that  when  in  March  1689  James  came  to  Ireland  in  hope  of 
saving  one  of  his  kingdoms  at  least,  he  found  the  Catholic  popula- 
tion in  full  control  of  the  administration,  and  the  parliament  which 
he  assembled  at  Dublin,  at  once  proceeded  to  register  in  formal 
enactment,  not  so  much  their  loyalty  to  James,  as  their  hatred  of 
his  enemies.  They  denied  the  right  of  an  English  parliament  to 
bind  an  Irish  parliament.  They  abolished  the  appellate  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  English  courts  over  the  Irish  courts.  They  repealed 
also  the  Restoration  Acts  of  Settlement  and  of  Explanation. 
They  then  massed  together  in  the  "Great  Act  of  Attainder,"  **the 
law  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  civilized  countries,"  the 
names  of  2,445  Protestants,  who  without  trial  and  without  hearing 
were  thus  condemned  to  death,  their  property  confiscated,  and 
their  families  reduced  to  penury.  Yet  this  measure  seems  to  have 
been  inspired  by  political  rather  than  by  religious  hatred.  It  was^ 
in  fact,  a  sort  of  compromise  with  those  who  were  urging  James  to 
authorize  a  general  massacre  of  all  the  Protestants  in  the  island, — 
a  *'work  of  utility  and  piety"  specially  urged  by  the  French  envoy 
Avaux. 

The  Protestants,  however,  fully  believed  that  the  massacre  was 
about  to  take  place,  and  from  all  southern  and  eastern  Ireland 

began  flocking  into  the  northern  counties,  where  the 
^/umdm-  overwhelming  Protestant  strength  of  Londonderry  and 
ErmLkmcn     -^^^i^iiskiUen  promised    them    a  refuge  in  the   coming 

storm.  At  Londonderry  the  population  had  defied  the 
newly  established  Catholic  Corporation  of  Tyrconnel,  elected  Prot- 
estant governors,  and  declared  for  King  William,  For  105  days, 
an  Irish  army  of  25,000  men  under  Richard  Hamilton  was  held 
at  bay  from  behind  the  crumbling  walls;  and  when  at  last  on 
July  30,  Colonel  'Kirke,  now  in  better  business  than  when  he  was 
hanging  Devonshire  peasants,  broke  the  boom  which  Hamilton  had 


816  BEGIJ^N^ING     OF    PARTY     RULE  [ William  and  Mary 

thrown  across  the  river  and  relieved  the  city,  only  two  days' 
rations  remained.  The  Irish  army  at  once  raised  the  siege  and 
began  to  retire  towards  the  south.  On  August  2,  the  men  of 
Enniskillen,  who  had  passed  through  a  similar  siege,  defeated  their 
opponents  under  Justin  M'Carthy  at  Newtown  Butler.  William, 
who  all  this  time  had  been  hampered  by  the  treason,  the  corrup- 
tion, and  inefficiency  of  his  officials  at  home,  had  been  able  to  do 
nothing  beyond  sending  out  the  relief  expedition  under  Kirke; 
but  in  the  autumn  he  managed  to  get  over  a  small  army  of  English 
and  Dutch  under  the  command  of  his  great  Marshal  Schomberg. 
The  camp  fever,  however,  prostrated  Schomberg's  men;  the 
winter  came  and   nothing  was  accomplished.     Yet  the  northern 

counties  bad  been  saved,  and  when  in  June  William 
Battle  of  himself  landed  at  Belfast  with  an  Anglo-Dutch  army  of 
July  1, 1690.     36,000  men,  affairs  at  once  took  on  a  new  aspect.     The 

Irish  had  not  lent  tliemselves  readily  to  military  disci- 
pline and,  although  Louis  had  sent  over  5,000  Frenchmen  to  assist 
his  ally,  the  army  of  James  was  no  match  for  its  opponent,  either 
in  number  or  discipline  or  equipment.  The  Irish,  however,  had 
taken  up  a  strong  position  on  the  Boyne  and  here  William  attacked 
them  on  July  1,  1690.  His  men  boldly  plunged  into  the  river  and 
fought  their  way  to  the  other  bank,  dispersing  the  enemy  and  win- 
ning a  complete  victory.  Nothing  but  the  loss  of  Schomberg  and 
the  fine  work  of  the  Irish  cavalry  and  of  the  French  under  Lauzun, 
prevented  AVilliam  from  annihilating  the  Irish  infantry. 

James  had  withdrawn  from  the  field  early  in  the  action.     At 
Dublin  he  showed  his  appreciation  of  the  brave  men  who  had  rallied 

about  him  in  his  last  effort  to  save  his  crown,  by  annonnc- 
Fii^htof  i,^g  Iq  the  Corporation  of  the  city  that  the  Irish  were  all 
lAmerick        covvards.      After  delivering  himself  of  this  important 

information  he  fled  to  France.  At  Limerick  the  Irisli, 
although  deserted  by  the  king  who  was  unworthy  of  their  loyalty, 
made  a  brave  stand;  a  brilliant  sally,  led  by  Patrick  Sarsfield, 
destroyed  William's  siege  train  and  virtually  forced  him  to  raise 
the  siege.  In  September  he  returned  to  England,  leaving  the 
direction  of  further  operations  in  the  hands  of  Ginkel,  one  of  his 
Dutch  officers.     At  the  end  of  the  year,  however,  in  spite  of  some 


1691]  TREATY    OF    LIMERICK  817 

successes  of  Churchill,  now  earl  of  Marlborough,  who  had  led  an 
independent  command  in  the  south,  fully  one-half  the  island  was 
still  in  Irish  hands  The  next  year  Louis  sent  over  St.  Rath  to 
help  Tyrconnel,  and  the  struggle  reopened  with  vigor  on  both 
sides.  Ginkel  carried  the  line  of  the  Shannon  with  great  difficulty, 
capturing  Athlone,  only  to  find  the  enemy  again  confronting  him 
at  Aughrim.  Here  St.  Ruth  fell  and  the  Irish  lost  6,000  men. 
Gal  way  also  was  taken  and  in  August  only  Limerick  remained. 
After  two  months  of  hard  fighting  the  brave  Sarsfield,  who  had 
succeeded  Tyrconnel,  was  compelled  to  surrender.  Limerick 
capitulated  on  October  3.  The  terms  were  generous  and  in  very 
different  temper  from  James's  Act  of  Attainder.  All  Irish  offi- 
cers and  soldiers  who  desired,  were  to  be  conveyed  to  France  free 
of  charge,  with  all  their  personal  property.  Certain  religious  and 
social  immunities,  also,  were  guaranteed.  The  military  terms  of 
the  treaty  were  carried  out.  Thirty-four  thousand  Irish  soldiers 
and  their  families  withdrew  to  France,  where  the  most  of  them 
took  service  under  the  French  king  and  nobly  sustained  the  honors 
of  their  race  and  of  their  foster  country  as  members  of  the 
famous  **Irish  Brigade."     The  civil  terms  of  the  treaty,  however, 

were  never  fulfilled.  L^pwards  of  four  thousand  families 
viokitionof  were  deprived  of  lands,  which  aggregated  over  1,000,000 
of  Limerick,    acres.     The  Irish  parliament,  once  more  in  the  hands 

of  the  Protestant  minority,  then  set  itself  to  stamp  out 
Catholicism  altogether.  In  1695  all  officers  of  the  government 
and  all  professional  men  were  required  to  take  an  Oath  of  Abjura- 
tion, by  which  they  denied  the  doctrines  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
Catholic  schoolmasters  were  forbidden  to  teach ;  Catholic  parents 
were  forbidden  to  send  their  children  abroad  to  be  educated; 
priests  or  monks  were  ordered  to  leave  the  island,  and  those  who 
returned  were  to  be  hanged.  Catholics  could  not  make  wills; 
they  could  not  succeed  to  property.  If  a  son  became  Protestant, 
he  inherited  all  the  property  to  the  exclusion  of  brothers  and  sisters 
who  remained  true  to  their  faith.  When  Catholic  parents  died, 
their  children,  if  minors,  were  handed  over  to  the  care  of  Protes- 
tant guardians.  This  legislation,  known  as  the  "Penal  Code,"  was 
the  work  of  the  be-Protestanted  parliament  of  Ireland,  and  was 


818  BEGIKNIlirG    OF    PARTY     RULE  [william  and  Mabt 

designed  to  secure  the  permanent  ascendency  of  the  Protestant 
Enghsh  minority.  This  much  Protestant  Ireland  was  doing  for 
Catholic  Ireland.  The  English  parliament,  dominated  by  the 
greed  of  English  landowners  and  manufacturers,  could  not  be 
expected  to  be  more  merciful.  In  1665  they  had  excluded  Ireland 
from  the  benefit  of  the  Navigation  Act,  and  further  had  for- 
bidden Ireland  to  send  to  England  live  stock  or  grain.  In  1699 
parliament  imposed  a  ruinous  duty  upon  all  Irish  woolens 
brought  into  England.  The  effects  of  this  selfish  policy  toward 
Ireland,  the  result  of  the  wretched  jealousy  of  English  farmers 
and  manufacturers,  may  be  seen  in  the  two  centuries  of  poverty 
which  have  since  been  the  lot  of  the  Irish,  who,  dwelling  in  a 
land  fitted  by  nature  for  grazing,  might  have  grown  prosperous 
and  contented  if  allowed  to  supply  the  swarming  cities  of  England 
with  meat  and  the  products  of  the  dairy.  Instead  they  have  been 
committed  to  small  farms,  to  the  spade  instead  of  the  plow, 
to  the  potato,  a  most  treacherous  substitute  for  grain  in  a  w^, 
heavy  soil,  and  to  the  accompaniments  of  extreme  poverty, — fre- 
quent famines  and  a  wretched  existence  in  dreary  hovels.  It  is 
hardly  to  be  wondered  that  Ireland  soon  became  a  land  of  smug- 
glers, *'a  recruiting  ground  for  the  armies  of  Catholic  Europe,  and 
a  seed  plot  of  disaffection!" 

Scotland   made   no   such  determined  resistance  as  Ireland  to 

the  new  Stuart  king.     Yet  her  people  had  had  no  more  share  in 

sending  the  invitation  to  William,  and  the  withdrawal 

TheRevoiu-    of    troops  by  James  gave  occasion  for  outbreaks  and 

tvm  in  Scot-  .   .      ^         ^  .   ,  °  ^ 

land,  1688-92.  uprisings,  which  caused  grave  anxiety  at  the  Council 
Board  of  the  new  government.  On  the  14th  of  March, 
1689,  a  convention,  summoned  at  William's  suggestion,  met  at 
Edinburgh  to  consider  the  situation.  The  Whigs  were  in  a  pow- 
erful majority,  and  on  March  18,  James's  representative  Graham 
of  Claver house,  now  Viscount  of  Dundee,  left  the  city.  As 
soon  as  Dundee  was  gone,  the  convention  offered  the  crown  to 
William;  but  first  secured  themselves,  by  drawing  up  a  Scottish 
Declaration  of  Rights,  called  the  "Claim  of  Rights."  On  May  11, 
William  and  Mary  formally  accepted  the  crown  and  took  the  Scot- 
tish coronation  oath.     The  ceremony  was  held  at  Whitehall  in 


1689]  KILLIECRANKIE  819 

the  presence  of  Scottish  commissioners.  In  accepting  the  Claim 
of  Eights  William  virtually  promised  to  abolish  "Prelacy,"  and 
accordingly  the  next  year,  the  old  Presbyterian  system  of  govern- 
ment was  once  more,  and  this  time  permanently,  restored  in  the 
national  kirk  of  Scotland. 

In  the  Highlands  Dundee  rallied  the  old  Tory  clans  which  had 
once  gathered  at  the  call  of  another  Graham,  the  ill-fated  Mar- 
Dundeein  ^^^^  ^^  Montrose.  On  July  27,  after  the  troops  of 
lanS^^^^  the  new  government  had  successfully  toiled  up  the  pass 
a-ankie  ^^  Killiecrankie,  they  were  suddenly  set  upon  by  Dun- 

Juiy  27,1689.  (jee  and  the  clansmen,  and  scattered  with  considerable 
slaughter.  Dundee,  however,  was  slain  in  the  first  shock  of  the 
battle,  and  the  Highlanders,  instead  of  attempting  to  follow  up 
their  victory,  disbanded  and  returned  to  their  homes.  All 
immediate  danger  was  thus  at  an  end.  But  the  temper  of  the 
Highlanders  was  so  well  known,  that  William  could  hope  for  no 
peace  until  the  country  was  either  reduced  or  pacified.  To  reduce 
it  by  force  of  arms  was  a  serious  task  from  which  William  might 
well  shrink.  The  country,  however,  was  wretchedly  poor  and 
many  of  the  clansmen  were  in  debt.  William  determined,  there- 
fore, first  to  try  what  power  gold  would  have  in  securing  the  good 
will  of  the  people.  £15,000  were  set  apart  for  this  purpose,  and 
every  chieftain  who  should  come  in  of  his  own  accord  and  take  the 
oath  before  January  1,  1G92  was  to  receive  a  share.  The  high- 
spirited  Highlanders  made  it  a  point  of  honor  not  to  hasten  to 
accept  terms  which  they  dared  not  refuse.  In  this  struggle  to 
be  last,  Mac  Ian  Macdonald  won;  he  did  not  take  the  oath 
until  six  days  after  the  time  appointed.  He  returned  to  his 
home,  thinking  that  his  allegiance  had  been  accepted,  well 
satisfied  with  himself.  The  Campbells,  however,  the  old  Whig 
clan  of  Argyll,  were  bitterly  hostile  to  the  Macdonalds  of  Glen- 
coe,  and  seized  upon  the  opportunity  to  persuade  William's  advis- 
ers, the  Dalrymples,  to  exterminate  the  whole  Glencoe 
Febrtiary       clan.    In  an  evil  hour  for  William's  reputation  he  grave 

13   1692- 

his  consent.  In  the  dead  of  winter  a  file  of  English 
soldiers  entered  the  glen  and  were  received  as  friends  by  tlie 
unsuspecting  Macdonalds.    At  midnight  they  arose,  set  fire  to  the 


820  BEGINNING     OF     PARTY     RULE  [ William  and  Maky 

houses  of  their  entertainers  and  began  an  indiscriminate  massacre. 
Many  were  cut  down  in  cold  blood,  many  more,  who  escaped  the 
massacre,  perished  of  cold  and  hunger  in  the  mountains.  The  most 
that  can  be  said  for  William,  is  that  when  he  signed  the  order 
for  the  execution  of  a  whole  clan,  he  did  not  know  how  the  order 
was  to  be  carried  out. 

The  active  support  which  Louis  gave  to  James  made  it  easy  for 

William  to  secure  the  primary  object  of  his  interference  in  English 

affairs, — that   is,    to  add  England  to  the   League   of 

The  War  of    Auorsburff.     In  May   1689  Endand  formally  declared 

the  English  °  ?  ^  ^  -,.        *  -.-.-r^,., 

SuccessUm.  war  against  1*  ranee,  and  m  August  a  body  of  English 
troops  under  Marlborough  shared  in  a  defeat  of  the 
allies  at  Walcourt.  The  ostensible  object  of  the  war  was  to  con- 
fine Louis  to  the  boundaries  of  his  kingdom  as  prescribed  by  the 
Treaty  of  the  Pyrenees.  But  the  English  fought  also  for  the 
special  purpose  of  keeping  James  out  of  England  and  putting  an 
end  to  the  Catholic-French  influence  which  had  so  long  dominated 
in  English  politics;  and  thus  the  war  is  known  to  Englishmen  as 
the  "War  of  the  English  Succession."  It  was  marked  by  an 
almost  unbroken  series  of  French  victories  upon  land.  On  the 
sea  also  it  opened  under  the  most  gloomy  prospects  for  the  Eng- 
lish. On  June  30,  1690,  the  day  before  the  battle  of  the  Boyne, 
Admiral  Arthur  Herbert,  now  Lord  Torrington,  lost  the  battle  of 
Beachy  Head.  So  complete  was  the  disaster  that  for  two 
maAoo  years  the  French  controlled  the  Channel  and  the  Eng- 
lish were  in  constant  fear  of  invasion.  Had  William 
failed  at  the  Boyne,  and  had  James  been  a  little  more  discreet 
in  publishing  lists  of  the  Englishmen  whom  he  proposed  to  hang 
when  he  "came  to  his  own  again,"  it  is  very  likely  that  James 
would  have  regained  his  throne.  So  fair,  in  fact,  were  his  prospects 
that  many  of  the  servants  of  William,  among  them  Marlborough 
and  Admiral  Eussell,  by  entering  into  secret  correspond - 
La  Ho  ue  ^^^^^  with  James,  had  begun  to  prepare  themselves  for 
May  16, 1692.  another  revolution.  Fortunately,  however,  a  victory  of 
Russell  off  La  Hogue  once  more  adjusted  the  scale  in 
favor  of  England  and  restored  English  supremacy  in  the  Chan- 
iiel.     It  is  characteristic  of  the  lurid  atmosphere  which  hung  over 


1690]  THE   ACT  OF   GRACE  821 

the  English  politics  of  the  day,  that  at  the  time  of  his  victory 
Russell  was  in  actual  correspondence  with  James,  and  excused  him- 
self for  wrecking  the  fleet  of  Louis  by  the  plea  that  his  professional 
reputation  was  at  stake.  In  contrast  with  the  brilliant  success  of 
his  treacherous  admiral,  William  himself  was  beaten  in  August 
1G03  at  Steinkirk  and  again  in  July  at  Landen. 

In  the  meanwhile  William  was  carrying  on  a  weary  struggle  at 

home  with  headstrong  parliaments  and  perfidious  ministers.    So 

disheartened  was  he  that  more  than  once  he  threatened 

tinn  Pnriia-     to  tlirow  UD  the  STame,  leave  the  English  to  settle  their 

missed,  Jan-    quarrel  with  James  and  Louis  as  best  they  might,  and 

lUlTlJ  27,  1690.  .  .  »/  o        ' 

retire  to  his  tulip  beds  at  Loo.  In  January,  1690  he 
finally  broke  with  the  Convention  Parliament.  The  vindictiveness 
of  the  Whigs  had  been  thoroughly  roused  by  the  foolish  violence  of 
the  parliament  which  James  had  called  at  Dublin,  and  nothing 
would  satisfy  them  but  vengeance  for  all  that  they  had  suffered 
since  1681.  William  had  hoped  for  the  passage  of  a  *iBill  of 
General  Indemnity,"  but  the  angry  Whigs  introduced  so  many 
exceptions  that  the  pretence  of  amnesty  was  a  farce.  Accord- 
ingly on  the  27th  the  Convention  Parliament  was  dismissed. 

The  new  parliament  revealed  the  marked  increase  of  Tory  sen- 
timent in  the  country,  and  William,  to  ensure  friendly  coopera- 
tion with  his  ministry,  dismissed  some  of  the  radical 
secmui  Whigs  and  filled  their  places  with  Tories.      Danby, 

now  Marquis  of  Caermarthen,  became  William's  chief 
adviser,  while  Godolphin  and  Shrewsbury  were  retired.  The  Tory 
parliament  was  a  little  more  generous  with  William  than  his  late 
Whig  parliament.  Eight  hundred  thousand  pounds  were  granted 
for  life,  and  £600,000,  derived  from  the  customs,  were  granted 
for  five  years.  From  these  sums,  £700,000  were  set  apart  to 
meet  the  king's  personal  expenses,  which  then  included  the 
salaries  of  all  purely  civil  officials.  This  appropriation  came  to  be 
known  as  the  *' Civil  List."     William  was  also  grati- 

*^Act  of 

Grace:-  May  fied  bv  the  passiuff  of  an  "Act  of  Grace"  which  prom- 

ised  amnesty  for  all  past  political  offenses.     The  few 

exceptions  were  practically  nominal ;  they  included  about  thirty 

people,  of  whom  some  were  safe  in  France  with  James,  and  others, 


822  BEGIKKIKG    OF    PARTY    RULE  [william  and  Mary 

the  surviving  members  of  the  commission  who  had  sent  Charles  I. 
to  the  block,  had  long  since  likewise  taken  themselves  safely  out 
of  England. 

The  years  1693  and  1694  are  marked  by  a  series  of  remarkable 
financial  measures,  the  wisdom  of  which  has  been  justified  by 
the  experience  of  two  centuries.  These  measures  were,  first  the 
founding  of  the  National  Debt,  and  second  the  establishment  of 
the  Bank  of  England. 

The  drafts  which  the  war  was  making  upon  the  treasury, 
compelled  William  to  face  the  alternative  of  bankruptcy  or  of  ask- 
The  found-  ^^^  ^^^  frcsh  grants  from  parliament.  Various  expedi- 
Natimiai  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^'^  tried  for  augmenting  the  income  of  the 
Debt.  government   without  overmuch   straining   of    existing 

laws.  The  Long  Parliament  had  exchanged  the  old  medieval 
subsidy  for  a  regular  property-tax.  But  the  property- tax  had 
gradually  degenerated  into  a  simple  land-tax.  In  1692  a  new 
valuation  of  lands  that  were  subject  to  the  tax  was  made, 
increasing  the  revenues  from  this  source  from  £500,000  to 
£2,000,000.  In  1691  a  poll  tax  was  levied;  in  1694  a  series  of 
stamp  duties  was  for  the  first  time  systematically  arranged  and 
carried  out.  The  duty  varied  from  Id.  to  £2,  and  was  levied  upon 
wills,  marriage  certificates,  and  other  legal  documents.  The  poll 
tax  did  not  pay,  and  was  soon  given  up.  The  stamp  duty,  how- 
ever, survived  the  war,  and  has  remained  ever  since  a  profitable 
source  of  an  ever  increasing  branch  of  the  English  revenues.  These 
expedients  helped ;  but  it  would  take  many  such  rills  to  meet  the 
constant  demand  of  the  war.  What  was  needed  was  a  full  stream 
sufficient  to  meet  the  war  needs  of  the  hour.  The  country  was 
prosperous  in  spite  of  the  war.  Money  was  really  abundant  for 
all  kinds  of  private  business  enterprise.  How  could  the  govern- 
ment coax  a  larger  amount  of  it  out  of  the  coffers  of  the  strong 
headed  burghers,  without  arousing  their  suspicions  or  raising  the 
old  cry  that  had  been  so  fatal  to  Charles  I.?  Charles  Montague, 
a  young  Whig  connected  with  the  treasury,  proposed  the  simple 
expedient  of  borrowing  the  money,  not  by  the  old  fashioned  and 
unbusiness  like  method  of  a  short  loan  on  the  royal  credit  at  a 
high  rate  of  interest,  but  of  a  long  loan  at  a  low  rate  of  interest. 


1694]  DEATH    OF   MARY  823 

In  1693  the  scheme  was  inaugurated  by  a  loan  of  £1,000,000, 
which  was  to  be  repaid  by  a  complicated  system  of  life  annuities. 
Thus  came  into  existence  the  National  Debt,  so  called  in  distinc 
tion  from  the  old  royal  debts,  which  were  always  regarded  as  inse- 
cure and  had  been  doubly  unpopular  since  the  Stop  of  the  Exchequer 
of  Charles  11.  The  popularity  among  the  merchants  of  London 
of  the  new  loan  as  an  investment,  was  the  best  assurance  of  the 
final  success  of  a  war,  in  which,  as  Louis  had  acknowledged,  the 
'*last  pistole"  would  win. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  his  loan,  the  next  year  Montague 

came  forward  with  another  scheme  which  had  been  devised  by  a 

Scotch  banker,    William   Paterson.     By  this  plan,  for 

rmntofthe      which    Montagiie   secured  the  consent   of   parliament, 

Ermiami,        those  who  subscribed  to  a  guarantee  loan  of  £1,200,000 

July,  27,  1694.        ^    ^  .  °  '  ' 

at  8  per  cent.,  were  incorporated  as  the  ** Governor  and 
Company  of  the  Bank  of  England."  The  bank,  in  a  word,  proposed 
to  monopolize  the  banking  business  which  the  goldsmiths  had 
heretofore  carried  on  with  the  government,  and  give  its  depositors 
better  security  by  reason  of  its  chartered  privileges.  To  William 
the  benefit  was  two-fold;  it  gave  him  a  means  of  securing  ready 
money,  which  was  limited  only  by  the  confidence  of  the  people ;  it 
also  gave  him  the  assured  support  of  the  capitalists,  who  had  pur- 
chased the  stock  of  the  bank,  and  of  the  vast  army  of  depositors, 
who  knew  that  if  James  ever  got  back  to  London,  not  a  pound  of 
their  money,  either  of  principal  or  interest,  would  they  ever  see 
again. 

The  year  1694  closed  in  deep  mourning  for  king  and  people. 
On  the  28th  of  December  the  gentle  Mary,  after  a  brief  illness, 
succumbed  to  the  smallpox.  Her  death  filled  many 
Mary%e-  "^^^^  ^^^^  gravest  apprehension.  For,  although  she  had 
S.^^^^^'  ^^^^  ^^^  government  of  the  kingdom  entirely  to  her  hus- 
band, her  gracious  and  tactful  ways,  as  well  as  her 
nearness  to  the  direct  Stuart  line,  had  done  much  to  strengthen 
William  where  he  most  needed  help.  William  had  been  sincerely 
devoted  to  his  queen,  and  his  pathetic  loneliness  appealed  for 
sympathy  wherever  Jealousy  of  Dutch  influence  had  not  stifled 
all  noble  sentiment. 


824  BEGINNING    OF    PARTY    RULE  [williamIII. 

Other  events,  also,  helped  to  bring  about  a  revulsion  of  popu- 
lar feeling  in  the  king's  favor.  Six  days  before  the  death  of  the 
TTie'Trien-  ^^^^eu,  he  gave  his  consent  to  a  "Triennial  Act,"  which 
December  ^®  ^^^  vetocd  five  years  before  when  presented  to  him 
22, 1694.  ]jj  }jjg  ^hig  parliament.     By  its  terms,  henceforth  no 

parliament  could  remain  in  power  longer  than  three  years.  By 
the  Triennial  Act  of  Charles  II.  it  had  been  already  decreed 
that  the  king  should  not  allow  more  than  three  years  to  elapse 
without  a  parliament. 

The  powerful  Whig  opposition  in  William's  second  parliament 
had  borne  no  small  part  in  securing  these  measures.  It  was  due 
to  the  Whigs,  also,  that,  in  the  months  following  Mary's 
oftheTm-fes  ^^^^^^  there  was  unearthed  a  shameful  and  widespread 
t/ievrms!^^  corruption  which  had  poisoned  all  the  springs  of  pub- 
lic service.  The  East  India  Company  had  obtained  a 
renewal  of  its  charter  in  1693.  It  was  now  discovered  that  the 
old  company  had  distributed  £80,000  in  securing  the  support  of 
those  in  power.  Danby,  the  head  of  the  party,  who  had  recently 
been  made  Duke  of  Leeds,  was  implicated,  and  although  the 
impeachment  failed,  solely  by  reason  of  the  mysterious  disappear- 
ance of  the  chief  witness,  and  the  discredited  minister  retained 
his  position  for  some  time  longer,  his  influence  was  shattered. 
Another  prominent  Tory,  Sir  John  Trevor  the  Speaker  of  the 
House,  who  had  been  an  old  henchman  of  Jeffreys  and  was  now 
the  chief  dispenser  of  Tory  corruption  funds,  also  came  to  grief. 

Another  event  of  considerable  importance  dates  also  from  the 

closing  session  of  William's  second  parliament.     During  the  reign 

of  Charles  I.,  the  government  had  sustained  a  riffid  cen- 

Freedomof  i  •        <.    i  mi 

thevress        sorship  of  the  press.   The  unfortunate  experiences  of  the 

allowed.  i      i  i         t-,  ^   n  . 

luckless  Frynne  lully  prove  that  it  was  a  serious  matter 
to  fall  foul  of  this  authority.  After  the  Restoration  by  the 
''  Licensing  Act  "of  1662,  parliam.ent  had  not  only  authorized  the 
crown  to  renew  this  arbitrary  watch  upon  the  output  of  the  press, 
but  had  limited  the  whole  number  of  master  printers  to  twenty, 
and  further  had  prescribed  that  no  printing  could  be  done  at  all, 
save  in  London,  York,  and  the  two  universities.  This  act  had 
been  renewed  since  from  time  to  time.     The  last  renewal  expired 


1695]  FREEDOM    OF    THE    PRESS  825 

May  7,  1695,  and  parliament  refused  to  repeat  it.  Thus,  almost 
without  comment,  was  at  last  won  the  cause  of  the  free  press,  for 
which  Milton  had  striven  in  his  day,  and  in  defense  of  which  he 
had  written  his  famous  Areopagitica.  Thereafter  a  man  might 
publish  in  England  without  official  restriction, — subject  only  to 
action  at  common  law  should  his  publication  prove  to  be  '* libelous, 
seditious,  or  blasphemous." 

In  August  1695  William  scored  his  first  real  success  against 
the  French  on  land.     In    1692   Namur   had  been  taken  by  the 

French  and  fortified  by  Louis's  great  engineer  Yauban. 
lapSeof  ^^  ^^^  garrisoned  by  16,000  men.  But  in  1695,  in 
auiofthl^^  spite  of  Louis's  efforts  to  hold  the  place,  it  was  retaken 
ment^mT"'    ^J  William.     This  reversal  of  French  arms,  tlie  first  on 

land  in  half  a  century,  was  received  by  the  English 
with  a  burst  of  enthusiasm,  and  when  William  returned  in  October 
he  found  himself  at  last  a  popular  hero.  He  determined  to  take 
advantage  of  the  change  of  sentiment  of  the  people  towards  himself, 
as  well  as  of  the  disfavor  into  which  the  recent  disclosures  had 
brought  the  Tory  leaders,  to  dismiss  his  second  parliament  and 
appeal  again  to  the  nation.  The  step  was  fully  justified  by  the 
result ;  the  electors  returned  not  only  a  Whig  parliament,  but  a 
parliament  fully  in  sympathy  with  the  king  in  promoting  the  war. 
It  was  about  this  time  that  William  began  to  reconstruct  his 
ministry  upon  a  plan  suggested  to  him  by  Sunderland,  who  had 

not  changed  his  coat  so  many  times  that  he  could  not 
Whig  still  be  useful  to  the  party  in  power.     The  frequency 

with  which  treasonable  plots  among  the  Tory  leaders 
had  been  brought  to  light,  the  assurance  which  William  felt  of 
the  treachery  of  some  and  the  unworthiness  of  others,  had  led  him 
to  depend  more  and  more  upon  the  Whigs,  in  spite  of  his  dis- 
trust of  their  radicalism.  At  first,  like  Washington,  he  had 
thought  to  ignore  party  differences,  and,  by  selecting  for  each  post 
the  most  capable  man,  not  only  reward  both  parties  impartially, 
but  secure  a  thoroughly  representative  ministry.  The  plan,  how- 
ever, had  worked  no  better  than  when  Washington  had  Hamilton 
and  Jefferson  ever  quarreling  at  his  council  board,  and  to  secure 
peace,  William  was  compelled  to  select  men  who  at  least  could 


826  BEGIJs^NING    OF    PARTY    RULE  [wiihamIII. 

give  promise  of  working  together.  The  changes  which  he  made 
during  the  tenure  of  his  second  parliament  had  revealed  the  great 
advantage  also  of  having  for  advisers  men  who  could  command 
the  sympathy  and  confidence  of  a  majority  in  the  Commons. 
When  it  became  evident,  therefore,  that  the  Whigs  were  to 
return  to  power,  William  made  a  clean  sweep  of  the  1'ory 
members  of  his  council  and  filled  their  places  with  pronounced 
Whigs.  Thus  the  first  distinctively  Whig  ministry  came  into  exist- 
ence, and  the  principle  of  party  government  was  fairly  inaugurated. 
Of  this,  the  first  Whig  ministry  of  the  many  to  follow  in  the 
next  two  centuries,  Wharton,  the  author  of  LiUihtUero,  the  man 
rpj^  who  boasted  that  he  had  whistled  a  king  out  of  Eng- 

'' Junto."  land,  was  the  party  manager.  He  was  without  scruple 
in  private  life  and  without  conscience  in  public  life.  He  was  a 
profligate  himself,  and  never  hesitated  to  corrupt  others  for  liis 
own  ends.  Swift  called  him  "a  universal  villain."  Yet  Wharton 
had  one  *' black  virtue:"  through  ill  repute  and  good  repute,  be 
was  intensely  devoted  to  his  party.  He  knew,  moreover,  all  the 
outs  and  ins  of  political  management;  he  abounded  in  evil  daring, 
and  in  spite  of  his  vices  was  person.illy  liked  by  the  people.  He  is 
the  first  of  modern  political  ^'bosses."  Associated  with  Wharton 
in  the  management  of  the  party  were  Somers,  Russell,  and  Mon- 
tague, constituting  what  was  called  the  "Junto."  Russell  had  no 
more  conscience  than  Wharton,  but  was  without  his  devotion  to 
party  or  his  genius  for  party  leadership.  Somers  was  "the  good 
man  of  the  machine."  Yet  even  his  virtues  were  somewhat  sharply 
defined,  and  shone  rather  by  contrast  with  their  setting,  as  so  often 
happens  in  the  case  of  the  good  man  in  the  modern  political 
junto;  some  shades  of  grey  may  look  white  by  the  side  of  black. 
Montague,  the  fourth  man  of  the  Junto,  was  the  Robert  Morris 
of  the  Revolution.  He  had  served  through  the  earlier  parliaments 
in  a  subordinate  position  at  the  Treasury,  and  in  reward  for  his 
service  he  had  been  made,  first,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and 
finally.  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury.  It  was  due  to  his  fine  genius, 
not  only  that  the  new  government  was  put  upon  a  safe  financial 
footing,  but  also  that  the  solid  foundations  were  laid  upon  which 
British  financial  policy  has  since  rested. 


1696]  THE   RECOINAGE   ACT  827 

Among  the  first  acts  of  the  new  parliament  was  a  measure 
designed  to  regulate  trials  for  treason,  making  it  impossible  to  con- 
y^g  vict  men  upon  such  evidence  as  had  sent  William  Russell 

aTT^  and  Sidney  to  the  block  in  1G83.  The  prisoner  was  to 
1696.  be  presented  with  a  copy  of  the  charges  against  him, 

and  a  list  of  the  panel ;  he  was  also  to  be  allowed  the  services  of  a 
lawyer.  Further  he  could  not  be  convicted  without  the  sworn 
testimony  of  two  witnesses. 

While  this  wise  and  humane  measure  was  before  parliament, 
some  forty  desperate  adherents  of  the  exiled  Stuart  were  planning 
to  assassinate  William  as  the  first  step  in  preparing  for  active 
interference  on  the  part  of  Louis.  The  plot  was  discovered  in 
February,  1G96,  and  added  greatly  to  the  increasing  popularity  of 
the  king.  The  Houses  voted  to  suspend  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act, 
in  order  to  enable  the  government  to  detain  suspects  until  suffi- 
cient evidence  might  be  found  against  them.  They  also  voted  that 
the  tenure  of  a  parliament  should  not  expire  at  the  death  of  the 
king.  The  members  of  the  Commons  formed  a  ** Loyal  Associa- 
tion," which  was  sworn  to  avenge  William's  murder,  and  to  main- 
tain the  Bill  of  Rights.  Out  of  530  members  420  took  the  oath, 
a  fact  which  shows  the  strength  *of  William's  support  in  the 
Lower  House.  This  miserable  plot  was  responsible  also  for  the 
last  death  by  Act  of  Attainder.  Several  of  the  suspects  had  been 
executed  under  the  terms  of  the  new  Treasons  Act.  But  in  the 
case  of  Sir  John  Fen  wick,  of  whose  guilt  apparently  there  was  no 
question,  the  disappearance  of  one  of  the  two  witnesses  for  the 
state,  m;ide  his  conviction  impossible.  The  Whig  leaders,  however 
determined  not  to  allow  the  man  to  escape  upon  a  mere  techni- 
cality; and  on  January  11,  1697,  after  a  struggle  of  two  months 
succeeded  in  getting  through  the  Houses  an  Act  of  Attainder. 

To  the  triumphs  of  the  year  1696,  is  to  be  added  yet  another, 
the  greatest  of  the  brilliant  measures  of  William's  finance  minis- 
ter. In  his  scheme  of  raisiner  money  upon  the  srovern- 
age  Act,"  ment  credit,  Montague  had  met  no  small  difficulty  in 
the  fluctuating  value  of  the  coins  themselves.  Not  only 
had  the  government  debased  the  coinage  in  the  past,  but  in  spite 
of  severe  laws,  coins  in  circulation  had  been  clipped  and  battered 


828  BEGINNIllfG   OF   PARTY    RULE  [williamIII. 

until  they  were  beyond  recognition.  The  coins  of  full  intrinsic 
value,  that  is  the  new  coins  from  the  mint,  speedily  disappeared; 
many  were  sent  abroad  to  meet  the  foreign  bills  of  English  mer- 
chants. As  a  result,  investments  were  always  uncertain  at  best, 
and  were  made  with  an  ever  increasing  timidity.  Long  time  loans 
were  refused  altogether,  for  no  one  knew  in  what  kind  of  money 
they  would  be  paid.  In  1696  parliament  passed  the  *'Eecoinage 
Act,"  by  which  on  May  24  mutilated  coin  was  to  cease  to  be  legal 
tender.  The  government  in  the  meantime  was  to  redeem  the 
clipped  pieces,  paying  out  in  return  a  new  coin,  circled  with  the 
milled  edge^  a  recently  invented  device  to  prevent  clipping.  A 
new  loan  of  £1,200,000  was  necessary  to  meet  the  expense  of  the 
redemption  and  the  recoinage. 

On  October  20,  1696,  Montague  put  the  finishing  touches  to 
his  great  plan  for  placing  the  national  credit  upon  a  sound  basis, 
Montaaue's  ^^  presenting  to  parliament  three  resolutions:  first, 
Resolutions,  that  the  Commons  should  support  William  against  all 
foreigner  domestic  enemies;  second,  that  the  standard  of  money 
should  be  altered  neither  in  fineness,  nor  in  weight,  nor  in 
denomination;  third,  that  all  deficiencies  in  parliamentary  grants 
made  since  the  king's  accessioti,  should  be  made  good.  The  first 
resolution  brought  out  the  unprecedented  grant  of  nearly  £5,000, 
000  for  the  war.  The  second  resolution  was  opposed  by  some 
well  meaning  financiers  who  believed  that  a  debasement  of  the 
coinage  would  help  the  government,  but  was  finally  carried.  The 
third  resolution,  which  pledged  parliament  to  make  good  defi- 
ciencies amounting  to  more  than  £5,000,000,  was  followed  by  the 
"General  Mortgage,"  which  pledged  the  general  revenue  of  the  state 
to  make  good  the  nation's  liabilities,  should  the  taxes  specially 
designated  at  any -time  fail  to  meet  the  object  specified. 

The  principles  of  sound  policy  here  laid  down,  which  at 
once  effectually  restored  English  credit,  have  remained  undis- 
„„  ,  ,  turbed  ever  since, — the  foundation  of  the  magnificent 
Montapues     strength    of   the    modern    British    state.     Louis   had 

financial  => 

measures.  already  admitted  that  final  victory  lay  not  with  the 
heaviest  battalions  but  with  the  longest  purse.  His  financiers 
were  trying    all    manner  of   expedients  to   match    this    splendid 


1697]  RY8WICK  829 

showing  of  financial  strength  of  William's  government;  but  they 
failed  utterly  to  comprehend  the  very  first  element  necessary  to 
the  development  of  the  financial  resources  of  a  state, — the  con- 
fidence of  the  people  in  the  integrity  of  the  government  and  in  its 
ability  to  keep  its  promises. 

In  the  autumn  of  1696,  therefore,  the  time  was  not  far  off 
when  Louis  must  confess  himself  beaten.  The  futility  of  the 
Jacobite  plots  for  the  restoration  of  James,  the  growing 
RyHwick,  strength  of  William  in  England,  his  recent  successes 
abroad,  the  utter  exhaustion  of  France,  and  the  sheer 
weight  of  Louis's  foes,  who  pressed  him  upon  every  side,  at  last 
opened  his  eyes  to  the  hopelessness  of  the  struggle,  and  in  Jan- 
uary he  was  glad  to  open  negotiations  with  England.  In  the  fol- 
lowing autumn  the  series  of  treaties  known  as  the  Peace  of 
Ryswick,  put  an  end  to  the  struggle  of  nine  years.  To  the  Eng- 
lish the  thing  of  chief  importance  in  the  treaty  with  Louis,  was 
the  formal  recognition  of  William  as  King  of  England,  and  of 
Anne  as  his  successor.  Louis  might  continue  to  shelter  James, 
but  he  pledged  himself  no  longer  to  support  his  pretentions  to  the 
English  crown.  To  satisfy  the  League  Louis  agreed  to  surrender  all 
territory  which  he  had  taken  since  the  Treaty  of  Nimwegen,  with 
the  exception  of  Strasburg.  It  was  the  first  serious  check  to 
outward  expansion  which  France  had  received  in  a  hundred  years. 
The  Peace  of  Ryswick  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the 
reign  of  William.  The  nation  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  full  signifi- 
cance of  the  plans  which  their  king  had  carried  through 
A  new  era  in  to  a  triumphant  peace,  and  for  the  moment  Enerlish- 

William's  ^'     \    ,a     ,\^  t    .  -,         ,  . 

reifirw.  men  realized  that  they  were  living  under  the  reign  of 

one  of  the  greatest  of  English  kings.  The  Whig  par- 
liament caught  the  contagion  of  enthusiasm  and  set  to  work 
to  pay  the  bills  which  the  war  had  incurred,  doubling  the  tariff 
on  many  articles  and  securing  a  new  loan  of  £2,000,000  through 
the  English  Co7npany^ — a  company  of  London  merchants  who 
for  several  years  had  been  trading  in  the  East  Indies  and  now 
received  a  charter,  on  condition  of  floating  the  government  loan. 

William,  however,  was  not  destined  to  taste  the  sweets  of  popu- 
larity long.     Ever  since  the  close  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  the 


830  BEGIN-NING    OF    PARTY     RULE  [william  ill. 

Tudor  policy,  which  on  the  one  hand  forbade  foreign  states  to  inter- 
fere in  British  affairs,  and  on  the  other  forbade  England  to  become 

a  party  in  any  of  the  purely  continental  quarrels,  had 
icaicondi-  been  virtually  the  accepted  political  creed  of  the 
of  William's  nation  Like  the  American  Monroe  doctrine,  the  Tudor 
English         policy   had  never  passed  into  formal  law,  and  yet  it 

had  always  formed  a  powerful  reactionary  influence 
for  peace,  whenever  English  ministers  seemed  inclined  to  take 
part  in  continental  quarrels.  Now  when  the  war  of  the  English 
Succession  had  been  brought  to  a  successful  conclusion,  what  most 
Englishmen  did  not  understand  was  that  in  accepting  the  head  of 
the  Augsburg  League  as  their  king,  with  him  they  had  also 
adopted  the  great  continental  quarrel  with  France,  which  had 
now  been  raging  for  a  hundred  years  and  was  by  no  means 
ended.  In  other  words  England  had  forever  abandoned  her  insular 
isolation,  and  in  spite  of  herself  had  become  a  continental  power, 
and  a  deeply  interested  party  as  well  in  maintaining  the  existing 
political  balance  of  Europe.  William  saw  this ;  it  was  in  fact  for 
this  very  purpose  that  he  had  accepted  the  English  crown  and 
brought  England  into  line  with  the  League.  When,  therefore, 
in  order  to  put  the  country  again  upon  a  peace  footing,  parlia- 
ment determined  to  cut  down  William's  army  from  80,000  men 
to  10,000  and  also  to  allow  the  Mutiny  Act  to  lapse,  it  met  a  very 
determined  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  king.  The  childless 
Charles  IL  of  Spain,  the  innocent  cause  of  so  much  strife,  was 
nearing  his  end  at  last.  The  son  of  Louis  XIV.  was  the  nearest 
of  three  heirs  to  the  Spanish  throne,  and  William  had  no  reason 
to  think  that  Louis  with  the  enormous  possessions  of  the  Spanish 
house  at  stake,  would  hesitate  a  moment  in  setting  either  the 
Dauphin  Louis  or  one  of  the  Dauphin's  sons  upon  the  Spanish 
throne.  It  was  altogether  advisable,  therefore,  as  the  most 
certain  way  to  prevent  war,  to  keep  the  government  upon  a  war 
footing  until  the  crisis  should  be  passed.  But  the  Whig  parlia- 
ment, moved  by  the  traditional  suspicion  of  great  standing  armies, 
appealed  to  the  accumulating  national  debt,  which  had  already 
reached  the  appalling  sum  of  £14,000,000,  and  to  the  unpreced- 
ented taxation  which  was  no  longer  necessary  now  that  the  country 


1698]  FIRST   PARtlTiOX   TREATY  83l 

was  at  peace,  and  demanded  a  reduction  of  expenses.  This  posi- 
tion was  certainly  plausible,  and  when  William  protested,  when 
he  pleaded  the  danger  of  future  war,  he  found  but  scant  sympathy 
among  a  people  who  were  not  yet  awake  to  the  new  conditions,  and 
were  still  inclined  to  regard  the  quarrel  of  William  with  Louis  as 
none  of  theirs.  In  January  1698,  accordingly,  parliament  granted 
funds  sufficient  only  to  keep  on  foot  10,000  soldiers  and  13,000 
sailors,  and  William  was  compelled  to  accept  these  provisions. 

In  the  meantime  William  was  carrying  on  secret  negotiations 
with  Louis,  in  order  if  possible  to  make  a  peaceful  adjustment 

of  the  Spanish  succession.  Beside  the  Bourbon  princes, 
First  Parti-  Joseph  the  Electoral  Prince  of  Bavaria,  who  was  an 
with  France,   infant  of  five  years,  and  the  Emperor    Leopold   were 

also  directly  interested ;  and  on  October  11, 1698,  France, 
England,  and  the  Netherlands  formally  agreed  that  in  case  Charles 
II.  died  childless,  the  infant  Joseph  was  to  have  Spain,  the  Span- 
ish Netherlands,  and  the  provinces  of  Spain  in  America  and  the 
Indies;  Louis  the  Dauphin  was  to  have  Naples,  Sicily,  and  the 
Tuscan  ports  with  the  Basque  province  of  Guipuzcoa  in  the 
Pyrenees ;  while  the  second  son  of  Leopold,  the  Archduke  Charles, 
was  to  have  Luxemburg  and  Milan. 

The  necessary  secrecy  of   these  negotiations,  which  had  been 
carried  on  during  the   whole  summer  at  William's  palace  at  Loo, 

naturally  aroused  a  good  deal  of  suspicion  in  England. 
in^v^and     ^^^  nation  was  weary  of  war;  and  they  thought  the 

surest  way  to  guarantee  peace  was  to  continue  to  cut 
down  the  army.  In  the  new  parliament,  therefore,  which  had 
been  summoned  by  the  provisions  of  the  Triennial  Act,  the  Tory 
influence  was  once  more  in  the  ascendant  and  parliament  proceeded 
to  reduce  the  army  still  further.  It  insisted,  moreover,  that  none 
but  men  of  English  birth  should  be  enrolled,  thus  ungraciously 
compelling  William  to  send  home  his  favorite  Dutch  guards.  The 
Commons  further  humiliated  William  by  vigorously  attacking 
Montague  and  Russell.  Ultimately  they  compelled  them  to  throw 
up  their  commissions,  and  thus  broke  up  the  Junto  which  had 
come  to  be  hated  and  suspected  almost  as  much  as  the  Cabal. 
Not   satisfied  with   these  successes   the  Commons  also  attacked 


832  BEGINNING    OF     PARTY     RULE  [william  111. 

William  at  another  tender  point  by  proposing  a  commission  to 
investigate  the  manner  in  which  he  had  disposed  of  the  forfeited 
Irish  lands.  The  measure  was  forced  upon  the  Lords  by  "tack- 
ing" it  to  the  regular  appropriation  bill,  which  the  Lords  were 
compelled  to  accept  or  reject  as  a  whole.  Accordingly  the  com- 
mission was  appointed,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1G99  they  were  ready 
to  report.  It  was  found  that  1,700,000  acres  had  been  confiscated, 
of  which  about  one-fourth  had  been  restored  to  the  original  owners 
and  the  rest  had  been  given  to  William's  favorites,  several  of 
whom  were  foreigners.  During  the  session  of  1699  and  1700, 
parliament  did  little  else  than  discuss  these  grants ;  and  finally, 
by  forcing  a  "Resamption  Bill"  upon  the  Lords  by  the  same  tactics 
which  they  had  used  in  the  autumn,  compelled  the  king  to  consent 
to  the  vesting  of  all  such  land  grants  in  the  hands  of  parliament. 
While  the  English  parliament  thus  seemed  bent  on  humiliating 
their  king  and  destroying  the  moral  effect  of  his  previous  successes, 
the  question  of  the  Spanish  succession  was  again  thrown 
The  Second     ij^to  confusiou   bv   the   death   of   the   little   prince  of 

Partition  -J  ^ 

^r^H'' .  ^     Bavaria,  and  in  March,  1700,  a  second  Partition  Treaty 

March,  1700.  '.  '  '  •' 

was  arranged  by  William  and  Louis  in  which  the  Arch- 
duke Charles  was  to  have  Spain,  the  Spanish  Indies,  and  the 
Spanish  Netherlands,  while  the  Dauphin  was  to  have  Milan  in 
addition  to  what  had  been  assigned  him  by  the  first  treaty,  to  bo 
exchanged  later  for  the  Duchy  of  Lorraine.  The  second  treaty 
gave  little  satisfaction  to  anybody.  The  emperor  was  not  pleased 
with  a  plan  which  forced  him  to  exchange  Lorraine  for  Milan; 
while  Louis  used  his  influence  to  persuade  Charles  II.  to  disregard 
the  treaty  altogether  and  name  as  his  sole  heir  Philip  of  Anjou, 
son  of  the  Dauphin.  The  Spaniards,  moreover,  were  specially 
incensed,  when  they  learned  that  their  old  foes,  England  and 
Holland  and  France,  proposed  to  dismember  their  empire.  "Poor 
old  Lord  Strutt  fell  into  a  great  rage  when  he  heard  that  his 
runaway  servant  Nick  Frog,  his  clothier  John  Bull,  and  his  old 
enemy  Louis  Baboon  had  drawn  out  his  will  for  him.  "^  On 
November  1,  1700,  a  month  after  the  signing  of  the  will,  Charles 

^  Dr.  Arbuthnot  in  a  pamphlet  of  the  time.     The  probable  origin  of 
the  nickname,  John  Bull. 


1701]  ACT   OF    SETTLEMENT  833 

died,  and  on  the  15th  Louis  threw  over  the  second  Partition 
Treaty  and  accepted  the  Spanish  crown  for  Philip.  William  and 
his  friend  Heiiisius,  the  Pensionary  of  Holland,  bitterly  upbraided 
Louis  for  his  perfidy.  But  Louis  paid  little  attention  to  their 
scoldings.  He  had  correctly  calculated  that  in  the  present  state 
of  public  affairs  in  England,  it  would  be  impossible  for  William  to 
induce  the  nation  to  take  up  arms,  and  in  April  1701,  William 
was  compelled  to  recognize  Louis's  grandson  as  Philip  Y.  of  Spain. 
While  the  death  of  Charles  had  thus  raised  again  the  question 
of  the  Spanish  succession,  in  the  preceding  July  the  death  of 
William  of  Gloucester,  the  only  surviving  son  of  the 
The  "Act  of     Princess  Anne,  had  also  raised  again  the  old  question 

Settlement  " 

June  12, 1701.  of  the  English  succession.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
the  average  Englishman,  the  question  was  of  far 
greater  importance  than  the  succession  to  the  Spanish  throne. 
Parliament,  although  still  Tory,  took  the  matter  in  hand  and  in 
June,  1701,  passed  the  ''Act  of  Settlement,"  *  by  which  Sophia  of 
Hanover,  granddaughter  of  James  I. ,  was  named  as  the  next  heir 
to  the  throne.  The  attitude  of  parliament  towards  William's 
foreign  schemes  is  shown  by  the  provision  which  forbade  the  king 
without  its  consent  to  go  to  war  for  the  defense  of  any  dominion 
which  did  not  belong  to  the  crown  of  England,  or  to  leave  the 
kingdom,  or  to  appoint  to  the  Privy  Council  any  but  native  Eng- 
lishmen. The  sovereign  must  also  be  a  communicant  in  the 
established  Church  of  England.  The  universal  acceptance  of 
Whig  principles  even  by  the  Tories  is  further  shown  in  the  pro- 
vision which  forbade  any  holder  of  any  office  under  the  crown,  or 
of  any  place  of  profit,  or  of  any  pension,  to  serve  as  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Commons.  The  judges  were  to  hold  office  during 
good  behavior,  were  to  be  placed  upon  salaries,  and  could  be 
removed  from  office  only  upon  the  request  of  both  Houses  of  par- 
liament. Further,  "no  pardon  under  the  Great  Seal  was  to  be 
pleadable  to  an  impeachment  by  the  Commons."  The  Act  of 
Settlement  is  another  important  waymark  in  the  progress  of  the 
formal  constitutional  law  of  England.  Even  the  Tories  had 
accepted  the  results  of  the  Revolution  as  final,  and  had  virtually 

1  Lee,  Source  Book,  p.  431. 


834  BEGINXING    OF    PARTY    RULE  [william  ill. 

advanced  to  the  ground  once  taken  by  Eussell  and  Shaftesbury. 
They  had  not  only  affirmed  the  right  of  parliament  to  fix  the  suc- 
cession by  law,  as  against  any  claim  based  upon  divine  right  by 
inheritance,  they  had  also,  by  making  the  judiciary  independent  of 
royal  control,  struck  from  the  king's  hands  the  last  weapon  by 
which  he  might  attack  the  liberties  of  the  subject. 

While  the  Tory  parliament  had  been  venting  its  malice  upon 
William,  and  driving  from  office  the  few  Whigs  who  still  remained 
in  his  ministry,  the  country  was  already  stirring  with 
Jacobite  signs  of  reaction.  On  June  17  the  impeachment  of 
Somers,  the  last  of  the  Whig  ministers,  broke  down  for 
lack  of  evidence.  Ominous  petitions,  also,  began  to  come  to  the 
Commons  from  various  parts  of  the  country,  praying  that  *'his 
majesty  might  be  enabled  powerfully  to  assist  his  allies  before  it 
be  too  late."  The  nation  was  in  fact  slowly  coming  to  its  senses. 
The  Franco-Spanish  alliance  threatened  to  throw  open  to  French 
commercial  enterprise,  the  door  which  Spain  had  heretofore  closed 
to  the  whole  world.  Louis,  moreover,  had  in  February  thrown 
French  troops  into  all  the  Dutch  barrier  towns  which  the  Treaty 
of  Eyswick  had  turned  over  to  Dutch  occupation,  and  had  coolly 
announced  that  the  previous  renunciation,  which  Philip  had  made 
of  his  claims  to  the  French  crown,  was  void.  If  more  evidence 
were  needed  to  assure  the  nation  that  William  was  right  in  his 
attitude  of  suspicion  toward  the  French  king,  it  was  given  by 
Louis  himself,  when  on  the  death  of  James  II.  in  September  he 
promptly  recognized  the  son  of  James  as  King  of  England.  The 
nation  took  fire  at  what  they  regarded  as  the  perfidy  and  insolence 
of  Louis,  and  once  more  turned  to  the  Whigs  for  guidance.  The 
new  parliament  met  in  December  and  at  once  passed  a  Bill  of 
Attainder  against  the  new  "James  III.;"  and  by  another  bill 
compelled  all  civil  officers,  ecclesiastics,  members  of  universities, 
and  school  masters  to  renounce  upon  oath  "the  pre- 
^AUiance^^^  tended  king. ' '  William  had  already  begun  measures 
August  28,  for  the  renewal  of  the  struggle  with  France.  In  Sep- 
tember, he  had  committed  England  to  the  "Grand 
Alliance,"  a  new  coalition  which  was  to  carry  on  the  work  of  the 
old   League   of  Augsburg,  and  had  sent  over  Marlborough  with 


1703] 


DEATH   OF   WILLIAM 


835 


every  soldier  he  could  muster  to  help  the  Dutch  hold  their  frontiers. 
But  suddenly  in  the  midst  of  the  busy  preparations  for  the  war, 
the  noble  spirit  which  had  foreseen  from  the  beginning  the  renewal 
of  the  struggle,  and  had  pleaded  in  vain  for  the  support  of  short- 
sighted parliaments  in  order  to  avert  the  calamity,  had  taken  its 
flight.     In  February  1702  the  king  had  been  thrown 

Death  of  ^  ,  .     ,  mi       i.  i,    ..      i^  ^         .  .     ^  .  i 

William,^  from  his  horse.  The  fall  itself  was  not  serious  but  the 
sickly  body,  worn  out  by  toil  of  mind  and  vexation  of 
spirit,  rapidly  succumbed  to  the  fever  which  followed  the  shock. 
The  conduct  of  the  war  passed  into  other  hands,  but  the  work  of 
William  was  accomplished. 

CONTEMPORARIES  OF  THE  LATER  STUARTS 
1650-1714 
KING  OP  FRANCE  EMPERORS  KINGS  OF  SPAIN  RUSSIA 

Louis  XIV.,  d.  1715     Ferdinand  III.,  d.  1657     Philip  IV.,  d.  1665     Peter  the  Great,  d.  1725 
Leopold  I.,  d.  1705  Charles  II.,  d.  1700 

Charles  VL,  d.  1740  PhiUp  V.,  d.  1746 


EMINENT 
FOREIGNERS 

(not  Sovereigns) 

Mazarin,  d.  1661 
Moliere,  d.  1673 
Colbert,  d.  1683 
Corueille,  d.  1688 
Racine,  d.  1699 


BRANDENBURG, 
PRUSSIA 

Frederick  William, 
"the  Great  Elector.' 
d.  1688 
Frederick  I., 
King  of  Prussia, 
d.  1718 
Frederick  WilUam  I., 
d.  1740 


EMINENT  ENGLISHMEN 

Clarendon,  d.  1674 
Shaftesbury,  d.  1683 
Bunyan,  d.  1688 
Dryden.  d.  1700 
Locke,  d.  17(M 
Addison,  d.  1719 
Marlborough,  d.  1722 
Newton,  d.  1727 
Defoe,  d.  1731 
Pope,  d.  1744 
Swift,  d.  1745 


Charles  XI.,  d.  1607 
Charles  XII.,  d.  1718 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  COMPLETION  OF  THE  WORK  OF  THE  REVOLUTION" 

ANNE,  1702-1714 

CLAIMANTS  TO  SPANISH  SUCCESSION 

Philip  III.,  =  Margaret  of  Hapsburg 
King  of  Si)ain 


1598-1621 


Philip  IV.,  1621-1665 
m. 


Maria  =  Ferdinand  II., 

I     Emperor  1637-1657 


(1)  Elizabeth  of  Bourbon,- 
d.1645 

Louis  XrV.,=  Maria  Theresa 
King  of 
France, 
1643-1715 


(2)  Maria  Anna 


I 
LeoiK)ld  I.,  Era- 
m.       peror 
I       1658-1705 


Charles  II. 
of  Spain, 
1665-1700 


Louis,  the  Dauphin,  d.  1711 


Louis,  Duke 
of  Burgundy, 
d.  1712 

Louis  XV., 
h.,  1715-1774 


Philip,  Duke  of 

Anjou  and 

Philip  V.  of 

Spain, 

1700-1746 


Margaret  Theresa  (1) — ' — (2)  Eleanor 

Maria  Antonia,          j  ^| 

wi.  Maximilian,    Joseph  I.,  Charles 

Elector  of          1705-1711  VI., 

Bavaria  1711-1740 

Joseph  Ferdinand, 
d.  1699 


By  the  terms  of  the  Revolution  Settlement,  Anne  the  youngest 

daughter  of  James  II.  succeeded  to  the  crown  of  William  III.    At 

the  time  of  William's  death  she  was  thirty-seven  years 

Queen  Anne,  ^  -^ 

1702-1714.  old.  She  had  been  early  married  to  Prince  George  of 
Denmark,  an  empty  headed  toper,  of  whom  Charles  II.  once  declared 
that  he  had  tried  him  drunk  and  tried  him  sober,  and  found  noth- 
ing in  him.  The  couple  had  had  a  number  of  children,  but  none 
of  them  had  survived.  Anne  herself,  the  "good  Queen  Anne,"  was 
a  well  meaning,  kindly  natured  woman,  but  dull  and  easily  led, 
although  liable  to  dangerous  fits  of  obstinacy  if  not  carefully 
managed.  At  heart  she  was  a  Tory ;  and  yet,  as  with  William,  her 
position  finally  compelled  her,  if  not  to  enter  the  Whig  camp,  at 
least  to  tolerate  a  Whig  ministry  and  to  support  Whig  measures. 

836 


-T--Tr-in-rTiri|>- 


f^n^li 


( 


i  / 


^  s  ^ 


?p 


LADY   MARLBOROUGH  837 

Thus  in  spite  of  herself  Anne  was  forced  to  take  up  the  work  of 
the  Revolution, 

In  this  course,  however,  the  new  queen  was  directed  not  by  any 
intelligent  grasp  of  the  political  elements  which  confronted  her, 
Sarah  ^^^^  ^J  ^^®  ambitious  instincts  of  a  clear-sighted,  beau- 

jfady^ari-  ^^^"^  woman,  wlio  had  gained  a  complete  ascendancy 
borough.  Q^^p  i\^q  mind  of  the  princess  long  before  she  became 
queen,  and  who  steadily  used  her  influence  to  advance  the  interests 
of  herself  and  her  husband,  the  brilliant  earl  of  Marlborough. 
This  woman  who  began  her  career  as  simple  Sarah  Jennings,  a 
penniless  lady  in  waiting,  was  an  interesting  compound  of  imperious 
pride,  arrogant  wilfullness,  seductive  beauty,  and  shrewish  temper. 
By  her  good  natured  mistress  she  was  regarded  with  idolatrous  affec- 
tion, and  admitted  to  an  intimacy  becoming  only  in  equals,  where 
the  august  titles  prescribed  by  the  stately  court  etiquette  of  the 
eighteenth  century  were  dropped,  and  the  subject  became  **Mrs. 
Freeman"  and  the  sovereign  '*Mrs.  Morley."  Now  the  imperious 
"Mrs.  Freeman"  was  no  more  a  Whig  at  heart  than  her  mistress, 
but  her  keener  wit  grasped  the  situation  as  Anne's  slow  moving 
mind  could  not.  She  saw,  moreover,  the  possibilities  which  the 
war  offered  to  her  husband's  ambition.  While  the  beautiful  Sarah 
reigned,  therefore,  the  new  government  was  committed  to  the 
policy  of  William,  and  her  gifted  husband,  fully  the  equal  of 
William  in  diplomacy  and  his  unquestioned  superior  on  the  battle 
field,  found  ample  scope  for  the  free  exercise  of  his  splendid  talents 
as  chief  of  the  Grand  Alliance. 

The  last  parliament  of  William,  which  by  the  act  of  1G96 
remained  in  session  after  his  death,  continued  preparations  for  war 
j^j^^  and  on  May  4  formally  declared  against  France.     Lady 

Churchill,       Sarah's  influence  was  sufficient  to  secure  for  her  hus- 

Hiari  oj 

Marlborough,  band  an  important  place  in  the  counsels  of  the  queen, 
'and  his  prominence  at  once  marked  him  for  high  command.  At 
the  time  he  was  fifty-two  years  old,  an  age  when  the  work  of  most 
men  is  done.  It  is  true  that  he  had  been  familiar  with  camps 
since  boyhood  and  had  seen  much  hard  service,  but  he  had  never 
before  been  entrusted  with  the  sole  command  of  a  large  army.  He 
had,  moreover,  during  several  years  of  William's  reign  remained 


838  WORK   or   revolution   completed       ^  [anne 

under  a  cloud  of  disfavor  which  he  had  brought  upon  himself  by 
reason  of  a  treasonable  correspondence  with  the  exiled  Stuart, 
and  which  ought  to  have  retired  permanently  any  ordinary  man. 
The  persistent  friendship  of  Anne,  however,  had  brought  the  favor- 
ite forward  again  even  before  William's  death,  and  now  secured 
for  him  the  position  of  commander-in-chief  of  the  allied  armies  of 
England  and  the  Dutch  Eepublic.  Never  was  favoritism  more 
signally  justified  by  the  results.  For  out  of  this  treacherous  court- 
ier the  war  soon  developed  a  military  genius  with  few  equals  and 
no  superior  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Yet  marvelous  as  was  Marl- 
borough's skill  in  winning  victories,  no  less  marvelous  was  his  skill 
in  managing  timid  councils  or  stupid  allies.  In  charm  of  person 
and  grace  of  manner,  the  English  commander  was  irresistible. 
With  inexhaustible  patience  he  combined  matchless  tact  and  a  com- 
posure which  was  never  ruffled.  He  was  never  in  a  hurry,  never 
vexed,  never  worried.  Whether  on  the  battlefield,  where  his 
troops  were  mowed  down  by  the  thousands  before  his  eyes,  or  in  the 
council  chamber,  where  the  atmosphere  was  heavy  with  stupidity 
or  lurid  with  treachery,  the  same  indolent  calm  pervaded  his  man- 
ner. Patience  was  his  sovereign  cure  for  all  ills.  ''Patience,"  he 
loved  to  say,  "will  overcome  all  things."  Morally,  however,  this 
man  of  marvelous  intellect,  of  unique  genius,  was  no  whit  above 
the  level  of  the  average  politician  of  the  Eestoration.  He  was 
prudently  familiar  with  the  vices  which  disgraced  the  "gentleman" 
of  his  time,  a  slave  to  the  meanest  avarice,  a  time-server  who  was 
shamefully  faithless  to  obligation,  a  traitor  to  two  kings;  and  yet 
for  ten  years  by  sheer  intellectual  force  he  exerted  an  influence  in 
Europe  which  "the  crown  of  Great  Britain  had  not  given  to 
William  III." 

The  position  of  parties  at  home  was  naturally  influenced  by  the 
struggle   to   which   William   had   committed   the    nation.      The 

enthusiasm  which  had  elected  William's  last  Whig 
and  the  war    parliament  rapidly  cooled  when  the  gigantic  nature  of 

the  contest  began  to  be  understood.  The  nation 
shrank  from  new  burdens  of  taxation ;  it  shrank  from  the  new 
perils  which  confronted  its  commerce  on  the  seas.  The  first  par- 
liament of  Anne,  therefore,  showed  very  marked  Tory  gains.     Marl- 


1702,  1703]  MARLBOROUGH   ON   THE   RHINE  839 

borough's  misplaced  Tory  sympathies  also  favored  the  gathering 
of  a  Tory  ministry,  so  that  it  was  not  long  before  the  weight  of 
the  increased  Tory  strength  in  the  government  began  to  be  felt  in 
the  laggard  support  which  the  ministry  gave  to  the  war.  Eng- 
land, however,  could  hardly  withdraw,  now  that  Louis's  armies 
were  in  the  field.  The  fate  of  the  Dutch  Kepublic  also  was  a 
matter  of  some  moment,  for  English  commerce  in  the  Netherlands 
was  at  stake.  Yet  to  the  ostensible  purpose  of  the  war,  the  res- 
toration of  the  Spanish  throne  to  a  Hapsburg  dynasty,  the  Tory 
ministry  were  wholly  indifferent;  they  regarded  the  quarrel  as 
something  with  which  England  had  no  business  to  meddle.  It 
was  not  long,  therefore,  before  the  leaders  had  agreed  upon  what 
may  be  called  the  Tory  policy  of  conducting  the  war.  Operations 
at  sea  were  to  be  confined  to  protecting  English  commerce  and 
English  colonies ;  operations  on  land  were  to  be  confined  to  the 
defense  of  the  Dutch  border,  while  the  emperor  was  to  take  care 
of  himself  and  secure  the  Spanish  crown  for  his  son  if  he  could. 
This  policy  would  keep  down  expenditure,  incur  few  risks,  and 
enable  England  to  withdraw  at  an  early  opportunity. 

The  activities  of  the  English,  therefore,  were  directed  at  first  to 

the  Netherland  borders,  where  the  French  already  held  most  of  the 

Spanish  territory ;  and  Marlborough,  much  to  his  dis- 

Maribor-        taste,   was  forced  to  content  himself  with  a  series  of 

ninjh  on  the  ' 

lower  Rhine,    sieges  bv  wliich  he  won  the  border  fortresses.     This 

1702,  1703.  O  J 

work,  though  trying  to  the  patience  of  the  English 
commander,  was  nevertheless  most  valuable  from  a  military  point  of 
view.  It  cut  off  the  French  from  the  lower  Rhine  and  freed  Hol- 
land from  all  danger  of  invasion.  For  this  brilliant  work,  the 
result  of  two  years  of  hard  campaigning,  Marlborough  was  raised 
to  ducal  honors. 

These  early  successes  of  Marlborough  were  in  marked  contrast 
with  the  fortunes  of  the  allies  in  other  quarters.     In  1702  the 

imperial  army  under  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy  barely 
of  the  allies,     escaped  annihilation  in  northern  Italy.     A  premature 

1702   1703 

attempt  upon  the  coast  of  Spain  met  with  no  better 
success.  On  the  middle  Rhine  the  French  and  their  Bavarian  allies 
completely  outgeneraled  Louis,  Margrave  of  Baden,  and  opened  a 


840 


WORK    OF    REVOLUTION    COMPLETED 


[' 


way  by  the  Danube  into  the  very  heart  of  the  emperor's  Austrian 
dominions.     The  next  year  offered  somewhat  better  results.     In 
October  Victor  Amadeus,  Duke  of  Savoy,  joined  the  alliance,  and 
in  December  Portugal  cast  in  her  lot  with  the  enemies  of  France. 
The  geographical  position  of  these  new  allies  was  of  considera- 
ble importance,  and  yet  there  was  great  danger  that  the  war  would 
be  ended  before  any  advantage  could  be  taken  of  the 
of'BUnhSm.    ^^^^  accession  of  strength  to  the  Grand  Alliance.    Aus- 
tria was  in  fact  now  entirely  isolated  from  her  allies 
and  exposed  to  the  direct  attack  of  the  French  through  Bavaria. 
If   Louis   could   once   throw   an   army  of   French  and   Bavarians 


Franco-Bauarian  Army 
r^  Horse        Toot  ■■§ 


Battle  of  BLENHEIM 
or  HOCHSTADT 

August    3-13,  1704 


around  the  Austrian  capital,  he  might  force  the  emperor,  the 
nominal  head  of  the  league,  to  terms,  and  end  the  war.  This  was 
Louis's  plan  for  the  campaign  of  the  year  1704.  Marlborough  saw 
the  danger,  and  coolly  ignoring  the  instructions  of  his  government, 
resolved  to  save  the  emperor  at  all  costs.  To  allay  the  timid 
fears  of  the  Dutch,  he  made  them  believe  that  he  intended  to 
make  a  campaign  on  the  Moselle,  where  Villeroy  lay  at  Trier.  But 
instead  of  entering  the  Moselle  valley,  he  boldly  pushed  on  to  the 


1704]  BLENHEIM  841 

Main,  marched  up  the  romantic  valley  of  the  Neckar  and,  thread- 
ing the  passes  of  the  Black  J  Forest,  joined  Prince  Eugene  at 
Ulm,  and  on  the  13th  of  August  confronted  the  French  and 
Bavarians  near  Ilochstadt  on  the  Danube.  The  enemy,  who  were 
superior  in  numbers  and  artillery,  held  a  strong  position  on  the 

southern  slopes  of  the  Nebelthal,  with  their  right 
BienhJim  resting  on  the  Danube  near  tlie  little  village  of  Blen- 
Auu^i3^%o!t    ^^^^-     Eugene  on  the  allied  right  was  unable  to  reach 

the  enemy  who  were  protected  by  a  low  marshy  ground 
in  their  front;  but  on  the  left  Marlborough,  after  a  series  of  costly 
repulses,  succeeded  in  breaking  the  French  center  and  compelling 
the  14,000  French  troops  who  held  the  village  of  Blenheim  to 
surrender.  Of  the  splendid  army  which  Louis  had  massed  on  the 
Danube  in  the  early  summer,  hardly  20,000,  less  than  one-half, 
succeeded  in  getting  back  to  the  Rhine. 

The  immediate  results  of  the  victory  were  the  rescue  of  Vienna, 
the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Bavaria,  and  the  clearing  of 
Elsass  and  the  Lower  Moselle.  The  moral  and  political  effects  of 
the  battle  were  even  greater ;  the  prestige  of  French  arms,  which 
rested  upon  fifty  years  of  almost  unbroken  victory,  was  dispelled; 
the  English  public  repudiated  the  cautious  policy  of  the  Tory  min- 
isters and  demanded  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war, 
worthy  of  the  victor  of  Blenheim. 

It  was  high  time  for  the  nation  to  interfere.     The  Tories  had 
early  taken  advantage  of  their  strength  in  the  new  government  to 

attempt  to  secure  permanent  control  of  the  Commons 
WriesSse-^  ^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^'^^^  of  excluding  nonconformists  from  the 
Stpower.'    niunicipal    corporations.       Protestant    nonconformists 

had  discovered  that  they  could  evade  the  law  by  receiv- 
ing the  sacrament  once  a  year  according  to  the  ritual  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  still  remain  for  the  rest  of  the  time 
in  active  connection  with  their  separate  congregations.  As  the 
Protestant  nonconformists  generally  were  TVhigs,  this  custom  of 
''occasional  conformity"  had  added  greatly  to  the  strength  of  the 
Whig  party.  Hence  if  the  (Corporations  could  be  purged  of  these 
Whig  occasional  conformists,  the  Tory  politicians  might  secure  an 
indefinite  tenure  of  power.     Some  good  men  undoubtedly  felt  that 


842  WORK   or   revolution   completed  [anne 

the  church  was  drabbling  herself  in  thus  allowing  unscrupulous 
politicians  to  profane  her  sacraments,  and  when  the  Tory  Notting- 
ham raised  the  cry,  "the  church  in  danger,"  the  High  Church 
element  in  nation  and  parliament  had  been  quick  to  catch  the 
alarm  and  rally  to  the  support  of  the  Tory  leaders.  Anne,  also, 
who  was  a  devout  "church  woman,"  sincerely  desired  to  see  the 
church  free  from  the  reproach  of  helping  dissenting  politicians. 
In  November  1703,  therefore,  Henry  St.  John  introduced  the 
"Occasional  Conformity  Bill,"  which  prescribed  that  any  one  who 
attended  a  dissenting  meeting  house,  after  having  qualified  for 
oflBce,  should  be  at  once  dismissed  and  heavily  fined. 

Marlborough,  although  a  Tory  and  although  he  had  been  largely 
responsible  for  the  forming  of  Anne's  Tory  ministry,  had  no  wish 
to  see  a  measure  carry  which  might  be  fatal  to  his 
borough  schomcs  of  prosecuting  the  war.  Yet  he  had  not  dared 
the  ultra  to  opposc  the  Torics  openly,  and  had  contented  him- 
self with  secretly  backing  the  opposition  of  the  Whig 
Lords,  who  were  strong  enough  to  throw  out  St.  John's  bill  when 
it  came  to  them  from  the  Commons.  He  endeavored  to  conceal 
his  real  sentiments  and  silence  the  cry  of  unfriendliness  to  the 
church  by  persuading  the  queen  to  surrender  the  annates,  which 
the  crown  had  enjoyed  since  the  time  of  Henry  YIII.  This  fund, 
still  known  as  "Queen  Anne's  Bounty,"  was  devoted  to  the  sup- 
'^Queen  P^^^  ^^  Small  benefices.     The  Commons,  however,  had 

Bounty''  guessed  Marlborough's  secret  and  took  a  mean  revenge 
1704.  for  their  defeat  by  refusing  to  add  a  grant  of  money  to 

his  recent  ducal  title  and  by  throwing  every  possible  obstacle  in  his 
way  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  Marlborough  saw  that  he  could 
expect  little  support  as  long  as  such  rabid  Tories  as  Nottingham 
and  Rochester  remained  in  the  ministry,  and  used  his  influence  to 
replace  them  by  more  moderate  men,  but  Tories  still,  as  Robert 
Harley  and  Henry  St,  John.  Parliament,  however,  was  still 
against  Marlborough.  During  the  months  which  preceded  Blen- 
heim, the  attack  of  the  ultra  Tories  had  been  specially  bitter,  and 
when  they  ^learned  of  the  march  into  the  interior  of  Germany, 
they  were  furious  and  swore  that  they  would  bring  the  duke  to 
the  block.     A  defeat,  or  even  a  partial  success,  would  probably 


1704,  1705]  CAPTURE    OF   GIBRALTAR  843 

have  put  an  end  to  Marlborough's  career  then  and  there.  Instead, 
however,  came  back  the  news,  first  a  rumor  and  then  a  certainty, 
of  the  greatest  victory  which  English  arms  had  won  on  the 
continent  since  the  days  of  Agincourt.  Marlborough  saw  his 
opportunity,  and  by  the  support  of  his  wife  persuaded  Anne  to 
appeal  to  the  country.     When  the  new  parliament  assembled  in 

1705,  a  powerful  Whig  majority  showed  conclusively  that  the 
nation  approved  of  Blenheim.  Marlborough,  who  had  now  drifted 
far  from  his  old  Tory  moorings,  hastened  to  put  himself  in  line 
with  the  reaction  by  forming  a  coalition  between  the  moderate 
Tories  and  the  old  Whig  Junto.  That  he  did  not  go  farther 
was  due  probably  to  his  respect  for  the  queen's  antipathy  to 
Whigs.     For  Anne  was  by  no  means  a  cipher  in  politics. 

The  center  of  interest  in  the  war  during  the  year  after  Blenheim 

drifted  to  Spain.     Marlborough  was  secure  from  the  attack  of  the 

Tories  at  home,  but  abroad  he  was  doomed  to  meet  with 

Thfy  W(iT 

in  Spain,        disappointment.     lie  planned  first  to  attack  France  bv 

1704  1705,  XXX  V 

the  Moselle,  but  he  could  not  induce  the  imperial  gen- 
erals to  take  their  armies  so  far  from  home.  Then  he  thought  to 
penetrate  the  French  lines  on  the  Dyle  and  attack  Villeroy  at 
Waterloo,  but  the  deputies  of  the  Dutch  States  refused  to  support 
him.  So  the  year  was  frittered  away  and  nothing  was  done.  In 
Italy  there  was  also  the  same  record  of  divided  counsels  and  aimless 
timidity.  From  Spain,  however,  the  allies  got  more  comfort.  In 
1702  the  Anglo-Dutch  fleet  had  begun  operations  on  the  coast, 
bombarding  Cadiz  and  destroying  a  treasure  fleet  in  Vigo  Bay. 
Little,  however,  had  been  gained  until  about  four  weeks  before  the 
Battle  of  Blenheim,  when  Admiral  Eooke  surprised  and  took 
Gibraltar.  The  next  year,  1705,  Admiral  Leake  strengthened  the 
Capture  of  foothold  of  England  on  the  peninsula,  by  defeating 
SwgS"''  *^^  French  fleet,  first  off  Malaga  and  again  almost 
3,1704.  under  the  shadow   of  Gibraltar.     Later,  Charles  Mor- 

daunt,  the  eccentric  earl  of  Peterborough,  made  a  daring  but 
successful  attack  on  Barcelona,  and  on  the  basis  of  this  success 
Aragon,  Catalonia,  and  Valencia  accepted  the  Archduke  Charles 
as  ''Charles  III."  of  Spain. 

The  Dutch  States  now  began  to  realize  the  mistake  which  they 


844 


WORK  OF  REVOLUTION  COMPLETED 


[' 


had  made  in  fettering  the  eagle,  and  when  the  year  1706  opened, 
left   Marlborough  free  to  strike  the  enemy  where  he  would.     On 

the  23d  of  May  he  found  the  French  army  under  com- 
May^23^i706.  ^^^^  c>f  Villeroy  posted  about  the  little  village  of  Ra- 

millies,  about  thirty  miles  from  Brussels.  The  French 
were  drawn  up  on  high  ground  protected  by  a  marsh  and  extending 
along  the  arc  of  a  bent  bow,  facing  inward.  The  English  and 
Dutch  occupied  the  line  of  the  taut  string.     Marlborough  seized 


I    French  Army 

Army  of  the  Allies 
]  First  Position 
I  Second     " 


the  opportunity  offered  by  this  formation,  and  taking  advantage 
of  the  inner  and  shorter  line,  began  a  series  of  feints  along  the 
whole  front,  under  cover  of  which  he  massed  his  troops  on  his  left 
wing ;  then  hurling  himself  upon  the  French  right,  in  a  brilliant 
charge  which  he  led  in  person,  overwhelmed  the  enemies'  right 
wing,  and  doubling  back  the  center  and  left,  was  soon  chasing  the 
scattered  fugitives  into  Brussels.  The  execution  of  this  masterly 
manoeuver  took  less  than  an  hour  and  a  half.  The  French  lost 
15,000  men,  their  guns  and  their  baggage,  and  left  the  line  of 


1706,  1707]  UIn^ION    of   ENGLAND    AND   SCOTLAND  845 

the  Scheldt  open  to  the  allies.  Marlborough  moved  on  to  Brussels, 
the  capital  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and  proclaimed  "Charles 
III."  Ghent,  Bruges,  Ostend,  and  Antwerp  yielded,  and  by  the 
end  of  the  campaign,  of  all  the  Spanish  Netherland  cities  only 
Mons  and  Namur  continued  to  hold  out  for  King  Philip. 

This  auspicious  opening  of  the  year  1706  was  soon  followed  by 
like  successes  in  Italy  where  Prince  Eugene  defeated  a  French 
army  at  Casale,  saved  Turin,  and  opened  the  way  for  an  Austrian 
army  to  enter  Naples  in  October  and  proclaim  '* Charles  III."  in 
the  capital  of  Spanish  Italy.  Charles  had  already  been  pro- 
claimed by  Peterborongh  in  Madrid  in  June. 

At  home  Marlborough's  ''composite  ministry"  had  added  still 

another  triumph  which  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  moral  weight 

of  England  abroad,  by  terminating  the  old  personal  union 

The  union       of  Endand  and  Scotland  and  nnitinff  the  two  people 

of  Enaland       .^°  -       .    j.  oi.  --Lju  jj 

and  Scotland,  into  One  organic  state.  Such  a  union  had  been  dreamed 
of  by  Edward  I.,  and  its  importance  fully  grasped 
by  James  I. ;  it  had  existed  for  a  few  years  under  the  Protector, 
but  had  been  abandoned  again  at  the  Restoration.  In  1600  the 
Scots  were  the  most  ardent  advocates  of  separation,  but  independ- 
ence had  brought  them  little  comfort.  They  found  themselves 
shut  out  from  the  advantages  of  the  Navigation  Acts;  they  lost 
their  trade  with  England  and  her  colonies ;  their  commerce  was 
ruined.  The  Kestoration  government,  moreover,  which  was  bad 
enough  in  England,  had  been  worse  in  Scotland,  where  a  council 
of  jobbers  liad  exploited  the  country  with  the  aid  of  thumbscrew 
and  dragonnade;  corruption  had  poisoned  the  courts  of  justice; 
the  national  religion  had  been  driven  to  the  hills  and  the  hated 
Anglicanism  of  the  south  again  forced  upon  the  people. 

William  had  been  wise  enough  to  leave  the  Scots  to  their  Pros- 

by  terianism ;  but  he  had  earnestly  desired  political  union.     Events, 

however,  instead  of  supporting  the  king  or  allaying  the 

Scotland        suspicions  of  the  Scots,  had  conspired  to  increase  their 

after  the 

kevoiution.     discontent.       The     restoration    of     the    Presbyterian 

Church  had  strengthened  the  old  hostility  to  the  south 

by  appealing  again  to  the  smouldering  ecclesiastical  hatreds  of  the 

century.     The  tragedy  of  Glencoe,  for  which  a  feud  of  two  High- 


846  WORK   OF   REVOLUTION"   COMPLETED  [anne 

land  clans  was  largely  responsible,  was  regarded  as  the  crime  of 
an  English  king  against  Scotland. 

In  1695  William  Paterson,  the  erratic  genius  who  had  devised 
the  Bank  of  England,  set  afloat  another  scheme  which  was  to 
give  Scotland  her  share  of  the  colonial  trade  of  the 
Compamj,  world  and  make  the  promoters  fabulously  rich.  His 
scheme  was  to  plant  a  colony  of  Scotsmen  on  the 
Isthmus  of  Darien,  and  by  securing  an  easy  and  safe  transit  across 
the  isthmus  provide  a  far  more  direct  and  satisfactory  communi- 
cation between  Asia  and  Europe  than  the  long  and  dangerous  pas- 
sage around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  It  is  the  fashion  of  historical 
writers  to  laugh  at  poor  Paterson 's  dream.  But  it  was  the  dream 
of  a  genius,  not  of  a  madman.  He  saw  what  the  modern  pro- 
moters of  the  various  isthmian  canal  schemes  have  since  seen,  that 
if  once  the  traffic  of  the  two  oceans  could  be  diverted  to  the 
isthmian  route,  there  would  be  untold  wealth  in  the  control  and 
handling  of  it.  Poor  poverty  ridden  Scotland  got  one  glimpse  of 
the  seer's  vision,  and  went  as  daft  as  the  French  of  the  last 
generation  over  the  Panama  canal.  Unfortunately  for  Paterson 
and  the  multitude  of  Scotsmen  who  invested  their  small  hoard- 
ings in  his  project,  Scotland,  unaided,  had  neither  the  wealth  nor 
the  industries  to  set  such  a  scheme  fairly  on  its  feet.  The  Eng- 
lish, ever  jealous  and  suspicious  for  their  own  trade  supremacy, 
had  no  thought  of  turning  from  the  established  sea  routes  in 
order  to  encourage  Scottish  colonists  or  enrich  Scottish  capitalists. 
The  Spaniards,  also,  aroused  by  the  threatened  invasion  of  their 
rights,  waged  relentless  war,  and  leaguing  with  the  deadly  climate, 
soon  dispelled  the  dreams  of  the  unhappy  wretches  who  went  out 
to  gain  a  fortune  in  the  new  world,  only  to  find  a  grave.  The 
Scots,  who  could  not  see  that  the  enterprise  was  doomed  to  fail  from 
the  first,  were  inclined  to  ascribe  the  failure  to  anything  except 
the  true  cause,  and  laid  all  the  blame  upon  English  influence. 
The  loss  of  so  much  good  Scotch  money  was  followed  by  a 
paroxysm  of  resentment,  which  rapidly  passed  into  a  dangerous 
attitude  of  settled  hostility  tb  England. 

The  wiser  leaders  on  both  sides  of  the  border  fully  realized  the 
danger  of    allowing  the    reviving    spirit    of    animosity  to    grow 


1704,  1705]  THE   BILL   OF   SECURITY  847 

unchecked,  and  in  the  interests  of  peace  began  again  to  consider  seri- 
ously the  question  of  the  organic  union  of  the  two  kingdoms.   •  The 
first  commissioners,  however,  separated  without  results, 

Tfie  '■'■Bill  of  T  T       r  > 

Security:'  and  when  the  Scottish  parliament  met  in  May,  1703 
the  worst  fears  threatened  to  be  realized.  The  anti- 
English  elements  pushed  through  a  series  of  articles  aimed  directly 
at  the  existing  union,  declaring  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  *'is 
the  only  church  in  the  kingdom,"  and  demanding  further  that 
the  officers  of  state  in  Scotland  be  appointed  by  the  Scottish 
estates.  They  forbade  any  sovereign  of  England  after  Anne  to  make 
peace  or  war  without  the  consent  of  the  Scottish  parliament;  they 
declared  that  if  during  Anne's  reign  freedom  of  trade  and  free- 
dom of  religion  were  not  guaranteed  to  Scotland,  the  successor  of 
Anne,  while  of  the  Protestant  line,  must  not  be  the  same  as  the 
successor  to  the  English  crown,  thus  threatening  to  part  com- 
pany with  England  altogether.  Anne  of  course  refused  her  con- 
sent to  these  measures;  but  in  1704  the  last  article,  known  as  the 
*'Bill  of  Security,"  was  again  presented  to  her,  and  accepted  in  hope 
of  conciliation.  The  English,  however,  were  in  no  conciliatory 
mood,  and  met  threat  with  threat.  .  In  the  fall  of  1705  parliament 
passed  an  "Alien  Bill"  which  threatened  to  take  from  the 
Biiir^ml^  Scots  the  rights  which  they  had  enjoyed  since  the  time 
of  James  I.,  by  once  more  treating  them  as  aliens.  The 
importing  of  their  staples,  cattle,  sheep,  coal,  and  linen,  was  also 
prohibited,  and  the  border  fortresses  restored  and  fortified.  The 
act  was  to  go  into  effect  after  Christmas,  1705.  These  acts,  which 
portended  war,  brought  to  their  senses  the  men  on  either  side  of 
the  border  who  were  still  amenable  to  reason,  and  in  April,  1706,  a 
new  body  of  commissioners  was  appointed,  thirty-one  on  each  side. 
The  recent  prestige  of  English  arms  abroad  which  deprived  Scotland 
of  all  hope  of  help  from  France,  as  well  as  the  tact  and  patience  of 
Godolphin,  Somers,  and  Montague,  carried  the  day  for  peace;  and 
in  December  twenty-five  articles  of  union  were  formally  accepted 
by  the  commissioners  and  submitted  to  their  respective  parlia- 
ments. 

The  two  most  difficult  points  to  settle  had  been  the  represen- 
tation to  be  allowed  Scotland  in  the  English  Commons,  and  the 


848  WORK   OF   REVOLUTION    COMPLETED  [anne 

relation  of  the  Scots  to  the  English  national  d6bt.  The  English 
House  of  Commons  in  1706  numbered  513.  If  the  Scots  were 
Terms  of  admitted  upon  the  basis  of  population  they  would  be 
unwn.  entitled  to   69   members,  but   if  they   were   admitted 

upon  the  basis  of  wealth  they  would  be  entitled  only  to  12  mem- 
bers. The  one  adjustment  would  be  as  unfair  to  the  English  tax 
payers,  as  the  other  would  be  unsatisfactory  to  the  Scots.  A  com- 
promise was  therefore  agreed  upon  and  the  number  fixed  at  45,  30 
of  whom  were  to  be  chosen  by  counties,  and  15  by  boroughs.^ 
Beside  the  representation  in  the  Commons,  the  Scots  were  to  be 
entitled  also  to  16  peers  in  the  Upper  House,  who  should  be 
elected  by  the  Scottish  peers  at  the  beginning  of  each  parliament. 
A  yet  more  serious  question  lay  in  the  English  debt,  which  now 
amounted  to  upwards  of  £20,000,000,  while  the  Scottish  debt 
amounted  to  £160,000.  Here  also  skill  and  patience  carried  the 
day.  The  English  agreed  to  pay  the  Scots  £398,000,  with  which 
to  pay  off  their  national  debt  and  close  up  the  affairs  of  the 
Darien  Company,  while  the  Scots  assumed  their  share  of  the  Eng- 
lish national  debt.  Other  points  were  not  so  difficult  to  settle.  The 
two  peoples  were  to  form  one  kingdom  to  be  known  henceforth  as 
"Great  Britain ;"  the  sovereign  was  to  be  determined  as  already  pre- 
scribed by  the  Act  of  Settlement.  Each  new  sovereign  must  swear 
to  maintain  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  the  established  Church  of 
Scotland.  The  laws  of  trade,  excise,  and  customs,  were  to  be 
common  to  both  kingdoms;  other  laws  of  Scotland  were  to  remain 
unchanged,  but  subject  to  revision  by  the  parliament  of  the 
United  Kingdom.  The  judicial  system  of  Scotland  was  also  to 
remain  unchanged,  but  an  appeal  might  be  lodged  from  the 
Scottish  court  of  Session  to  the  House  of  Lords.  Scotsmen, 
moreover,  were  to  have  all  trade  privileges  enjoyed  by  Englishmen. 
Coins,  weights,  and  measures  were  to  conform  to  English  standards. 
At  last  all  questions  were  settled,  and  all  claims  adjusted,  and 
on  January  16,  1707  the  Scottish  parliament  accepted  the  condi- 
tions of   union   by  a  vote  of  110  to  69;  the  English  parliament 

^  This  arrangement  remained  until  1833  when  the  representation  was 
raised  by  the  Reform  Bill  to  58.  By  the  second  Reform  Bill  1868,  it  was 
increased  to  60.     In  1884  it  was  further  increased  to  72. 


1707]  THE    ACT   OF   UKIOK"  849 

accepted  them  on  March  6.^  On  May  1  the  famous  "Union  Jack," 
which  had  been  designed  by  James  I.,  representing  the  union  of  the 
„        .  two  peoples  by  the  blending  of  the  cross  of  St.  George 

effected,  1707.  ^th  the  cross  of  St.  Andrews,  was  for  the  first  time 
flung  out  to  the  breeze.  The  first  British  parliament  met  in  October. 
The  jealous  suspicions  of  the  Scottish  clergy  of  the  English 
bishops,  Scottish  patriotism  so  called,  narrow  and  shortsighted, 
Englisli  Jacobitism,  which  saw  its  last  hope  blasted, 
Advantage  English  commercial  interests,  and  Anglican  church 
tr)  Scotland,  interests,  all  had  fought  the  union  m  its  inception 
and  made  as  much  troubre  as  possible  after  it  had 
become  an  accomplished  fact.  But  what  was  done  could  not  be 
undone,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  substantial  advantages  which 
came  to  both  peoples,  opposition  soon  ceased.  Glasgow  opened  a 
flourishing  trade  with  the  American  colonies  and  before  the  gen- 
eration had  passed  could  boast  of  sixty-seven  vessels  engaged  in 
the  American  trade.  The  trade  in  linens  and  woolens  sprang 
into  new  life.  Products  hitherto  of  little  value,  with  new  markets 
soon  became  sources  of  national  we.dth.  Agriculture  also  assumed 
a  new  appearance,  and  though  it  failed  to  keep  pace  with  the 
growing  warehouses  of  Glasgow,  or  the  shipyards  of  the  Clyde, 
the  new  prosperity  was  felt  and  appreciated.  Civilization  followed 
hard  upon  the  heels  of  new  wealth.  The  people  began  to  live  in 
better,  cleaner,  and  more  comfortable  houses.  The  old  hereditary 
jurisdiction  of  the  Highland  chieftains  gave  way  to  the  laws  and 
law  courts  of  the  south.  Military  roads  threaded  their  way 
among  the  mountain  gorges ;  rocks  which  once  echoed  with  the 
scream  of  the  northern  eagle,  or  the  shouts  of  rival  clansmen  at 
slaughter,  soon  began  to  respond  to  the  hum  of  peaceful  factories 
or  the  shout  of  the  plowman  or  the  shepherd. 

While  Englishmen  at  home  were  thus  securing  the  results  of 
victory,  the  tide  was  already  turning  against  the  allies  on  the  con- 
tinent.    In  the  winter  of  1706  and  1707,  Louis  had 
the  allies,        made  overtures  of  peace,   offering  to  give  the  Dutch 
the  barrier  fortresses  and  leave  Charles  in  possession 
of  Spain  and  the  Indies,  if  only  Philip  might  be  allowed  to  keep 

^  Lee,  Source  Book,  p.  445. 


850  WORK   OF   REVOLUTION    COMPLETED  [anne 

Milan  and  the  Sicilies.  But  tlie  allies,  now  confident  of  com- 
plete success,  had  no  thought  of  allowing  Louis  a  part  of  the  loaf, 
which  had  been  virtually  snatched  from  his  hands.  A  new 
element,  however,  upon  which  the  allies  apparently  had  not  reck- 
oned, was  now  thrown  into  the  scales.  The  Castilians  them- 
selves rallied  to  the  support  of  the  dispossessed  Bourbon  and  early 
in  the  year,  with  the  help  of  a  new  French  army,  brought  Philip 
back  to  Madrid  in  the  wake  of  the  retreating  Hapsburger.  Eugene 
in  Italy  was  hardly  more  successful  than  Charles  in  Spain,  and 
even  Marlborough  made  but  indifferent  progress  in  Flanders. 

The  next   year,    1708,    opened   dubiously  for   the   allies.     A 
threatened   descent   of   the   Pretender   upon   the    Scottish   coast 

retained  Marlborough  in  England  until  it  was  certain 
paignofi708.  ^^1^^  ^hc  Stuart  prince  had  returned  again  to  Dunkirk. 

When  the  Duke  reached  the  Netherlands  he  found  the 
towns  which  he  had  won  two  years  before  voluntarily  opening 
their  gates  to  the  French.  Ghent  and  Bruges  had  already  received 
French  garrisons,  and  to  save  Oudenarde,  the  duke  crossed  the 
Scheldt  and  on  July  11  forced  the  French  to  fight  him  before  the 
town.  He  had  only  80,000  men  to  pit  against  the  100,000  of  the 
French  marshals.  Burgundy  and  Yendome.  But  the  opposing 
generals  were  jealous  of  each  other  and  so  confused  their  subal- 
terns by  contradictory  orders,  that  Marlborough  was  permitted  to 
outflank  and  cut  off  a  whole  detachment.  It  was  no  such  victory 
as  Blenheim  or  Eamillies,  but  it  was  enough  to  check  the 
advance  of  Louis.  Marlborough  would  have  moved  upon  Paris 
at  once  in  order  to  force  Louis  to  terms  under  the  walls  of  his 
capital,  but  the  timidity  of  the  Dutch  and  English  statesmen  kept 
him  upon  the  borders  and  compelled  him  to  be  content  with  the 
capture  of  Lille,  the  strongest  of  all  Louis's  magnificent  frontier 
fortresses.  Louis  had  long  since  lost  his  zest  for  the  war.  His 
marshals  evidently  were  no  match  for  the  terrible  "Malbrook." 
Each  campaign,  moreover,  rolled  the  tide  of  war  nearer  to  the 
French  capital.  The  next  battle  would  undoubtedly  be  fought  on 
French  soil.  France,  moreover,  was  exhausted;  her  resources 
spent;  the  sufferings  of  her  people  terrible.  Louis,  accordingly, 
sent  Torcy  in  the  spring  to  treat  for  peace.     He  would  yield  all 


A;^;tiUi      t-  .''l 


-X 


©i.^. 


l^i-  :^;^^^V 


1709]  MALPLAQUET  851 

that  the  allies  were  contending  for;  he  would  submit  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  Philip  from  Spain,  allow  the  Dutch  to  hold  ten  fortresses 
on  the  border,  and  retire  to  the  old  boundaries  which  France 
held  in  1648  at  the  time  of  the  Peace  of  Westphalia.  He  would 
also  acknowledge  Anne,  drive  James  the  Pretender  out  of  France, 
and  destroy  the  fortifications  of  Dunkirk,  which  had  been  the 
favorite  port  of  the  French  privateers.  The  allies,  however,  were 
not  satisfied.  Possibly  they  distrusted  Louis;  possibly,  moved  by 
a  sense  of  justice,  they  proposed  to  compel  Louis  to  undo  his 
own  work;  possibly  Marlborough  was  not  inclined  to  surrender 
his  profitable  post  of  commander-in-chief;  but  whatever  the 
motive,  in  an  evil  liour  they  refused  to  accept  Louis's  overtures, 
unless  he  would  consent  to  send  his  own  French  armies  to  drive 
his  grandson  out  of  Spain  and  restore  the  kingdom  to  the  Austrian 
prince.  It  was  bitter  medicine  and  Louis  refused  to  take  it.  "'It 
I  must  wage  war,"  he  declared,  "I  prefer  to  wage  it  against  my 
enemies  rather  than  my  children.''  The  nation,  suffering  and 
burdened  though  it  was,  rallied  with  fine  spirit  to  the  support 
of  the  aged  monarch.  Something  of  the  old  national  pride 
flashed  up;  and  late  in  the  summer  of  1709,  he  was  able  to 
throw  Marshal  Villars  with  an  army  of  70,000  men  into 
Flanders,  in  the  hope  of  saving  the  wreck  of  the  French  border 
cities.  Tournay  had  fallen,  and  Marlborough  and  Eugene  were 
before  Mons.  With  80,000  men  they  at  once  advanced  to  meet 
Villars  and  on  September  11  found  him  posted  in  a  strong 
position  at  the  village  of  Malplaquet.  Marlborough  with  his 
usual  cold  blooded  determination  to  win,  massed  his  troops  and 
hurled  them  upon  the  French  center,  the  weak  point  in  Villars' 
line.  He  won  the  day  but  it  cost  him  21,000  men,  twice  the  loss 
of  the  French.  The  enemy,  moreover,  retired  in  good  order. 
Mons  fell,  but  it  was  the  only  reward  of  the  dearly  bought  victory. 
At  home  the  Whigs  had  been  steadily  gaining  ground.  The 
first  parliament  of  Great  Britain  which  had  been  called  together 
in  October  1707,  saw  the  fall  of  the  coalition  ministry;  Anne, 
in  spite  of  her  aversion  to  Whigs  in  general,  in  February  1708  was 
compelled  to  see  even  such  moderate  Tories  as  Harley  and  St.  John 
replaced  by  the  representatives  of  the  old  Whig  Junto,  Wharton, 


852  WORK    OF    REVOLUTIOK    COMPLETED  [anne 

Somers,  and  Russell,  now  Earl  of  Oxford.    Anne  was  not  pleased. 

She  did  not  object  to  party  government  when  a  Tory  parliament 

allowed  her  to  select  congenial  Tory  ministers,  but  to 

The  TThia  o  j  7 

Junto  be  compelled  now  to  face  at  her  Council   Board  these 

power,  1708-  disguised  republicans,  as  she  regarded  the  ultra  Whigs, 
to  her  was  slavery.  She  turned  to  Godolphin  who 
still  kept  his  place  at  the  head  of  the  council  largely  on  account 
of  his  friendship  for  Marlborough,  and  besought  him  to  free  her 
from  the  presence  of  these  obnoxious  ministers.  But  for  three 
year^  she  had  to  submit.  When  she  showed  signs  of  breaking 
away,  the  imperious  Sarah  stormed  and  went  into  hysterics,  and 
Marlborough  threatened  to  offer  his  resignation.  So  the  queen 
bore  her  chains  as  meekly  as  her  Stuart  nature  would  allow, 
bravely  keeping  up  her  self  respect  by  presiding  in  person  at 
every  meeting  of  her  council,  and  insisting  that  every  measure 
presented  by  her  ministers  should  first  be  laid  before  her. 

In  1711,   however,  the  good  queen  was  permitted  to  see  her 
distasteful  fetters  broken.     The  nation  had  grown  weary  of  vic- 
tories that  brought  no  peace,  and  when  news  came  of 
Secondfaii     the   slaughter   at   Malplaquet,  the   feeling  of  triumph 
Juntu.  was  stifled   in   the   horror   of  the  "deluge  of  blood." 

Marlborough  and  his  Whig  ministers  were  made  respon- 
sible for  the  prolongation  of  the  conflict,  and  under  the  inspiration 
of  the  hungry  politicians  of  the  opposition,  the  people  were  willing 
to  believe  Marlborough  and  his  Junto  capable  of  any  villainy  in 
order  to  further  their  own  schemes,  nor  did  it  increase  their 
popularity,  that  soon  after  Malplaquet,  it  began  to  be  rumored 
that  a  third  overture  had  been  rejected  in  which  Louis  had  vir- 
tually conceded  everything  except  the  one  point  of  sending 
Frenchmen  into  Spain  to  fight  his  grandson. 

While  matters  were  thus  rapidly  approaching  the  boiling  point, 
a  trivial  affair,  such  as  in  •  ordinary  times  would  have  passed 
probably  without  notice,  brought  on  the  crisis.  Dr. 
case^nw^^^  Sacheverell,  a  popular  clergyman  of  Tory  sympathies, 
in  a  public  address  went  oat  of  his  way  to  attack  the 
Revolution,  the  Protestant  succession,  and  the  Whig  administra- 
tion.    The  Whigs  thought  that,  in  consideration  of  the  existing 


1710]  FALL   OF   MARLBOROUGH  853 

tension,  such  boldness  ought  not  to  pass  unnoticed,  and  deter- 
mined to  discipline  the  meddlesome  preacher.  Instead  of  leaving 
him  to  the  courts,  however,  they  foolishly  resorted  to  the  cum- 
bersome machinery  of  impeachment.  The  trial  occupied  parlia- 
ment for  more  than  three  weeks,  and  ended  in  a  virtual  acquittal. 
A  nominal  suspension  of  three  years  meant  nothing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  new  and  powerful  friends  whom  the  martyrdom  of  the 
noisy  doctor  brought  to  his  support.  To  Anne  the  champion  of 
old-time  Toryism  was  a  hero,  and  she  marked  him  at  once  for 
preferment.  She  also  welcomed  the  unmistakable  evidences  of 
the  incoming  tide,  and  without  waiting  for  the  return  of  the  new 
parliament,  dismissed  Sunderland,  son  of  the  old  earl  of  James 
II. 's  time,  Godolphin,  and  others.  Harley  was  brought  back  as 
chief  of  the  administration.  St.  John  became  Secretary  of  State, 
and  Rochester,  Lord  President.  Godolphin's  son  and  Sunderland 
had  married  daughters  of  Marlborcfugh,  so  that  the  dismissal  of 
the  two  ministers 'was  the  beginning  of  the  disruption  of  the 
*' Family  Party,"  as  the  ministry  of  Marlborough  was  called  by 
his  enemies. 

A  marked  change  had  also  come  over  the  household  of  the 
queen.     Harley  had  placed  at  her  side  his  kinswoman,  Abigail 

Hill,  Mrs.  Mashani,  whose  gentle  demeanor  and  quiet, 
cf^r^iiite       tactful  ways,  in   such  contrast  with  the  explosions  to 

which  the  stormy  Sarah  was  liable,  had  steadily  won 
the  confidence  and  affection  of  her  mistress,  and  had  finally  dis- 
placed the  older  fa7orite  altogether.  The  rupture  came  soon 
after  the  close  of  the  Sacheverell  trial,  when  the  imperious  duchess 
left  the  court  for  good.  As  Harley  foresaw,  the  fall  of  Marlbor- 
ough soon  followed  the  retirement  of  his  wife.  With  the  ministry 
and  the  Commons  against  him,  the  queen's  favor  gone,  and  peace 
at  hand,  his  brilliant  talents  were  no  longer  needed.  For  ten 
years  he  had  been  the  virtual  ruler  of  England,  and  had  con- 
trolled the  march  of  affairs  on  the  continent  as  no  emperor  since 
the  days  of  Charles  V.  But  his  influence  had  rested  upon  the 
universal  fear  of  Louis;  and  now  that  he  had  dispelled  the  bogy- 
man,  his  own  influence  was  gone.  A  host  of  libel ers,  in  whose 
mean  souls  there  was  little  appreciation  for  the  duke's  greatness, 


854  WOKK   OF   REVOLUTION   COMPLETED  [anne 

set  their  imaginations  to  work  to  invent  charges  of  peculation, 
fraud,  and  even  cowardice.  The  people  who  had  long  since 
turned  from  their  idol,  listened  eagerly  to  these  counsels  of  his 
enemies,  and  waited  for  his  dismissal  as  eagerly  as  they  had  once 
joined  in  triumphal  processions  to  St.  Paul's  in  his  honor.  In 
vain  he  attempted  to  make  peace  with  the  now  all  powerful 
Tories.  His  overtures  only  lost  him  the  respect  of  his  remaining 
Whig  friends,  and  enabled  the  Tories  effectually  to  defeat  his 
plans  for  the  further  conduct  of  the  war.  Yet  when  he  returned 
to  England  at  the  close  of  the  campaign  of  1711,  he  had  influence 
enough  left  to  induce  the  Whig  Lords  to  declare  against  peace. 
The  Tory  ministry,  however,  by  the  simple  expedient  of  creating 
twelve  new  Tory  peers,  were  able  to  swamp  the  Whig  majority 
in  the  Lords,  secure  Marlborough's  dismissal,  and  condemn  him 
on  a  charge  of  peculation  to  the  amount  of  £250,000. 

With  the  fall  of  the  duke  all  serious  opposition  to  the  peace 

on  the  part  of  England  ceased.      The    death    of  the   Emperor 

Joseph  in  April  1711,  had  put  the  main  point  at  issue 

The  TvcO/tics  x  j.  '  j.  j. 

of  Utrecht,  between  France  and  the  allies  in  an  entirely  new  light. 
The  Archduke  Charles  had  not  only  succeded  to  the 
hereditary  domain  of  the  Austrian  House  of  Hapsburg,  but  he  was 
also  chosen  to  succeed  his  brother  as  emperor.  It  was  obviously 
inconsistent,  therefore,  for  the  allies  to  continue  a  war  which  had 
been  undertaken  to  preserve  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe,  in 
order  further  to  expand  the  already  vast  domain  of  the  House 
of  Hapsburg.  The  recent  birth  of  an  heir  to  the  elder  brother  of 
Philip  of  Spain,  also  greatly  diminished  the  possibility  of  Philip's 
ever  succeding  to  the  French  throne.  The  cause  of  the  balance 
of  power  could  be  far  better  served,  now  that  France  had  been 
seriously  crippled,  by  leaving  the  Bourbon  king  on  the  Spanish 
throne.  Accordingly,  in  March  1713  the  series  of  treaties,  known 
as  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  were  signed  by  the  plenipotentiaries  of 
all  the  powers  concerned,  with  the  exception  of  the  Emperor. 

These  treaties  were  of  vast  moment  not  only  to  England  and 
her  colonies,  but  to  all  western  Europe,  and  cast  their  shadows 
clear  across  the  eighteenth  century  and  far  into  the  nineteenth. 
France  agreed: 


1714]  THE    TREATIES    OF    UTRECHT  855 

1.  To  recognize  the  Hanoverian  succession. 

2.  To  cede  to  England  St.  Christopher,  the  French  claim  to 
the  Hudson  Bay  territories,  Acadia,^  and  Newfoundland. 

3.  To  pledge  herself  to  accept  from  Spain  no  commercial  priv- 
ilege which  would  give  her  any  advantage  in  her  trade  with  Spain 
or  the  Spanish  Indies. 

4.  To  renounce  her  claim  of  the  right  to  seize  a  neutral  vessel 
carrying  the  property  of  a  hostile  power. 

5.  To  restore  his  lands  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  and  recognize 
him  as  King  of  Sicily. 

6.  To  recognize  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  as  King  of  Prus- 
sia and  consent  to  the  enlargement  of  his  domain  in  the  west. 

Spain  agreed : 

1.  To  cede  Gibraltar  and  Minorca  permanently  to  England. 

2.  Not  to  alienate  any  of  her  South  American  possessions  to 
France  or  any  other  European  power. 

3.  To  confirm  a  recent  Assiento  by  which  the  exclusive  right 
of  importing  negro  slaves  into  the  Spanish  Indies  had  been  con- 
ceded to  Great  Britain,  and  to  allow  one  English  ship  of  500  tons 
to  trade  yearly  with  the  Spanish  colonies. 

On  March  6, 1714  the  generals  of  Louis  and  Charles,  also,  made 
a  definite  treaty  at  Rastadb.  And  in  September  following,  the 
whole  empire  acceded  to  a  general  treaty  at  Baden  in  Switzerland. 
By  this  treaty  the  Rhine  became  the  definite  boundary  between 
France  and  South  Germany;  the  upper  Palatinate  passed  into  the 
permanent  possession  of  Bavaria;  Austria  was  confirmed  in  her 
Italian  possessions,  and  was  allowed  to  annex  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands, subject  to  a  joint  occupation  of  the  barrier  cities  with  the 
Dutch. 

The  gain  to  Great  Britain  was  very  great.  The  commercial 
privileges  which  were  accorded  her,  alone  more  than  compensated 
,,  ,      ^        for  the  enormous  debt  of  £34,000,000,  which  the  war 

Value  of  .  7         7         7 

fiT^^htt  saddled  upon  posterity.    The  Protestant  succession 

Great  was  Safe.     The  possession  of  Gibraltar  and  Minorca, 

Port  Mahon,  secured  the  entrance  to  the  Mediterra- 
nean.    The  withdrawal  of  the  French  claim  to  the  Hudson  Bay 
*  Nova  Scotia. 


856  WORK    OF    REVOLUTION    COMPLETED  [aknb 

territories  adjusted  the  balance  of  power  in  !N"orth  America, 
although  Canada  and  the  Mississippi  valley  were  still  to  be  fought 
for.  The  war,  also,  kept  France  from  securing  a  partnership  in 
the  Spanish  monopoly  in  the  West  Indies;  and  scored  a  new 
advantage  for  England  in  its  commercial  rivalry  with  the  Dutch, 
by  obtaining  in  the  Spanish  Indies  besides  other  privileges  the 
control  of  the  slave  trade. 

The  *'Good  Queen  Anne"  did  not  long  survive  to  enjoy  the 
peace  which  she  so  dearly  loved.     She  died  August  1,   1714,  a 

month  before  the  last  of  the  treaties  was  signed.  The 
Arme,^^  gain  of  the  Tories  had  been  substantial  and  their 
^i^i««  1,        return  to  power,  apparently,  was  to  be  permanent.     In 

1711  parliament  had  enacted  a  "Property  Qualification 
Bill,"  which  forbade  any  one  who  did  not  possess  an  income  from' 
land  of  at  least  £600  a  year  to  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons  for 
a  county,  or  an  income  of  £300  a  year,  for  a  borough.  The 
restriction  did  much  to  perpetuate  the  power  of  the  landed  aristoc- 
racy, strengthening  them  against  the  rising  influence  of  the 
commercial  classes;  it  remained  unchanged  until  1858.  In  1711, 
also,  the  Occasional  Conformity  Bill  became  a  law,  and  thus,  for 
a  time  at  least,  Whig  nonconformists  were  excluded  from  the 
boroughs.  Even  the  extreme  Tories,  the  Jacobites,  took  heart, 
and  under  the  inspiration  of  Bolingbroke's*  leadership  laid  their 
plans  to  deliver  the  crown  upon  the  death  of  Anne  to  her  dis- 
possessed brother.  But  the  end  came  before  the  Tory  leaders 
were  ready  to  act,  and  George  of  Hanover  passed  quietly  to  the 
English  throne. 

Before  Anne  is  dismissed,  the  England  over  which  she  ruled 
should  receive  a. passing  notice.     During  the  seventeenth  century 

the  population  had  steadily  increased.  LondoUj  as 
of^Anne^^^  always,  was  the  one  great  city  of  the  kingdom.     Fully 

one-tenth  of  the  population  were  hived  among  her  nar- 
row and  ill-smelling  streets.  The  commercial  influences  of  the 
age  had  also  markedly  increased  the  population  of  the  great  seaport 
towns  of  the  south  and  west.     Yet  Bristol,  the  second  city  of  the 

^  Henry  St.  John  was  made  Viscount  Bolingbroke  a  short  time  before 
Anne's  death. 


THE    ENGLAND    OF    ANNE  857 

kingdom,  conld  boast  of  only  one  seventeenth  of  the  population  of 
the  great  Thames  port.  In  spite  of  its  prosperity,  however,  Lon- 
don was  not  a  pleasant  place  to  live  in.  The  great  fire  of  Charles 
II. 's  reign  had  offered  the  opportunity  of  securing  wider  streets 
and  better  drainage,  and  the  government  had  formally  commis- 
sioned the  famous  architect  of  the  Restoration,  Sir  Christopher 
Wren,  to  furnish  plans  for  the  new  city.  In  the  haste  to  rebuild, 
however,  Wren's  plans  had  been  ignored,  and  in  the  reign  of  Anne 
the  city  with  its  teeming  population  of  700,000  souls  was  just  as 
dirty  and  unhealthful  as  ever;  the  death  rate  exceeded  the  birth 
rate  each  year,  sometimes  in  plague  years  reaching  the  appalling 
total  of  80,000.  The  ancient  watch  service,  the  duties  of  which 
were  sustained  by  old  men  whom  age  and  rheumatism  had 
incapacitated  for  ordinary  labor,  had  long  since  been  outgrown. 
Roistering  young  men  of  fashion  made  night  hideous  with  their 
wild  pranks,  roaring  through  the  streets,  driving  honest  folk  in 
terror  into  their  homes,  and  upsetting  the  watch  or  beating  him 
with  his  own  staff  should  he  attempt  to  interfere.  Footpads 
lurked  in  the  dark  shadows;  thieving  and  housebreaking  were 
common,  and  robbing  was  frequently  attended  by  murder.  For, 
in  consequence  of  the  severe  penalties  which  the  harsh  code  of  the 
day  prescribed  even  for  trivial  offenses,  the  thief,  if  discovered, 
was  generally  certain  to  kill  his  victim  rather  than  fall  into  the 
clutches  of  the  law.  The  sword  or  rapier  was  a  part  of  the  dress 
of  every^  gentleman;  while  '*your  good  man"  went  equipped  with 
a  stout  oaken  cudgel  or  bludgeon,  in  the  handling  of  which  he  was 
an  artist. 

The  condition  of  the  poorer  classes  of  the  kingdom  was  far 
worse  in  Anne's  reign  than  at  the  present  time.  Henry  VIII.  and 
Elizabeth  had  tried  branding,  ear  piercing,  and  whip- 
ping to  stop  vagrancy.  Elizabeth  had  allowed  the 
"tramp"  to  be  seized  and  reduced  to  servitude  by  any  one  who 
should  put  a  collar  on  him.  Charles  II.  had  sent  his  vagrants 
to  the  colonies.  In  Queen  Anne's  reign  they  were  pressed  into 
the  army  and  carried  off  to  the  continent  to  furnish  marks  for 
French  cannon.  The  Poor  Laws  of  Henry  VIII.  as  left  by  Eliz- 
abeth, still  remained  in  force.    Each  parish  was  compelled  to  look 


858  WORK    OF    REVOLUTION    COMPLETED  [anne 

after  its  own  poor,  keep  up  its  *'poor  house,"  find  work  for  those 
who  could  work,  and  apprentice  the  children.  The  number  of 
"freeborn  Englishmen"  who  were  cared  for  in  this  way  is  start- 
ling,— 1,300,000,  or  one-fifth  of  the  whole  population.  At  the 
present  time  the  proportion  is  about  one  to  thirty. 

England  was  still  an  agricultural  country ;  the  great  staple  was 

grain.     Prices  depended  upon  the  harvest,  and  fluctuations  were 

frequent  and  violent.     In  1699  wheat  rose  to    56s  a 

The  staples;    quarter,  but   in   1702  an  abundant  harvest  brought  it 

grain  and  •       ^       r.  ^  tt-      i  t    •       • 

tDooi.  down  agam  to  25s.     Wool  was  second  m  importance 

to  grain.    Even  in  the  old  Plantagenet  days  the  English 
meadows  had  been  famous  for  their  sheep. 

Manufacturing  was  still  in  its  infancy,  due  partly  to  the  con- 
servatism of  the  people,  and  partly  to  the  crude  appliances  used. 
Edward    III.    had    brought    over    weavers   from   the 
Mamifac-       Netherlands    to  show  his  people  how  to  manufacture 

turing;  wool,  .  i        mi        t^    <»  • 

cottm.iron.  their  own  wool.  The  reformation,  also,  had  greatly 
reinforced  the  colonies  of  foreign  cloth  workers. 
Englishmen,  however,  were  loath  to  believe  that  as  good  cloth 
could  be  made  in  their  own  looms  as  on  the  continent,  and  in  the 
sixteenth  century  it  was  found  necessary  for  parliament  to  protect 
and  encourage  the  home  industry  by  special  laws.  The  manu- 
facture of  English  cloth,  thus  favored,  was  steadily  advancing. 
Leeds,  though  insignificant  compared  with  the  modern  city, 
was  already  recognized  as  the  center  of  the  trade.  The  cotton 
industry  was  far  behind  the  woolen,  yet  in  William's  reign  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  was  of  sufficient  importance  to  secure 
the  prohibition  of  Indian  muslins  and  chintzes.  The  fibre 
was  brought  from  the  colonies  to  be  made  up  in  England.  In 
1701  the  exportation  of  cotton  goods  from  England  amounted  to 
£23,000.      • 

The  coal  fields  were  as  yet  hardly  laid  open.  Coal  was  used  for 
cooking  and  heating,  but  iron  smelting  had  to  depend  upon  the 
forest  oak.  Sheffield  was  already  famous  for  its  cutlery,  although 
the  output  was  small.  The  weaving  of  silk,  the  making  of  glass. 
paper,  and  hats,  received  a  direct  impetus  from  the  thousands  of 
Huguenots  who  were  driven  out  of  France  by  the  tyranny  of  Louis 


THE    ENGLAND    OF   ANNE  859 

XIV.,  and  had  brought  with  them  to  England  their  knowledge 
of  these  useful  and  important  industries. 

The  condition  of  the  English  laborer  was  far  below  the  pres- 
ent; yet  he  was  much  better  off  than  his  brother  on  the  continent. 
His  pay  was  lOd  a  day;  a  soldier  received  8d.    A  French 

The  laborer.         ,  , .  •       -,    « i        rm  i  i  • 

soldier  received  3d.  ihere  was  nothing,  however,  to 
encourao^e  small  savings;  there  were  neither  savings  banks  nor 
opportunities  for  small  investments.  Yet  the  living  of  the  laborer 
was  good;  meat  was  much  cheaper  than  now,  compared  with  the 
rate  of  wages.  Tea  and  coffee  had  not  yet  come  into  common  use. 
Wine  was  beyond  the  laborer;  for  beverage  his  choice  was  limited 
to  spirits,  cider,  beer,  milk,  or  water.  Beer  was  the  favorite. 
The  quantity  consumed  per  annum  is  startling;  a  quart  a  day, 
it  was  estimated,  was  brewed  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in 
England. 

Tea  had  been  brought  into  the  country  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century  by  the  Dutch,  but  it  was  still  regarded  as  a  great  luxury, 

a  gift  for  kings.     Mr.  Pepys  mentions  in  his  diary  his 

first  cup  of  tea  as  an  occasion  of  some  moment.  In 
the  eighteenth  century,  however,  with  the  expansion  of  trade,  tea 
drinking  extended  rapidly  though  the  price  was  still  high  varying 
with  the  quality  from  13  to  20  shillings  per  pound. 

Coffee  entered  England  a  little  later  than  tea,  having   been 
first   introduced  at  Oxford  by  a  Cretan  student  just  before  the 

meeting  of   the  Long  Parliament.     Its   use,  however, 

spread  rapidly,  and  the  coffee  house  soon  became 
a   social  power. 

Anne's  reign  is  famous  for  its  brilliant  authors.     ** There  is 
probably  no  period  so  short,  in  which  so  many  famous  works  have 

been  given  to  the  world. ' '  It  has  been  called  the 
^nAge^of'  *'Augustan  Age"  of  English  Literature;  an  Augustan 
ut^ature        ^S®'  however,  without  its  Augustus  or  its  Maecenas. 

And  yet  though  great  patrons  were  not  conspicuous, 
successful  authorship  had  never  before  paid  so  well.  Addison 
made  his  fortune  by  a  single  poem.  Pope,  Swift,  Defoe,  all  the 
great  literary  lights  of  the  age  knew  how  to  make  themselves  use- 
ful to  the  politicians  who  dealt  in  patronage,  and  freely  devoted 


860  WORK    OP    REVOLUTION    COMPLETED  [anne 

their  splendid  talents  to  the  party  warfare  of  the  day.  Swift's 
Drapier  Letters  in  1724  forced  George  I. 's  ministers  to  with- 
draw a  project  for  furnishing  Ireland  with  a  new  coinage  known 
as  "Wood's  Pence,"  while  Defoe's  True  Born  Englishfnan  ^rst 
opened  the  eyes  of  his  fellow  citizens  to  the  real  greatness  of 
William's  service  to  England. 

The  introduction  of  Party  government  made  the  newspaper 
necessary.  The  occasional  pamphlet  had  performed  a  real  ser- 
Eariy  news-  ^^^^ '  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^  every  way  desirable  to  secure  a  large 
papers.  ^m^  regular  circle  of  readers  in  order  to  present  the 

purposes  and  plans  of  rival  party  leaders  to  the  public.  It  was  in 
this  service  that  pens  such  as  were  wielded  by  Swift  or  Addison, 
Bolingbroke  or  Defoe  could  be  of  most  service.  Thus  in  1709  was 
born  Steele's  Tatler,  more  journal  of  literary  criticism  than  news- 
paper, to  give  way  in  1711  to  the  more  famous  Spectator  of  Addison 
and  Steele.  This  last  was  a  more  ambitious  sheet;  it  appeared 
daily  and  performed  the  work  both  of  the  modern  magazine  and 
the  modern  newspaper,  combining  dignified  discussions  of  Milton's 
Paradise  Lost,  or  the  ancient  ballad  of  Chevy  Chase,  or  reflec- 
tions on  Westminster  Abbey,  or  a  discussion  of  the  Exchange  or 
the  Bank  of  England,  with  criticisms  of  the  outrageous  hoops 
worn  by  the  ladies  of  the  period  or  of  the  custom  of  wearing 
patches  on  the  face.  In  the  next  era  the  party  organ  pure  and 
simple  appeal's  in  the  famous  Craftsman, 


CHAPTER   III 


WALPOLE     AND    THE    FIRST    ERA    OF    WHIG     RULE 

GEORGE   I.,  m4-trJ7 
GEORGE  II.,  1727-1742 

DESCENT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OP  HANOVER 

James  I. 

I 


I  I 

Charles  I.  Elizabeth = Frederick  V.,  Elector 

of  the  Palatine 


)hia= 


Sophia = Ernest  Augustus, 
d.  1714  I     Elector  of  Hanover 

George  I. 
King  of  England  1714-1727 

George  II.,  1727-1760 

Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales 
d.  1751 

George  m.,  1760-1820 

I 


George  IV.         William  IV.        Edward,  Duke  of  Kent  Ernest  Augustus.  King 

1820-1830  1830-1837  |  of  Hanover  1837-1851 

Victoria = Prince  Albert  of 
1837-1901  Saxe  Coburg 

With  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover  the  political  waters, 
which  had  been  kept  stirred  up  for  more  than  a  generation, 
speedily  cleared.  As  long  as  Anne  remained  upon  her  father's 
throne,  there  was  hope  that  at  the  last  moment  the  affection  of 
the  people  might  be  turned  to  the  dispossessed  prince,  who  what- 
ever his  faults  was  not  responsible  for  the  father's  blunders  and 
above  all  things  was  not  a  foreigner.  But  with  Anne  gone,  and 
the  House  of  Hanover  actually  in  possession,  all  hope  of  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  peaceful  restoration  of  1660  vanished.  Scarcely  more 
promising  was  the  prospect  of  regaining  the  Stuart  throne  by 
violence.  The  downfall  of  the  supremacy  which  France  had  so 
long  enjoyed  in  Europe,  the  opening  of  new  issues,  which  drove 
the  French  government  to  seek  an  alliance  with  the  Hanoverian 
king,  instead  of  plotting  for  his  overthrow,  denied  the  Jacobites  all 
farther  hope  of  French  support.     If  Scotland  were  still  independ- 

861 


862  FIRST   ERA    OF   WHIG    RULE  [geobgeI. 

ent,  the  Jacobite  sympathies  of  the  Highland  clans  might  be 
used  to  advantage,  and  a  foothold  be  won  here  for  the  Stuarts  in 
spite  of  the  apathy  of  their  old  ally  of  France.  But  the  organic 
union  of  England  and  Scotland  had  greatly  diminished  the 
probability  of  final  success  in  any  attempt  to  rouse  the  clansmen, 
and  although  the  thing  was  tried  the  year  after  the  accession  of 
George,  it  resulted  in  complete  disaster. 

But  more  serious  still  for  the  future  of  the  Jacobite  cause,  the 
last  years  of  the  recent  wars  had  witnessed  a  very  marked  change 
in  the  temper  of  the  English  people;  partly  the  effect 
tofhstrwS.^    of  the  lassitude  which  naturally  followed  so  many  years 
m&oHes  ^^  high,  tension,  aad  partly  the  effect  of  the  new  oppor- 

tunities of  commercial  enterprise, which  drew  the  energy 
of  the  nation  into  other  channels  than  those  of  politics  and  war. 
The  age  of  sentiment  had  passed ;  an  age  of  cynical  indifference 
was  at  hand,  wherein  fervor  was  regarded  with  suspicion  and 
devotion  as  hypocrisy,  wherein  the  easy-going  indifference  which 
the  Restoration  had  applied  to  morals  was  now  applied  to  politics. 

"For  forms  of  government  let  fools  contest, 
Whate'er  is  best  administered  is  best." 

A  worthy  sentiment  perhaps,  as  the  courtier  poet  of  Anne's 
reign  meant  it,  but  unfortunately,  to  the  average  politician  of 
the  time,  *'best"  meant  that  he  got  his  share  of  the  government 
patronage,  or  worse,  public  plunder,  and  no  questions  were  asked. 
"Patriots!"  sneered  Walpole,  the  great  minister  of  George  I.,  "I 
can  make  any  number  of  them  in  a  moment."  Theories  of  state 
or  church,  or  doctrines  of  royal  right,  no  longer  affected  men  as 
much  as  the  fact  of  power  and  the  immediate  prospect  of  personal 
profit.  Englishmen  were  no  longer  willing  to  die  for  a  sentiment, 
but  they  would  girdle  the  globe  in  pursuit  of  trade.  Hence  the 
Jacobite  found  little  support  for  his  now  antiquated  doctrine  of 
king-right  by  divine  appointment;  but  Hanoverian  George, 
although  never  loved,  hardly  respected,  although  a  foreigner  who 
knew  little  of  English  and  less  of  English  institutions,  stood  for 
the  new  material  prosperity  which  had  followed  the  successful 
issue  of  the  late  war;  and  the  nation,  more  bent  upon  money-get- 
ting than  king-making,  had  no  wish  to  disturb  him. 


1715]  EN^D    OF   OLD    TORY    PARTY  863 

The  same  causes  which  stifled  the  last  hopes  of  the  Jacobites, 
also  permanently  retired  the  old  Tories  as  an  active  element  in 
the  political  life  of  the  nation.  With  William  or  Anne 
End  of  the  ^^  ^^®  throne,  whose  political  sympathies  were  colored 
mrlyand  ^^^^  Something  of  the  old  ideas  of  royal  prerogative, 
trumnh^rf  there  was  still  place  for  a  party  that  stood  for  the 
the  whi^s.  defense  of  royal  authority  against  the  encroachments 
of  parliament,  or  of  the  Anglican  Church  against  the 
encroachments  of  nonconformists.  With  George,  however,  the 
Tory's  brief  was  gone.  The  new  king  was  fully  aware  of  the  debt 
which  he  owed  the  Whigs,  and,  without  taking  trouble  to  com- 
prehend the  English  Constitution  or  enter  into  the  merits  of  party 
controversy,  he  committed  himself  unreservedly  to  the  control  of 
the  Whig  leaders  and  allowed  them  to  fill  the  places  of  the  govern- 
ment with  their  partisans.  Furthermore,  he  knew  so  little  English 
that  he  left  the  council  chamber  to  his  ministers  and  accepted 
their  decisions  with  full  confidence  that  they  understood  better 
than  he  what  was  best  for  the  crown  and  best  for  the  nation.  The 
more  violent  Tories  like  Bolingbroke  and  Ormonde  fled  to  the  con- 
tinent. Some  like  Sir  William  Wyndham  remained  to  gather 
together  the  wreck  of  the  party  in  the  forlorn  hope  of  holding  the 
Jacobite  wing  together.  But  this  only  hastened  the  passing  of 
the  older  Toryism.  The  great  bulk  of  the  party  had  never  seri- 
ously desired  the  Stuart  restoration.  They  understood  full  well 
that  a  Jacobite  triumph  would  mean  the  repudiation  of  the  national 
debt  and  the  destruction  of  the  public  credit.  Even  the  clergy 
and  the  country  squire  felt  their  ardor  cool  in  the  presence  of  the 
new  and  vast  interests  of  the  commercial  classes ;  interests  which 
were  not  so  widely  divorced  from  their  own  that  they  could  afford 
to  imperil  them  for  the  sake  of  sentiment. 

The  story  was  fully  told  by  the  results  of  the  first  general 
election  of  the  new  reign.  Barely  fifty  members  of  the  old  Tory 
DL^soiution  following  woro  returned.  Bolingbroke  heard  the  news 
party^^^^  across  the  channel  and  from  his  safe  retreat  wrote, 
"march,  1715.  ' « The  Tory  party  is  gone. ' '  It  was  i  he  quietus  of  older 
Toryism,  written  by  the  man  who  more  than  any  other  living 
Englishman  represented  its  aims  and  its  spirit.     The  party  novv 


864  FIRST    ERA    OF    WHIG    RULE  [georokI. 

bad  no  excuse  for  existence,  and  no  one  saw  the  fact  more  clearly 
than  Bolingbroke,  or  felt  more  certainly  that  a  revival  of  Toryism 
would  be  not  only  useless  but  aimless.  With  Ormonde,  therefore, 
he  turned  to  find  occupation  in  the  train  of  the  exiled  Stuart; 
while  the  men  who  had  formed  the  body  of  the  party  folded  their 
tents  and  abandoned  the  field,  leaving  the  Whigs  to  quarrel  among 
themselves  over  tlie  spoils  of  victory. 

The  overwhelming  character  of  the  Whig  victory  and  the  long, 
unbroken  tenure  of  Whig  rule  which  followed,  were  of  the  gravest 
importance  in  the  future  history  of  the  constitution,  in 
wmaJ  sig-  the  permanent  establishment  of  those  principles  for 
the  Whig  which  Riissell  had  laid  down  his  life  and  Shaftesbury 
had  gone  into  exile.  In  the  long  era  of  Whig  supremacy 
the  theories  of  the  Revolution  fast  hardened  into  custom  and  cus- 
tom soon  passed  into  unwritten  law.  The  old  constitution, 
unchanged  in  form,  was  gradually  supplanted  by  a  new  constitu- 
tion of  conventions,  or  understandings,  not  recognized  by  the  statute 
law,  yet  intrenched  in  the  habit  of  political  thought  of  the  nation. 
In  the  theory  of  the  constitution  the  executive  power  still  lay  in 
the  hands  of  the  king,  but  in  the  new  unwritten  constitution  it 
was  left  in  the  hands  of  a  small  committee  of  ministers,  the  cab- 
inet, who  held  their  position  by  reason  of  the  confidence  and  sup- 
port of  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons.  The  House  of  Lords, 
also,  lost  its  coordinate  power  as  a  legislative  body.  The  ministry, 
controlled  by  the  Commons,  and  itself  in  control  of  the  executive, 
had  learned  the  trick  of  forcing  its  measures  upon  the  Upper 
House,  by  resorting  to  the  expedient  which  the  Tories  first  devised, 
of  creating  enough  new  peers  to  swamp  the  opposition;  a  measure 
which  it  has  been  hardly  necessary  to  use  since,  for  the  threat  gener- 
ally has  been  sufficient  to  compel  the  opposition  lords  to  acquiesce 
when  once  confronted  by  a  united  and  determined  House  of 
Commons. 

The  supremacy  of  the  Whig  party,  however,  was  by  no  means 
an  unmixed  good.  The  moral  tone  of  the  era  was  too  feeble  to 
resist  the  ordirary  effects  of  overconfidence  on  the  part  of  the 
accredited  leaders  of  the  triumphant  party.  The  peaceful  waters 
of  the  political  pool  became  stagnant;  security  bred  corruption  to 


CHARACTER   OF   WHIG    RULE  865 

which  the  local  institutions  of  the  eighteenth  century  all  too  read- 
ily lent  themselves.  In  the  counties  freeholders  had  votes ;  but  under 

the  continued  concentration  of  estates  the  number  of 
of  the  Whig     freeholders  was  rapidly  diminishing.     In  the  boroughs 

the  franchise  was  fixed  by  no  general  principle.  In  a 
few  towns  manhood  suffrage  prevailed ;  in  more,  household  suffrage ; 
in  most,  the  franchise  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  self -perpetuating 
corporations.  The  proportion  of  representation  was  even  more 
arbitrary  and  irregular;  an  obscure  Cornish  village  could  boast  of 
as  many  members  in  parliament  as  one  of  the  great  shires  of  the 
kingdom.  Outside  of  London,  Westminster,  Bristol,  and  a  few 
other  towns,  where  some  electoral  freedom  still  existed,  the  local 
administration  lay  in  the  hands  of  a  close  oligarchy,  who  in  the 
absence  of  any  moral  motive  readily  yielded  to  the  control  of  the 
great  Whig  proprietors,  and  thus  easily  fell  a  victim  to  bribery. 
So  common  was  corruption,  so  profound  the  sleep  of  public  con- 
science, that  the  barter  of  seats  in  parliament  carried  with  it  little 
opprobrium.  For  the  most  part  the  trading  was  done  without 
attempts  at  disguise  or  concealment.  Even  the  staid  old  town  of 
Oxford  thought  it  not  beneath  her  dignity  to  advertise  her  seats 
for  sale.  Rival  families  spent  vast  sums  in  electoral  contests. 
West  Indian  planters  and  East  Indian  merchants  poured  out 
money  like  water  when  their  vested  interests  demanded  a  free 
hand  in  an  approaching  parliament.  Parliament,  moreover, 
always  sat  with  closed  doors ;  the  report  of  its  debates  was  forbid- 
den, and  if  perchance  some  rumors  of  the  nefarious  log  rolling 
within  ever  got  beyond  the  walls,  a  swarm  of  subsidized  scribblers 
sat  with  pens  ready  dipped  in  honey  or  venom  to  defend  patrons 
or  attack  their  detractors. 

The  clergy,  which  in  ordinary  times  may  be  counted  upon  to 
sound  the  first  note  of  warning  against  corruption  and  wickedness 

in  high  places,  manifested  all  the  moral  lassitude  which 
ofThecUr^    pervaded  other  ranks  of  public  service.     The  church 

"slept  and  rotted  in  peace."  The  establishment  w^s 
still  revered  as  a  semi -political  institution;  but  the  clergy  as  a  body 
were  despised.  The  great  landowners  used  their  right  of  appoint- 
ment to  church  livings  to  supply  snug  incomes  for  younger  sons, 


866  '  FIRST    ERA    OF   WHIG    RULE  [george  I. 

who  though  in  orders  retained  all  the  vices  and  faults  of  their  class, 
drawing  the  tithes,  often  of  more  than  one  parish,  and  leaving  the 
work  to  half  fed  curates.  The  great  house  had  its  chaplain,  who  was 
only  a  higher  grade  of  menial,  who  was  expected  to  leave  the  table 
when  the  sweets  were  served;  who  fell  an  easy  victim  to  the  amiable 
manners  of  his  fellow  servants  and  generally  ended  by  marrying  a 
waiting  maid.  Bishoprics  were  listed  as  political  patronage  to  be 
gained  by  lobbying  and  intrigue,  nor  were  the  characters  of  the 
men  who  succeeded  in  winning  the  prizes  above  the  methods  used. 
The  bishop  lived  in  his  palace,  and  rode  to  his  cathedral  in  coach 
and  four,  attended  by  servants  in  livery.  His  parish  clergy  or  his 
curates  he  left  to  struggle  in  wretched  poverty,  too  often  furnish- 
ing the  type  of  ecclesiastical  vagabond  familiar  to  the  readers  of 
the  eighteenth  century  novels.  The  bishop  himself  moved  in  the 
highest  circles,  intrigued,  fawned,  palavered,  and  apologized  when 
he  mentioned  his  wife  in  good  society.  Yet  all  the  clergy  were  not 
time-servers ;  there  were  among  them  still  many  men  eminent  for 
piety  and  learning,  who  gave  themselves  freely  and  with  purest 
motive  to  the  service  of  the  church ;  but  such  men  were  respected 
not  for  their  cloth  but  for  themselves.  The  preaching,  however, 
even  of  the  best,  was  tinctured  with  the  prevailing  rationalism. 
It  was  dull  and  lifeless,  and  devoted  largely  to  answering  the 
cavils  of  the  fashionable  deism  of  the  times,  rather  than  to 
feeding  the  devotional  spirit  of  the  people  or  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  personal  righteousness.  Butler's  "Analogy"  fairly  repre- 
sents the  direction  in  which  the  best  thought  of  the  church  was 
exerting  its  energy.  Few  of  the  great  churchmen  of  the  age, 
however,  were  leading  the  thoughtful,  useful  life  of  the  revered 
Bishop  of  Bristol.^  Churches  were  abandoned  to  decay;  the 
people,  left  with  teachers  whom  they  had  ceased  to  respect,  or  with 
no  teachers  at  all,  lapsed  into  a  state  which  bordered  on  heathen- 
ism. Among  the  nonconformists  religious  life  was  of  far  higher 
tone,  but  their  number  was  diminishing  and  the  old  fervor  cool- 
ing; enthusiasm  was  not  popular. 

^  The  Analogy  was  published  in  1736.     Butler  was  made  Bishop  of 
Bristol  in  1738. 


GENERAL  CHARACTER  OF  ERA  867 

In  general  there  is  little  in  the  era  of  the  first  Georges  to 
attract  the  lover  of  his  kind ;  court  annals  abound  in  materials  for 
the  gossip,  or  the  sensation  monger;  politics  are  hope- 
characUr  lessly  corrupt;  religion  is  a  hollow  cant  or  a  lifeless 
deism ;  the  home  life  of  the  people,  declining.  The  age 
of  heroism,  the  age  of  sublime  themes  whether  in  literature  or  life, 
has  passed.  The  age  that  could  produce  "The  Paradise  Lost," 
has  given  way  to  the  age  that  can  produce  "The  Eape  of  the 
Lock;"  the  age  that  could  produce  "The  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  to 
an  age  that  can  produce  "The  Travels  of  Lemuel  Gulliver;"  the 
age  tliat  could  produce  Oliver  Cromwell  has  given  way  to  an  age 
that  can  produce  Robert  Walpole. 

Yet  though  morally  decadent,  though  to  the  lover  of  goodness 
or  greatness,  a  dreary  wilderness  where  selfishness,  insincerity,  and 
cynicism  reign,  the  era  of  the  Georges  was  yet  a  preparation  for 
the  greater  era  to  come.  In  the  commercial  treaties  which 
were  secured  as  a  result  of  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession,  and 
in  the  later  treaties  of  the  era  of  Chatham,  English  statesmen  laid 
anew  the  foundations  of  England's  commercial  greatness,  enlarg- 
ing and  strengthening  the  entire  scope  of  colonial  enterprise  and 
preparing  for  the  advent  of  a  new  England  beyond  the  seas.  Of 
even  greater  importance,  both  to  the  new  England  to  be,  as  well  as 
to  the  old  England  of  the  United  Kingdom,  was  tlie  final  acceptance 
in  the  political  creed  of  the  nation  of  those  principles  of  parlia- 
mentary government  which  the  Whig  leaders  had  wrought  out  of 
their  great  revolution.  Yet  the  moral  life  of  England  was  not 
dead,  not  even  paralyzed;  it  was  only  sleeping,  worn  out,  utterly 
exhausted  by  the  struggle  of  the  century  passed.  England  needed 
rest  to  prepare  for  the  era  of  Whitfield  and  the  Wesleys,  of  Wil- 
berforce  and  Howard,  of  Bright  and  Cobden. 

The  great  W^hig  leaders  were  fully  represented  in  the  first  min- 
istry of  George  I.  Marlborough,  the  recognized  chief  of  the  party, 
was  there,  but  his  strength  was  broken  and  his  splendid  career  vir- 
tually ended. ^  The  labor  of  organizing  the  new  government  fell 
to  younger  and  more  vigorous  men.     Lord  Townshend,  as  Northern 

^  Marlborough  lived  on  in  premature  dotage  until  1722,  a  mournful 
wreck  of  the  once  splendid  duke. 


868  FIRST    ERA    OF    WHIG    RULE  [george  I. 

Secretary  of  State,^  was  virtually  chief  minister;  with  him  were 
associated  Shrewsbury,   Sunderland,   Pulteney,  and  Kobert  Wal- 

pole.  The  last,  about  whose  career  the  reigns  of  the 
hmdrSS'  ^^'^^  ^^^  Georges  center,  was  born  of  Yorkshire  parent- 
fcpS?^^^    ^^^  ^^  S^^^  family.      He  had  come  to  manhood  in  the 

stifling  atmosphere  which  marked  the  period  of  the  later 
Stuarts,  and  had  learned  to  suspect  goodness  atid  despise  senti- 
ment with  the  contempt  of  a  hardened  politician.  He  was 
endowed  with  sound  judgment,  although  prone  to  be  misled  at 
times  by  a  habit  of  cynicism,  which  he  shared  with  most  of  the 
prominent  men  of  his  age.  His  business  abilities,  however,  were 
of  a  high  order  and  his  influence  even  in  the  reign  of  Anne  was  of 
moment  sufficient  to  secure  him  the  position  of  Secretary  of  War 
in  the  Whig  ministry  which  Marlborough  and  Godolphin  called  to 
their  support  in  1708.  He  took  office  at  the  accession  of  George 
as  Paymaster  of  the  Forces,  but  later,  October  1715,  was  advanced 
to  the  more  important  position  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 

The  parliament  which  met  in  March,  1715,  reviewed  and  con- 
demned the  negotiations  by  which   the   Tories   had   forced   the 
.  .         Treaty- of  Utrecht  upon  the  country.     They  also  passed 
nessofthe       Bills  of  Attainder  against  Bolingbroke  and  Ormonde; 

while  Harley,  now  Earl  of  Oxford,  the  late  Lord  High 
Treasurer  of  Anne,  was  impeached  and  sent  to  the  Tower.  The 
prosecution,  however,  was  without  other  ground  than  party  vin- 
dictiveness,  and  after  dragging  along  for  two  years,,  the  case  was 

finally  dropped.  A  belated  attempt  of  the  Jacobites  to 
attempt  of      raise   Scotland   in   the   name   of   ''James   VII,"'  still 

1715- 

further  increased  the  strength  of  the  Whigs.  In  Eng- 
land Jacobitism  was  dead;  and  although  Lord  Derwentwater,  a 
grandson  of  Charles  II.,  and  a  few  country  gentlemen  took  up 
arms  in  Northumberland  and  Lancashire,  the  great  mass  of  the 
Tory  gentry  looked  on  with  indifferent  apathy,  while  the  Whig 

^  The  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Northern  Department  dealt  with  the 
Netherlands,  Germany,  Sweden,  Poland,  and  Russia.  The  Secretary  for 
the  Southern  Department  dealt  with  France,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  Turkey.  Both  dealt  with  home  affairs.  In  1782  the  North- 
ern Secretary  became  the  Foreign  Secretary,  and  the  Southern  Secretary 
became  the  Home  Secretary. 


1716]  THE    SEPTENNIAL   ACT  869 

government  set  itself  in  motion  to  crush  the  rising.  On  November 
13,  1715  the  English  Jacobites  were  compelled  to  lay  down  their 
arms  at  Preston  on  the  Kibble.  On  the  same  day  the  Scottish 
Jacobites  under  command  of  John  Erskine  Earl  of  Mar,  **  Bob- 
bing John,"  were  effectively  checked  in  an  indecisive  action  at 
Sheriffmuir.  In  December  James  appeared  on  the  scene,  but  he 
had  no  faith  in  his  cause  and  was  without  the  courage  to  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  a  forlorn  hope.  On  the  4th  of  February  with 
Mar,  he  sailed  away  again,  leaving  Derwentwater  and  his  com- 
panions inarms  to  make  the  easiest  terms  they  could  with -the 
hangman. 

This  ill-fated  and  ill-managed  expedition  proved  two  things: 
first  that  the  Jacobite  leaders  were  utterly  reckless  and  incom- 
petent and  unworthy  of  confidence;   and  second^  that 
niaiAcw      the  English  gentry  did  not  intend  to  risk  their  necks 

Man  1716  o  J 

for  any  Stuart  Pretender ; — facts  which  greatly  strength- 
ened the  Whigs  and  their  Hanoverian  dynasty.  Yet  so  little 
enthusiasm  was  there  over  the  phlegmatic  George  and  his  ugly 
mistresses,  that  in  the  spring  of  171 G  the  Whig  leaders  determined 
not  to  risk  the  return  of  a  Tory  majority  when  the  three  years 
limit  jprescribed  by  law  should  have  expired,  but  to  make  sure  of 
retaining  the  power  in  their  own  hands  by  extending  the  parlia- 
mentary term  to  seven  years.  The  act,  known  as  the  "Septennial 
Act,"  brought  out  the  severest  criticism;  and  yet,  that  it  still 
reniains  the  law  of  England,  may  be  taken  as  fair  evidence  that 
the  wisdom  of  a  longer  parliamentary  term  has  been  justified  by 
experience. 

The  Whigs    were  destined    to   suffer  the  lot  of   most   great 
parties  when  left  without  opposition.     They  soon  began  to  quarrel 

among  themselves;  and  in  1717  finally  split  into  two 
^iiigparty    factions,    the    One    rallying   around    Townshend    and 

Walpole,  and  the  other  around  Stanhope  and  Sunder- 
land. The  cause  of  the  quarrel  was  the  question  of  the  attitude 
which  England  should  take  toward  the  wars  of  the  Hanoverian 
Electorate.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  century,  Sweden  had  been 
at  war  with  Denmark  and  Norway.  In  1715  Denmark  sold 
Bremen   and   Verden  to   the   Elector   George       This    purchase 


870  FIRST   ERA    OF   WHIG    RULE  [geohge  I. 

involved  Hanover  in  the  great  northern  quarrel,  since  Denmark 
had  only  recently  acquired  these  regions  by  conquest,  and  the  king 
of  Sweden  was  by  no  means  inclined  to  renounce  his  claims.  The 
Act  of  Settlement  of  1701  had  sought  to  protect  England  against 
complications  which  might  arise  from  the  position  of  Hanover 
upon  the  continent  by  forbidding  the  king  to  involve  England  in 
war  for  his  foreign  possessions  without  the  consent  of  parliament. 
When,  therefore,  in  1716  George  proposed  to  send  an  English  fleet 
into  the  Baltic  to  defend  his  new  acquisitions,  he  met  a  deter- 
mined opposition  in  the  Townshend  faction.  As  a  result  Towns- 
hend  was  forced  out  of  his  secretaryship,  and  compelled  to  accept 
the  viceroyalty  of  Ireland,  while  Stanhope,  who  was  in  sympathy 
with  the  king,  became  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Northern 
Department.  In  1717  Stanhope  succeeded  in  concluding  a  Triple 
Alliance  between  England,  France,  and  Holland,  and  virtually 
committed  England  to  the  support  of  Hanover  against  Sweden. 
Townshend,  Walpole,  and  Methuen  withdrew  from  the  ministry, 
and  joining  with  the  Prince  of  Wales,  began  a  furious  opposition 
in  parliament  against  the  foreign  policy  of  the  government. 

Both  Stanhope  and  Sunderland,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury, 
were  able  men,  and  under  their  leadership  the  Whig  policy  of 

undoing  the  work  of  the  Tories  continued  even  more 
hrme^iMnis-  vigorously  than  under  Townshend.  In  January  1719 
noiicy^'^^^     they  swept  away  the  Occasional  Conformity  Act,  and 

even  proposed  to  abolish  the  old  Test  Act  in  favor  of 
the  nonconformists ;  but  public  opinion  was  not  yet  ready  to  throw 
the  door  wide  open,  though  willing  to  open  it  enough  for  Protes- 
tant dissenters  of  easy  conscience  to  squeeze  through.  Another 
measure  of  the  Stanhope  ministry  also  failed,  which  if  carried, 
by  restoring  to  the  House  of  Lords  its  power  as  a  coordinate 
branch  of  the  legislature,  would  have  completely  changed  the  char- 
acter of  the  English  Constitution.  This  measure,  the  "Peerage 
Bill,"  proposed  to  take  from  the  crown  the  right  of  creating  peers 
at  will,  by  limiting  the  number  which  could  be  made  at  any  one 
time  to  six,  and  replacing  the  sixteen  elective  Scottish  peers  by 
twenty-five  hereditary  peers.  Largely  owing  to  the  vigorous 
attacks  of  Walpole  the  Peerage  Bill  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  269 


1718-1721]  FOREIGN    POLICY    OF    STANHOPE  871 

to  177.  The  opposition  bad  now  proved  its  strength,  and  Stan- 
hope to  save  himself  was  glad  to  accept  a  reconciliation  with  his  old 
colleagues.  In  1720  both  Walpole  and  Townshend  were  taken 
back  into  office. 

The  foreign  policy  of  the  Stanhope  ministry  was  even  more 
thoroughgoing  in   its  Whiggism    than    its    domestic  policy.     In 

the  Triple  Alliance  we  once  more  greet  the  genius  of 
uliliStru'^  the  third  William.  France  had  been  compelled  not 
pomi^'^         only  to  abandon  the   policy  of   Louis   XIV.,   but  to 

reverse  it  altogether.  The  Regent  Orleans,  who  was 
interested  in  securing  his  own  succession  in  case  the  young  King 
Louis  XV.  should  die  without  direct  issue,  and  therefore  needed 
the  friendship  of  England,  was  entirely  willing  not  only  to  assure 
England  and  Holland  of  the  separation  of  the  crowns  of  France 
and  Spain,  but  also  to  pledge  himself  to  expel  the  Pretender  from 
French  territory  and  support  the  Hanoverian  succession.  The 
Spanish  Minister  Alberoni  still  further  threw  the  game  into 
the  hands  of  the  Whig  ministers  by  seizing  Sardinia  in  1717,  and 
Sicily  in  1718,  thus  reopening  issues  once  settled  by  the  Treaty 
of  Utrecht,  and  driving  the  emperor  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  the 
Triple  Alliance.  Spain,  like  France  seventeen  years  earlier,  was 
now  isolated;  but  unlike  France,  she  had  neither  resources  nor 
prestige  on  her  sicje,  and  when  in  1718  the  English  Admiral  Byng 
destroyed  her  fleet  off  Cape  Pesaro,  with  her  territories  invaded 
both  by  England  and  France,  she  was  glad  to  make  peace,  and 
accept  the  partition  of  the  Spanish  dominions  as  prescribed  by 
the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  leaving  Sicily  to  the  emperor,  and  Sardinia 
to  the  House  of  Savoy. 

The  same  good  fortune  attended  the  Stanhope  ministry  in  deal- 
ing with   the  Baltic   states.      In   December   1718   the  romantic 

Charles  XII.  was  shot  before  Frederikshald  in  Norway, 

End  of  the  -,    o       j  i  j^  -.  -.  -.  ,       i     • 

ru/rthern        and  Sweden,  no  longer  feared-,  soon  dropped  back  into 

StVUQQlC.  •11  •     •  n  t  • 

its  old  position  of  second  rate  importance.  One  by  one 
the  northern  powers  made  peace;  some  like  England  passed  into 
active  alliance  with  Sweden  against  Eussia,  which  was  already  the 
great  threatening  power  of  the  north.  In  1721  Peter  the  Great, 
also,  consented  to  lay  down  his  arms,  and  by  the  Treaty  of  Nystad 


872  FIRST    ERA    OF    WHIG    RULE  [George  I. 

completed  the  quieting  of  the  Baltic.  Thus  once  more  the  policy 
of  William  had  been  vindicated,  and  equilibrium  had  been  restored 
in  Europe. 

The  triumph  of  the  Stanhope  ministry  seemed  complete.     Eng- 
land was  respected;  the  conventions  of  Utrecht  reenacted  and  the 

peace  of  Europe  placed  upon  a  firmer  foundation  than 
seaBuSbU''  ^^^^-  ^^^  ^^  the  vcry  triumph  of  the  ministry,  hovv- 
of  the  Stan-  ^^®^»  ^^^  ^^  come  its  Undoing.  As  the  continual  suc- 
liopeminxs-     ^egg  Qf  ^he  allied  arms  assured  the  issue  of  the  Spanish 

war,  and  Englishmen  began  to  understand  that  the 
House  of  Hanover  had  come  to  stay,  public  confidence  increased 
rapidly,  and  in  the  assurance  of  good  times  coming,  a  feverish 
desire  to  get  in  ahead  of  the  tide  by  means  of  happy  investments 
took  possession  of  the  people.  In  the  main  the  fever  of  specula- 
tion was  directed  toward  mercantile  adventures  in  Spanish  waters. 
For  two  centuries  Englishmen  had  been  taught  to  believe  in  the 
untold  wealth  of  the  Spanish  seas;  it  was  part  of  the  accepted  com- 
mercial creed  of  the  age.  But  up  to  the  signing  of  the  Treaties  of 
Utrecht,  Englishmen  had  entered  these  seas  only  as  poachers  with 
their  lives  in  their  hands.  Still  the  rewards  were  correspondingly 
great,  and  with  the  declining  ability  of  Spain  to  patrol  these 
waters  and  maintain  her  old-time  monopoly,  this  illicit  trade  had 
steadily  increased.  In  the  year  1711,  Harley,  then  of  Anne's  Tory 
ministry,  had  sought  to  turn  this  trade  to  account,  by  funding  a 
floating  debt  of  £10,000,000  upon  the  basis  of  securing  by  grant 
of  parliament  the  monopoly  to  a  company  known  as  the  South  Sea 
Com'pany.  Two  years  later  this  child  of  the  Tory  administration 
was  further  endowed  with  the  Assiento,  which  had  been  wrung 
from  Spain  as  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  In 
the  meantime,  while  the  great  companies  continued  to  coin  wealth 
out  of  the  commercial  advantages  which  had  been  won  for  them  by 
English  blood,  the  public  debt  had  continued  to  pile  up  until  it 
had  reached  the  grand  sum  total  of  £36,000,000.  Each  ministry 
in  turn  had  wrestled  with  the  vexatious  problem,  and  by  every 
possible  scheme  known  to  the  financiers  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
had  sought  to  lighten  the  ever-increasing  burden.  When,  therefore, 
in  1719,  the  directors  of  the  South  Sea  Company  came  forward 


1720]  SOUTH    SEA    BUBBLE  873 

with  a  scheme  to  buy  up  the  outstanding  seen ri ties  of  the  govern- 
ment to  the  amount  of  £32,000,000,  paying  the  present  holders  in 
South  Sea  stock,  and  agreeing  to  a  reduction  of  the  interest  from 
seven  and  eiglit  to  five  per  cent,  and  after  1727  to  four  per  cent, 
Aislabie,  the  Lord  Treasurer,  eagerly  accepted  the  proposal  and 
consented  to  use  the  influence  of  the  government  to  assure  the 
public  of  the  prosperity  of  the  company,  or  in  modern  phrase  to 
"boom"  its  stock,  in  order  that  the  present  holders  of  the  govern- 
ment annuities  might  be  induced  more  readily  to  exchange  these 
safe  investments  for  South  Sea  stock.  Large  sums  accordingly 
were  spent  in  bribing  ministers  and  "fixing"  members  of  parlia- 
ment, in  order  to  secure  a  formal  approval  of  the  scheme.  The 
Bank  of  England,  also,  had  to  be  reckoned  with  as  a  vigorous  rival 
for  government  credit,  and  when  it  entered  the  field  offering,  in 
addition  to  the  lower  rate  of  interest,  a  direct  cash  bonus,  the 
South  Sea  Company  took  up  the  challenge,  and  outbid  its  rival  by 
promising  a  bonus  of  £7,500,000. 

In  1720  parliament  gave  its  approval  and  South  Sea  stock  at 
once  rose  enormously.     Its  shares  jumped  from  £100  to  £1,000. 
The  fever  of  speculation  seized  the  public,  and  disap- 
of  the  pointed  bidders,  not  to  be  baffled  in  tlieir  eager  expecta- 

tion of  sudden  wealth,  plunged  into  all  kinds  of  "wild 
cat"  schemes  of  turning  speedy  fortunes.  Specious  "bubble  com- 
panies" multiplied  rapidly;  the  public  were  in  a  gullible  mood,  and 
madly  invested  in  projects  for  "importing  jackasses  from  Spain," 
in  projects  for  securing  perpetual  motion,  and  for  making  salt  water 
fresh;  one  concern  went  into  the  market  to  sell  stock  "for  an 
undertaking  which  should  in  due  time  be  revealed."  The  South 
Sea  Company  began  to  fear  for  its  own  credit,  and  attacked  some 
of  the  bubble  companies  as  illegal.  Then  the  reaction  came,  and 
the  whole  edifice  of  cards  came  tumbling  down.  South  Sea  stock 
"slumped"  from  £1,000  a  share  to  £135.  L^niversal  panic  and 
distress  followed.  Many  rogues  had  profited;  but  many 
the  stanhope  honest  people  had  been  caught  and  saw  their  property 
swept  away  of  a  night.  The  government  in  particular 
became  an  object  of  general  execration.  The  Stanhope  ministry 
was   attacked.     Aislabie  was   expelled  from  parliament   upon   a 


874  FIRST   ERA    OF   WHIG    RULE  [Geobge  L 

charge  of  * 'infamous  corruption."  Craggs  the  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral committed  suicide.  Stanhope,  while  defending  himself  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  fell  down  in  an  apoplectic  fit  and  died  next  day. 
Sunderland  was  charged  with  corruption  but  was  acquitted.  His 
name,  however,  was  too  closely  associated  with  the  luckless  min- 
istry; he  was  compelled  to  retire.^ 

Walpole  and  Townshend,  fortunately  for  themselves,  were  not 
members  of  the  ministry  when  the  scheme  was  first  set  on  foot. 
Townshend's  ^^^Ip^le  had  openly  denounced  it,  and  sought  to  expose 
mini^ry  ^^^  folly.  Men  who  had  been  deaf  then,  now  turned  to 
saves  till  ^^^  ^^^  assistance.  He  was  made  First  Lord  of  the 
wreck,  1721.  Treasury  and  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  while 
Townshend  was  advanced  to  Stanhope's  position  of  Secretary  of 
State.  The  new  ministry  set  to  work  to  restore  public  credit. 
The  directors  of  the  company  were  compelled  to  forfeit  £2,000,000 
from  their  private  estates;  the  government  renounced  its  claims 
to  the  promised  bonus,  most  of  which  had  not  yet  been  paid.  Thus 
the  company,  by  meeting  its  debts,  was  enabled  to  continue  its  legit- 
imate line  of  business  and  was  soon  again  upon  a  solid  basis.  The 
government  regained  the  public  confidence  and  quiet  was  restored. 
Of  the  men  to  whom  the  administration  was  now  entrusted 
Walpole  was  unquestionably  the  ablest.     He  understood  commerce 

and  finance,  and  clearly  grasped  the  importance  of 
mUcu^^^'^       *' making  the  exportation  of  English  manufactures,  and 

the  importation  of  the  commodities  used  in  the  manu- 
facturing of  them,  as  practicable  and  easy  as  possible."  This 
policy,  which  by  Walpole's  inspiration  was  thus  laid  down  in  the 
address  of  the  king  to  his  second  parliament,  explains  both  the 
success  of  Walpole  and  the  long  tenure  of  power  which  he  now 
enjoyed.  In  1721  he  induced  parliament  to  admit  thirty-eight 
different  articles  of  raw  material  free  of  duty.  The  following  year 
he  abolished  upwards  of  a  hundred  export  duties.  He  also  intro- 
duced the  system  by  which  imported  goods  are  allowed  to  remain 

^  Charles  Spencer,  third  earl  of  Sunderland,  not  to  be  confused  with 
his  more  famous  or  rather  infamous  father,  Robert  Spencer,  second  earl  of 
Sunderland,  the  minister  successively  of  Charles  II.,  James  II.,  and 
William  III.,  who  had  retired  in  1697. 


1730]  PEACE    POLICY    OF   WALPOLE  875 

in  warehouse  in  bond  until  sold  by  the  importer.  Upon  some  raw 
materials  as  silk,  he  allowed  a  rebate  when  exported  again  in  the 
manufactured  form.  He  also  allowed  the  colonies  to  import  lum- 
ber free.  In  1730  he  permitted  the  Carolinas  to  export  their  rice 
to  any  part  of  Europe;  and  shortly  the  rice  of  America,  which 
before  could  be  sold  only  in  the  mother  country,  drove  the  rice  of 
Egypt  and  Italy  from  the  European  market.  Above  all,  he 
realized  the  full  importance  of  peace  to  any  durable  national  pros- 
perity. *'The  most  pernicious  circumstances,"  he  said,  "in  which 
this  country  can  be,  are  those  of  war;  as  we  must  be  losers  while  it 
lasts,  and  can  not  be  great  gainers  when  it  ends."  Elizabeth  her- 
self was  not  more  determined  to  keep  England  at  peace,  and  to  the 
very  end  of  his  career,  in  spite  of  the  never  ceasing  pressure 
exerted  by  a  determined  ** Jingo"  opposition,  the  great  minister 
held  to  his  peace  policy. 

The  increasing  prosperity  of   the  country  soon  justified  the 

soundness  of  these  measures.     The  annual  exports  of  England 

doubled  in  thirty  years.     In   George   II. 's  reign  the 

Success  of  »>       •'  cj  o 

waipoie's  exports  of  Pennsylvania  increased  from  £15,000  to  half 
a  million.  The  trade  of  Jamaica  at  the  close  of  the 
century  equaled  that  of  all  the  American  colonies  put  together 
at  the  beginning  of  George  I. 's  reign.  The  other  colonies  shared 
in  this  prosperity  in  accordance  with  the  importance  of  tlieir  prod- 
ucts, and  began  to  pour  a  new  wealth  into  the  lap  of  the  mother 
country.  The  increase  in  population,  also  a  symptom  of  pros- 
perity, kept  pace  with  the  development  of  new  sources  of  wealth. 
Manchester  and  Birmingham  doubled  in  a  generation.  Liverpool 
sprung  at  one  bound, — it  sounds  like  a  tale  of  the  American  west, 
— from  an  unknown  country  town  to  the  third  port  in  the  kingdom. 
Land,  also,  increased  in  value  and  rents  rose  proportionately.  In 
Burke's  time  rents  had  risen  fifty  per  cent  over  the  prices  which 
had  prevailed  at  the  beginning  of  the  century. 

The  same  sound  businesslike  principles  were  applied  to  the 
management  of  the  several  offices  of  the  government.  In  spite  of 
Thrift  of  the  increase  of  wealth  upon  all  sides,  the  most  rigid 
istratwn.  economy  was  followed  in  the  expenditure  of  funds;  the 
debt  was  steadily  reduced  and  taxes  lessened  wherever  possible. 


876  FIRST   ERA    OF    WHIG    RULE  [gkorge  l. 

At  the  death  of  George  I.    in  1727,  the  public  debt  had   been 
reduced  by  £20,000,000. 

After  the  collapse  of  the  South  Sea  Bubble,  the  remaining  years 
of  the  first  George's  reign  passed  quietly  enough.      When  the 

machinery  ran  so  smoothly  and  so  noiselessly,  there  was 
ofG^we^i     li^^l^  f^^  parliament  to  do;   less  for  the  professioual 

agitators.  In  1724  there  was  but  one  division  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  In  1722  another  Jacobite  plot  was  unearthed, 
known  as  the  Atterbury  Plot,  from  one  of  its  principal  promoters, 
Francis  Atterbury,  Bishop  of  Eochester.  But  although  many 
arrests  were  made  and  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  suspended  for 
a  year,  there  was  only  one  execution.  So  profound  was  the  sense 
of  security  that  Bolingbroke  was  permitted  to  return  the  next 
year.  The  year  of  Bolingbroke's  return  was  also  marked  by  a  quar- 
rel in  the  ministry  which  resulted  in  the  retirement  of  Carteret  to 
the  viceroyalty  of  Ireland;  Thomas  Pelham  Duke  of  Newcastle 
first  came  into  prominence  as  his  successor  in  the  Southern  Secre- 
taryship. Henry  Pelham,  a  brother  of  Newcastle,  was  made  Sec- 
retary at  War. 

On  June  10,   1727    George  I.   was    suddenly  stricken   while 
traveling  in  Hanover.     It  has  been  the  fashion  of  gossippy  essayists 

and  others,  to  poke  much  fun  at  the  first  George  and 
George  I.,       his  '*Maypole"  and  his  "Elephant;"  but  for  the  time 

he  was  by  no  means  a  bad  king.  He  was  not  a  striking 
personality,  either  physically  or  intellectually ;  yet  he  was  diligent 
in  business,  quiet,  and  cautious.  It  is  true  that  he  was  without 
enthusiasm  himself  and  without  ability  to  awaken  it  in  others. 
But  enthusiasm  in  the  early  eighteenth  century  was  at  a  discount; 
the  sentiment  of  loyalty  was  fast  disappearing;  the  veil  had  been 
hard  stripped  from  monarchy,  and  Englishmen  were  coming  to 
look  at  the  thing  in  the  cold  practical  sense  of  Defoe's  couplet: 

"Titles  are  shadows,  crowns  are  empty  things; 
The  good  of  subjects,  is  the  end  of  kings." 

What  was  wanted  was  a  lay  figure  upon  which  to  hang  the  crown 
and  trappings  of  royalty,  and  stupid,  phlegmatic  George,  who 
cared  not  a  stiver  for  the  dignities  of  the  crown  so  dear  to  the 


1725-1730]  TOWKSHEND   AND   WALPOLE  877 

Stuart  heart,  who  was  content  to  let  his  ministers  conduct  the 
government  as  long  as  they  let  him  visit  his  beloved  Herrenhansen 
occasionally  and  confer  fat  titles  upon  his  ugly  mistresses,  was  all 
in  all  just  the  man  for  the  emergency. 

The  accession  of  George  II.  made  little  difference  in  the  drift 
of  English  politics.  The  new  king  was  a  vigorous  hater,  "full  of 
fire  and  temper,"  and  an  utter  "stranger  to  benev- 
cessionof  olcnce."  IIc  had  hated  his  father  while  he  lived;  he 
hated  the  English  as  a  race  of  "king  killers  and  repub- 
licans." He  hated  his  father's  great  minister,  and  thought  to  get 
along  without  him.  But  his  clever  wife,  Caroline  of  Anspach,  an 
honest,  true-hearted  woman,  who  understood  the  English  as  her 
husband  did  not,  and  knew  the  value  of  Walpole,  used  her  influ- 
ence so  wisely,  that  the  second  Townshend  ministry  was  continued 
virtually  without  a  break. 

Since  the  collapse  of  the  Stanhope  ministry,  Townshend  had 
in  the  main  continued  to  direct  foreign  affairs.  His  course,  how- 
ever, had  not  run  over  smoothly.  The  proud  Elizabeth 
Tmomhend  of  Farnese,  whom  Carlyle  has  dubbed  the  "Termagant 
of  Spain,"  who  ruled  not  only  her  husband  but  his 
kingdom  as  well,  smarting  under  the  humiliation  of  Spanish 
defeat,  in  1725  succeeded  in  persuading  the  emperor  to  enter  into 
an  alliance  with  Spain  against  France  and  England,  with  the  two- 
fold object  of  striking  at  England's  commercial  supremacy  in 
India  and  China  by  bolstering  up  the  Ostend  East  India  Company, 
and  of  robbing  England  of  her  gains  in  the  Mediterranean  by 
recovering  Gibraltar.  The  reply  of  Townshend  was  the  counter 
League  of  Hanover^  in  which  England,  France,  and  Prussia,  joined 
later  by  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Holland,  united  to  confront  the 
new  union  of  Spain  and  Austria.  Walpole  had  opposed  the  League 
of  Hanover,  and  with  Cardinal  Fleury,  the  able  minister  of  Louis 
XV.,  continued  to  struggle  for  peace.  The  war  spirit,  however, 
was  again  quickening  in  the  nation  and  wily  politicians  were,  as 
always,  at  hand  to  fan  the  glowing  embers  into  flames  for  purely 
political  purposes.  Townshend  soon  had  a  vigorous  and  noisy  fol- 
lowing; in  1730  the  tension  became  so  great  that  George  had  to 
decide  which  of  the  two  ministers  should  be  retained.     He  held  on 


878  V-.5  FIRST    ERA    OF    WHIG    RULE  [George  II. 

to  Walpole,  and  Townshend  retired  to  his  country  seat  in  Xorfolk, 
— forsaking  politics  for  turnips. 

The  era  which  was  marked  by  the  growing  estrangement  of 

Walpole  and  Townshend,  is  famous  for  the  growth  of  the  new  Tory 

party.      Bolin^broke's  brief  experience  as   a  Jacobite 

The  birth  of     ^        -^  •   /»    i  i  •  i 

the  new  plotter  had  satisfied  him  of  the  uselessness  of  support- 

ToTxi  x)Q/rtii> 

ing  longer  the  lost  cause,  and  he  had  returned  to  plunge 
once  more  into  the  political  arena  as  a  reconstructed  Tory.  He 
accepted  the  Hanoverian  succession,  but  proposed  by  uniting  the 
discontented  Whigs,  the  scattered  fragments  of  the  old  Tory  party, 
and  such  Jacobites  as  would  join  them,  to  organize  a  thorough- 
going party  of  opposition.  In  this  he  was  ably  supported  by 
Carteret,  Pulteney,  Wyndham,  and  others.  They  were  known  as 
the  Hanoverian  or  Constitutional  Tories.  Their  principles,  how- 
ever, are  not  so  easy  to  describe;  but  upon  one  point  they  were 
thoroughly  united.  They  were  against  the  government;  their 
object  was  to  overthrow  the  Townshend  ministry  by  making  as 
much  mischief  as  possible.  In  December  1726  they  started  the 
famous  Craftsman^  an  opposition  newspaper,  whose  columns  for 
ten  years  continued  each  week  to  exploit  the  ideas  of  the  new 
Toryism,  fiercely  attacking  at  every  point  the  foreign  and  domestic 
policy  of  the  government.  In  the  opposition  literature  of  the 
period  is  to  be  found  Bolingbroke's  famous  pamphlet  On  the 
Idea  of  a  Patriot  King  and  Thomson's  still  more  famous  song 
Rule  Britannia^  destined  to  sing  its  way  into  the  heart  of  the 
English  nation. 

The  war  cloud  which  had  been  raised  by  the  Treaty  of  Vienna, 

and  which  threatened  at  one  time  to  devastate  all  Europe,  soon 

blew  over.     Gibraltar  was  besieged  for  a  time  by  the 

The  war 

cloud  dis-  Spaniards,  and  an  English  fleet  blockaded  Porto  Bello 
in  South  America.  The  emperor,  however,  became 
satisfied  that  his  Ostend  plan  could  never  succeed  in  the  face  of 
the  hostility  of  the  sea  powers ;  while  the  scheming  of  Spain  in  the 
Mediterranean  roused  his  fears  for  his  own  Italian  possessions  so 
that  he  was  far  more  inclined  to  fight  Spain  than  assist  her  against 
England  and  France.  He  had  a  project,  also,  which  was  much 
nearer  to  his  heart  than  even  the  Ostend  East  India  Company,  and 


1729-1732]  THE    FIRST   BRITISH    PRIME    MINI^t^ER  879 

that  was  the  succession  of  his  daughter  Maria  Theresa  to  the 
undivided  Hapsburg  possessions.  In  return,  therefore,  for  a 
promise  of  supporting  her  succession,  which  had  already  been 
legalized  within  the  empire  by  a  Pragmatic  Sanction,  the  emperor 
consented  to  yield  the  point  of  dispute  which  had  arisen  between 
him  and  Elizabeth  of  Farnese  over  the  succession  of  her  son  Don 

Carlos  to  the  Duchies  of  Parma  and  Piacenza,  and  the 
Treaty  of       next  year,  1731,  the  Second  Treaty  of  Vienna,  concluded 

by  the  emperor  with  England,  Holland,  and  Spain, 
laid  the  trouble  which  the  First  Treaty  of  Vienna  had  raised.  By 
the  Treaty  of  Seville  of  1729  between  England,  France,  and  Spain, 
Spain  had  virtually  yielded  her  claims  to  Gibraltar  and  Minorca, 
and  confirmed  the  trading  privileges  which  had  been  given  to 
England  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  The  Second  Treaty  of  Vienna 
was  largely  the  work  of  Walpole.  Although  at  one  time  nearly 
every  state  of  Europe,  small  or  great,  had  been  marshalled  upon 
one  side  or  the  other,  his  patience,  his  farsighted  determination 
to  avoid  war,  had  at  last  won ;  and  what  had  threatened  to  be  one 
of  the  most  bloody  and  destructive  of  European  wars,  passed  off 
mostly  in  a  harmless  exchange  of  protocols. 

The  dismissal  of    Townshend  left  Walpole  the  unquestioned 
head  of  the  ministry.     William  and  Anne  had  been  compelled  to 

adopt  the  policy  of  securing  a  ministry  in  touch  with 
theflrst  '        tlie  prevailing  spirit  of  the  Commons,  but  in  both  cases 

the  sovereign  had  remained  the  head  of  the  ministry; 
the  ministers,  moreover,  were  often  not  congenial  among  themselves, 
and  seldom  united  upon  any  one  policy.  But  under  the  Han- 
overian princes  it  became  necessary  to  find  a  substitute  for  this 
royal  head  by  exalting  to  the  position  of  supreme  authority 
within  the  cabinet,  one  minister  who  for  the  sake  of  harmony  and 
unanimity  should  be  allowed  virtually  to  select  his  colleagues,  and 
should  be  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  their  departments  as  well 
as  his  own.  The  principle  of  collective  responsibility  to  parlia- 
ment was  not  yet  understood  or  insisted  upon,  and  for  a  long  time 
to  come  parliament  continued  to  deal  with  individuals  rather  than 
with  the  cabinet  as  a  whole.  And  yet  as  the  first  to  insist  upon 
the    principle  of   political   unanimity  and  of   active   cooperation 


880  FIRST   ERA    OF    WHIG    RULE  [GEORaK  II. 

within  the  ministry,  Walpole  is  justly  called  tho  first  British  Prime 
Minister. 

The  practical  wisdom  of  Walpole  is  shown  in  nothing  so  clearly 
as  in  his  management  of  the  much  vexed  question  of  toleration. 
The  excitement  which  had  attended  the  Whig  attack  on 
SSto  ^^-  Sacheverell  in  1710,  the  rioting,  and  finally  the 
toleration.  Overthrow  of  the  Whig  party,  had  taught  him  the  danger 
of  interfering  with  the  traditions  of  the  Established 
Church,  and  although  he  supported  the  repeal  of  the  Occasional 
Conformity  Act  in  1719,  he  was  not  inclined  to  go  further,  but 
contented  himself  with  securing  the  Annual  Indemnity  Act,  by 
which  the  government  virtually  connived  at  violations  of  the  law 
on  the  part  of  nonconforming  office  holders.  Twice  he  refused  to 
support  a  measure  designed  to  repeal  the  Test  Act,  and  in  1736  he 
withdrew  a  bill  which  proposed  to  relieve  the  Quakers  of  the  dis- 
abilities under  which  they  had  so  long  and  so  unjustly  sujffered. 
In  both  cases  his  reasons  were  the  same:  he  did  not  wish  to 
awaken  "the  sleeping  dogs"  of  ecclesiastical  intolerance.  Yet  the 
spirit  of  toleration  was  steadily  growing.  In  1736  the  death  pen- 
alties for  witchcraft  were  abolished.  In  1732  the  Protestant  ref- 
ugees from  Salzburg  and  Cambray  were  received  with  open  arms, 
and  the  next  year  Oglethorpe  was  permitted  to  establish  his  philan- 
thropic colony  in  America. 

Walpole  himself  was  too  much  of  a  worldling  to  show  any 
active  sympathy  with  the  more  direct  phases  of  religious  or  reform- 
ing activity.  He  had  no  place  for  what  he  called  the 
CSSire-  "ugly  enthusiasm"  of  the  Wesleys.  He  was  far  more 
■fiSe  ma^  deeply  interested  in  the  bettering  of  the  commercial  life 
of  England,  and  was  steadily  feeling  his  way  to  more 
scientific  methods  of  securing  national  revenues.  In  1733  he  pro- 
posed to  reduce  the  direct  land  tax  from  four  shillings  on  the 
pound  to  one,  and  to  make  up  the  deficiency  by  an  excise  on  salt. 
The  excise  ^^^  Same  year,  also,  he  proposed  to  apply  the  excise 
toimcco^^^  principle  to  wine  and  tobacco;  that  is,  instead  of  col- 
proposed.  lecting  the  duties  at  seaports  when  the  goods  entered 
the  country,  customs,  he  proposed  to  collect  the  duty  when  the 
goods  were    distributed  within   the  country,    the   excise.       The 


1734]  THE    EXCISE    BILL  881 

great  advantage  of  the  excise  over  the  customs  is  that  it 
reduces  smuggling  and  enables  the  government  to  save  a  large 
revenue  which  would  be  otherwise  lost.  It  also  favors  legitimate 
commerce  by  protecting  it  from  competition  with  illicit  importa- 
tions. It  was  estimated  at  the  time  that  of  the  £800,000  which 
was  due  the  government  on  tobacco  alone,  scarcely  one-fourth 
found  its  way  to  the  government  coffers.  But  unfortunately  ever 
since  the  era  of  the  Rump  there  had  existed  a  latent  prejudice 
against  the  excise.  The  opposition  made  the  most  of  their  oppor- 
tunity, and  after  a  bitter  struggle  of  three  weeks,  in  which  Wal- 
pole's  majority  sank  from  sixty  to  seventeen,  forced  him  to  with- 
draw the  obnoxious  though  wise  measure. 

In  the  defeat  of  the  Excise  Bill  the  opposition  scored  their  first 
great  triumph,  and  in  the  general  election  which  followed  in  1734 

they  proceeded  to  make  the  most  of  it.  The  numer- 
fmmriarice  ^^^^  ^^^^  ^^  parliament  was  slight,  and  yet  they  were 
"/  ^l^gn^^^      beginning  to  see  their  way  more  clearly,  and  were  able 

to  go  before  the  country  as  the  advocates  of  somewhat 
more  definite  principles.  The  chief  of  these  was  that  the  king 
ought  to  be  the  king  of  the  nation,  and  not  the  tool  of  a  party, 
and  that  the  business  of  the  state  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  a 
group  of  the  best  men  of  all  parties  and  not  of  one  man.  From 
Bolingbroke's  pamphlet  the  opposition  got  the  name  of  "Patriots;" 
not  a  bad  name  for  a  party,  who  were  bent  upon  making  capital 
by  parading  sentiment  as  against  the  cold-blooded  commercial 
motives  which  had  thus  far  guided  Walpole  in  shaping  public 
policy.  The  old  Jacobites,  also,  were  dropping  out  one  by  one,  and 
with  each  death  the  dread  of  a  Stuart  restoration  lost  its  hold  upon 
the  public  mind.  Men  began  to  regard  the  new  party  with  more 
favor,  and  to  recognize  the  fact  that  an  attack  upon  Whig  min- 
isters did  not  necessarily  mean  an  attack  upon  the  Protestant  suc- 
cession. This  feeling  was  confirmed  when  upon  the  retirement  of 
Bolingbroke,  the  public  saw  the  Prince  of  Wales,  Frederick  Louis, 
putting  himself  at  the  head  of  the  opposition  and  gathering  to  his 
camp  all  the  discontented  elements,  including  not  only  older  men,  like 
Chesterfield  whom  Walpole  had  dropped  from  his  ministry  because 
he  had  not  agreed  with  him  on  the  Excise  Bill,  grizzled  fighters 


882  FIRST    ERA    OF    WHIG    RULE  [geobgbU. 

like  Pulteney  or  Wyndham  or  "Downright"  Shippen,  the  acknowl- 
edged leader  of  what  was  left  of  the  old  Tories,  but  the  new  gener- 
ation of  younger  politicians  also,  *'the  boys"  as  Walpole 
contemptuously  called  them,  yet  "boys"  from  whom  he  was  soon 
to  hear,  for  of  them  was  William  Pitt,  "the  terrible  cornet  of 
horse." 

In  1736  the  ministry  was  further  annoyed  by  disturbances 
in  Scotland  known  as  the  "Porteous  Riots,"  which  grew  out  of 
the  "Gin  Act"  of  that  year.  In  1703,  Paul  Methuen, 
Act'' and  the  ^^^^  English  minister  at  Lisbon,  had  succeeded  in 
Rili^^me  persuading  Portugal  to  join  with  England  in  a  sort  of 
reciprocity  treaty,  in  which  Portugal  agreed  to  allow 
English  woolens  to  be  admitted  to  Portugal  duty  free,  and  Eng- 
land agreed  to  allow  Portuguese  wines  to  enter  with  a  duty  always 
one-third  less  than  the  French  wines.  As  a  result  of  this  treaty 
the  heavier  port  wine  very  soon  supplanted  the  light  French 
clarets  as  the  drink  of  the  English  gentry,  and  had  not  a  little  to 
do  with  the  hard  drinking  of  the  fashionable  set  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  laborer,  however,  who  was  not  to  be  behind  his 
betters,  found  solace  in  his  gin,  which  could  make  him  just  "as 
drunk  as  a  lord,"  and  for  far  less  money  than  the  fashionable  port. 
The  general  low  state  of  morals,  also,  helped  to  increase  the  popular 
vice  of  the  era.  In  the  hope,  therefore,  of  checking  somewhat  the 
use  of  high  spirits,  as  well  as  to  make  an  article  of  such  common 
consumption  a  source  of  revenue,  by  the  Gin  Act  the  government 
sought  to  impose  a  heavy  license  upon  the  sale  of  gin.  The  people 
did  not  take  to  the  new  act  kindly.  In  Edinburgh  when  an  illicit 
seller  named  Wilson  was  executed,  the  crowd  attacked  the  city 
guard  with  stones.  Porteous  the  captain  gave  the  order  to  fire. 
Several  of  the  populace  were  killed.  Porteous  was  tried  for  mur- 
der and  condemned  to  death  but  reprieved.  The  mob  then  stormed 
the  prison,  and  lynched  the  impetuous  captain.  Walpole  with 
good  judgment  did  not  try  to  punish  the  rioters,  but  compelled 
Edinburgh  to  pay  to  the  widow  an  indemnity  of  £2,000. 

In  the  meanwhile  Walpole  had  ample  opportunity  abroad  to 
carry  out  his  peace  policy,  which  virtually  amounted  to  the  old  Tory 
policy  of  non-interference.     In  1733  there  broke  out  upon  the  con- 


1735-1739]  WAR   WITH    SPAIIf  883 

tinent  another  one  of  those  lamentable  succession  wars  which 
wrought  such  havoc  in  Europe  during  the  first  half  of  the  eight- 
eenth century ;  this  time  the  quarrel  was  over  the  Polish 
m^p^Sh^^  succession.  Walpole,  in  spite  of  the  solicitations  of 
siwcession,     Rassia  and  Austria,  stoutly  held  aloof;  and  while  Aus- 

1733-17ii5o  .  . 

tria,  Germany,  and  Russia  were  bending  all  their  efforts 
to  crush  the  Bourbons,  Walpole  could  boast  that  among  the  fifty 
thousand  slain  not  an  Englishman  was  to  be  numbered. 

In  1735  the  War  of  the  Polish  Succession  came  to  a  close  and 
the  Third  Treaty  of  Vienna  once  more  adjusted  the  rival  claims  of 

the  European  states.  The  close  of  the  Polish  war, 
of  England     howcvcr,  left  Walpole  to  face   a  dangerous  issue  of  his 

and  France.  •  i  •   i     t-i      i       j  .  l  j 

own,  in  which  England  was  to  appear  not  as  second 
but  afl  principal.  Since  the  death  of  the  Regent  of  Orleans  and 
the  birth  of  an  heir  to  Louis  XV. ,  France  had  drawn  away  from 
England  and  once  more  approached  the  other  branch  of  the  Bour- 
bon family.  While  the  Polish  War  was  in  progress,  the  two  Bour- 
bon governments  had  entered  into  a  solemn  compact,  known 
sometimes  as  the  * 'Treaty  of  the  Escurial"  and  sometimes  as  the 
'*Bourbon  Family  Compact,"  in  which  Spain  agreed  to  assist  France 
in  case  England  took  sides  with  Russia  and  Austria  in  the  Polish 
War,  and  France  pledged  to  join  Spain  in  opposing  the  further 
commercial  expansion  of  England.  When  the  Third  Treaty  of 
Vienna  freed  the  hands  of  the  Bourbons,  Spain  prepared  to  carry 
out  the  terms  of  the  Family  Compact.  She  complained  of  the 
violations  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  by  which  the  English  were 
allowed,  besides  the  privilege  of  the  assiento,  to  send  one  ship  a 
year  with  a  general  cargo  to  the  Spanish-American  ports.  The 
English,  however,  had  disregarded  the  limitation,  and  the  govern- 
ment had  allowed  a  profitable  smuggling  trade  to  develop  in  these 
waters.  English  merchants  on  their  part  complained  of  the 
tyranny  of  the  Spanish  customs  patrol,  and  of  the  seizing  and 
searching  of  English  ships.  A  merchant  captain,  named 
Jenkins,  carried  about  with  him  his  ear,  done  up  in  cot- 
ton, as  a  trophy  of  Spanish  brutality.  Popular  feeling  ran  high, 
and  in  1739  Walpole  was  at  last  compelled  very  much  against  his 
will  to  declare  war  against  Spain. 


884  FIRST    ERA    OF    WHIG    RULE  [georgeII. 

The  Spanish  War,  however,  was  soon  forgotten  in  the  prospect 

of  a  greater  struggle,  which  was  precipitated  by  the  death  of  the 

emperor  in  October  1740,  and  the  immediate  outbreak 

^JlP   v4  U^fT")  (171 

Succession,  of  war  between  Austria  and  Prussia.  The  sluggish  way 
in  which  Walpole  had  conducted  the  Spanish  War,  tlie 
barrenness  of  the  war  of  events,  the  well  known  peace  policy  of 
the  minister,  and  his  virtual  abandonment  of  Austria,  the  old  ally 
of  England  in  the  Polish  Succession  War,  were  now  used  by  the 
opposition  with  telling  force.  The  general  election  of  1741,  in 
which  Thomson's  Rule  Britaymia^  with  its  refrain 

"Britons  never,  never,  never  shall  be  slaves," 

played  an  important  part,  went  against  the  government  to  the  extent 
that  the  Walpole  majority  was  cut  down  to   sixteen.  When  the 

new  Tjarliament  met  in  December,  a  determined  struffffle 
Walpole,        was  begun  against  the  now  unpopular  minister.     He  was 

still  strong  enough  to  prevent  an  impeachment ;  but  the 
strength  of  the  opposition  proved  to  him  that  it  was  impossible 
longer  to  control  the  House,  and  in  February  1742,  he  resigned. 
The  king  stood  by  him  to  the  last,  and  upon  his  resignation  raised 
him  to  the  peerage  as  Earl  of  Oxford.  His  day  of  usefulness,  how- 
ever, was  gone.  He  had  long  suffered  from  ill  health  and  sur- 
vived his  fall  only  three  years.     He  died  in  1745. 

It  is  Walpole 's  glory  that  he  saw  clearly  that  what  England 
most  needed  was  peace,  and  that  for  twenty  years  he  persistently 

followed  out  this  policy.  To  accomplish  this  he  aban- 
w7i^o{/       doned  the  old  Whig    ground,   war    with  France    and 

active  interference  in  European  politics,  and  camped 
upon  the  old  Tory  ground,  alliance  with  France  and  non-inter 
ference.  "His  fall,"  says  Ranke,  "was  the  fall  of  the  political 
system  based  upon  the  union  of  Hanover  and  the  Regent  of 
France."  "His  ministry,"  says  Hassall,  "forms  a  parenthesis  in 
the  oft-recurring  struggle  between  England  and  France,  which, 
beginning  in  1688,  continued  till  1815." 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE    PELHAMS   AND    PITT.       THE    OCEAN    EMPIRE    SECURED 

OEOROE  II.,  17421760 
OEOROEIIL,  1760-1763 

The  fall  of  Walpole  was  the  signal  that  the  age  of  cynicism  was 
at  last  drawing  to  its  close.  The  "Patriots"  had  appealed  to  the 
quickening  belief  of  the  nation  in  goodness,  and 
offaUof  although  to  the  older  members  of  the  group,  the  hard- 
ened politicians,  this  ostentation  of  patriotism  was  little 
more  than  a  new  trick  of  the  game,  the  people  were  coming  to 
believe  in  the  disinterestedness  of  their  leaders,  and  had  loyally 
answered  their  appeal. 

Outside  of  parliament  there  were  many  evidences  of  this  better 
life  of  the  nation.  About  the  time  of  the  death  of  George  I.,  a 
few  earnest  Oxford  men  had  united  in  a  club  to  discuss 
TiMMxford  religious  questions.  Their  interest  in  religious  matters 
soon  took  a  very  practical  turn;  they  went  out  from 
their  meetings  to  visit  the  sick  and  the  poor,  and  the  prisoners  in 
the  Oxford  jail.  The  leader  in  this  movement  was  John  Wesley, 
son  of  Samuel  Wesley,  rector  of  Ep worth,  Lincolnshire.  He  was 
ably  supported  by  his  younger  brother  Charles,  and  by  George 
Whitefield,  the  son  of  a  Gloucester  innkeeper.  In  1735,  the  Wes- 
leys  went  out  to  Oglethorpe's  new  colony  in  America,  to  conse- 
crate their  zeal  to  missionary  work  among  the  Indians.  But  the 
enterprise  was  not  successful  and  they  returned  in  1738,  to  begin 
a  greater  work  among  the  heathen  at  home.  Here  they  were 
joined  by  their  old  friend  Whitefield.  Their  fervor,  their  zeal, 
their  plain  and  searching  preaching  moved  in  strange  ways  the 
simple  folk  who  gathered  by  the  thousands  to  hear  them.  The 
clergy  of  the  day,  accustomed  to  the  sober  and  decorous,  but  life- 

885 


886  THE    OCEAN    EMPIRE    SECURED  [george  il. 

less  methods  of  the  generation  past,  could  not  understand  these 
new  voices  crying  in  the  wilderness,  and  refused  to  allow  the 
preachers  to  use  their  churches.  Then  the  Wesleys  turned  to  the 
fields,  the  ''byways  and  hedges,"  and  began  those  tireless  mis- 
sionary journeys  over  the  land  by  which  they  stirred  England  as 
she  had  not  been  stirred  since  the  early  days  of  the  Reformation. 
Sometimes  they  were  hooted  and  pelted  by  brutal  mobs ;  often  they 
were  in  danger  of  their  lives;  nevertheless  they  persevered,  tireless 
in  their  efforts  to  awaken  England  to  a  better  life. 

Wesley,  however,  was  far  more  than  a  mere  religious  agitator. 
He  saw  with  a  statesman's  insight,  that  what  had  been  won,  could 

be  retained  only  by  organization,  and  accordingly  began 
ofthf^^^^  to  lay  the  foundation  of  an  organized  society,  the  mem- 
Omrch^^       bers  of  which  were  soon  known  as  ''Methodists."     The 

organization  grew  rapidly;  its  usefulness  expanded 
and  deepened  with  every  year.  At  the  time  of  John  Wesley's 
death,  1791,  it  numbered  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  adher- 
ents. Wesley  himself  did  not  wish  to  break  with  the  mother 
church ;  but  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  keep  the  new  wine  in  the 
old  bottles,  and  soon  after  his  death  the  Methodist  body  withdrew 
entirely  from  the  established  Church. 

W^hitefield,  unlike  the  Wesleys,  was  a  Calvinist  of  the  older  Puri- 
tan sbhool.     He  had,  moreover,  none  of  Wesley's  forethought  or 

genius  as  an  organizer.  As  the  Arminianism  of  the 
dutmovement  ^^sleys  became  more  pronounced,  he  drew  off  and 
'England.        attached  himself  to  the    Countess   of  Huntingdon,  a 

woman  of  deep  piety  and  earnest  devotion,  who 
attempted  to  establish  a  Calvinistic  wing  of  the  Methodist  move- 
ment. In  England,  however,  Calvinistic  Methodism  never  suc- 
ceeded in  taking  root.  But  in  Wales,  where  a  similar  awakening 
had  been  in  progress  since  the  beginning  of  the  century,  Calvinistic 
Methodism  spread  rapidly,  and  in  1811  also  separated  from  the 
Established  Church.  In  Scotland  and  Ireland,  where  religious  con- 
ditions differed  widely  from  those  in  England,  Methodism  received 
little  encouragement,  but  in  the  new  world  it  readily  found  a 
home;  and  here  foundations  were  laid,  deep  and  broad,  upon 
which  the  modern  American  church  has  since  grown  up. 


1742]  METHODISM  887 

Great  as  were  the  direct  influences  of  the  Methodist  movement, 
its  influence  outside  the  ranks  of  Methodism  proper  was  even 
greater.  The  English  clergy  felt  the  general  toning  up 
^tMUm  ^^  ^^®  religious  atmosphere;  the  gambling,  fox  hunting, 
absentee  clergyman  of  the  age  of  Sterne  gave  way  to 
men  like  Toplady,  the  author  of  Bock  of  Ages,  or  John  Newton, 
the  ^'converted  slave  dealer."  The  open  profligacy  that 
had  disgraced  the  upper  classes  began  to  hide  its  face ;  literature 
ceased  to  be  foul,  and  with  a  new  inspiration  became  itself  an 
instrument  of  further  progress.  The  new  life  breathed  a  spirit  of 
unwonted  philanthropy  into  English  society,  invading  the  prisons, 
and  recognizing  the  rights  of  the  victims  of  justice.  It  invaded 
the  penal  codes  as  well  and  infused  here  a  clemency  before 
unknown  to  English  law.  Even  the  black  man  was  not  forgotten, 
and  the  movement  set  on  foot  which  was  ultimately  to  result  in 
the  abolition  of  slavery  throughout  the  British  dominions.  The 
state,  also,  found  itself  confronted  with  a  new  duty  in  the  educa- 
tion of  the  masses  and  the  protection  of  the  victims  of  commercial 
greed. 

The  fall  of  Walpole  made  little  change  in  the  personnel  of  the 

ministry.     The  great  peace  minister  had  long  since  ceased  to  lead, 

and  so  slightly  had  the  modern  idea  of  cabinet  govern- 

TTie  new  o       j  o 

ministry,  ment  taken  hold  of  the  political  mind,  that  when  he 
left  the  ministry,  of  those  who  held  high  office  under 
him,  only  Harrington  the  Secretary  of  State,  saw  fit  to  resign  with 
his  chief.  Of  the  two  oflOices  which  Walpole  had  held,  Spencer 
Compton,  now  Lord  Wilmington,  a  nonentity  who  owed  his  pre- 
ferment solely  to  royal  favoritism,  was  made  Lord  Treasurer,  and 
Sandys  was  made  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  The  place  vacated 
by  Harrington  was  given  to  Carteret,  who  was  the  master  mind  of 
the  group.  He  was  a  man  of  mettle,  with  a  taste  for  grand  coali- 
tions, who  believed  that  he  was  called  upon  to  **make  kings  and 
emperors  and  maintain  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe."  He 
was,  however,  unfortunately  given  to  drink  and  when  in  his  cups 
he  was  without  reason  or  discretion.  At  a  time  when  all  Europe 
was  rushing  to  arms,  a  more  unsafe  man  could  not  have  been 
chosen  to  direct  the  foreign  affairs  of  England, 


888  THE    OCEAN    EMPIRE    SECURED  [geoegb  IL 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  the  *  Wangled  web  of  armed 
law  suits"  known  as  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession;  in  order 
to  understand  the  position  of  England  and  the  results 
fhfwafof^  attained,  it  is  sufficient  to  state  the  general  motives  of 
^sucfessioru^  ^^®  ^^^'  ^^^^  ^^^  cmperor  Charles  VI.  succeeded  to 
the  Hapsburg  possessions,  he  made  a  will  by  which 
all  his  hereditary  dominions  should  pass  to  his  son  and  after  him 
to  his  eldest  daughter.  Charles  had  not  only  persuaded  the  Ger- 
man Diet  to  accept  this  will  as  a  law  of  the  empire,  but  in  the 
several  treaties  which  he  made  with  foreign  powers  during  his 
reign,  he  secured  also  the  consent  of  Spain,  Eussia,  Prussia,  Great 
Britain,  and  France.  When  he  died,  therefore,  in  October  1740, 
since  his  only  son  had  preceded  him  by  some  years,  the  Hapsburg 
dominions  were  to  pass  by  the  law  of  the  empire  and  the  guar- 
antee of  Europe,  ** whole  and  undivided,  to  his  daughter  Maria 
Theresa. "  It  also  seemed  probable  that  she  would  secure  the 
imperial  crown  for  her  husband  Francis  of  Lorraine.  The  tempta- 
tion, however,  offered  by  a  possible  dismemberment  of  Austria, 
was  too  strong  for  the  princes  who  could  advance  any  claims  to 
Hapsburg  territories,  and  within  two  months  of  the  death  of 
Charles,  an  appeal  was  made  to  arms.  Frederick  II. ,  the  youug 
King  of  Prussia,  set  the  ball  rolling  by  invading  Silesia  in  Decem- 
ber 1740  and  in  a  few  months  all  Europe  was  in  commotion. 
Even  those  princes  who  had  no  claims  in  the  case,  were  compelled 
to  embrace  one  side  or  the  other,  as  they  saw  themselves  threatened 
by  the  advantages  promised  to  old  hereditary  rivals.  George  II. 
belonged  to  this  latter  class.  As  Elector  of  Hanover,  he  had  no 
wish  to  see  Prussia,  his  old  rival  in  north  Germany,  exalted  at 
the  expense  of  Austria,  and  was  eager  to  champion  the  cause  of 
the  Austrian  queen. 

In  the  meanwhile  Charles  Albert,  Elector  of  Bavaria,  who 
claimed  the  whole  of  the  Hapsburg  dominions,  had  succeeded  in 
drawing  most  of  the  German  states  into  a  league  with 
involved  in  France,  for  the  maintenance  of  his  claim,  and  in  1741 
began  war  on  his  own  account.  Frederick  had  also 
drawn  near  to  France,  though  he  much  preferred  to  head  a  league 
of  the  German  princes  himself.    Maria  Theresa,  on  the  other  hand, 


1742]  WAR   OF    AUSTRIAN^    SUCCESSION  889 

found  a  ready  ally  in  Russia;  for  the  Russian  sovereign  was  no 
better  pleased  than  the  Elector  of  Hanover  to  see  Prussia  increas- 
ing its  strength.  To  prevent  Russia  from  attacking  him  in  the 
rear,  Frederick  had  by  French  influence  succeeded  in  getting 
Sweden  to  attack  Russia.  In  May  Spain  also  Joined  the  Bavarian 
league  and  agreed  to  attack  the  Austrian  possessions  in  Italy. 
Finally  in  January  1742,  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  obtained  the 
imperial  crown  as  Charles  VII.  Thus  the  attack  of  Frederick 
upon  Silesia  had  within  eighteen  months  arrayed  all  Europe  in  two 
hostile  camps. 

The  pot  was  thus  well  boiling,  when  in  February  1742  Walpole 
retired  to  the  peerage,  and  Carteret,  with  exalted  ideas  of  his  own 

ability  and  of  his  personal  importance  in  working  out  the 
involves  destiny  of  England,  assumed  direction  of  the  foreign 

policy  of  England,  and  although  England  still  had  the 
war  with  Spain  on  her  hands,  plunged  into  the  melee.  The  influ- 
ence of  this  new  accession  of  strength  to  the  Austrian  cause  was  at 
once  felt.  In  August  the  English  Admiral  Mathews  destroyed  a 
Spanish  fleet  in  the  harbor  of  Saint  Tropez,  effectually  preventing 
Spain  from  interfering  with  Austria  in  northern  Italy.  The 
indomitable  queen,  who  had  pacified  Frederick  by  the  cession  of 
Silesia,  with  renewed  energy  turned  upon  the  French  and  Bava- 
rians, who  had  recently  entered  Bohemia,  and  by  the  end  of  the 
year  had  expelled  them  and  regained  control  of  the  country. 

The  next  year  opened  with  even  more  signal  successes  for  the 
Austrian  and  her  allies.     In  1742  she  had  stood  at  bay  behind  her 

boundaries.  She  now  assumed  the  offensive,  entering 
timis%^^i743.    l^^^aJ*ia  and  driving  Charles  from  his  own  Electorate, 

while  an  army  of  English,  Hessians,  and  Hanoverians 
beat  the  French  at  Dettingen^  on  the  Main.  As  a  result  of  these 
successes  Germany  was  cleared  and  an  Austro-English  army  held 
the  line  of  the  Rhine. 


*  George  II.  commanded  the  allies;  the  last  instance  where  an  English 
king  has  commanded  an  army  in  person.  The  battle,  however,  was  an 
absurd  affair.  The  victory  was  due  to  the  endurance  of  the  English, 
rather  than  to  the  generalship  of  the  king. 


890  THE   OCEAN    EMPIRE   SECURED  [GEOBOEn. 

Thus  far  Carteret's  program  had  been  carried  out  with  results 

that  Marlborough  might  have  envied.      But  unfortunately,  just 

at  the  moment  when  an  honorable  peace  lav  within  his 

The  AustTO- 

Sardinian  grasp,  he  was  seized  with  an  inspiration,  for  the  bril- 
september  liance  of  which  more  can  be  said  than  for  its  sanity. 
George  II.  had  favored  the  war  because  he  feared 
Prussia;  but  Carteret  had  feared  the  new  ascendency  which  the 
war  promised  to  the  older  enemy  of  England.  He  was  not  satis- 
fied, therefore,  with  simply  vindicating  the  integrity  of  the  Haps- 
burg  inheritance;  he  proposed  to  complete  the  humiliation  of 
France  by  forming  against  her  a  counter  league  of  England, 
Austria,  and  Prussia.  This  was  not  an  easy  matter;  the  wound 
which  Frederick  had  dealt  to  Austrian  pride  was  too  grievous  to  be 
easily  healed  or  forgotten.  Yet  the  overconfident  Carteret  believed 
that  he  knew  how  to  salve  the  injured  pride  of  his  southern  ally, 
and  proposed  that  Austria  and  Sardinia  enter  into  a  league,  by 
which  the  Austrians  were  to  seize  Naples  and  hand  it  over  to  the 
Elector  of  Bavaria.  He,  in  turn,  was  to  cede  Bavaria  to  Maria 
Theresa.  Thus  the  Austrian  queen  was  to  be  reconciled  to  the  loss 
of  Silesia,  by  being  allowed  to  extend  her  power  in  south  Germany. 
Carteret,  however,  had  not  calculated  upon  the  possible  prefer- 
ences of  the  third  member  of  the  proposed  alliance  against  France, 
who  had  his  own  notions  about  the  future  arrangement 
to  carteret'8  of  the  map  of  Europe,  and  saw  in  the  proposed  exten- 
sion of  Austrian  influence  in  Germany  as  well  as  in  the 
exaltation  of  Hanover,  a  menace  to  the  future  of  Prussia.  The 
English  minister  had  failed,  also,  to  calculate  upon  the  preferences 
of  the  other  German  princes,  who  had  no  wish  to  encourage  their 
powerful  neighbors  in  the  idea  that  Germany  was  a  cheese,  to  be 
carved  and  devoured  at  will.  Carteret,  moreover,  had  forgotten 
Spain  altogether,  who  had  no  idea  of  renouncing  her  claim  upon 
Naples,  for  the  purpose  of  healing  the  breach  between  Maria 
Theresa  and  Frederick. 

Carteret's  scheme,  therefore,  instead  of  humbling  France,  sim- 
ply sent  all  Europe  into  a  turmoil  again,  and  postponed  peace 
indefinitely.  Spain  drew  nearer  to  France,  renewing  the  Family 
Compact,  and  agreeing  to  make  common  cause  with  her  against 


1744,  1745]  THE   PELHAM   MINISTKY  891 

her  enemies.     When  the  Austrian  army  set  out  for  Italy  in  the 

spring,  Frederick  at  once  invaded  Bohemia,  beginning  the  second 

Silesian  war,  and  in  May  with  other  German  princes 

The  second        „  .,         ..-,,1         ^-T  ^         -ii  aj_ 

Silesian  formally  joined  the  t  ranco  -  Spanish  league.  At 
home,  also,  a  serious  reaction  set  in  against  Carteret. 
Public  confidence  in  his  judgment  and  ability  as  a  leader  was  shat- 
tered. The  minister,  moreover,  was  personally  disliked  for  his 
imperious  ways,  and  what  little  influence  he  had  left,  rapidly 
waned  before  the  onset  of  the  Pelhams,^  who  seized  the  moment  to 
got  rid  of  their  unpopular  colleague. 

Carteret  had  clung  to  the  old  policy,  so  dear  to  George  II.,  of 
favoring  Hanover,  but  the  Pelhams,  under  the  pretext  of  favor- 
ing England  instead  of  Hanover,  had  proposed  to  revert 
Zii^tf^^    again  to  the  policy  of  William  and  Anne  and  make  the 
Netherlands  the  base  of  English  operations  on  the  con- 
tinent.     Upon  this    issue  the  quarrel  finally  reached   a  crisis. 
Carteret,    now   Lord   Granville,   resigned,   and   Harrington,   the 
former    colleague    of    Walpole,    returned     to    his    old    post    of 
Secretary  of  State.     In  January  1745,  by  the  Treaty  of  Warsaw 
the  Netherlands  were  formally  admitted  to  a  league  with  England, 
Austria,  and  Saxony-Poland.     In  one  other  respect,  also,  Pelham, 
who  was  the  recognized  head  of  the  new  ministry,  showed  his  dis- 
position to  return  to  the  old  ideas  of  William's  reign.     Instead 
of  making  his  administration  a  strictly  party  ministry  he  sought 
to  strengthen  it  by  taking  men  not  only  from  the  opposition 
Whigs,  as  Chesterfield  and  Pitt,  but  from  the  Tory  ranks  as  well. 
Although  the  new  ministers  had  come  into  power  as  a  protest 
against  Carteret's  war  policy,  they  were  forced  for   a  time  to 
shoulder    the    burden    of    the    war,    nor    were    they 
ministry         more    succcssful.     The    western    Netherlands,  which 
the    Treaty    of    Utrecht   had    given    to    Austria,    as 
usual    presented    a    tempting     point    of     attack     to     France. 
Maria   Theresa   was    so    busily    occupied   with    Frederick,    that 
she  was   compelled   to   entrust   the   defense   of   these   territories 

^  Wilmington  had  died  in  1743  and  Henry  Pelham  had  succeeded  to 
the  post  of  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury. 


892  THE    OCEAN    EMPIRE    SECURED  [gkobge  II. 

to  her  allies,  and  thus  threw  the  burden  of  saving  the  Austrian 
Netherlands  almost  wholly  upon  England.  The  Dutch  were  in 
no  condition  for  war;  the  barrier  fortresses,  which  had  been 
entrusted  to  their  keeping,  had  fallen  into  decay,  and  their  armies 
were  far  from  a  war  footing.  Of  the  eight  fortresses 
barrier  four  fell  in  five  weeks,  and  while  Louis  XV.  marched 

June  and  soutli  to  savc  Elsass  from  an  attack  of  Charles  of  Lor- 
raine, Marshal  Saxe  began  the  siege  of  Tournay.  The 
allies  aroused  themselves,  and  in  May  1745,  George  IL's  son  Wil- 
liam Augustus,  Duke  of  Cumberland,  advanced  w^ith  an  army  of 
English,  Dutch,  and  Hanoverians,  to  relieve  the  city.  They  were 
met  by  Saxe  at  Fontenoy  on  the  11th  and  suffered  a  serious 
repulse.  Tournay,  Ghent,  Ostend,  and  other  Xetherland  towns  fell 
to  the  French  a§  the  spoil  of  victory.  The  cause  of  the  allies  had 
fared  no  better  in  the  fighting  in  Germany.  In  1744  Charles  of 
Lorraine  had  been  driven  out  of  Elsass  and  gradually  forced  back 
across  Bavaria.  In  October  Seckendorf  had  entered  the  Bavarian 
capital  and  restored  Charles  YII.  to  his  ancestral  estates.  In 
June  of  the  next  year  Charles  of  Lorraine  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Frederick  at  Hohenfriedburg  and  was  driven  out  of  Silesia;  on 
September  30  he  was  again  beaten  at  Soor  in  Bohemia,  leaving 
Frederick  to  punish  Saxony  for  its  temerity  in  joining  his  enemies. 
In  the  meanwhile  a  new,  and,  at  the  time,  apparently  a 
more  serious  danger  threatened  England  at  home  and  compelled 
^r  her  for  the  moment  to  leave  the  Dutch  and  Hanoverians 

New 

ittTmX  ^^  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^^  French  as  best  they  could  by  them- 
1744-1746.  selves.  In  February  1744,  Charles  Edward,  the  son  of 
the  Stuart  Pretender,  * 'James  III.,"  had  set  sail  for  England,  con- 
voyed by  a  French  fleet  under  command  of  the  famous  Marshal 
Saxe ;  but  the  expedition  first  fell  foul  of  the  English  Admiral 
Norris  and  then  was  still  further  misused  by  storms,  so  that 
Prince  Charles  had  to  return  to  France  for  a  fresh  start.  The 
French  at  the  time  were  turning  all  their  energies  to  the  Austrian 
Xetherlands,  and  it  was  not  easy  to  induce  Louis  to  devote  any 
more  money  to  an  experiment  that  had  so  often  failed.  But 
Charles  Edward  was  not  to  be  discouraged,  and  taking  advantage  of 
the  victory  of  Fontenoy,  accompanied  by  seven  companions,  he 


1745]  THE    PRETENDER  893 

managed  to  get  off  in  a  single  ship,  and  after  spending  six  weeks 
in   the  Hebrides  landed  on  the  wild   coast  of  western  Scotland. 
For  three  weeks  the  cause  of  the  little  band  of  adventu- 
rers looked  black  enough ;  yet  when  the  royal  standard 
was  finally  raised  in  Glenfinnan  the  Stuart  could  count  fifteen  hun- 
dred clansmen  in  his  following.   Slipping  by  Cope,  who  was  approach- 
ing   with    three   thousand  regulars,  on  September  3 
he  entered  Perth,  and  on  the  17th  at  the  Town  Cross  in 
Edinburgh  proclaimed  **  James  VIII."     Four  days  later  he  routed 
Cope  at  Preston  Pans.     His  army  now  numbered  six  thousand 
men,  but  the  Lowlanders  held  aloof  and  the  Highlanders  hesitated 
to  march  further  south.     But  the  tact  and  patience  of  Charles  at 
last  won  the  clansmen,  and  after  two  months'  waiting  he  deter- 
mined to  make  a  dash  into  England.     By  marching  down  the  west 
side  of  the  island,  he  avoided  an  army  of  ten  thousand  men  who 
held  the  Tyne  at  Newcastle,  and  reached  Derby  on  December  4. 
It  was  already  evident,  however,  to  no  one  more  than  to  the 
daring  leader  himself,  that  the  venture  was  hopeless.     He  had 
expected  to  be  joined  by  the  Jacobites  of  England  but 
mm'fS'^the     although    he    had    marched  through  tlie  old  Jacobite 
Xrt^^ftWe         counties  hardly  a  man  had  stirred.     The  people  came 
out  "to  see  the  pretty  soldiers  pass;'*   but  hardly  two 
hundred  men  joined  the  Prince  from  the  time  that  he  left  Scot- 
land.    Manchester  had  lighted  its  windows  in  his  honor  as  he 
passed  through,  and  had  sped  him  on  his  way  with  a  gift  of  two 
thousand  pounds,  but  the  husbands  and  fathers  were  too  busy  with 
other  things,  to  turn  aside  to  peril  their  lives  in  a  struggle  in 
which  their  interest  had  long  since  ceased  to  be  other  than  a  mere 
matter  of  traditional  sentiment.     The  policy  of  Walpole  had  done 
its  work.     Peace,  prosperity,  and  security  had  given  Englishmen 
something  better  to  fight  for  than  the  time-worn  claims  of  a  for- 
gotten dynasty. 

The  Prince  was  now  in  the  heart  of  England  with  only  his  five 
thousand  Highlanders  to  depend  upon,  while  from  all  sides  powerful 
armies  were  rushing  to  close  in  upon  him.  There  was  only  one 
thing  for  him  to  do.  On  December  G,  he  raised  his  camp  and 
began  the  return  march,  eluding  his  foes  and  reaching  Glasgow 


894  THE    OCEAN    EMPIKE    SECURED  [geobgb  U. 

twenty  days  later.  Here  new  reinforcements  from  the  Highlands 
raised  his  army  to  nine  thousand  men,  and  on  January  17  at  Fal- 
kirk he  turned  and  attacked  General  Hawley,  who  had 
the  Jacobite  followed  him  from  England.  Again  the  rush  of  the 
Highlanders  bore  all  before  them;  but  their  bravery 
was  useless.  Other  English  armies  were  advancing  from  the 
south.  The  Highlanders  themselves  had  lost  heart,  and  when  on 
April  16,  the  Prince  faced  Cumberland  near  Culloden,  he  could 
marshal  only  five  thousand  men.  Three  times  the  Highlanders 
charged;  but  their  wild  rush  had  no  terrors  for  the  seasoned 
troops,  veterans  of  the  continental  wars,  who  now  confronted 
them.  Charles  fled  from  the  battlefield,  leaving  his  clansmen  to 
be  hunted  down  by  the  soldiers  of  Cumberland,  who  did  their 
bloody  work  so  thoroughly  that  their  leader  was  known  ever  after- 
ward as  the  "Butcher."  After  a  series  of  adventures  Charles 
finally  reached  France  in  the  autumn.  He  died  at  Eome  in  1788. 
He  left  a  brother.  Cardinal  Henry  of  York,  who  survived  him 
nearly  twenty  years.  With  the  death  of  the  latter  in  1807  the 
direct  line  of  the  * 'legitimate  Stuarts"  ended. 

Jacobitism  was  now  dead  and  buried.  The  government,  how- 
ever, in  its  fright  determined  to  strike  vigorously;  some  eighty 
of  the  followers  of  Charles  were  brought  to  the  gallows;  three 
hundred  and  fifty  were  transported;  three  Scottish  lords  were 
beheaded  and  some  forty  other  persons  of  rank  attainted.  The 
Highland  chiefs  were  compelled  to  surrender  their  hereditary 
jurisdictions  to  the  crown  in  return  for  a  money  payment.  The 
people  were  forbidden  to  wear  the  tartan.  Feudal  Scotland  passed 
away  and  '*the  sheriff's  writ  soon  ran  through  the  Highlands  with 
as  little  resistance  as  in  the  streets  of  London." 

The  defeat  of  the  English  in  the  Netherlands  and  the  appear- 
ance of  the  Pretender  had  only  strengthened  the  purpose  of  the 
Pelhams  to  end  the  war,  and  on  December  25,  1745,  in 
u^uidraws  ^^^  ''Convention  of  Hanover,"  England  made  her  peace 
uentaTwars  ^^^^  Prussia  and  left  Maria  Theresa  to  fight  out  her 
quarrel  by  herself,  more  than  ever  determined  to  win 
back  Silesia,  now  that  the  plan  of  giving  her  Bavaria  had  failed. 
In  the  Netherlands,  however,  the  struggle  with  France  still  lin- 


1750]  THE   CALENBAR   BILL  B95 

gered  on  until  1748,  when  the  "Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle," 
(Aachen)  restored  the  old  status  quo, — England  giving  up  her  con- 
quests by  sea  and  France  her  conquests  by  land.  The  quarrel  of 
England  and  Spain  was  also  included  in  the  Aachen  settlement, 
but  the  two  governments  continued  to  bicker  over  the  question  of 
indemnity  until  1750,  when  the  '^Treaty  of  Madrid"  finally  settled 
their  long-time  trade  quarrel. 

After  the  Treaty  of  Aachen  the  Pelham  ministry  moved  on 

quietly  enough  until  the  death  of  Henry  Pelham  in 
The  Pelham  1754.  The  public  debt  had  reached  the  unprecedented 
home  affairs,  sum  of  £78,000,000 ;  but  in  1750  Pelham  succeeded  in 

reducing  the  interest  from  four  and  five  to  three  per 
cent,  thus  greatly  diminishing  the  annual  burden.  By  reason  of 
this  saving  the  government  was  able  to  devote  some  funds  to  the 

encouragement  of  learning;  a  measure  which  resulted 
the  Bntwh      in  the  acquisition  of  the  collections  which  have  formed 

Muaeiim. 

the  nucleus  of  the  British  Museum.  Pelham,  also, 
sympathized  with  Walpole's  policy  of  religious  toleration.  In  1751 
an  effort  was  made  to  secure  a  bill  for  the  naturalization  of  the 
Protestant  French  refugees  who,  upon  the  renewal  of  persecution 
by  the  French  authorities  in  1750,  had  begun  again  to  flock  to  Eng- 
land. In  1753  a  bill  was  passed  by  which  resident  Jews  were  to 
be  naturalized.  In  the  next  session,  however,  owing  to  a  revival 
of  popular  prejudices,  encouraged  by  the  jealousy  of  British  mer- 
chants, it  was  repealed.  In  1751  Chesterfield  intro- 
d^rmiirmiA^^^^^  his  ''Calendar  Bill,"  by  which  the  New  Style,  as 
the  Gregorian  calendar  was  called  in  England,  was  made 
legal.  By  this  bill  the  English  year  was  to  begin  henceforth  on 
January  1  instead  of  March  25,  and  the  eleven  days  between 
September  3  and  September  13  inclusive  were  cut  out  of  the 
Calendar.  The  measure  aroused  a  good  deal  of  feeling  at  the 
time.  Pelham  opposed  the  new  Calendar  as  a  "newfangled" 
idea,  although  Gregory  XIII.  had  devised  it  in  1582,  and  the 
Catholic  countries  of  Europe  had  virtually  been  using  it  ever  since. 
The  opposition  politicians,  in  the  general  stagnation  of  politics, 
seized  upon  it  as  an  "issue"  in  the  general  election  of  1754,  and 
tried  to  rouse  the  country  with  the  cry,  "Give  us  back  our  eleven 


896  THE    OCEAN    EMPIRE    SECXJRED  [georgeIL 

days."  Another  important  measure  of  the  era  was  the  "Marringe 
Act"  of  1753,  by  which  only  such  marriages  were  recognized  as 
legal  as  were  performed  by  a  regular  clergyman  of  the  Anglican 
Church  after  the  banns  had  been  published  for  three  successive 
Sundays  in  the  parishes  of  the  bride  and  bridegroom.  A  penalty 
of  seven  years'  transportation  imposed  on  the  celebrant  put  an 
end  to  the  romantic  marriages  so  long  associated  with  the  name 
of  the  Fleet. 

In  1751  the  death  of  Frederick  Prince  of  Wales  greatly  weak- 
ened the  Whig  opposition,  and  the  king  felt  himself  strong  enough 

to  compel  the  Pelliams  to  allow  Earl  Granville  to 
ofanviiie.       return  as   President    of  the    Council,   while  Bedford, 

the  Southern  Secretary,  gave  way  to  Holder nesse.  On 
March  6,  1754,  Henry  Pelham  closed  his  long  and  useful  career. 
He  had  been  a  timid  man,  without  any  of  Carteret's  brilliant  dash. 
But  his  timidity  had  served  him  a  good  turn;  for  it  led  him 
to  surround  himself  with  a  corps  of  able  men,  who  imparted  an 
unwonted  solidity  and  strength  to  his  ministry  as  a  whole,  at  the 
same  time  that  the  reaction  from  Carteret's  methods  enabled  him 
to  restore  the  saner  and  syrer  peace  policy  of  Walpole. 

Thomas  Pelham,  the  duke  of  Newcastle,  succeeded  to  Henry 
Pelham's  place  as  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury.     After  a  brief  trial 

of    Sir   Thomas    Kobinson  as   Secretary  of  State,   the 

The  New-  .    .  .  *^  ,         i      -, 

ccuitiemin-  position  was  givcn  to  Henry  Fox.  Pitt  who  had 
opposed  Robinson  lost  his  position  in  the  ministry.  The 
new  ministry,  however,  was  already  sailing  in  troubled  waters. 
France  and  England,  so  effectually  kept  apart  at  home  by  the 
Channel,  "the  accursed  ditch"  as  Maria  Theresa  had  called  it, 
were  already  beginning  to  crowd  each  other  along  their  outposts 
in  the  new  world  and  in  India. 

England's  American  colonies  had  been  growing  rapidly  during 
the  century  and  their  population  already  mounted  up  to  nearly 
Condition  of  ^nc-fourth  of  that  of  the  mother  country.  Their  wealth 
in^thenew^  ^^^  increasing  even  faster  than  their  population.  In 
world.  lY^Q   northern   colonies    this   wealth    was    still   pretty 

evenly  distributed.  The  democracy  of  wealth  was  also  attended 
by  a  democracy  in  education;  illiteracy  was  virtually  unknown. 


1752]  ENGLAND    AND   FRANCE   IN   NEW   WOKLD  S9t 

In  religious  beliefs  the  colonists  varied  widely,  but  their  differences 
took  on  nothing  of  the  political  pugnacity  of  the  old  world.  The 
mother  country  had  for  the  most  part  left  them  to  themselves, 
content  to  monopolize  their  trade  with  the  old  world.  The  colo- 
nists were  satisfied;  the  right  of  monopoly  was  the  commonly 
accepted  doctrine  of  Europe,  and  restriction  in  trade  was  fully 
compensated  by  the  protection  which  the  colonists  enjoyed  as 
British  subjects.  They  led  a  free  and  independent  life,  proud  of 
their  institutions  and  proud  of  their  birthright  as  Englishmen. 

From  the  first  the  relation  of  the  English  colonists  to  their 
French  neighbors  had  been  one  of  suspicion.     Each  new  outbreak 

in  Europe  had  had  its  echoes  in  the  western  wilderness, 
Fralwein^'^  where  the  three  great  wars  which  had  followed  the 
woridL^  Revolution  were  known  respectively  as  **  William  and 

Mary's  War,'*  ** Queen  Anne's  War,"  and  **King 
George's  War."  Heretofore,  however,  these  colonial  wars  had 
been  largely  sympathetic  and  had  no  real  occasion  in  conditions 
existing  in  the  new  world.  But  soon  after  the  Treaty  of  Aachen 
the  French  began  to  show  alarming  signs  of  making  good  their 
claims  to  the  great  Mississippi  basin  by  assuming  an  aggressive 
attitude  towards  the  few  English  colonists  who  had  had  the  hardi- 
hood to  penetrate  the  Alleghanies  and  settle  about  the  upper 
streams  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Kentucky.  The  French  had  already 
built  two  lines  of  forts  and  block  houses;  the  one  extending  from 
the  present  site  of  Chicago  along  the  Illinois  to  the  Mississippi, 
and  the  other  from  the  present  site  of  Detroit  along  the  line  of  the 
Wabash  to  the  Ohio.  They  now  began  a  third  line  from  the 
eastern  end  of  Lake  Erie  to  the  point  where  the  two  great  rivers 
of  western  Pennsylvania  unite  to  form  the  Ohio.  Here  in  1752, 
Duquesne,  the  new  governor  of  Canada,  built  the  fort  which  bore 
his  name.  The  English  ministry  were  not  blind  to  the  signifi- 
cance of  these  encroachments  and  encouraged  the  colonial  govern- 
ors to  assert  their  claims  to  the  disputed  territories.  The  more 
remote  colonial  governments,  however,  were  by  no  means  inclined 
to  enter  into  an  expensive  war  for  objects  in  which  they  regarded 
themselves  as  hardly  concerned.  Even  Pennsylvania  was  inclined 
to  content  itself  with  the  region  east  of  the  mountains  rather  than 


898  THE   OCEA]sr   EMPIRE   SECURED  [qeouge  ii. 

violate  the  religious  principles  of  its  Quaker  population  by  going 
to  war.  A  feeble  attempt  of  Virginia  to  reduce  Fort  Duquesne  in 
1754  still  further  satisfied  the  home  government  that  its  active 
assistance  was  needed,  and  in  1755  it  determined  in  concert  with 
the  colonies  to  take  active  means  to  break  down  the  new  fence 
which  Duquesne  had  drawn  across  their  western  frontier.  The 
British  officers,  however,  unacquainted  with  frontier  fighting,  were 
no  match  for  the  French  and  their  Indian  allies.  On  July  9, 
1755,  the  British  General  Braddock,  while  marching  to  attack 
Fort  Duquesne,  was  taken  in  ambuscade  and  lost  more  than  one 
half  of  his  little  army  of  fifteen  hundred  men.  The  erection  of 
Fort  William  Henry  on  Lake  Qeorge  to  confront  the  Frencli  fort 
at  Ticonderoga,  and  the  deportation  of  the  French  settlers  of 
Acadia  which  had  fallen  to  the  English  as  a  result  of  the  War  of 
the  Spanish  Succession,  could  not  atone  for  Braddock's  defeat. 
The  government  could  not  shut  its  eyes  to  the  seriousness  of  the 
situation.  England  was  again  confronted  by  a  war  with  France. 
Since  the  accession  of  the  Georges,  in  every  struggle  of  Eng- 
land on  the  continent  the  vulnerable  point  of  England  lay,  not  in 
America  or  India,  but  in  Hanover,  and  although  in  the 
wmof  West-  act  which  had  made  George  I.  king,  English  statesmen 
Janua7-v,  had  attempted  to  disclaim  any  responsibility  for  the 
continental  possessions  of  his  house,  the  enemies  of 
England  were  not  inclined  to  respect  the  disclaimer,  or  distinguish 
between  the  possessions  of  the  King  of  England  and  the  possessions 
of  the  Elector  of  Hanover.  Carteret  had  boldly  accepted  these 
conditions  and  made  a  league  between  England  and  Hanover  the 
pivot  of  his  foreign  policy ;  a  measure  which  pleased  no  one  more 
than  George  II.  himself.  But  the  nation  had  repudiated  Carteret 
and  his  policy,  and  the  Pelhams  had  returned  to  the  older  policy 
of  depending  upon  Holland  rather  than  Hanover  as  a  base  of  oper- 
ation against  France.  The  Dutch,  however,  had  proved  but  a 
broken  reed,  and  in  1755,  the  Newcastle  ministry  was  as  hard  put 
to  it  as  ever  for  an  efficient  ally  on  the  continent.  In  a  war  with 
France,  Austria,  the  long  time  enemy  of  the  Bourbons  and  ally  of 
England,  might  be  depended  on;  but  if  Austria  entered  the  lists, 
Prussia  would  be  sure  to  arm     %pmst  Austria,  and  the  necessity 


1756]  THE    SEVEN    YEARS'    WAR  899 

of  protecting  Hanover  would  again  confront  the  English.  If, 
however,  Prussia  could  be  persuaded  to  unite  with  England  against 
France,  the  old  time  feud  of  France  and  Austria  might  prevent 
Austria  from  joining  with  France.  But  George,  as  Elector  of  Han- 
over, had  no  wish  to  see  Prussia,  his  rival  in  north  Germany, 
strengthened  by  a  league  with  England,  and  proposed  instead  to 
subsidize  Russia  to  defeud  Hanover.  Here  a  new  difficulty  con- 
fronted the  mitiistry,  for  Frederick  declared  that  he  would  never 
suffer  Russian  troops  to  enter  German  territory,  and  even  Newcastle 
refused  to  support  the  king  iu  a  measure  which  was  sure  to  add 
the  now  powerful  military  state  of  Prussia  to  the  enemies  of  Eng- 
land. The  proposal  to  subsidize  Russia,  therefore,  was  finally 
abandoned,  and  George  was  compelled  to  enter  into  the  '* Conven- 
tion of  Westminster,"  by  which  both  Hanover  and  Prussia  were  to 
remain  neutral  in  case  of  a  war  with  France. 

The  English  ministers,  however,  were  not  left  long  to  congrat- 
ulate themselves  on  the  success  of  their  diplomacy.  They  had  not 
taken  into  account  the  bitterness  of  Maria  Theresa's 
alliance  of  feelings  towards  Frederick.  No  sooner  had  she  heard 
France,' and  of  the  Convention  of  Westminster  than  she  at  once 
dispatched  messengers  to  Paris  to  offer  her  support  to 
her  old  foe.  She  was  already  certain  of  the  support  of  Russia, 
whose  wayward  Czarina  Elizabeth  had  suffered  from  the  caustic 
wit  of  her  brilliant  neighbor  and  made  no  secret  of  her  desire  to 
overwhelm  Prussia,  and  in  fact  for  ten  years  had  been  in  secret 
league  with  Austria  against  Frederick.  When,  therefore,  on  April 
22  the  Russian  minister  formally  proposed  to  Austria  to  unite 
the  arms  of  the  two  powers  for  the  dismemberment  of  Prussia, 
the  Russian  government  was  simply  pursuing  a  policy  long  since 
consciously  adopted.  Thus  if  the  English  ministers  had  assured 
themselves  of  the  safety  of  Hanover,  they  had  little  but  mischief 
to  expect  from  the  secret  messages  which  were  passing  between 
Vienna  and  the  capitals  of  France  and  Russia. 

Thus  began  the  ** Seven  Years'  War."  The  outlook  for  Eng- 
land was  gloomy  enough.  Braddock's  defeat  was  still  fresh  in 
the  popular  mind.  Boscawen  had  attempted  to  prevent  the  French 
from  sending  reinforcements  to  Canada  and  had  failed.     In  India 


900  THE    OCEAN    EMPIKE    SECURED  [geoegeIL 

there  had  just  closed  a  long  and  bloody  struggle  between  the  agents 
of   the   English   company  and  the  agents  of    the    French  com- 
pany, in  which  the  English  had  held  their  own  with 
The  Seven      great  difficulty  and  had  been  saved  only  by  the  daring 

Years'  War     *-'  •'  .j      j  o 

begun.  of   the  young  ensign  Robert  Olive.     The  ministry  in 

their  efforts  to  save  Hanover  had  won  Prussia,  but  they 
had  lost  Austria  and  made  an  enemy  of  Russia,  who  had  no  cause 
of  quarrel  with  England  whatever  save  her  new  friendship  for 
Frederick.  Moreover,  while  the  ministry  were  thus  botching  the 
whole  matter  of  a  foreign  alliance,  little  was  done  to  prepare  for 
the  immediate  strain  of  the  war ;  not  only  were  incompetent  men  left 
in  command  of  the  fleets,  but  when  1756  opened,  the  government 
did  not  have  three  regiments  in  England  that  were  fit  for  service. 
France,  on  the  other  hand,  with  a  vigor  and  energy  that  reminds 
one  of  the  great  days  of  Louis  XIV.,  was  not  only  fully  prepared, 
but  was  moving  promptly  and  swiftly  to  take  full  advantage  of  the 
dilatory  English  ministry.  In  April  1756  the  duke  of  Richelieu 
began  the  siege  of  Port  Mahon  in  Minorca,  the  *'key  of  the  Medi- 
terranean," at  that  time  regarded  of  more  importance  than 
Gibraltar.  Admiral  John  Byng,  the  son  of  the  Admiral  Byng 
who  had  won  such  honors  for  the  English  flag  in  1718,  was  sent 
to  relieve  the  garrison,  but  retired  to  Gibraltar,  and  allowed  the 
whole  island  to  pass  into  French  hands.  Evil  news  also  came  from 
America  where  in  August  Montcalm  had  captured  Fort  Oswego  on 
Lake  Ontario.  But,  if  this  were  depressing,  from  India  came 
news  that  roused  Englishmen  to  madness.  Surajah 
surajah  Dowlah  had  become  Nawab  of  Bengal  early  in  1756. 
'^Biack'Hou  He  was  a  sworn  enemy  of  the  **hatmen"  as  he  called 
1756.  '  the  Europeans,  and  roused  by  the  long  struggle  between 
the  English  and  French  which  had  just  closed  in  June, 
he  laid  siege  to  Calcutta  and  forced  it  to  surrender  in  four  days. 
Happily  the  women  had  been  taken  on  board  the  ships  in  the  river 
and  had  already  sailed  away  with  the  governor.  But  the  little 
garrison  of  146  men  were  shut  up  for  safe  keeping  in  the  old  gar- 
rison prison,  a  strong  room  twenty  feet  square  and  ventilated  only 
by  two  small  iron  barred  windows.  Here  without  air  or  water,  the 
prisoners  were  left  through  the  stifling  hours  of  an  Indian  midsum- 


1757]  THE    KEWCASTLE-PITT   MINISTRY  901 

mer  night.  In  the  morning  only  twenty -three  of  the  one  hundred 
and  forty-six  men  were  alive.  When  the  story  reached  England  of 
that  night  of  horror  in  the  '* Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,"  where  strong 
men  in  the  agony  of  suffocation  wrestled  in  the  darkness  and 
trampled  upon  each  other  in  a  mad  struggle  to  get  near  the  two 
holes  that  served  for  windows,  the  people  iu  their  wrath  turned 
upon  the  duke  of  Newcastle,  whose  incompetence  they  made 
responsible  for  the  long  series  of  blunders  and  misfortunes. 

In  November  Newcastle  resigned,  and  the  enthusiastic  support 
of  the  great  commercial  class  practically  forced  upon  the   king 

William  Pitt,  the  one  man  whom  the  nation  had  come 
zatlmofm'e  to  look  upon  as  able  to  save  England  from  going  the 
PiitSiittry.  way   of  her  possessions  in   the    Mediterranean.      The 

Whig  oligarchy,  however,  who  had  so  long  ruled  Eng- 
land, were  suspicious  of  the  brilliant  minister,  who,  although  he 
had  been  in  parliament  since  1735,  was  still  a  poor  man.  His 
integrity  was  a  constant  rebuke  to  his  corrupt  colleagues,  nor 
did  he  try  to  conceal  his  contempt  for  them  and  their  methods. 
The  king,  also,  did  not  take  to  the  haughty  minister,  nor  could 
he  forget  his  violent  opposition  to  the  Russian  subsidy  treaties. 
The  nation  was  for  Pitt;  but  it  was  still  the  day  of  seven-year 
parliaments,  and  the  principle  of  giving  the  people  an  opportunity 
to  express  their  opinion  at  a  crisis  by  a  new  election  had  not  yet 
been  adopted.  Newcastle,  moreover,  the  late  minister,  who  under- 
stood and  practiced  the  old  Danby  methods  of  ** influence,"  was  the 
expert  master  of  the  House,  and  used  his  power  so  effectually  that 
in  April  1757  the  king  ventured  to  dismiss  Pitt  and  recall  New- 
castle. Then  followed  a  bitter  struggle  of  three  months  which  ended 
at  last  in  a  compromise,  in  which  Newcastle  remained  Lord  of  the 
Treasury,  but  Pitt  and  Holdernesse  became  the  Secretaries  of  State. 
As  thus  organized,  the  new  ministry  was  one  of  great  strength. 
Pitt,  with  a  foresight  and  enthusiasm  all  but  inspired,  fully  grasped 

the  opportunity  which  opened  before  England  in  the 

strength  of        -,./.»•;.,  ^     .  ,  ^    ,         „., 

the  new  direction  01  colonial  expansion  and  conquest.     When 

the  coolest  statesmen  were  gloomily  discussing  the  loss 

of  the  colonies  altogether  and  the  collapse  of  England's  prestige 

among  the  powers  of  Europe,  Pitt  saw  England  rising  from  the 


902  THE    OCEAN    EMPIRE    SECUEED  [qeorgeII. 

struggle,  her  glory  undimmed,  her  prestige  unmatched,  and 
her  colonial  empire  without  a  rival.  He  saw  too,  what  had  been 
hidden  from  the  petty  politicians  of  his  day  who  had  for  a  genera- 
tion been  knocking  their  heads  together  in  the  murky  atmosphere 
of  parliamentary  quarrels,  that  the  salvation  of  Britain  lay  in 
adopting  a  more  generous  attitude  toward  the  greater  Britain 
beyond  the  seas,  in  treating  British  communities  everywhere  as 
members  of  the  governing  firm  and  not  as  subject  peoples  to  be 
ruled  as  servants  or  to  be  exploited  for  the  enrichment  of  a  few- 
monopolists  at  home.  So  broad  were  his  sympathies  that  he 
conld  find  place  in  this  larger  family  even  for  Hanover;  he 
declared  that  Hanover  was  as  dear  to  him  as  Hampshire,  that  he 
knew  no  local  attachment,  and  that  it  was  a  matter  of  indifference 
to  him  where  a  Briton  was  cradled.  Nor  did  his  lofty  faith  in  the 
destiny  of  his  country,  or  the  fervor  of  his  enthusiasm  outrun  his 
ability  to  inspire  others  or  command  the  elements  of  success.  He 
possessed  a  marvelous  skill  in  selecting  his  agents.  His  courage 
was  infectious,  and  no  man  left  his  presence  without  something  of 
his  confidence.  Newcastle  was  bad  company,  and  it  seems  strange 
at  first  thought  that  a  man  of  Pitt's  undoubted  integrity  should 
ever  consent  to  accept  such  a  running  mate.  But  Pitt's  weakness 
lay  in  dealing  with  the  House.  Though  called  the  "Great  Com- 
moner," no  acknowledged  leader  ever  had  less  personal  influence 
than  he  among  the  politicians  of  his  day ;  and  yet  to  succeed  as  a 
minister,  he  must  have  the  steady  support  of  the  Commons.  He 
left  Newcastle,  therefore,  to  manage  the  House,  while  he,  to  use 
his  own  expression,  '^borrowed  Newcastle's  majority"  to  save  the 
British  Empire. 

The  alliance  of  Prussia  had  as  yet  not  been  of  any  service  to 
England.     It  had  not    even   saved   Hanover.     In   August    1756 

Frederick  had  struck  at  the  nearest  of  his  possible 
The  war  on  enemies,  the  elector  of  Saxony,  taking  Dresden  and 
nent,i756.       compelling  the  surrender  of  the  Saxon  army  at  Pirna. 

The  act  was  legally  a  serious  violation  of  the  laws  of 
the  empire;  for  Saxony  had  not  yet  openly  joined  the  enemies  of 
Frederick.  But  Frederick  had  received  conclusive  evidence  that 
the  moment  the  elector  dared  he  would  join  the  foes  of  Prussia. 


1757]  THE    PAETITIOI^r   TREATIES  903 

Frederick's  enemies  raised  a  great  cry  in  order  to  make  the  most 
of  what  they  were  pleased  to  style  the  wanton  aggression  of  the 
Prussian  king,  and  in  1757  succeeded  in  putting  him  under  the 
ban  of  the  Empire.* 

Frederick's  showy  victories,  therefore,  had  only  raised  up  new 
enemies  and  hastened  the  scheming  of  the  old.      In  February  Rus- 
sia and  Austria  at  last  ao^reed  upon  the  terms  of  a  Par- 

The  Parti- 

mn  Treaties,  tition  Treaty,  and  in  May  Austria  and  France  signed  a 
similar  treaty  at  Versailles.  Saxony-Poland,  Sweden, 
and  the  elector  of  the  Palatine,  as  well  as  Austria,  France,  and 
Russia,  were  to  be  the  beneficiaries.  Frederick  had  not  been 
ignorant  of  the  purport  of  the  diplomatic  haggling  which  had  been 
going  on  at  Paris  and  Vienna,  and  if  he  had  struck  without  waiting 
for  his  enemies  to  complete  their  plans,  it  was  to  secure  the  first 
advantage  in  the  unequal  conflict  which  he  knew  was  at  hand  and 
was  inevitable.  He  was  not  deterred,  therefore,  by  the  outcry  which 
his  attack  on  Saxony  had  raised,  and  followed  it  up  in  the  spring 
by  the  invasion  of  Bohemia.  On  May  6  he  won  a  hard  fought 
battle  before  Prague,  but  in  June  he  was  defeated  by  Daun  at 
Kolin  and  compelled  to  withdraw.  His  enemies  followed  him  into 
his  own  territories.  Daun  and  Charles  of  Lorraine  swept  into 
Silesia,  while  a  Russian  army  of  100,000  men  poured  into  eastern 
Prussia,  taking  Memel  and  defeating  Frederick's  Marshal  Lehwald 
at  Gross-Jiigersdorf  on  August  30.  The  Swedes,  also,  who  had 
joined  in  the  war,  were  pouring  into  Pomerania.  The  French  in 
the  meanwhile  had  advanced  from  the  west,  seizing  the  possessions 
of  the  Prussian  monarch  on  the  lower  Rhine,  entering  western 
Hanover,  defeating  the  duke  of  Cumberland  at  Hastenbeck  July 
26,  and  finally  driving  him  back  to  the  Elbe,  where  they  compelled 
him  in  the  *' Convention  of  Closter-Seven"  to  agree  to  disband  his 
army  altogether. 

While  Frederick's  enemies  were  thus  pressing  upon  him  from 
all  points  of  the  compass  and  the  erasure  of  Prussia  from  the  map 
of  Europe  seemed  at  hand,  his  allies  were  repeating  the  series 

*  The  Emperor  Charles  VII.  had  died  in  Jan.  1745  and  Maria  Theresa's 
husband,  Francis,  had  been  elected  to  succeed  him,  (Sept.  13)  in  spite  of 
the  opposition  of  Frederick. 


904  THE    OCEAN^    EMPIRE    SECURED  [georqk  II. 

of  failures  of  the  preceding  year.  The  unlucky  Byng  was  court- 
martialed  and  shot  on  his  own  quarter-deck, — as  Voltaire  observed, 
Further  **^^  cncourage  the  rest."  An  expedition  under  Ilawke 
dSisr8  ^^^  Mor daunt  against  Rochefort  ended  in  ignominious 
1757.  disaster.     Loudon    and  Holbourne    set    out   to    take 

Quebec  but  accomplished  nothing.  In  August  Fort  William 
Henry,  after  a  brave  defense  by  the  gallant  Colonel  Monro,  was 
forced  to  capitulate,  and  a  part  of  the  garrison  were  massacred  by 
a  lot  of  drunken  savages  who  had  broken  away  from  the  control  of 
Montcalm  and  his  officers. 

It  was  at  this  darkest  hour  of  the  struggle,  when  Hanover  had 
been  forced  to  pledge  itself  to  a  disgraceful  neutrality,  when  Prus- 
sia had  been  overrun,  when  the  navy  of  England  had 
theude'm?  ^^^^  driven  from  the  Mediterranean,  when  her  troops 
had  been  expelled  from  the  Ohio  country  and  the  last 
vestige  of  her  power  had  been  destroyed  within  the  basin  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  that  the  unseemly  quarrel  between  the  Whig 
leaders  was  healed,  and  Pitt,  given  a  free  hand  in  the  conduct  of 
the  war,  began  to  marshal  the  mighty  strength  of  the  empire  and 
impart  something  of  his  own  feverish  energy,  his  enthusiasm,  and 
his  sublime  courage,  to  the  armies  and  navies  of  Britain.  The 
strings  thrilled  with  a  new  touch.  Frederick  recognized  the  hand 
of  a  master  and  exclaimed,  "At  last  England  has  brought  forth 
aman. "  Yet  the  first  successes  were  quite  independent  of  any 
influence  of  Pitt  or  his  fellow  ministers.  At  the  very  darkest 
moment  of  Frederick's  career,  when  England  was  paralyzed  and 
Hanover  disarmed,  when  his  own  kingdom  was  overrun  from  the 
east  and  the  south,  and  his  enemies  were  actually  levying  requisi- 
tions in  the  streets  of  Berlin,  the  cloud  suddenly  rifted  at  Ross- 
bach;  on  ]N"ovember  5,  1757,  Frederick  swept  down  upon  a  com- 
bined French  and  Austrian  army  of  twice  the  size  of  his  own  and 
completely  overwhelmed  it.  A  month  later  a  second  victory  at 
Leuthen  recovered  Breslau  and  saved  Silesia.  In  the  meanwhile 
swift  sailing  ships  were  bringing  great  news  from  India.  Olive, 
whom  ill  health  had  compelled  to  return  to  England,  was  again  on 
his  way  to  the  scene  of  his  earlier  triumphs,  when  the  Seven  Years' 
War  opened.     At  Madras  he  heard  of  the  Black  Hole  of  Oal- 


1757]  PL  ASSET  905 

cutta  and  at  once  prepared  to  show  Surajah  Dowlah  how 
Englishmen  could  fight  when  once  their  blood  was  roused.  After 
a  few,  sharp,  quick  blows,  by  which  he  recovered  both  Calcutta 
and  Hugli,  in  February  he  compelled  the  terrified  Nawab  to  make 
peace.  The  French,  however,  and  not  the  English,  were  still  the 
great  people  of  India,  and  the  rumor  of  the  new  war  encouraged 
Surajah  Dowlah  to  think  that  with  their  support  he  had  no 
occasion  to  fear  his  recent  foes.  But  Clive,  without  waiting  for 
the  treacherous  Nawab  to  strike,  at  once  began  hostilities  on  his 
own  account  and  in  May  took  Chandernagor.  The  Nawab  sum- 
moned his  vassal  princes  to  arms,  and  on  the  22d  of  June  lay 
encamped  on  the  plains  of  Plassey;  a  vast  host  of  35,000  foot  and 
15,000  horse,  supported  by  50  cannon.  To  oppose  them  Clive 
could  muster  only  800  Europeans  and  some  2,000  Sepoys,  or  native 
Indian  troops,  and  8  cannon.  A  council  of  war  advised  a  retreat; 
but  Clive  knew  that  the  hosts  of  Surajah  Dowlah  were  honeycombed 
with  dissatisfaction  and  treason ;  he  held  in  his  own  hands  the 
strings  of  an  extensive  plot  among  the  Bengalese,  and,  knowing  that 
if  these  men  were  to  be  trusted  he  really  had  nothing  to  fear,  on 
the  morning  of  the  23d  he  advanced  to  give  battle  to  his  huge 
antagonist.  The  vast  host  which  covered  the  plain  was  thrown 
into  confusion  as  soon  as  the  English  cannon  shot  began  to 
ricochet  among  the  dense  ranks,  and  at  the  first  charge  of  the 
English  broke  and  fled.  The  moral  effect  of  the  victory  upon 
the  oriental  mind  was  final.  The  superiority  of  the  English  sol- 
diers and  of  European  methods  of  war  over  the  Indian  was  accepted, 
and  from  henceforth  the  supremacy  of  the  English  in  the  Orient 
was  unquestioned. 

Pitt's  policy  was  simple.     He  proposed  to  support  Frederick 
by  restoring  the  military  strength  of  Hanover  and  by  pouring  Eng- 
lish gold  into  the  wasted  treasury  of  Prussia,  while  he 
v^icu  himself  gathered  all  the  fighting  strength  of  the  British 

Empire  to  meet  France  on  the  seas  and  wherever  their 
colonial  interests  came  into  contact.  Accordingly  he  persuaded 
George  to  repudiate  the  Convention  of  Closter-Seven  while  he 
gathered  an  army  of  English  and  Hanoverians  on  the  Elbe  under 
Ferdinand  of  Brunswick,  one  of  the  ablest  of  Frederick's  generals; 


906  THE    OCEAN    EMPIRE    SECURED  [george  ii. 

in  April  he  agreed  in  a  new  subsidy  treaty  to  furnish  Frederick 
with  £670,000  a  year.  In  America,  he  planned  for  a  grand  series 
of  attacks  along  the  whole  line  of  frontier.  The  uniform  success 
of  these  enterprises  vindicated  their  wisdom.  On  July  8,  Aber- 
crombie  failed  in  the  attack  on  Ticonderoga.  But  on  the  26th, 
Boscawen  and  Amherst  took  Louisburg  and  as  a  result  the  English 
secured  both  Cape  Breton  Island  and  St.  John,  now  Prince 
Edward  Island.  In  August  Bradstreet  with  a  colonial  army  cap- 
tured Frontenac,  and  in  November  Forbes  took  Fort  Duquesne 
and  renamed  it  Fort  Pitt.  In  other  parts  of  the  world  the  same 
intelligent  vigor  brought  equal  laurels  to  the  English  arms.  In 
May  the  English  seized  Fort  St.  Louis  in  Senegal,  and  in  Decem- 
ber added  Goree  Island  off  Cape  Verde.  Expeditions  Avere  also 
dispatched  directly  against  the  arsenals  of  St.  Malo  and  Cherbourg. 
The  French  saved  St.  Malo,  but  Cherbourg  and  its  stores  were 
destroyed.  In  June  the  Prince  of  Brunswick  defeated  the  French 
at  Crefeld  and  drove  them  out  of  western  Germany.  Frederick 
in  the  meantime  continued  to  hold  his  own,  on  August  25  beating 
the  Russians  at  Zorndorf  on  the  Oder,  and  though  surprised  by 
Daun  at  Hochkirchen  in  October,  finally  drove  the  Austrians  out 
of  Saxony. 

The    next   year,    however,   was    gloomy  enough   for   Prussia. 

From  all  sides  Frederick's  powerful  neighbors  advanced  to  attack 

his  little  kingdom.     On  August   12,  a  combined  Aus- 

The  year  of  o  ' 

Minden,  trian-Russian  army  routed  him  at  Kunersdorf.  A  few 
Quiberon,  days  later  Daun  took  Dresden,  and  an  attempt  of  the 
Prussians  to  regain  their  lost  ground  met  with  a  terri- 
ble punishment.  Yet  Frederick  had  no  thought  of  submission, 
and  winter  found  him  still  at  bay  behind  his  frontiers,  as  plucky 
and  determined  as  ever,  while  his  enemies  were  practically  back  to 
the  point  from  which  they  had  started  in  the  spring.  Moreover,  if 
the  year  had  gone  hard  against  Frederick,  the  tide  of  fortune  had 
rolled  in  strong  for  England.  The  year  1759  was  the  year  of 
Minden,  Quebec,  and  Quiberon.  France  had  planned  to  match 
the  mighty  armament  which  Austria  and  Russia  were  to  pour  into 
Prussia,  by  throwing  an  army  of  50,000  men  into  Hanover. 
Prince  Ferdinand  was  compelled  to  retire  before  the  advancing 


1759,  1760]  THE    YEAR    OF    QUEBEC  907 

army,  losing  many  men  at  Bergen  on  April  13.  But  in  August, 
although  greatly  outnumbered,  he  confronted  the  French  Marshals, 
Contades  and  Broglie,  at  Mindeii.  The  chief  feature  of  the  battle 
was  a  noble  charge  of  six  English  regiments,  which  broke  the 
French  center  and  in  an  hour's  time  decided  the  fortunes  of  the 
day.  The  French  army,  completely  shattered,  was  compelled  to 
fall  back  on  the  Khine,  and  Hanover  was  again  saved.  So  rapidly 
came  the  victories  now  that  Englishmen  ceased  to  wonder;  Byng 
and  Minorca,  Braddock  and  Fort  Duquesne,  were  forgotten  in  the 
marvelous  news  that  came  from  Madras,  from  Ceylon,  from 
Guadeloupe,  from  Havre,  which  Rodney  bombarded  for  fifty  hours, 
destroying  an  entire  fleet  which  was  equipping  for  a  descent  upon 
England,  from  Lagos  in  Portugal  where  Boscawen  sank  the  French 
Mediterranean  fleet,  and  again  from  Quiberon  Bay,  where  on 
November  20,  Sir  Edward  Hawke  in  spite  of  rocky  reefs  and 
rolling  seas,  engaged  and  annihilated  the  French  Channel  fleet. 
Then  the  bells  had  hardly  ceased  ringing  when  from  America 
came  the  news  of  the  triumph  of  the  year,  the  capture  of  Quebec 
by  Wolfe  on  September  18. 

The  English  had  now  passed  from  a  war  of  defense  to  one  of 
conquest.     It  was  Pitt's  purpose  to  exterminate  the  sea  power  of 

France  and  appropriate  her  colonial  possessions  wher- 
chaiwein  ever  they  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  The 
the  war,  1760.  next    year    the    nagging    enemy    was    pushed    more 

remorselessly  than  ever.  On  January  22  Count  Lally, 
the  son  of  an  Irish  refugee,  who  after  the  retirement  of  Dupleix 
had  been  made  the  French  Governor- General  of  India,  was  defeated 
by  Colonel  Eyre  Coote  at  Wandewash,  and  in  1761  the  siege  and 
capture  of  Pondi cherry  virtually  ended  the  French  occupation 
of  the  Karnatik.  Although  the  trading  stations  were  restored  in 
the  subsequent  treaty  of  peace,  the  now  well  established  supremacy 
of  England  on  the  sea  put  an  end  to  all  further  competition  in 
India.  England  was  mistress  in  the  Orient.  In  America  the 
French  with  their  forts  gone,  Quebec  taken,  and  Montcalm  dead, 
made  but  a  feeble  resistance,  and  with  the  surrender  of  Montreal 
on  September  8,  1760,  the  French  occupation  of  Canada  also 
came  to  an  end. 


908  THE    OCEAN    EMPIRE    SECURED  [geoege  ill. 

On  the  continent,  however,  England's  ally  was  beginning  to 
show  unmistakable  signs  of  exhaustion.  Prussia  could  not  stand 
the  terrible  strain  much  longer.  England  might  continue  her 
supplies  of  money,  but  she  could  not  restore  the  young  manhood 
of  Prussia,  with  whose  graves  a  score  of  battlefields  were  fur- 
rowed. Prince  Ferdinand  kept  up  the  fight  in  Westphalia,  but  he 
was  forced  to  allow  the  French  to  winter  in  western  Germany. 
Frederick  himself  could  not  turn  rapidly  enough  from  frontier  to 
frontier  to  meet  his  many  enemies,  and  the  very  moment  when  far 
away  in  the  south  he  was  retaking  Leipsic  and  overwhelming  Daun 
at  Torgau,  the  Russians  were  ravaging  Brandenburg  and  occupying 
Berlin. 

Torgau,  November  1760,  was  the  last  pitched  battle  of  the  war 
on  the  continent.  George  II.  had  died  October  25,  1760,  and  with 
the  new  king  an  entirely  new  phase  was  given  to  English  politics. 
George  III.  shrank  from  the  war  of  conquest  which  Pitt  was  now 
waging ;  but  more  serious  than  his  opposition  to  Pitt's  policy  of 
* 'coloring  the  map  red,"  was  his  determination  to  end  the  long 
reign  of  the  Whig  oligarchy  and  rescue  the  crown  from  the  tyranny 
of  the  constitutional  conventions  by  which  the  Whigs  had  main- 
tained their  power.  He  had  been  nurtured  in  the  atmosphere  of 
Bolingbroke's  ''Patriot  King,"  and  believed  in  his  right  to  govern 
as  well  as  his  right  to  reign.  He  believed,  also,  that  if  he  would 
escape  slavery  to  a  faction  he  must  place  himself  above  parties. 

From  the  first,  therefore,  the  new  king  was  opposed  to  the 
Newcastle-Pitt  ministry,  and  was  determined  to  end  both  the 
armaments  of  Pitt  and  the  methods  of  Newcastle.  His 
Nfl?^tie-  ^^^^^  adviser  was  John  Stuart,  Earl  of  Bute,  his  old 
Pitt  minis-  tutor,  a  Tory  of  the  Bolingbroke  type,  who  regarded  the 
overthrow  of  the  Whig  power  of  paramount  importance 
to  all  other  issues.  In  March,  upon  the  retirement  of  Holdemesse, 
Pitt's  colleague  in  the  Secretaryship,  Bute  was  put  in  his  place. 
Between  Pitt  and  Bute  there  could  be  no  harmony  and  on  October 
5,  1761  Pitt  offered  his  resignation.  "He  had  been  called  to 
the  ministry,"  he  said,  "by  the  voice  of  the  people  and  as  he  was 
accountable  to  them,  he  would  not  remain  responsible  for  meas- 
ures which  he  was  not  allowed  to  guide."     In  May  1762,  upon  the 


1761-1763]  THE   TREATY    OF   PARIS  909 

withdrawal  of  the  subsidies  from  Prussia,  which  had  so  long 
formed  the  basis  of  the  Newcastle- Pitt  policy,  Newcastle  also 
retired. 

Thus  ended  one  of  the  strongest  ministries  that  England  has 

ever   known ;  but  its  work   was  already  done.     In  August   1761 

Spain,  led  by  her  new  king,  Charles  III.,  renewed  the 

(^  peace.         lamily  compact  with  I  ranee,  but  her  assistance  counted 

Bourbon        little  in  the  balance  against  the  overwhelming  supe- 

Family  Com-      .      .  -    -^^       ,        ,  ^         »  &         ^ 

pact, August   riority  of   England.       In   August   1762  Rodney   took 
Havana  and  in  October  Draper  took  Manila.     It  was 
evident  that  it  was  useless  to  carry  the  war  further;  the  interfer- 
ence of  Spain  had  only  dragged  down  her  colonial  empire  with 
the  wreck  of  the  French.     In  November  preliminaries 

TheTreatyof  .  i         -r^  .      ,  ,  -, 

Parui,Fehnir  01  pcacc  wcrc  Signed  at  Fontaineblean,  and  on  February 
10th  following,  were  finally  accepted  at  Paris  by  the 
three  western  powers,  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Spain.  By  the 
terms  of  these  treaties  (1)  France  ceded  to  England  Canada  and 
Cape  Breton  Island,  the  Island  of  Granada  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
her  possessions  in  Africa  on  the  Senegal;  the  Mississippi  was 
recognized  as  the  boundary  between  Louisiana  and  the  British 
colonies.  (2)  Spain  ceded  Florida  to  England,  having  already 
received  Louisiana  from  France  as  indemnity.  (3)  England 
restored  to  France  Goree  in  Africa,  the  Islands  of  Martinique, 
Bellisle,  St.  Lucia,  and  her  French  conquests  in  India;  to  Spain, 
all  conquests  in  Cuba  including  Havana.  Manila  was  restored 
without  any  equivalent  as  the  news  of  its  fall  did  not  arrive  till 
after  the  peace  preliminaries  had  been  signed. 

Elizabeth  of  Kussia,  the  old  enemy  of  Frederick,  died  in  Jan- 
uary 1762.     Her  successor  was  the  young  and  brilliant  Peter  III. 
who  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Frederick  and  has- 
HifberSburg,  tcued  to  transfer  the  support  of  Russia  from  Austria  to 
Feb.  15, 1763.    ppyggig^^     j3^^^  f^i^Q  Russia-Prussian  alliance  had  hardly 

been  concluded  when  Peter  Avas  murdered  by  his  German  wife, 
who  succeeded  him  as  Catharine  II.  and  at  once  reversed  the  past 
policy  of  Russia  by  withdrawing  from  all  interference  in  German 
affairs.  France  had  long  since  become  too  weak  to  help  Austria, 
and   Austria   alone   could   scarcely   hope   to   cope   with   Prussia. 


910  THE    OCEAN    EMPIRE    SECURED  [ 


George  III 


Prussia  on  the  other  hand  was  bleeding  at  every  vein  and  had  no 
wish  to  carry  her  duel  with  Austria  farther.  Accordingly  on 
February  15,  five  days  after  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  at 
the  Saxon  castle  of  Hubertsburg  Prussia  and  Austria  also  agreed 
to  lay  down  their  arms.  The  territorial  lines  were  restored  virtually 
as  they  had  existed  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  But  Prnssiii 
remained  in  possession  of  Silesia;  her  claim  to  rank  among  the 
great  powers  of  Europe  had  been  established. 

■  Thus  at  last  the  war  which  had  been  begun  by  the  aggression 
of  France  in  the  new  world,  which  had  destroyed  the  light  in 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  European  homes,  which  had 
seSn^Ymrs'  devoured  untold  wealth,  was  ended.     What  had  been 
^^^'  gained!     By  the  powers  on  the  continent  nothing;  but 

by  England  everything.  Spain  was  allowed  to  get  back  her 
colonies,  but  France,  who  had  been  the  cause  of  all  the  trouble, 
had  lost  her  splendid  empire  beyond  the  seas ;  while  England  at 
once  mounted  to  the  supremacy  which  she  has  since  enjoyed  as 
the  one  great  ocean  power  of  the  world.  Yet  England  also  had  not 
been  without  fault  in  the  matter  and  her  day  of  humiliation  and 
punishment,  coming  from  a  source  from  which  she  least  expected 
it,  was  not  far  off.  Her  complete  triumph  over  France  in  the  new 
world,  made  the  American  Revolution  not  only  possible,  but  inevit- 
able. In  1763  the  French  statesman  Vergennes  declared  that  in 
winning  Canada  England  had  removed  the  only  check  which  could 
keep  her  American  colonies  in  awe;  ''She  will  call  upon  them  to 
contribute  towards  supporting  the  burdens  which  they  have 
helped  to  bring  upon  her;  they  will  answer  by  striking  off  all 
dependence." 


CHAPTER   V 

GEORGE   III.     THE    FIRST  PERIOD  OF    TORY    RULE  AND  THE  LOSS  OF 
THE    AMERICAN    COLONIES 

GEORGE  III.,  1763-17ii3 

The  sixty  years  of  the  reign  of  George  III.  is  the  era  in  which 
the  England  of  the  Restoration  passes  into  the  England  wliich  we 

know  to-day.  The  England  of  17G0  was  not  very 
George  in.'s  different  from  the  England  of  IGGO.  The  foreign 
sitimi perujd.   wars  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  early  Restoration 

era  had  left  England  in  control  of  tlie  carrying  trade 
which  had  once  enriched  the  Dutch.  The  wars  which  had  followed 
the  Revolution  had  also  tended  to  enrich  the  commercial  classes, 
greatly  extending  and  deepening  all  channels  of  commercial  enter- 
prise. Manufacturing  industry  had  grown  steadily,  particularly 
in  the  half  century  which  had  followed  the  death  of  William,  and 
the  center  of  population  had  continued  to  move  from  the  region 
of  the  southern  seaport  towns  to  the  new  manufacturing  towns 
of  the  north.  Yet  the  great  bulk  of  the  population  were  still 
earning  a  livelihood  in  the  old  way,  either  by  farming  or  trading. 
The  rough  goods  worn  by  the  common  people  were  largely  made 
in  England;  but  production  was  limited  by  old  methods.  The 
machines  which  were  used  for  making  cotton  goods,  were  hardly 
in  advance  of  those  used  in  India.  The  iron  furnaces  of  Sussex 
and  Surrey  were  still  stoked  with  wood  from  the  neighboring 
forests.  There  was  coal  in  abundance  stored  away  in  the  rocks, 
but  there  was  no  machinery  by  which  it  could  be  mined  to 
advantage.  The  primitive  means  of  communication  still  in  vogue, 
were  as  serious  a  drawback  to  the  development  of  industry  or 
trade  as  the  lack  of  machinery  or  coal.  Goods  were  still  trans- 
ferred to  or  from  inland  towns  by  pack  horses  in  the  hill  country 
or  by  ponderous  wains  in  the  low  country.  The  condition  of  the 
roads,  wretched  at  all  times,   but  at  certain  seasons  altogether 

911 


912  FIKST    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [george  ill. 

impassable,  added  greatly  to  the  difficulty  and  expense  of  trans- 
portation. The  huge  wagons  dug  the  roads  into  ugly  ruts  or 
stirred  them  into  bottomless  quags.  The  road  menders  dumped 
into  such  places  endless  cart  loads  of  loose  stones,  but  only  to  add 
to  the  discomfort  of  the  passengers  or  encourage  the  profanity  of 
the  drivers.  The  model  of  Bunyan's  Slough  of  Despond  could  be 
found  upon  most  any  of  the  great  transinsular  highways,  swim- 
ming with  fathomless  mud  and  fringed  with  broken  cart  wheels  or 
abandoned  wains. 

In  the  early  years  of  George  III.'s  reign,  however,  all  this 
began  to  change.  A  remarkable  series  of  inventions  greatly 
increased  the  efficiency  of  labor,  while  numerous  and 
innvinnim^^  widely  extended  improvements  in  the  means  of  trans- 
ma}£g^  portation  correspondingly  facilitated  the  distribution  of 
the  increased  output.  The  flying  shuttle  which  had 
been  invented  by  John  Kay  in  1733,  had  doubled  the  productive 
power  of  the  weaver ;  but  the  weaver  was  still  handicapped  by  the 
difficulties  which  attended  the  old  methods  of  spinning,  by  which 
his  yarn  was  supplied.  A  generation  passed  and  the  art  of  cloth- 
making  seemed  to  have  reached  the  limit  of  improvement,  when  in 
1769  a  series  of  advances  was  inaugurated  in  the  invention  by  a 
Bolton  barber  named  Richard  Arkwright,  of  a  system  of  spinning 
by  revolving  rollers.  The  next  year  James  Hargreaves,  a  weaver 
of  Blackburn,  took  out  a  patent  for  his  spinning  jenny,  which 
multiplied  the  efficiency  of  the  old  hand  spinning  a  hundred  fold. 
Nine  years  later  Samuel  Crompton  combined  the  ideas  of  Ark- 
wright and  Hargreaves  in  his  '*mule"  and  added  the  spindle  car- 
riage, which  prevented  the  annoying  breaking  of  threads.  These 
improvements,  used  first  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton,  were 
gradually  applied  to  woollen  manufacturing  as  well. 

The  first  effect  of  these  improvements  in  the  art  of  spinning 

was  to  produce  a  great  deal  of  anxiety  and  even  actual  distress. 

Yarn  making  soon  outstripped  weaving.     The  spinners 

A-typlication 

of^teamto      found  it  difficult  to  dispose  of  their  products;  prices 
fell,  and  the  old  fashioned  hand  spinners,  unable  to  com- 
pete, began  to  be  crowded  out.     Relief  came  in  a  corresponding 
revolution  in  the  art  of  weaving,  which  followed  the  remarkable 


1764-1785]  IMPORTANT   INVENTIONS  913 

inventions  that  date  from  the  year  1785.  The  steam  engine  had 
already  been  in  use  for  some  time  as  an  adjunct  to  mining,  where 
it  furnished  the  power  for  the  pumps.  It  was,  however,  a  clumsy, 
impractical,  primitive  sort  of  machine,  and  each  year  cost  a  small 
fortune  in  fuel.  In  1764  the  attention  of  James  Watt,  an  instru- 
ment maker  of  Glasgow,  had  been  called  to  the  machine  then  in 
use,  and  after  ten  years  of  vexatious  disappointments,  he  finally 
succeeded  in  making  the  improvements  which  have  given  us  the 
useful  machine  of  modern  commerce.  Of  one  of  his  earlier" experi- 
ments he  writes  in  grim  humor :  *'The  velocity,  violence,  magnitude, 
and  horrible  noise  of  the  engine  gave  universal  satisfaction  to  all 
beholders."  In  the  twenty  years  which  followed.  Watt's  perfected 
machine  came  into  general  use,  furnishing  the  motive  power  in 
almost  all  kinds  of  manufacturing  industry,  in  weaving  among  the 
first.  In  1785,  Edmund  Cartwright,  a  Yorkshire  clergyman, 
took  out  a  patent  for  a  power  loom ;  a  clumsy  machine  at  first, 
which  required  the  attention  of  two  men,  even  when  running  at 
a  low  rate,  but  it  kept  the  mules  busy.  Later  he  perfected  his 
machine,  and  it  began  to  be  felt  as  a  new  power  in  all  kinds  of 
textile  industries.  Afterwards  he  also  patented  a  wool-combing 
machine  which  greatly  improved  the  quality  of  the  wool  and  did 
the  work  of  twenty  hand  combers. 

The  extensive  introduction  of  labor  saving  machinery  at  once 
disturbed  the  old  industrial  equilibrium.  Workmen  saw  their 
livelihood  taken  from  them,  and  turned  their  fury  upon 
Social  results  the  new  inventions.  Spinning  Jennys  and  power  looms 
machinery,  were  smashed  by  infuriated  mobs.  At  a  time  when 
Cartwright  had  just  received  an  order  from  a  Manches- 
ter firm  for  four  hundred  of  his  power  looms,  his  factory  was 
burned,  probably  the  work  of  incendiaries,  and  a  bill  was  actually 
presented  in  parliament,  which  forbade  the  use  of  his  wool-comb- 
ing machine  under  severe  penalties.  The  improved  methods  of 
manufacturing,  however,  very  soon  increased  the  demand  for 
labor.  New  enterprises  invaded  the  quiet  moorland  valleys  of  the 
west  and  north,  where  the  cheap  coal  and  abundant  water  supply 
offered  special  advantages.  Older  sites,  as  Norwich,  Leeds,  and 
Halifax,   rapidly  increased   their  output.     The  population,  also, 


914  FIRST    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [gkobge  ill. 

naturally  drifted  to  these  centers,  doubling  and  trebling  in  a  very 
few  years. 

It  was  upon  the  iron  trade  that  Watt's  great  invention  perhaps 
had  the  most  direct  influence.  In  1740  the  entire  production  of 
England  did  not  exceed  17,350  tons.  The  engine  of 
ofiron!"^^  Watt  at  once  made  the  deep  mining  of  coal  practicable 
and  thus  removed  the  last  difficulty  in  the  way  of  iron 
smelting.  The  years  1755  to  1762  saw  works  started  in  Stirling- 
shire, in  South  Wales,  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Birmingham, 
where  Watt  himself  became  a  partner  in  the  Soho  works.  By  the 
end  of  the  century  the  annual  output  of  England  had  reached 
170,000  tons. 

Other  industries  also  shared  in  the  new  era.  The  cheaper 
manufacture  of  iron  affected  in  turn  every  other  line  where  iron 
tools  or  iron  machinery  were  used.  In  1763  the  potteries  of  South 
Staffordshire,  where  Josiah  Wedgewood  succeeded  in  producing 
the  famous  "Queens  Ware,"  had  begun  to  attract  attention.  In 
1785  these  potteries  employed  15,000  men.  In  1773  plate  glass 
making  was  begun  in  Lancashire. 

The  increasing  volume  of  trade,  the  shifting  of  population  to 
new  methods  of  gaining  a  livelihood,  the  changing  social  condi- 
tions, in  turn  demanded  better  methods  of  communica- 
Eff^upon  iifyij  OP  exchange.  During  the  first  fourteen  years  of 
George  III.  's  reign  parliament  passed  452  separate  acts 
for  repairing  roads.  The  turnpike,  or  toll  road,  became  general, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  century  smooth,  hard  roads  stretched 
away  from  all  the  great  cities,  along  which  stage  coaches  made 
regular  and,  for  the  time,  rapid  trips,  carrying  mail  and  passengers 
with  dispatch  and  some  comfort;  over  four  hundred  towns  could 
boast  of  one  mail  a  day. 

One  wonders  that  the  long  and  close  acquaintance  of  the  Eng- 
lish with  the  Dutch  had  never  suggested  the  adoption  as  an  English 
institution  of  the  canal,  which  was  as  well  suited  to 
burning  some  parts  of  England  as  to  Holland.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, until  1761  that  the  islanders  seriously  took  to 
canalling,  when  Francis  Duke  of  Bridgewater  with  the  help  of 
the  self  educated  engineer  Brindley,  built  a  canal  from  his  Worsley 


1761-1793]  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION  915 

collieries  to  Manchester.  Later  he  extended  his  canal  to  the 
Mersey,  thus  connecting  Manchester  and  Liverpool,  and  diminish- 
ing the  price  of  coal  in  Manchester  from  seven  pence  per  hundred 
to  three  and  one-half  pence.  The  example  of  the  successful  work- 
ing of  this  ship  canal  and  the  profits  which  came  to  the  enterpris- 
ing dnke,  who  was  thus  made  independent  of  the  whims  of  the 
Mersey,  were  not  lost  upon  the  public.  In  a  short  time  a  canal- 
building  craze  took  possession  of  investors  in  some  such  way 
as  the  railroad  building  craze  has  from  time  to  time  caught  the 
American  public.  Within  George's  reign  nearly  3,000  miles  of 
canals  were  constructed;  105  acts  sufficiently  testify  to  the  interest 
of  parliament.  The  chief  of  these  great  works  were  the  ship  canal 
between  the  Forth  and  the  Clyde,  begun  in  1768  and  completed 
in  1790;  the  Ellesmere  Canal,  begun  in  1793,  connecting  the 
Severn  and  the  Mersey,  by  crossing  the  valley  of  the  Dee  over  a 
marvelous  viaduct  whose  arches  were  sprung  seventy  feet  above  the 
river;  and  the  great  ship  canal  which  enabled  siiips  to  reach 
Gloucester  from  the  lower  Severn.  These  waterways  were  to  the 
industrial  England  of  the  last  two  Georges  what  the  railways 
have  been  to  the  England  of  Victoria,  or  to  the  America  of  the 
later  nineteenth  century.  They  furnished  the  means  by  which  heavy 
goods,  especially  machinery,  could  be  transported  to  distant  points 
safely,  easily,  and  cheaply. 

The   development   of  new  lines  of   industrial    activity  acted 
directly  upon  the  entire  English  social  structure.     The  volume  of 

trade  steadily  increased,  but  the  increase  called  out  a 
Social  (m>ects  fierce,  keen  spirit  of  competition.  The  wise,  the  cun- 
revoiution.      ning,  and  thrifty  survived ;  while  the  stupid,  the  lazy, 

and  the  thriftless  were  crowded  to  the  wall.  The  suc- 
cessful operators  began  to  combine  forces ;  the  master  workman, 
working  in  his  own  cottage,  assisted  by  one  or  two  journeymen 
and  an  apprentice  lad  or  two,  gave  way  to  the  wealthy  manufac- 
turer who  reared  a  huge  factory  and  gathered  into  it  a  small  army 
of  men,  women,  and  children,  who  toiled  long  hours  feeding  his 
machines  while  he  sat  in  his  office  dividing  his  attention  between 
his  balance  sheet  and  the  market.  The  picture  is  not  an  attractive 
one;  the  new  '* captain  of  industry ''  was  often  hard,   illiterate. 


916  FIRST    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [george  III. 

without  heart  or  culture;  he  looked  upon  his  workmen  as  he 
looked  upon  his  machines, — to  be  easily  worn  out  and  to  be  as 
easily  replaced.  The  workmen  were  poor  and  ignorant ;  all  their 
surroundings  were  brutalizing.  They  were  without  schools  and 
without  churches.  Their  working  days  were  spent  in  dreary 
hours  of  toil  in  dark,  ill  smelling,  dingy  factories;  their  nights  in 
shabby,  ill  kept,  and  unhealthy  brick  cottages ;  their  Sundays  in 
the  public  house.  For  this  weary  multitude  the  state  did  nothing, 
save  to  recruit  their  ranks  from  the  children  of  the  poor-houses, 
who  were  regularly  transported  to  the  slavery  of  the  factory  as 
soon  as  they  were  able  thus  to  relieve  the  public  of  their  keep. 
The  state  had  no  thought  of  protecting  the  factory  hands  from  the 
greed  of  the  master ;  the  new  towns  were  not  represented  in  par- 
liament ;  labor  was  not  yet  organized,  and  the  toiling  multitude 
had  no  means  known  to  the  constitution  by  which  they  could 
command  the  attention  of  the  men  who  made  the  laws  and  quar- 
reled over  the  patronage  of  the  government.  Yet  these  workmen 
were  not  so  sotted  that  they  could  not  think.  In  a  blind,  vague 
way,  they  realized  that  something  was  wrong  somewhere,  but  they 
could  not  tell  just  what  or  where.  Hence  they  offered  a  ready 
field  for  the  agitator,  eagerly  listening  to  the  most  dangerous  and 
violent  doctrines  which  at  least  promised  to  punish  their  oppressors. 
Side  by  side  witJi  the  development  of  the  industrial  life  of 
England  there  was  also  progressing  a  like  revolution  in  the  agri- 
cultural life  of  the  people.  The  causes  were  virtually 
revthiWrn^^^  the  same:  the  increase  in  population,  the  greater 
demand  for  the  products  of  farm  labor,  and  the  encour- 
agment  to  capital  to  concentrate  in  the  interests  of  economy  and 
larger  profits.  At  the  beginning  of  George  III. 's  reign,  by  the 
old  system  which  had  been  handed  down  from  generation  to 
generation,  probably  from  days  which  preceded  the  Norman  Con- 
quest, the  land  about  a  village  was  still  cultivated  in  common. 
The  farmers  had  little  skill,  little  capital  with  which  to  keep  up 
stock  and  tools,  and  little  inducement  to  improve  the  land. 
Drainage  was  impossible;  winter  crops  could  not  be  grown;  sheep 
and  cattle  were  left  to  herd  promiscuously;  disease  generated 
easily ;  and  any  improvement  of  live  stock  was  not  to  be  thought  of. 


1785-1793]  ARTHUR  YOUNG  917 

The  increase  of  population,  however,  soon  began  materially  to 
affect  the  demand  for  farm  products,  and  not  only  encouraged  the 
adoption  of  improved  methods,  but  also  hastened  the 
A^TicuUure  ^^^^^  ^^  Capital  toward  agricultural  industry.  Waste 
lands  were  brought  under  cultivation;  the  open  field 
system  began  to  be  abandoned  and  the  rights  to  the  commons 
extinguished.  Marling  became  general;  a  fourfold  rotation  of 
crops  took  the  place  of  the  old  wasteful  three  field  system ;  the 
culture  of  the  turnip,  corn,  and  rye  grass,  was  introduced.  Scien- 
tific methods  of  breeding  also  were  adopted.  In  1785  the  famous 
Leicestershire  sheep  appeared,  ** giving  two  pounds  of  mutton, 
where  there  was  only  one  before."  The  long  horned  "Dishley 
breed"  of  cattle  also  won  a  worthy  reputation;  later  to  be  sup- 
planted by  the  more  famous  *'Durham,"  the  short  horn  breed  of 
the  Tees  valley. 

For  the  spread  of  more  intelligent  ideas  on  the  subject  of  agri- 
culture,  much   credit   is   due   to  the  agricultural  and  economic 
writer,    Arthur   Young.     He   traveled   extensively   in 
-^.J^JlJ"*"  England,  Wales,  Ireland,  and  France;  observed  closely 

and  scientifically  the  agricultural  conditions  of  the  era; 
made  extensive  experiments  himself;  gathered  useful  statistics, 
and  sought  to  diffuse  a  more  scientific  knowledge  of  agriculture 
through  the  country.  In  1793  he  was  appointed  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Agriculture. 

The  improvements  were  very  great,  but  there  was  also  much 
loss  and  suffering.  New  ideas  had  invaded  the  old  stolid  life  of 
the  country  side;  but  they  brought  changes  in  their 
ffAnTcailsed  ^^^^^  ^^  marked  as  those  introduced  by  the  factory  sys- 
change!*^^  tem  in  the  cities.  The  old  farmer  had  led  an  independ- 
ent, contented  life;  his  fields  were  small, ^  but  he  could 
eke  out  his  meagre  earnings  by  setting  up  a  small  factory  in  his 
house.  He  was  generally  sure  of  his  market.  The  government 
encouraged  exportation  of  grain  and  when  the  price  fell  below  48 
shillings  a  quarter,  added  a  bounty  of  5  shillings.     But  now  the 


^  The  average  acreage  to  each   farmer  was  about  eighteen  acres  of 
arable  land  and  ten  acres  of  meadow. 


The  ''Enclo 
sure  Acts 


918  FIRST   PERIOD   OF   TORY    RULE  [george  in. 

capitalist   farmer   came   in;    small   farms   disappeared   and   with 
them  the  common  field  farmer,  who  became  a  "hired  day  laborer." 

Three  thousand  "Enclosure  Acts"  were  passed  in  the 
^of  r^ig^  ^^  George  III.    By  the  middle  of  the  next  century 
reS^^^^'^  seven  million  acres  had  been  taken  from  the  people  and 

turned  into  private  property.  Like  the  factory,  the 
farm  was  conducted  more  scientifically,  with  better  tools  and  with 
better  results,  but  the  average  agricultural  laborer  had  no  share 
in  the  fruits  of  this  prosperity.  The  expense  of  living  was 
increasing,  but  the  awful  pressure  of  subsistence  compelled  the 
laborer  to  compete  with  his  fellow,  until  at  last  it  became  neces- 
sary for  the  state  to  add  to  his  wages  by  way  of  a  poor  law  dole. 
At  the  opening  of  the  next  century  it  was  estimated  that  one 
seventh  of  the  population  received  relief  under  the  poor  law.  A 
strange  phenomenon!  England  was  getting  richer  but  pauperism 
was  increasing  at  an  appalling  rate. 

The   anomaly,  however,  is   not   hard   to   explain.      Abnormal 
conditions,    favored   by   unjust   laws,    enabled   the   employer   to 

monopolize  all  the  profits.  The  old  yeomanry  were 
SfiSed^^^  gone  and  the  small  squire  was  following  him  rapidly. 

The  land  was  passing  into  the  hands  of  an  ever  nar- 
rowing circle  of  wealthy  land  owners,  who  made  laws  in  their  own 
interests,  shut  out  competition  of  foreign  food  stuffs  while  they 
forced  their  laborers  to  work  for  wages  below  the  possibility  of 
living,  and  then,  when  they  had  pauperized  them,  called  upon  the 
state  to  piece  out  their  wages  with  a  dole  by  way  of  charity. 

There  were  not  wanting  those  who  read  intelligently  the  signs 
of  the  times,  and  boldly  sought  to  put  the  finger  on  the  cause  of 

the  accumulating  miseries  of  the  people.  In  1776 
^Samsmith.  ^^^^  Smith,  a  Professor  in  the  University  of  Glasgow, 

published  his  Wealth  of  ]S'atio7is^  in  which  he  proposed 
to  throw  down  the  artificial  restrictions  which  human  laws  were 
throwing  around  the  life  of  the  nation,  causing  the  congestion 
and  the  poverty;  only  by  free  trade  could  a  healthy  condition 
be  restored  once  more.  He  was  widely  read  and  studied,  and  his 
views  soon  began  to  affect  the  policy  of  statesmen  like  the  younger 
Pitt,  who  tried  to  carry  them  out,  when  he  came  to  be  Prime 


THE  ENGLAND  OF  GEORGE  III.  919 

Minister  of  England.  Other  voices  were  not  so  hopeful.  In 
1798  Malthus  sought  to  show  that  the  evil  lay  in  overpopulation, 
and  that  improved  methods  of  production  were  of  little  use,  when 
the  rapidly  increasing  population  was  ever  eating  itself  poor. 

It  was  over  this  new  world,  stirring  with  unwonted  life,  that 
George  III.  was  called  to  reign.  The  eighteenth  century  system 
was  breaking  up.  The  old  trading  and  farming  Eng- 
over^McT^  land  was  merging  in  the  industrial  Great  Britain.  The 
uriHcaUed'  factory  systcm  was  increasing  the  population  of  the 
to  reign.  towns  and  in  turn  opening  new  avenues  for  the  accumu- 
lation of  private  wealth,  undermining  the  strength  and  influence 
of  the  older  rural  population,  widening  the  gap  between  wealth  and 
poverty,  drawing  the  laboring  classes  into  the  stifling  atmosphere 
of  the  factory  town  and  the  workshop,  bringing  in  new  conditions 
and  raising  new  problems,  in  the  light  of  which  the  maxims  of  the 
older  statesmen  appeared  shallow  and  puerile;  their  principles, 
outworn  cant ;  their  boasted  policies,  useless  rubbish. 

At  the  time  of  his  royal  grandfather's  death  George  III.  was 
twenty-two  years  old.  The  nation  hailed  his  accession  with  bois- 
terous enthusiasm.  Unlike  his  Hanoverian  predeces- 
Qeor^fiii^  sors  he  was  thoroughly  English  both  in  his  tastes  and 
his  habits.  His  courtesy  won  friends;  his  personal 
purity  won  confidence  and  esteem.  He  could  **name  every  ship 
ii^  the  English  navy;  had  the  articles  of  war  at  his  finger's  ends; 
paid  his  bills  every  quarter;  wore  none  but  clothes  of  English 
manufacture,"  and  "like  a  decent  Christian"  attended  church 
every  Sunday,  Prayer  Book  in  hand,  accompanied  by  his  wife  and 
attended  by  his  numerous  children  as  soon  as  they  were  old  enough  to 
sit  out  the  service  without  disturbing  the  slumber  of  their  august 
father.  Yet  this  monarch  of  homely  habits,  whose  irreproachable 
life  was  so  marked  in  contrast  with  the  stupid  libertinism  of  his 
predecessor,  had  his  serious  defects.  His  education  had  not  been 
neglected,  but  it  had  been  faulty.  With  a  right  royal  license  he 
persisted  in  spelling  the  mother  tongue  in  his  own  way.  Some  of 
his  eccentricities  would  delight  the  modern  spelling  reformer. 
Thus  "bottles"  under  the  royal  hand  was  always  "botills,"  but 
"champagne"  masqueraded  as  "shannipane."     His  ideas  were  a 


920  FIRST   PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [george  ill. 

curious  deposit  of  ignorance,  bigotry,  and  stupidity.  He  was, 
moreover,  hopelessly,  incurably  obstinate;  a  trait  which  he  owed 
to  the  unfortunate  combination  of  a  narrow  intellect  "with  strong 
will,  high  courage,  and  vigorous  character." 

When  the  new  king  began  his  reign  he  undertook  the  praise- 
worthy task  of  breaking  up  the  ring  of  old  Whig  families  which 

had  controlled  the  government  since  the  days  of  Anne. 
Gmwefn.     He  called  himself  a  Whig  of  the  Revolution.     He  had 

no  sympathy  with  the  principle  of  party  government ; 
he  believed  that  as  king  it  was  his  duty  to  ignore  parties  alto- 
gether, to  select  the  best  men  for  his  ministry,  and,  by  control- 
ling them  himself,  restore  to  the  crown  the  power  which  the  Whig 
leaders  had  so  long  usurped.  In  this  program  George  partly  suc- 
ceeded and  partly  failed.  He  broke  up  the  old  Whig  ring; 
vindicated  the  right  of  the  sovereign  to  choose  what  ministers  he 
would,  and  once  more  made  the  royal  power  a  reality.  To  accom- 
plish this  end  he  was  compelled  to  draw  near  to  the  Tories,  who 
had  been  freed  from  the  blight  of  Jacobitism,  and  now  most  nearly 
represented  the  ideas  of  the  king  himself.  It  took  the  slow  mind 
of  George,  however,  some  time  to  grasp  the  real  conditions  which 
confronted  him;  but  by  1770  he  had  learned  his  lesson;  and  from 
1770  to  the  end  of  his  reign,  in  fact  until  1830,  the  Tory  rule 
was  virtually  unbroken.^ 

Outside  of  parliament  it  had  been  long  understood  that  the 
Houses  were  in  the  hands  of  a  corrupt  ring,  and  that  they  no  longer 

represented  the  will  of  the  nation;  the  old  distinctions 
varw^^'^     between  Whig  and  Tory,  also,  had  lost  their  meaning, 

and  the  people  discovered  with  delight  that  at  last 
England  again  had  a  king  who  proposed  to  rule  as  well  as  reign. 
Within  parliament,  George  found  little  trouble  in  drawing  about 
himself  a  party  devoted  to  his  ideas ;  for  high  as  was  his  ultimate 
aim,  although  he  hated  the  corrupt  rule  of  the  wealthy  Whig  fam- 
ilies as  much  as  Pitt,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  adopt  Newcastle's 
methods  in  making  friends.  When  bribery  failed,  he  used  intimi- 
dation.   Discontented  Whigs,  like  the  elder  Fox,  who  thought  that 

1  There  were  two  brief  interims,  1782-1784  and  1806-1808,  when  George 
was  forced  to  accept  ministers  of  the  Whig  faith. 


1762]  JOHN    WILKES  921 

they  had  not  received  their  due  share  of  public  plunder,  hailed 
with  delight  the  rising  of  the  new  sun  in  the  political  firmament 
and  hastened  to  secure  each  his  orbit  in  the  new  group  of  satellites. 
The  Tories  ranged  themselves  on  the  king's  side  as  a  matter  of 
course.  It  was  not  long  before  the  "King's  Friends"  began  to  be 
known  as  a  secret  influence  in  parliament,  always  to  be  reckoned 
with. 

Bute's  administration  was  a  short  one.     In  17G3,  within  two 
months  of  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  he  gave  way  to 

George  Grenville.  Grenville  was  honest  himself,  but 
Bedford  min-  he  was  compelled  to  yoke  with  the  duke  of  Bedford  for 

the  sake  of  his  following  in  the  Commons,  which  he 

maintained  by  all  the  corrupt  methods  of  Walpole  and  Newcastle. 

Two  serious  blunders  have  rendered  Grenville 's  administration 

memorable,  the  Wilkes  Affair  and   the  Stamp  Act.     Since  the 

expiration  of  the  Licensing  Act  of  1095,  the  ffovern- 

T7i€  oovcm  c3  '  o 

merit  and  tiie  ment  had  contented  itself  with  restricting  the  activity 
of  "the  press"  by  levying  upon  each  newspaper  a  duty, 
which  had  increased  from  one  penny  in  1712  to  four  pence  in 
1760.  The  Whig  oligarchy  was  too  strongly  intrenched  to  worry 
itself  over  any  criticism  which  came  from  parties  outside  of  parlia- 
ment, although  a  breach  of  the  law  of  libel  or  of  the  privilege  of 
parliament  might  be  severely  handled  by  the  courts.  But  in  the 
storms  which  followed  the  accession  of  George,  the  governing 
oligarchy  became  more  sensitive  and  soon  showed  symptoms  of 
returning  to  older  methods  of  interfering  with  the  freedom  of  the 
press. 

In  June  1762  John  Wilkes,  a  worthless  demagogue,  likewise 

member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  began  an  opposition  newspaper 

which  he  called   The  North  Briton.      In  the  famous 

and  the  "No.  45,"  wliich  appeared  in  April  1763,^  he  attacked 

Briton,  a  recent  royal  address  in  which  the  kme:  had  com- 

JVo.  45." 

mended  the  Peace  of  Paris  to  his  parliament.  Wilkes, 
assuming  that  the  speech  was  the  work  of  the  king's  ministers, 
declared  it  to  be    "the  most  abandoned  instance  of  ministerial 

^  Lee,  Source  Book,  pp.  467-473. 


922  FIRST    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [george  ill. 

effrontery  ever  attempted  to  be  imposed  upon  mankind."  The 
king  was  deeply  off  ended  by  what  he  regarded  as  a  personal  attack, 
and  insisted  that  the  Secretary  of  State,  Lord  Halifax,  should  issue 
a  general  warrant  for  all  concerned  in  the  issue  of  the  offensive 
No.  45  of  The  North  Briton.  Some  forty-nine  persons,  including 
the  publishers,  printers,  and  lastly  Wilkes  himself,  were  drawn 
into  the  official  net. 

So  far  the  course  of  the  government  had  been  easy  enough,  but 
when  the  king-  wished  to  punish  the  insolent  pamphleteer  by 
imposing  upon  him  something  more  than  a  simple 
m^couris^  arrest,  he  was  made  at  once  conscious  of  the  wide  differ- 
ence between  the  England  of  the  later  eighteenth  cen- 
tury and  the  England  of  the  days  of  Stuart  tyranny.  To  punish 
Wilkes  he  must  resort  to  the  courts.  The  judges,  moreover,  were 
no  longer  the  creatures  of  the  king.  The  act  of  1701  had  taken 
from  the  crown  the  right  to  dismiss  judges  at  pleasure;  George 
III.  himself,  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  had  abandoned  the 
ancient  custom  by  which  the  commissions  of  tlie  judges  were 
regarded  as  lapsing  with  the  death  of  the  last  king,  and,  further, 
had  separated  the  salaries  of  the  judges  from  the  civil  list,  thus 
sweeping  away  almost  the  last  vestige  of  the  old  dependent  judi- 
ciary. When,  therefore,  Wilkes  appealed  to  the  courts,  his 
appeal  was  treated  very  differently  from  the  way  in  which  such 
appeals  were  treated  in  the  days  of  Judge  Jeffreys.  In  May, 
upon  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  Wilkes  secured  a  hearing  before 
Chief  Justice  Pratt  of  the  Common  Pleas,  and  upon  pleading 
his  privilege  as  a  member  of  parliament  was  released.  Justice 
Pratt,  also,  condemned  the  general  warrant  as  illegal,  and  in 
July  several  of  the  printers  recovered  damages.  Later,  Wilkes 
himself  received  £1,000  damages  from  the  Under-Secretary  of  State, 
Wood,  who  had  carried  out  the  directions  of  his  chief  in  seizing 
Wilkes's  paper.  He  began  suit  against  Halifax,  also,  for  illegal 
imprisonment  and  won  after  a  fight  of  six  years. 

Wilkes  was  now  the  popular  hero  of  the  hour.  Even  Pitt  sup- 
ported him  upon  the  broad  ground  that  an  illegal  arrest  was  an 
invasion  of  the  liberties  of  the  people.  The  king,  however,  was 
not  satisfied,  and  by  his  influence   in   the   House   persuaded  the 


1765]  THE   STAMP   ACT  923 

Commons  to  enter  the  lists  where  the  courts  had  failed  him.  They 
declared  the  unfortunate  No.  45  to  be  *'a  false,  scandalous,  and 
seditious  libel,"  refused  to  allow  the  privilege  of  parlia- 
^rUament  ^^^^^  ^o  cover  the  culprit,  and  ended  by  formally  expel- 
ling him  from  the  House.  Wilkes  had  also  fallen  foul  of 
the  Upper  House  where  he  was  brought  to  book  for  printing  and 
privately  circulating  a  coarse  parody  on  Pope's  "Essay  on  Man," 
called  an  "Essay  on  Woman,"  and  also  for  printing  a  blasphemous 
imitation  of  the"Veni  Creator."  The  Lords  declared  the  publica- 
tions a  breach  of  privilege  and  a  "scandalous,  obscene,  and 
impious  libel."  But  unfortunately  for  the  effect  of  these 
well  merited  reproofs,  the  chief  accuser  of  Wilkes  was  the  profli- 
gate Lord  Sandwich,  renowned  for  his  prolonged  bouts  at  the 
gambling  table,  which  he  would  not  leave  even  for  meals,  and 
where  his  servant  was  accustomed  to  bring  him  the  light  refection 
which  still  bears  his  name.  The  people,  who  were  fully  convinced 
of  the  corruption  of  parliament,  regarded  the  formal  denuncia- 
tion of  their  idol  as  one  more  evidence  of  his  worth.  The  govern- 
ment, encouraged  by  the  acts  of  the  two  Houses,  resumed  the 
prosecution  upon  the  charge  of  libel,  and  Wilkes,  no  longer  pro- 
tected by  the  privilege  of  a  member  of  parliament,  fled  to  the 
continent,  allowing  his  case  to  go  against  him  by  default.  In 
February  1704,  he  was  formally  outlawed  by  decree  of  the  court. 
The  government  had  carried  its  point,  but  every  step  taken  had 
been  "ill  advised,  vindictive,  and  substantially  unjust,"  increasing 
its  discredit  with  the  people  and  awakening  a  dangerous  spirit  of 
insubordination. 

The  second  serious  blunder  of  the  Grenville- Bedford  ministry 
was  the  passage  of  the  famous  "Stamp  Act. "  The  recent  wars  had 
raised  the  national  debt  to  £130,000,000.  The  minis- 
Act:' March,  try  accepted  the  obligation  of  reducing  this  burden, 
now  that  peace  had  been  restored,  but  the  method 
which  Grenville  proposed  was  unfortunately  as  annoying  to  a  large 
part  of  the  British  Empire  as  the  old  ship  money  of  Charles  I.  He 
proposed  (1)  to  establish  in  America  a  portion  of  the  British  regular 
army  amounting  to  10,000  men.  To  support  this  resident  gar- 
rison he  proposed  (2)  to  tax  the  colonists  by  requiring  "all  bills, 


924  FIRST    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [geokge  iii. 

bonds,  policies  of  insurance,  newspapers,  broadsides,  and  legal 
documents  to  be  written  on  stamped  paper  sold  in  public  offices." 
He  also  proposed  (3)  to  enforce  strictly  the  laws  against  smug- 
gling.^ No  one  was  surprised  more  than  Grenville  himself  at  the 
reception  of  his  proposals  by  the  colonies.  Parliament  had  long 
been  accustomed  to  regulate  colonial  port  duties.  The  loyalty  of 
the  Americans  had  been  abundantly  proved  by  their  devotion  to 
the  common  cause  in  the  war  which  had  just  closed.  The  war, 
moreover,  had  been  begun  in  order  to  defend  the  colonies  against 
the  aggressions  of  France ;  and  no  part  of  the  empire  had  profited 
more  by  its  successes.  The  Stamp  Act,  however,  had  raised  a 
question  which  was  by  no  means  new  in  the  colonies:  Wiiat  right 
had  the  distant  British  parliament,  a  body  in  which  Americans 
were  not  represented,  to  levy  an  internal  tax  upon  America  with- 
out asking  the  consent  of  her  people?  Here  was  the  crucial  point. 
Other  grievances  were  not  wanting,  but  all  sank  into  minor  impor- 
tance beside  the  greater  grievance  of  ''taxation  without  represen- 
tation." 

Before  the  full  significance  of  Grenville 's  measures,  however, 

became  apparent  in  England,  his  ministry  had  come  to  an  end. 

The  immediate  cause  of   his   fall  was  an  attempt  to 

The 

''Regency       exclude  the  name  of  the  king's  mother  from  a  '  'Reffcncy 

Bill-andthe    _^...,,      ,.,,,,  ^  i       ^i        i      -,  i, 

RocMngham  Bill  which  had  been  made  necessary  by  the  shadow  of 
insanity  which  was  already  hanging  over  the  king.  The 
House  refused  to  allow  the  omission,  and  the  king,  to  get  rid  of 
the  minister  whom  he  could  not  forgive  for  the  proposed  slight 
to  his  mother,  after  vainly  seeking  Pitt's  support,  in  July  1765 
threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  the  old  Whig  ring.  The  suc- 
cessor of  Newcastle  was  the  marqnis  of  Rockingham  who  was 
selected  to  head  the  new  ministry,  but  although  he  did  not  favor 
the  corrupt  methods  of  the  old  Whig  regime,  his  conservatism 
denied  him  the  support  of  the  liberal  wing  of  the  party,  and  his 
ministry  soon  went  to  pieces.  It  survived  long  enough,  however, 
to  undo  some  of  the  mischief  caused  by  his  predecessors.  It 
persuaded  the  House  to  condemn  general  warrants,  although  the 
formal  bill  was  rejected  by  the  Lords;  it  also  restored  commis- 

*  Lee,  Source  Book,  pp.  474,  475. 


1766]  THE   PITT-GRAFTON   MINISTRY  925 

sions  to  certain  officers  in  the  army  who  were  memhers  of  par- 
liament and  had  been  deprived  of  their  commissions  by  the 
king,  because  they  had  not  voted  to  suit  him.  But  most  impor- 
tant of  all,  the  Rockingham  ministry  secured  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  although  it  left  an  opening  for  future  trouble  in 
the  accompanying  ''Declaratory  Act,"  in  which  the  authority  of 
parliament  over  the  colonies  in  legislation  and  taxation  was  formally 
asserted. 

After  a  year  Rockingham  was  retired   and   a  new   ministry 
was  formed  under  the  nominal  head  of  Pitt.     Much  was  expected 

of  this  ministry.  The  king  understood  Pitt  better 
Fitt-Grafton  ^^^^^  ^^^  1700.  He  saw  that  Pitt  was  as  hostile  to  party 
rninistry,        government  as  himself;   that  he  hated  the  old  Whig 

oligarchy,  and  that  he  really  wished  to  curtail  the 
power  of  the  Commons  in  the  interests  of  a  purer  administra- 
tion. Pitt,  however,  stood  upon  ground  where  George  IIL's  nar- 
row mind  would  not  allow  him  to  follow.  For  Pitt  had  fully 
grasped  the  corollaries  of  the  Revolution,  the  freedom  of  the  press 
and  the  right  of  Englishmen  to  the  protection  of  English  laws 
wherever  they  dwelt  under  the  English  flag.  Hence  Pitt  fully 
recognized  the  significance  of  rising  political  consciousness  in  the 
American  colonists,  and  boldly  championed  their  claims  to  the 
full  privileges  of  Englishmen.  Illness,  however,  prevented  him 
from  taking  in  the  administration  the  active  part  which  belonged 
to  him.  His  dislike  of  party  government,  moreover,  had  led  him 
to  make  up  his  ministry  of  men  chosen  from  different  political  fac- 
tions. As  Burke  described  it,  it  was  **a  piece  of  diversified  mosaic, 
patriots  and  courtiers,  king's  friends  and  republicans,  Whigs  and 
Tories,  treacherous  friends  and  open  enemies;  so  that  it  was  a 
curious  show,  but  utterly  unsafe  to  touch  or  stand  on."  Pitt 
selected  for  himself  the  unimportant  position  of  Privy  Seal, 
largely  because  the  lighter  duties  of  the  office  were  better  fitted 
to  the  condition  of  his  health ;  but  the  position  brought  him  into 
the  peerage  as  Earl  of  Chatham  and  thus  deprived  him  of  much 
of  the  popular  esteem  and  confidence  which  had  been  his  in  the 
days  when  he  gloried  in  the  name  of  "The  Great  Commoner." 
While  he  was  at  home  shut  up  in  his  room,  subject  to  alternate 


926  FIRST    PEKIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [geobgeIU. 

fits  of  intense  nervous  irritation  and  despondency,  the  wreck  of 
his  former  self,  his  ministers  were  upsetting  his  most  cherished 
schemes.  He  had  denounced  the  Stamp  Act,  fought  for  the 
repeal,  and  bitterly  opposed  the  Declaratory  Act;  and  yet  in  1767 
his  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Charles  Townshend,  turned  once 
more  to  Grenville's  plan  of  taxing  America,  and  procured  the 
passage  of  the  '^American  Duties  Bill,"  an  act  which  imposed  a 
series  of  customs  and  duties  on  certain  articles  imported  into 
America,  as  white  lead,  painters'  colors,  paper,  and  tea.  Like  the 
Stamp  Act,  this  act  was  designed  not  to  regulate  trade  but  to 
raise  revenue.  As  with  the  Stamp  Act,  in  order  to  justify  the 
measure,  it  was  proposed  to  apply  the  revenues  to  the  expenses  of 
colonial  government.  The  next  year  the  ministry  still  further 
attempted  to  show  its  good  will  towards  the  Americans  by  the 
appointment  of  a  Secretary  of  State  for  the  colonies.  Since  the 
reign  of  William  the  affairs  of  the  colonies  had  been  left  to  a 
committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  known  as  the  "Board  of  Trade 
and  Plantation."  This  committee,  however,  had  no  standing  in 
the  ministry  proper,  and  in  the  pressure  of  many  things,  the 
colonies  had  been  left  pretty  much  to  themselves.  Grenville's 
unfortunate  attempt  to  do  something  for  the  colonies,  it  is  said, 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  insisted  on  reading  the  mail  from 
America. 

In   the   general   election  of  1768,   Wilkes,  who  had  recently 
returned  from  France,  again  came  to  the  surface  as  a  popular 

agitator,  demanding  a  reform  of  the  entire  parliamen- 
cmiin^  tary  representative  system.  There  was  certainly  ground 

enough  for  Wilkes's  contention  that  the  new  and  grow- 
ing towns  of  the  north  and  west  should  be  represented.  It  was 
further  estimated  that  in  the  whole  population  of  8,000,000,  there 
were  not  160,000  men  who  possessed  the  franchise.  Many 
boroughs  were  virtually  owned  by  individual  families  and  were 
treated  as  a  part  of  the  family  estates.  The  only  way  by  which 
parliament  could  be  freed  from  its  thraldom  to  the  crown,  or  from 
the  corrupt  practices  of  the  borough  owners,  was  to  enlarge  the 
franchise.  It  was  unfortunate  that  so  good  a  cause  had  so  base  a 
champion. 


1768]  ST.  George's  fields  927 

Wilkes  was  returned  by  the  voters  of  Middlesex.     On  the  first 
day  of  the  session,  April  27, 1768,  he  gave  himself  up  to  the  Court 

of  Kings  Bench  and,  being  refused  bail,  was  sent  to 
f" Sr^^^ ^     prison  while  the  question  of  outlawry  was  argued.     A 

deeply  interested  crowd  of  people  gathered  in  St. 
George's  Fields  outside  the  prison  walls.  Lord  Weymouth,  the  Sec- 
retary of  State,  apprehending  an  attack  by  the  mob,  sent  word  to 
the  Scotch  regiment  in  charge  of  the  prison  to  fire  on  the  crowds 
in  order  to  disperse  them.  Five  or  six  people  were  killed  and  a 
number  wounded.  Wilkes,  who  lay  helpless  within  the  prison 
while  his  friends  were  shot  down  outside,  vented  his  wrath  by 
sending  to  the  St.  James  Chronicle  a  copy  of  Weymouth's  direc- 
tions to  the  troops  with  some  scathing  comments  of  his  own,  in 
which  he  referred  to  the  results  of  Weymouth's  work  as  "the 
horrid  massacre  of  St.  George's  Fields."  The  whole  affair  did 
not  tend  to  increase  the  favor  with  which  the  government 
regarded  Wilkes,  and  when  on  June  8,  Chief  Justice  Mansfield 
reversed  the  sentence  of  outlawry  as  illegal,  and  released  the 
prisoner,  it  was  only  that  he  might  commit  him  again  on  the 
original  charge  of  libel,  and  sentence  him  to  twenty-two  months' 
imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  £1,000. 

The  king,  in  the  meanwhile,  supported  by  parliament  renewed 
his  efforts  against  Wilkes  with  increased  vindictiveness.     The  Lords 

saw  fit  to  construe  the  letter  to  St.  James  Chronicle  as 
attack  (Til        *'a  seditious  libel,"  and  called   upon  the  Commons  to 

Wilkts. 

unite  with  them  in  punishing  the  demagogue.  The 
Commons  responded  by  once  more  expelling  Wilkes  and  adding  to 
the  old  charges,  the  new  one  of  a  libelous  attack  upon  the  Secre- 
tary of  State,  the  enormity  of  which  was  increased,  since  at  the  time 
of  the  offense  Wilkes  was  under  sentence  of  the  court.  The 
electors  of  Middlesex  replied  by  reelecting  Wilkes.  The  next 
day,  upon  the  ground  that  a  condemned  man  could  not  be  eligible, 
the  Commons  declared  the  election  void.  A  third  election  was 
then  held  in  which  Wilkes  received  1,143  votes,  and  his  opponent, 
Colonel  Luttrell,  only  296  votes.  The  Commons  awarded  the  seat 
to  Luttrell. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  justice  of  the  original  case  against 


928  FIRST    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [geokge  ill. 

Wilkes,  the  Commons  were  now  palpably  in  the  wrong.     Vigorous 

champions,  also,  who  saw  that  beyond  Wilkes  the  really  great  cause 

of  the  right  of  constituencies  to  choose  their  own  rep- 

Agitationin  .  •         i         -, 

behalf  of        rescutatives  was  at  stake,   rose  to  sustain  the  dema- 

Wilhcs. 

The  ''Junius  ffoffue.  Amouff  them  were  Burke  and  Grenville,  but 
most,  the  mysterious  satirist  who  masqueraded  under 
the  name  of  "Junius,"  who  during  all  the  year  1769  kept  assail- 
ing the  king  and  his  ministers,  painting  in  darkest  colors  the 
prevailing  corruption  and  weakness  of  the  government,  and  rousing 
his  victims  to  fury  by  his  merciless  castigations.^  A  series  of  libel 
prosecutions  followed;  but  the  secret  of  Junius 's  identity  was  so 
well  kept  that  to  this  day  the  authorship  of  the  mysterious  letters  is 
not  certain,  although  it  is  now  generally  ascribed  to  Sir  Philip 
Francis,  who  became  prominent  in  the  later  attacks  on  Warren 
Hastings.  The  people  were  deeply  moved,  and  monster  petitions 
were  sent  up  to  parliament  from  different  parts  of  the  kingdom; 
one  from  Yorkshire,  presented  by  Rockingham,  was  said  to  con- 
tain the  names  of  10,000  freeholders.  London  made  Wilkes  an 
alderman,  and  about  the  same  time  he  won  his  long  delayed  suit 
against  Halifax,  in  which  he  secured  a  verdict  of  £4,000. 

The  government  had  won  technically,  but  its  vindictive  injns- 

tice   had   called   English  radicalism  into   being,  and  parliament 

although  responsible  only    to   a   very  limited  constit- 

Thebeginnin^  .  .,      ,g  nn^j.  i  j 

(p' agitation     uency,   yet  saw  itself  compelled  to  lace  an  awakened 
mentary         public  Opinion  that  voiced  itself  in  monster  petitions, 

through  the  press,  and  from  the  platform.  From  1769, 
a  memorable  date,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution, 
the  demand  of  the  nation  for  parliamentary  reform  steadily  in- 
creased in  seriousness  and  persistence. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  Chatham  ministry  from  which  so  much 
had  been  expected  was  rapidly  going  to  pieces.     In  September 

1767  Townshend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exch-equer, 
Chatham^  died  and  was  succeeded  by  Lord  North.  Other  mem- 
ministry  mo  ^^^^  resigned,  and  their  places  were  filled  by  new  men. 

In  October  1768  Chatham,  the  nominal  head  of  the 
ministry,    disgusted   with    the   attitude    of  his  ministers  toward 

*  Colby,  Selections,  etc.,  p.  256. 


1770]  LORD    NORTH  929 

the  stirring  questions  of  the  hour,  also  resigned,  and  committed 
himself  to  the  cause  of  parliamentary  reform.  Grafton,  his  suc- 
cessor, managed  to  keep  things  going  for  two  years  longer,  when  he 
too  resigned,  to  give  way  to  Lord  North. 

In  Lord  North  the  king  found  a  minister  after  his  own  heart. 
He  is  described  as  a  ''coarse  and  clumsy  looking  man,  near- 
sighted, with  a  wide  mouth,  thick  lips,  and  inflated 
Lm-d North,  visage;"  yet  he  had  a  sunny  disposition,  an  unruffled 
temper,  tact,  and  wit.  He  possessed,  also,  with  much 
ability  a  large  experience  in  the  affairs  of  government,  nor  were 
the  many  disasters  which  are  associated  with  the  twelve  years  of 
his  administration,  due  to  lack  of  judgment  on  the  part  of  the 
minister,  as  much  as  to  the  persistent  interference  of  the  king, 
with  which  North  in  his  easy-going  good  nature  only  too  readily 
acquiesced.  For  he  accepted  witliout  reserve  the  principle  that 
as  the  king's  appointee,  he  belonged  to  the  king,  and  that  he 
was  bound  to  carry  out  the  king's  policy  rather  than  his  own  or 
that  of  any  party.  He  allowed  the  king  to  interfere  in  all 
home,  foreign,  and  colonial  affairs  and  to  direct  the  policy  of  the 
cabinet  about  as  he  pleased,  while  his  colleagues  conducted  them- 
selves simply  as  heads  of  departments,  sticking  to  their  desks, 
and  doing  their  best  to  carry  out  the  king's  wishes. 

During  the  long  era  of  the  North  ministry  English  politics 
were  concentrated  chiefly  on  the  important  constitutional  issues 
which  had  grown  out  of  the  Wilkes  case  and  the  situa- 
^/w^.  ^^^^  ^^  America.  The  policy  of  the  party  of  reform 
gradually  shaped  itself  into  a  definite  demand  for  the 
curtailment  of  the  privileges  of  the  Commons,  and  for  more  direct 
responsibility  to  their  constituents.  Grenville  in  1770,  just  before 
his  death,  introduced  a  measure  which  transferred  the  decision  of 
disputed  election  cases  to  a  special  committee  of  thirteen,  which 
examined  witnesses  under  oath  and  swore  to  decide  according  to 
evidence.  His  plan  remained  in  force  until  1868  when  the  parlia- 
ment once  more  returned  to  the  practice  of  the  fourteenth  century 
and  relegated  the  settlement  of  disputed  elections  to  the  courts. 
Another  measure,  which  swept  away  a  vast  amount  of  fraud, 
denied  the  right  of  servants  of  members  of  the  House,  to  share  in 


930  FIEST    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [gkorge  ill. 

the  privilege  of  immunity  from  arrest.  A  ruling  of  Justice 
Mansfield  in  one  of  Wilkes's  libel  trials,  in  which  he  had  allowed 
the  jury  to  pass  upon  the  fact  of  publication  only,  and  had 
Libel  Act,''  reserved  to  the  judge  the  right  to  determine  the  libel- 
ous character  of  the  published  matter,  remained  in 
force  until  the  law  of  libel  was  amended  by  the  "Fox  Act"  in  1792. 
In  1771  Wilkes  took  a  prominent  part  in  defeating  an  attempt  of 
the  Commons  to  punish  a  London  printer  named  Miller,  who  had 
recently  begun  to  publish  the  reports  of  their  debates.  In  their 
efforts  to  arrest  Miller  the  Commons  became  embroiled  with  the 
authorities  of  London.  The  arrest  of  the  mayor.  Brass  Crosby, 
was  the  signal  for  the  outbreak  of  riots;  mobs  paraded  the  streets, 
and  the  Commons  in  alarm  at  the  storm  which  their  efforts  to 
arrest  a  simple  printer  had  raised,  quietly  receded  from  their 
position.  Since  then  the  right  of  the  public  to  know  what  is 
doing  in  parliament  has  been  tacitly  conceded. 

There   were   other    measures,    also,  of   a   different   character 

which   reflect    the   times    in    another    light.      In    1772    North 

secured    the    passage   of    the  "Royal   Marriao^e   Act" 

The  ''Royal      ,  ,  .   ,  ,  <.      -,  ^    o       ■-,  , 

Marriage       by   which  a  member  of   the  royal  family  must  secure 
the    king's    consent   before   contracting  a  legal  mar- 
riage.    The  act  is  still   law. 

In  1773  the  East  India  Company  had  fallen  into  dire  straits. 

Bengal  had  been  desolated  by  a  famine  that  was  followed  by  the 

usual   pestilence.     Half   the   population,    it  was  said, 

The  ^'Reau-  r   r  ^  ^ 

lating  Act,"  perished.  Madras,  also,  was  devastated  by  wars  hardly 
Death  of  less  disastrous;  the  funds  of  the  company  were  so 
reduced  that  they  were  forced  to  appeal  to  parliament 
for  relief.  A  committee  of  inquiry  was  appointed  which  took  up 
the  subject  of  Indian  administration,  and  upon  the  basis  of  their 
work  North  presented  the  famous  "Regulating  Act,"  which  was 
to  have  such  dire  consequences  in  another  part  of  the  British 
Empire.  By  this  act  the  company  were  allowed  to  export  their 
bonded  tea  direct  to  America  free  of  the  ordinary  English  duties, 
but  subject  to  a  slight  duty  at  the  American  ports.  He  also 
granted  the  company  the  loan  of  £1,000,000,  but  took  out  of 
their  hands  a  part  of  their  political  authority  by  establishing  a 


1774-1780]  THE   GORDON   RIOTS  931 

supreme  court,  appointing  through  parliament  a  new  council,  and 
making  the  governor  of  Bengal  Governor- General  of  India.  War- 
ren Hastings  under  this  law  became  the  first  Governor-General  of 
India.  In  the  discussions  which  attended  the  passage  of  the 
Regulating  Act,  Olive,  who  had  been  raised  to  the  peerage, 
came  in  for  a  full  share  of  censure  on  the  basis  of  the  alleged 
corruption  which  had  attended  his  administration  in  the  East, 
and  although  the  formal  act  of  censure  was  softened  by  a  formal 
recognition  of  his  "great  and  meritorious  service"  to  England, 
the  condemnation  of  the  House  so  preyed  upon  his  mind,  that 
he  broke  under  the  strain  and  soon  after  took  his  life  with  his 
own  hand,  November  22,  1774,  dying  at  the  age  of  forty-nine. 

The  position  of  the  Catholics  in  England  early  demanded  the 
attention  of  government.  The  sentiment  of  toleration  was  stead- 
ily growing;  moreover  the  old  conditions  which  had 
mot^'nso^  given  birth  to  the  existing  code  had  changed,  and  to 
many  statesmen  it  seemed  that  the  time  had  come  to 
lighten  the  burdens  of  their  oppressed  fellow  countrymen.  In 
1778  Sir  George  Saville  introduced  the  **Relief  Act"  for  the 
repeal  of  the  act  of  1700  which  had  forbidden  the  celebration  of  the 
mass  under  severe  penalties  and  had  debarred  Catholics  from 
acquiring  a  title  to  land,  save  by  descent.  Saville's  bill  passed 
without  serious  opposition,  but  in  the  next  session  a  proposal  to 
apply  a  similar  measure  to  Scotland  at  once  aroused  all  the  latent 
traditional  hostility  of  the  Scots  to  the  Catholics,  and  rapidly 
developed  a  vigorous  opposition,  culminating  in  a  series  of  riots, 
in  which  Catholics  and  the  Protestants  who  favored  toleration 
were  the  victims.  The  agitation  spread  to  England  where  it 
found  a  leader  in  the  young  and  fanatical  Lord  George  Gordon. 
On  Friday  June  2,  1780  a  crowd  of  60,000  people  gathered  about 
the  Parliament  House  with  a  petition  for  the  repeal  of  the  Relief 
Act,  and  when  parliament  showed  no  disposition  to  comply,  with 
cries  of  '*No  Popery"  turned  to  the  looting  and  burning  of  pub- 
lic and  private  buildings.  Jails  were  destroyed  and  criminals 
liberated.  The  city  authorities  were  helpless,  and  for  several  days 
the  city  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  mob.  Wilkes,  who  was  now  an 
alderman  of  London  and  had  a  considerable  following  among  the 


932  FIRST    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [georgeIII. 

people,  proved  so  useful  in  suppressing  the  disturbance  that  the 
Privy  Council  thanked  him  formally.  The  demonstrations  failed 
altogether  to  force  the  repeal  and  in  the  end  really  strengthened 
the  cause  of  toleration. 

During  this  period  two  men  had  come  into  special  prominence, 
Edmund  Burke  and  Charles  James  Fox.  Burke  was  born  in  Ire- 
land in  1729.  His  father  was  a  Protestant  attorney 
Burke!'^  of  prominence  and  his  mother  a  Catholic.  He  attended 
Dublin  University,  but  met  with  indifferent  success  as 
a  student,  taking  little  interest  in  the  prescribed  studies.  He 
studied  law  but  disliking  it,  chose  the  uncertain  profession 
of  letters.  His  father  in  disgust  withdrew  his  allowance.  The 
act  of  the  father  was  the  making  of  the  young  man,  who  was 
thus  thrown  upon  his  own  resources  and  compelled  to  grapple 
with  life  in  serious  earnest.  He  began  by  practicing  oratory  in 
the  debating  societies  of  Convent  Garden  and  by  writing  for  book- 
sellers. He  did  not  enter  the  political  arena  until  nearly  forty; 
"I  was  not  swaddled  and  rocked  and  dandled  into  a  legislator," 
he  wrote  just  before  his  death.  In  the  House  he  was  at  once 
recognized  as  a  man  of  power.  Inferior  to  Fox  as  a  debater  and 
surpassed  by  Pitt  in  fire  and  majesty  of  declamation,  he  excelled 
all  in  correctness  of  diction,  in  range  of  knowledge,  in  power  of 
imagination,  and  in  depth  of  philosophical  reflection.  There  was 
apparently  no  limit  to  his  power  of  applying  himself  long  and 
arduously  to  any  matter  which  he  took  in  hand.  He  spent 
fourteen  years  in  the  effort  to  master  the  affairs  of  India,  and  suc- 
ceeded after  * 'laborious  effort  in  laying  the  foundations,  once  and 
for  all,  of  a  moral,  just,  philanthropic,  and  responsible  public 
opinion  in  England  with  reference  to  India,  and  in  doing  so  per- 
formed perhaps  the  most  magnificent  service  that  any  statesman 
has  ever  had  it  in  his  power  to  render  to  humanity." 

The  accession  of  Charles  James  Fox  to  the  Whig  party  was 
mainly  due  to  the  teaching  and  influence  of  Burke.  Fox  entered 
parliament  in  1768  before  he  was  legally  qualified,  not  having  com- 
pleted his  twentieth  year.  He  had  accepted  his  politics  from  his 
father,  the  Henry  Fox  of  George  II.  's  time,  and  accordingly  had 
first   joined   the   Tory   ranks.     The   story  of  his  private  life  is 


1770-1774]  THE   BOSTON   MASSACRE  933 

highly  discreditable.     Gaming  was  a  passion  which,  notwithstand- 
ing a  large  inheritance  and  the  repeated  assistance  of  friends,  kept 

him  in  a  state  of  chronic  bankruptcy.  He  drank;  he 
James^ox     ^^^   profligate ;  yet  he  possessed  a  charm  of  manner,  a 

sweetness  of  temper,  which  endeared  him  to  his  friends 
and  evoked  the  admiration  of  his  opponents.  *'He  is  a  man,"  said 
Burke,  "made  to  be  loved,  of  the  most  artless,  candid,  open,  and 
benevolent  disposition;  disinterested  in  the  extreme,  of  a  temper 
mild  and  placable  to  a  fault,  without  one  drop  of  gall  in  his  whole 
constitution."  He  was  dismissed  from  the  Tory  ministry  in  1774 
as  the  result  of  a  personal  quarrel  with  Lord  North,  and 
although  he  did  not  ally  himself  at  once  with  the  Whigs,  he  began 
to  attack  the  policy  of  the  government  toward  America. 

While  the  better  elements  within  parliament  and  without,  were 
thundering  away  at  the  corruption  of  North's  administration,  the 

situation  in  America  was  every  day  becoming  more  crit- 
^Masslwre^  ical.  The  spirit  of  resistance,  which  had  subsided  for 
March  5,        ^  scason  after  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  was  blazing 

np  again  more  fiercely  than  ever.  The  colonial  gov- 
ernors were  constantly  quarreling  with  the  colonial  legislatures ; 
and  when  parliament  proposed  to  bring  to  England  for  trial  men 
accused  of  treason,  whom  colonial  juries  refused  to  convict,  the 
colonists  answered  by  a  sort  of  boycott  of  English  merchants, 
such  as  they  had  attempted  after  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act, 
agreeing  not  to  import  or  use  English  goods.  The  soldiers 
quartered  in  America  were  also  a  source  of  constant  friction,  and 
finally  came  into  open  conflict  with  a  mob  of  men  and  boys  in  the 
streets  of  Boston.  Several  of  the  mob  were  shot  down.  The  first 
to  fall  was  Crispus  Attucks,  a  colored  man. 

Even  Lord  North  hesitated  to  push  matters  further,  and  deter- 
mining to  try  conciliation,   repealed  the  duties   of   Townshend, 

except  that  on  tea,  and  allowed  the  act  by  which 
fJ^&ion     soldiers    were   quartered   on   the    colonists  to  expire. 

The  government  pledged  itself,  also,  to  raise  no  further 
revenues  in  America.  These  measures  for  a  time  promised  to 
improve  the  situation;  but  the  underlying  causes  of  discontent 
remained.     Occasional  outbreaks  of  lawlessness,   the  attitude  of 


934  FIRST   PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [qeoegb  m. 

the  resident  representatives  of  the  crown  toward  their  fellow  col- 
onists, the  treatment  of  Franklin  who  was  the  accredited  agent  of 
several  of  the  colonies  at  the  English  court,  kept  the  public  mind 
irritated  and  fanned  the  ffrowina^  spirit  of  opposition. 

The  '^Boston     „,         .  .  ,  ,  i      t    n  .       -, 

Tea  Party,''    Ihe  American  tea  duty  had  been   retained,  partly  to 

Dec.  16   1773.  T   r  J 

assert  the  right  of  the  British  government  to  tax  the 
colonies,  and  partly  because  it  was  more  of  the  nature  of  a  trade 
regulation  and  did  not  affect  English  manufactures.  The  colo- 
nists, however,  refused  to  use  the  tea.  The  removal  of  the  English 
export  duty  of  12  cents  per  pound  in  the  interest  of  the  East  India 
Company  still  further  complicated  matters,  by  threatening  every 
small  merchant  who  had  already  bought  his  tea.  When  the  tea 
ships  arrived,  for  the  most  part,  they  were  sent  back  with  their 
holds  unopened.  Some,  however,  did  not  get  off  so  easily;  in 
Boston  a  company  of  citizens,  disguised  as  Indians,  boarded  the 
vessels  and  threw  their  entire  cargoes  into  the  sea. 

Parliament  was  naturally  exasperated  at  the  untoward  results  of 
its  efforts  at  conciliation,  and  responded  to  the  act  of  the  citizens 

of  Boston  by  a  series  of  measures  known  in  America  as 

Tlie  ^^Intoler- 

able  Acts,"     the  "Intolerable   Acts."     The   harbor  of   Boston  was 

1774. 

closed,  a  severe  blow  to  the  prosperity  of  the  contuma- 
cious city;  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  was  remodeled  so  as  to 
place  the  powers  of  government  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  crown 
and  its  appointees ;  the  right  of  the  people  to  hold  public  meet- 
ings was  abridged.  It  was  provided,  also,  that  any  one  indicted  for 
murder  or  any  capital  offense,  committed  while  aiding  a  magistrate 
to  suppress  disturbances,  might  be  sent  for  trial  to  any  other 
colony  or  to  Great  Britain.  General  Gage  was  appointed  military 
Governor  of  Massachusetts  and  empowered  to  quarter  soldiers 
upon  the  inhabitants. 

The  attack  upon  Boston  at  once  roused  the  sympathies  of  the 
other  colonies.  Although  Boston  had  first  drawn  the  wrath  of 
parliament,  all  felt  that  the  cause  was  common.  The  old  rivals 
of  Boston,  Salem  and  Marblehead,  offered  the  Boston  merchants 
the  use  of  their  wharves  and  warehouses  without  cost.  Other  places 
sent  supplies  of  rice  and  corn  to  feed  the  Boston  poor.  Virginia 
sent  resolutions  of  sympathy  and  other  colonies  imitated  her  exam- 


1774]  FIRST   AMERICAN   CONGRESS  935 

pie.    A  system  of  committees  organized  resistance,  and  a  "Solemn 
League  and  Covenant"  was  formed  by  which  the  colonies  bound 

themselves  to  have  no  commercial  intercourse  with 
ConUnentai  ^^^^^  Britain  until  the  unjust  acts  were  withdrawn. 
cmigress,       ^  movement  for  a  general  Congress  was  set  on  foot,  and 

on  September  5,  1774,  delegates  met  at  Philadelphia, 
representing  every  colony  except  distant  Georgia.  They  drew 
up  a  series  of  addresses  to  the  colonies,  to  the  Canadians,  and 
to  the  king  and  people  of  England.  They  also  framed  a  decla- 
ration of  rights  setting  forth  the  points  at  issue  in  a  clear  and 
statesmanlike  manner.  They  had  no  wish  to  separate  from  the 
mother  country;  they  acknowledged  the  general  legislative  author- 
ity of  parliament  and  its  right  to  impose  such  commercial  regula- 
tions as  might  be  deemed  for  the  best  good  of  the  empire.  But 
rather  than  submit  to  taxation  by  parliament,  or  to  acts  which 
violated  their  liberties,  they  would  appeal  to  the  sword.  They 
adjourned  to  meet  in  the  following  May  to  consider  the  king's 
reply  to  the  address  and  determine  upon  the  next  step. 

Tlie  colonists  were  now  rapidly  drifting  into  the  War  of  the 
Kevolution.     *'The  die  is  now  cast,"  wrote  George  III.;  **the 

colonists  must  either  submit  or  triumph."  The  Eng- 
cnwiseis         lish  officials  who  surrounded  the  king  laughed  at  the 

at  home.  .  ^  .         ...  t^.,.i  mi  i  -,  ,^ 

idea  of  resisting  a  British  army.  They  remembered  the 
dissensions  and  jealousies  which  had  crippled  the  colonists  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  last  war  and  did  not  believe  them  capable  of  any 
continued  concerted  action.  *'The  Americans  will  be  lions  while 
we  are  lambs,"  General  Gage  assured  the  king;  "but  if  we  take 
the  resolute  part,  they  will  undoubtedly  prove  very  meek." 
Some,  however,  saw  with  a  clearer  eye  the  serious  nature  of  the 
impending  conflict.  Burke  and  Chatham  recognized  the  sound- 
ness of  the  principle  upon  which  the  colonists  had  taken  their 
stand,  and  boldly  raised  their  voices  for  the  cause  of  liberty. 
These  colonists  were  Englishmen  and  were  entitled  to  the  rights 
of  Englishmen ;  the  fact  that  they  had  been  cradled  in  America 
did  not  justify  parliament  in  withholding  these  rights.  "I  rejoice 
that  America  has  resisted,"  Chatham  cried.  "Three  millions  of 
people,  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  liberty  as  voluntarily  to  sub- 


936  FIRST    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [ 


George  III. 


mit  to  be  slaves,  would  have  been  fit  instruments  to  make  slaves 
of  the  rest."  He  moved  an  address  to  the  kiDg,  praying  him  to 
remove  the  British  troops  as  soon  as  possible,  as  the  first  step 
towards  *'a  happy  settlement  of  the  dangerous  troubles  in 
America."^  Other  measures  of  conciliation  were  proposed,  but 
before  parliament  could  make  up  its  mind  to  act,  the  war  had 
begun. 

On  the  night  of  April  18,  1775,  General  Gage  sent  out  the 
unfortunate  expedition  to  destroy  the  stores  at  Concord  that 
resulted  in  the  battle  on  the  green  in  the  quiet  village 
i!^^ton^^  of  Lexington;  a  small  band  of  farmers  and  mechan- 
ics, who  had  hurried  from  their  plows  and  their  forges 
at  the  first  alarm,  stood  for  one  moment  to  face  the  British  regu- 
lars and  then  fled.  They  left  sixteen  of  their  number  lying  on 
the  green  behind  them,  some  shot  to  death  and  others  writhing  in 
the  agony  of  ghastly  wounds.  It  was  not  a  battle,  hardly  a  skir- 
mish, but  it  was  enough  to  call  the  young  nation  to  arms.  The 
whole  countryside  rose,  and  when  the  English,  after  accomplish- 
ing their  task,  began  the  homeward  march  from  Concord,  from  all 
sides  the  infuriated  farmers  began  pouring  in  a  deadly  fire  upon 
the  retiring  columns.  From  barns,  from  haystacks,  from  hedges, 
from  stonewalls,  they  kept  up  an  incessant  fire,  and  nothing  but 
the  approach  of  a  relief  party  of  nine  hundred  men  saved  the 
detachment  from  complete  annihilation. 

The  news  of  the  day's  fighting  spread  rapidly,  and  from  all 
eastern  Massachusetts  the  hardy  yeomanry  began  to  pour  into  the 
improvised  camps  about  Boston,  and  Gage  found  him- 
Junen?775  ^^^^  compelled  to  face  a  regular  siege.  On  the  17th  of 
June  the  insurgents  attempted  to  fortify  the  peninsula 
which  stretches  around  Boston  harbor  to  the  left.  The  result 
was  the  action  known  as  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Fifteen 
hundred  inexperienced  troops,  after  toiling  all  night  to  cast  up 
intrenchments,  found  themselves  in  the  morning,  weary  with  toil 
and  faint  for  lack  of  food,  exposed  to  a  galling  fire  from  the  .Eng- 
lish ships,  and  then  compelled  to  face  a  direct  attack  of  the 
English  infantry.     Boldly  they  stood  their  ground;  twice  they 

'  Lee,  Source  Book,  p.  479. 


1776]  AMERICAN    DECLARATION    OF    INDEPENDENCE  937 

scattered  the  English  columns  and  drove  them  down  the  slope; 
a!id  then,  when  their  powder  was  gone,  they  faced  the  advancing 
]-egulars  with  stones  and  clubbed  guns,  and  retired  only  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet.  Under  the  conditions  the  attempt  to  fortify 
and  hold  such  a  position  would  be  condemned  by  all  the  rules  of 
wair  and  the  brave  fellows  were  severely  punished  for  their  temerity, 
or,  rather,  their  ignorance  of  the  military  science.  Yet  the  act 
had  most  important  results.  The  Americans  had  proved  that  they 
were  not  the  cowardly,  raw  yokels  who  would  throw  down  their 
guns  and  run  at  the  first  smell  of  powder,  such  as  English  officials 
had  so  often  represented.  The  prestige  of  the  English  army  was 
shaken  and  its  morale  weakened. 

The  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  also,  greatly  strengthened  the  war 
spirit  in  the   colonies.      The  second    Continental  Congress   had 

met  as  agreed  in  May.  They  had  come  together  osten- 
'Smtinentai  ^^^^^  ^^  ^  peacB  Convention ;  but  found  themselves  com- 
cmigress,        pelled  to  assume  the  functions  of  a  governing  body  and 

shoulder  the  responsibility  of  conducting  a  war.  Yet 
they  bravely  faced  the  issue.  On  June  15,  1775  they  appointed 
George  Washington,  who  had  seen  severe  service  in  Braddock's 
ill-fated  campaign,  commander-in-chief  of  the  colonial  armies, 
and  at  once  inaugurated  a  series  of  vigorous  measures  for  making 
the  military  strength  of  the  colonies  felt  by  England.  Ticonderoga 
and  Crown  Point,  the  gateway  to  Canada,  were  surprised  and  cap- 
tured. And  though  an  invasion  of  Canada  failed,  it  was  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the  success  of  Washington  in  compell- 
ing Gage's  successor  Howe  to  evacuate  Boston  in  March,  1776. 
These  events  had  powerfully  accelerated  the  drift  of  Amer- 
ican   opinion    toward   independence.     W^hen   the  first    Congress 

came  together  few  thought  of  independence  as  either 
tion?/iade-'  Possible  or  desirable.  The  colonies  instructed  the 
Tuiu^4^i776     ^ielegates,  while  securing  the  redress  of  grievances,  to 

labor,  as  Massachusetts  put  it,  for  'Hhe  restoration  of 
union  and  harmony  between  Great  Britain  and  the  colonies,  most 
ardently  desired  by  all  good  men.  *  *  But  the  lingering  loyalty  of 
the  people  was  fast  ebbing  under  the  pressure  of  the  contest ;  and 
when  the  king,  unable  to  persuade  Englishmen  to  enlist  in  the 


938  FIRST   PEKIOD    OF    TORY    RULE  [george  ill. 

nefarious  war  which  his  own  stupidity  had  raised,  began  to  buy- 
up  Hessian  peasants  and  ship  them  to  America  in  order  to  shoot 
down  Americans,  there  was  no  place  longer  for  old  fashioned 
loyalty.  Nor  was  all  the  indignation  felt  by  Englishmen  on  this 
side  the  water.  Chatham,  never  more  terrible  to  those  who  were 
sinning  against  liberty  than  in  these  later  days,  rose  from  his  sfck 
bed  to  hobble  into  the  old  hall  which  he  had  so  long  honored  by 
his  noble  championship  of  the  cause  of  the  Greater  Britain  and 
with  almost  his  last  breath  protested  against  the  suicidal  course 
of  the  government.  **You  cannot  conquer  America,"  he  cried; 
*'if  I  were  an  American  as  I  am  an  Englishman,  while  a  foreign 
troop  was  landed  in  my  country,  I  never  would  lay  down  my  arms, 
never,  never  never!"  In  America  the  rising  indignation  swept 
all  before  it,  and  on  the  night  of  July  4,  1776,  amidst  the  most 
intense  anxiety,  the  Continental  Congress  gave  the  memorable 
Declaration  of  Independence  to  the  world. 

The  months  which  followed  were  marked  by  varying  fortunes 
on  either  side,  until  the  victory  of  the  Americans  at  Saratoga 
effectually  turned  the  tide.  Congress,  through  its 
October  17  agent  Silas  Deane,  had  already  secured  material  aid 
iSresMfte  from  France  in  money,  arms,  and  equipment;  but  the 
disaster  to  the  English  arms  at  Saratoga  encouraged 
the  French  government  to  make  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the 
colonists  by  which  they  were  recognized  as  independent  states,  and 
England  was  forced  to  begin  war  with  France.  In  1779  Spain  also 
declared  war  on  Great  Britain,  and  in  1780  the  northern  powers 
entered  into  an  "armed  neutrality"  to  resist  England's  assumption 
of  the  right  of  search.  England  thus  saw  herself  not  only  baffled  in 
her  attempts  to  reduce  the  colonies,  but  seriously  menaced  by  the 
general  attitude  of  the  European  powers,  from  Russia  to  Spain. 

The  situation  of  England  was  now  extremely  critical.    Northern 

Europe  was  hostile  and  war  had  actually  begun  with  Holland.    The 

French  navy,  which  had  been  enlarged  and  strengthened 

Fresh  diM-        ,      ^        .     ^-T'  .        .       ^  <.  .  i    <• 

cuitiesfor       bv  Louis  A  VI. ,  was  provmef  itself  more  than  a  match  for 

England.  ^     .       ^  .     '  ^    _     .^     _        ,  .   . 

England  on  the  seas.  Ireland,  which  was  m  a  far  worse 
condition  politically  and  commercially  than  the  colonies  had  ever 
been,  was  also  on  the  verge  of  revolt.     Five-sixths  of  the  popula- 


1781]  END   OF   AMERICAN    WAR  939 

tion  were  Catholic.  Of  the  remaining  one-sixth  the  Presbyterian 
settlers  of  Ulster  formed  one-half,  but  were  as  completely 
excluded  from  participation  in  the  government  as  were  the 
Catholics.  Only  members  of  the  Established  Church  were  allowed 
to  share  in  the  administration  of  government  or  of  justice,  and 
even  this  handful  of  the  population  were  controlled  by  a  few 
wealthy  and  corrupt  landowners.  The  Irish  parliament  was  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  Privy  Council  in  England;  English  laws  had 

long  since  destroyed  Irish  commerce  and  agriculture  in 
agUation        ^^®  interests  of  English  merchants  and  landlords.     Yet 

the  new  movement  which  now  shook  Ireland  was  not 
inspired  by  the  suffering  and  poverty  of  the  misgoverned  ma- 
jority; but  by  the  ruling  class  who  believed  that  the  time  had  come 
to  demand  legislative  independence.  It  was  sustained,  moreover, 
by  the  eloquence  of  Grattan  and  Flood  in  parliament  and  by  an 
armed  force  of  80,000  volunteers  whom  the  English  government 
had  called  out  to  provide  defense  for  Ireland  under  threat  of  a 
French  invasion.  It  was  no  time  to  think  of  resistance,  and 
Lord  North,  taught  at  last  by  his  experience  with  the  Amer- 
ican colonies,  yielded  and  the  burdensome  restrictions  under 
which  Irish  commerce  had  struggled  for  a  hundred  years, 
were  removed.  The  succeeding  ministry  abandoned  the  English 
claim  to  legislative  and  judicial  supremacy,  and  for  eighteen 
years  Ireland  enjoyed  a  kind  of  Home  Rule.  The  government, 
however,  was  still  conducted  in  the  interests  of  the  Protestant 
minority. 

In  1781,  when  Cornwallis,  who  had  been  shut  up  in  Yorktown 
by  a  combined  American  and  French  force,  was  at  last  compelled  to 

surrender,   the  climax  was  reached  in  the  American 

End  of  the  ,  .  ,,_.-  .  ______        ^ 

American  struggle.  \V  hen  the  news  reached  England,  Lord 
North  abandoned  all  hope  of  a  successful  termination 
of  the  war;  '*0h  God,"  he  cried,  ''it  is  all  over."  The  unhappy 
minister  had  attempted  to  resign  before,  but  the  king  had  con- 
tinued to  cling  to  him  with  the  persistent  obstinacy  which  had 
already  brought  so  much  misfortune  in  its  train ;  and  even  now  he 
would  have  prolonged  the  struggle,  but  the  sentiment  of  the 
country  had  set  so  strongly  against  North,  that  George  was  forced 


940  FIRST   PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [georgeIU. 

at  last  to  yield,  and  on  March  20,  1782  the  North  ministry  came 

to  an  end.     The  same  bitter  alternative  compelled  the  king  to 

accept  a  Whig  ministry,  though  it  implied  the  over- 

North.   Sec-    throw  of  the  system  which  he  had  been  so  Ions:  striving 

ond  Rocking-    ,       ,     .,  ^  t^      i  • 

ham  minis-  to  build  up.  Kockmgham  agam  became  the  head  of 
the  administration  with  Fox  and  William  Petty,  Lord 
Shelburne,  leader  of  the  Chatham  Whigs,  as  the  most  important 
members.  The  avowed  purpose  of  the  ministry  was  to  secure 
peace  on  the  basis  of  the  independence  of  the  American  colonies. 
But  the  ministry  was  weakened  by  dissensions.  The  king 
intrigued  with  Shelburne  against  the  other  members.  Shelburne, 
who  disliked  Fox  personally,  wished  to  take  up  Walpole's  old 
policy  of  alliance  with  France,  delaying  peace  with  America  till 
France  could  be  included  in  its  terms.  Fox  wished  England  to 
join  in  a  defensive  alliance  with  Russia  and  Prussia,  and  favored 
an  immediate  peace  with  America.  After  fifteen  weeks  of  fruit- 
less discussion  Rockingham  died.  He  was  succeeded  by 
sheihume       Shelbume ;  Fox,  Burke,  and  Ashburton  withdrew.     At 

ministry.  '  .      . 

the  same  time  the  negotiations  for  peace  received  a  favor- 
able impulse  from  a  victory  which  Rodney  won  over  de  Grasse  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  also  from  the  failure  of  a  combined  French  and 
Spanish  attack  on  Gibraltar,  the  culmination  of  a  three  years'  siege. 
France  and  Spain  were  convinced  that  England  might  still  prove  a 
dangerous  enemy,  and  in  January  1783  agreed  to  preliminaries 
at  Versailles.  Similar  articles  had  been  accepted  by  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  in  the  preceding  November,  and  on  Septem- 
ber 3,  1783,  formal  treaties  between  Great  Britain,  the 
^im.^^^  United  States,  France,  and  Spain,  were  signed  at  Paris 
and  Versailles.  Great  Britain  ceded  to  France  Tobago 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Senegal  region  in  Africa;  Spain 
retained  Minorca  and  Florida ;  the  independence  of  the  United 
States  was  recognized  and  the  boundaries  of  the  new  nation  were 
established.  Though  England  had  regained  her  control  of  the 
sea,  the  loss  of  her  American  colonies  was  a  heavy  blow  and 
seemed  to  many  even  of  her  own  people  to  have  deprived  her  of 
her  position  as  a  great  world  power. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE    AND   THE    FRENCH 

REVOLUTION 

OEORQE  lU.,  1783-1815 

For  twelve  years  George  III.  had  now  been  king  after  his  own 
ideal,  he  had  not  only  reigned,  he  had  governed.  The  results, 
however,  were  by  no  means  ^such  as  to  commend  a 
rule  of  king  further  trial  of  the  experiment.  The  crown  had  lost 
one-half  its  territories ;  its  hold  upon  Ireland  and  India 
had  been  seriously  threatened,  if  not  weakened;  England  had  been 
humbled  before  her  old  traditional  foes  in  Europe,  and  her  public 
debt  had  been  increased  to  £250,000,000.  Even  North,  who  had 
so  often  sacrificed  his  own  judgment  in  supporting  the  Tory  idea  of 
king  government,  now  went  over  to  the  "king's  enemies,''  openly 
declaring  that  henceforth  the  appearance  of  power  was  all  that 
was  left  for  a  king  of  England.  King-power  in  England  was 
dead.  The  decree  of  Fox,  that  the  king  must  never  again  be 
allowed  to  be  his  own  Prime  Minister,  was  accepted  as  final ;  the 
government  by  departments  was  tacitly  abandoned  and  the  cabinet 
system  of  Walpole  accepted  as  a  permanent  feature  of  the  unwrit- 
ten constitution. 

The  tenure  of   the  new  Whig  ministry,  however,  was  destined 

to  be  short.     Fox,  Burke,  and  Ashburton,  who  had  resigned  when 

Lord   Shelburne  became  Prime  Minister,  now  ioined 

The  Whig 

ministry,        forccs^with  the  North  Tories,  and  in  February  succeeded 

1782   1783 

in  forcing  Shelburne  out  of  ofiice.  The  Whigs  had  been 
in  office  barely  ten  months;  yet  they  had  undone  much  of  the 
mischief  wrought  by  the  George  III. -North  ministry.  They  had 
accepted  the  results  of  the  American  War  and  made  peace  with 
the  United  Colonies  and  their  allies;  they  had  quieted  Ireland  by 
granting  legislative  and  judicial  independence;  they  had  also  done 

941 


942  SECOND    PEEIOD   OF  TORY    RULE  [geobgbIU. 

tardy  justice  to  Wilkes  by  expunging  the  proceedings  of  the  Mid- 
dlesex election  case.  During  the  twelve  hungry  years  of  opposi- 
tion, the  party  cry  had  been  for  economic  and  parliamentary 
reform,  and  the  Whig  ministers  had  signalized  their  return  to 
power  by  cutting  away  many  of  the  barnacles  that  had  fastened 
upon  the  public  service  as  a  result  of  George  III.'s  personal 
methods  of  winning  '^friends;"  they  had  debarred  revenue  officers 
from  voting  at  parliamentary  elections  and  secured  the  exclusion 
of  government  contractors  from  the  House  of  Commons ;  they  had 
restricted  the  regular  pension  list  and  abolished  secret  pensions 
and  useless  offices.  Yet  when  the  reform  ministers  hastened  to 
give  pensions  to  their  friends  in  order  to  make  the  most  of  the 
old  system  before  the  new  pension  law  should  come  into  opera- 
tion, it  was  evident  to  the  people  that  the  politicians,  true  to  the 
traditions  of  the  gild,  were  only  playing  at  reform  as  a  bid  for 
popular  favor.  It  was  something,  however,  that  politicians  were 
beginning  to  fear  the  public  pillory  and  that  they  recognized  the 
necessity  of  at  least  seeming  to  be  honest. 

Any  feelings  of  disappointment  which  the  public  may  have 
felt  with  the  conduct  of  the  Whig  ministry  were  soon  forgotten 

in  the  positive  shock  which  followed  the  announcement 
The  Fox-  of  a  coalition  of  the  high-toned  Fox  Whigs  and  the 
tion,  1783.       North  Tories  under  the  nominal  leadership  of  the  duke 

of  Portland,  but  with  Fox  and  North  as  Secretaries  of 
State.  The  new  ministers  cited  the  precedent  of  the  Pitt-New- 
castle coalition,  and  appealed  to  the  present  necessity  of  uniting 
all  factions  to  save  the  state.  The  people  refused  to  believe  that 
two  such  bitter  political  foes  as  Fox  and  North,  who  for  twelve 
years  back  had  filled  the  air  with  the  din  of  personal  recrimina- 
tion, had  joined  hands  for  any  other  purpose  than  to  keep  them- 
selves in  power  and  more  securely  control  public  patronage.  The 
new  coalition  ministry,  therefore,  though  for  the  time  strong  in 
the  Commons,  began  its  career  under  a  cloud  of  popular  disfavor. 
The  king,  moreover,  was  against  it.  He  had  always  detested 
Fox,  and  would  not  forgive  North  for  his  recent  desertion.  He 
had  for  five  weeks  struggled  for  his  right  to  select  his  own  minis- 
ters, but  had  been  compelled  at  last  to  accept  the  men  who  com- 


1783]  WILLIAM    PITT   THE    SECOND  943 

manded  the  votes  of  parliament.  He  fretted  and  worried  under 
what  he  called  his  * 'thraldom,"  and  told  the  new  ministers  to  the 
face  that  they  need  never  expect  his  support.  This  was  no  idle 
threat,  for  the  king  still  retained  a  considerable  personal  influence, 
particularly  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  upon  the  presentation  of 
Fox's  "India  Bill,"  secured  its  defeat  in  the  Lords,  and  taking 
advantage  of  the  increasing  disfavor  of  the  coalition,  on  December 
18  ordered  Fox  and  North  to  deliver  up  their  portfolios. 

The  bill  itself  was  not  objectionable.  The  East  India  Com- 
pany as  a  result  of  the  powers  originally  conferred  upon  it, 
had  developed  tyranny  in  its  worst  form,  that  of  an 
^[^d'  Bill  "  irresponsible  private  corporation  which  exercised  all  the 
power  of  a  sovereign  state,  maintaining  armies,  making 
treaties  of  peace  or  levying  war,  and  disposing  of  the  property 
and  lives  of  millions  of  helpless  subjects,  without  other  object 
than  the  enrichment  of  the  distant  stockholders  at  home.  Men 
like  Burke  who  had  much  to  do  with  framing  the  Fox  Bill,  had 
felt  deeply  the  wrongs  under  which  the  East  Indians  suffered, 
and  saw  no  hope  of  improving  their  condition  until  the  political 
powers  of  the  company  were  put  in  the  hands  of  commissioners 
responsible  to  parliament.  But  the  public  refused  to  believe  in 
the  sincerity  of  Fox's  philanthropy,  and  saw  in  the  measure  only 
one  more  scheme  to  increase  enormously  the  patronage  which  was 
already  at  the  disposal  of  the  coalition.  Hence  the  Indians  had 
to  wait  until  a  champion  should  present  himself  whose  hands  were 
clean. 

The  great  Chatham  had  died  in  1778  in  the  midst  of  the 
American  War,  his  last  speech  a  protest  against  "the  dismember- 
ment of  this  ancient  and  most  noble  monarchy." 
tTe  Second***  When  his  speech  was  ended  he  fell  back  in  a  fit,  and 
was  carried  home  to  die  a  few  days  later.  May  11.  His 
eldest  son,  who  bore  his  title,  was  a  man  of  second-rate  powers, 
but  the  younger  son,  born  in  1759,  who  bore  the  father's  name,  had 
inherited  not  only  his  high-souled  integrity  but  much  of  his  power 
as  a  leader,  although  without  his  fire.  From  childhood  the 
younger  Pitt  had  been  trained  by  his  august  father  for  public  life. 
Under  such  tutelage  the  susceptible  mind  matured  fast  and  the 


944  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [gbobgk  ill. 

yoitth  soon  developed  remarkable  powers  as  a  debater  and  leader. 
He  was  scarcely  out  of  his  teens  when  he  first  entered  parlia 
ment,  and  soon  became  prominent  as  an  earnest  advocate  of 
parliamentary  reform.  When  Fox  resigned  from  the  Shelburne 
ministry  in  1782,  Pitt,  although  then  but  twenty-three,  was 
appointed  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  now,  a  year  later,  upon 
the  fall  of  the  coalition  he  was  invited  by  the  king  to  form  a  new 
ministry. 

The    appointment    was  greeted   by   the   hoary -headed   politi- 
cians with  shouts  of  derisive  laughter.     The  new  government  was 

dubbed ''the  mince  pie  administration;"  it  was  made 
put^^^  ^-^     to  be  devoured  before  the  Christmas  holidays  were  over. 

The  king,  it  was  said,  had  entrusted  the  empire  to  "a 
schoolboy,  who  ought  to  be  sent  back  to  school."  Yet  for 
seventeen  years  this  schoolboy  was  to  maintain  his  place  at  the 
head  of  the  government,  and  carry  England  safely  through  one  of 
the  most  trying  periods  of  her  whole  history.  Derision  soon 
turned  to  admiration;  "He  is  not  a  chip  of  the  old  block," 
exclaimed  Burke,  when  he  had  learned  the  worth  of  the  man, 
**he  is  the  old  block  itself."  Here  in  a  word  was  the  secret  of 
the  phenomenal  career  of  this  precocious  youth.  He  was  his 
father's  successor  in  more  ways  than  one;  he  had  succeeded  not 
only  to  his  name  and  much  of  his  ability,  but  with  a  tact  and 
business  knowledge  of  his  own,  he  had  also  fallen  heir  to  his 
father's  popularity.  All  the  glorious  traditions  associated  with 
the  career  of  the  father,  his  championship  of  parliamentary 
reform,  of  the  rights  of  Britons,  of  the  dignity  of  the  crown 
against  the  rule  of  the  old  Whig  oligarchy,  and  of  the  integrity 
and  dignity  of  the  British  empire,  all  now  passed  to  William  Pitt 
the  younger. 

In  the  appointment  of  Pitt,  the  king  apparently  had  reasserted 
the  outworn  Tory  doctrine  of  his  right  to  name  his  own  minister 

in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  Commons,  and  for  the 
^'dPitf         moment  the  popularity  of  the  new  minister  made  the 

elevation  of  Pitt  appear  like  a  real  triumph  of  the  king. 
But  George  soon  found  that  in  Pitt  he  had  no  such  pliant  servant 
as  in  North;    William  Pitt  and  not  George  III.  was  now  Prime 


1784]  APPEAL   OF    PITT   TO    THE    COUNTRY  945 

Minister  of  England.  Yet  loath  as  George  was  "to  give  up  his  old 
ideas  of  personal  government,  he  was  compelled  to  cling  to  Pitt. 
It  was,  moreover,  the  wisest  thing  to  do;  for  it  brought  the  nation 
to  the  support  of  the  king  against  the  parliament,  and  matched 
the  coalition  of  \Yhig  and  Tory  politicians  by  a  counter  coalition 
of  king  and  people;  and  king  and  people  won. 

For  some  months  Pitt's  position  was  precarious.     The  coalition 
fully  expected  shortly  to  return  to  po\ver.     Pitt  could  not  per- 
suade a  single  member  of  influence  in  the  Commons  to 
Pitttofhe^^'^  enter  his  cabinet,  and  was  compelled  to  take  his  miiiis- 
country,         ^^rs  from  the  Lords.     In  the  Commons  he  stood  almost 

1784. 

alone, — a  young  man  of  twenty-four  confronted  by  such 
leaders  as  Fox,  North,  Burke,  Sheridan,  and  Erskine.  Again 
and  again  he  was  defeated  by  large  majorities,  yet  he  would  not 
resign.  With  the  support  of  the  king  he  might  appeal  to  the 
nation,  but  the  temper  of  the  people  was  not  yet  assured,  and 
the  young  minister  hesitated  to  commit  his  cause  to  a  popular 
election  without  something  more  definite  than  a  mere  personal 
issue.  Here,  however.  Fox  unintentionally  came  to  his  support. 
Fox  feared  a  dissolution,  and  in  order  to  be  beforehand,  called  in 
question  the  right  of  the  crown  to  dissolve  parliament  without  the 
consent  of  the  Commons.  The  position  of  Fox  at  once  fur- 
nished the  issue  for  which  Pitt  waited,  and  in  the  spring  of  1784 
he  determined  to  appeal  to  the  country.  The  people  saw  in  the 
opposition  of  the  politicians  only  a  determination  to  make  the 
Commons  independent  not  only  of  the  king  but  also  of  the 
nation ;  in  Pitt  they  saw  the  champion  of  the  interests  of  the 
nation  against  the  politicians,  or  what  in  America  would  be  called 
*'the  ring,"  or ''the  machine."  The  victory  of  Pitt  was  over- 
whelming ;  the  opposition  lost  one  hundred  and  sixty  members, 
and  Pitt  with  a  free  hand  addressed  himself  to  the  great  work  of 
restoring  the  resources  of  the  country  wasted  by  the  recent  war. 
The  Whigs  had  had  their  opportunity  and  had  abused  it.  After 
twelve  years  of  opposition,  in  which  they  had  made  reform  the  rally- 
ing cry  of  the  party,  the  nation  had  taken  them  at  their  word  and 
placed  them  in  power.  But  the  old  instincts  of  the  politician 
had  proved  too  strong  for  the  leaders,  and  the  people  in  disgust 


946  SECOKD   PERIOD   OE  TORY   RULE  [ 


George  III. 


had  hurled  them  from  power,  and  turned  to  the  young  man,  who 
with  the  king  and  his  great  name  made  a  party  all  by  himself. 

Pitt  now  had  six  years  of  unbroken  peace  in  which  to  set  his 
house  in  order.     He  had  posed  heretofore  as  a  reformer,  but  in 

office  his  enthusiasm  for  reform  gradually  gave  way  to 
The  six  years  the  safer  maxims  of  the  practical  statesman.  Among 
1784-1790.        his  first  measures  he  took  up  the  Indian  question,  and 

in  1784  proposed  a  new  India  Bill,  which  left  the  gov- 
ernment and  the  patronage  of  the  company  still  in  its  hands, 
but  placed  over  it  a  responsible  board  of  control,  subject  to 
removal  by  the  crown.  This  arrangement  continued  in  force  until 
the  abolition  of  the  company  in  1858  after  the  Sepoy  Mutiny. 
In  1785  Pitt  approached  the  dangerous  question  of  parliamentary 
reform  in  the  same  judicious  way.  His  plan,  however,  which 
proposed  to  buy  up  the  rotten  boroughs  and  the  exclusive  corpor- 
ations in  the  interests  of  an  extended  franchise,  met  with  little 
support  from  the  radical  reformers,  while  the  king  and  Pitt's 
Tory  supporters,  who  were  suspicious  of  all  reform  measures  by 
instinct,  also  opposed  the  bill,  and  it  was  lost.  Pitt,  apparently, 
was  satisfied  that  the  times  were  not  ripe  for  parliamentary  reform, 
and  although  it  was  the  cause  to  which  he  had  first  given  his 
heart,  he  now  dropped  the  subject  in  order  to  tarn  to  other 
reforms  in  which  he  had  the  support  of  his  party.  ^  Here  also 
he  was  not  always  to  have  his  way.  In  1785  he  was  again  defeated 
in  a  measure  which  proposed  to  establish  free  trade  and  commer- 
cial equality  between  Ireland  and  England.  But  in  1786  in  secur- 
ing a  commercial  treaty  with  France,  which  abolished  most  of  the 
protective  duties  between  the  two  countries,  he  was  more  success- 
ful. In  both  these  measures  Pitt  was  directly  influenced  by  the 
free  trade  views  of  Adam  Smith,  to  which  he  had  long  since  been 
a  convert  and  which  he  now  tried  to  put  into  practical  operation. 
In  1791  he  divided  Canada  into  two  provinces  and  gave  the  people 
representative  institutions. 


*  Pitt  in  private  always  called  himself  a  Whig,  and  yet  he  was  sup- 
ported by  the  Tories  and  was  appointed  to  office  in  defiance  of  the  Whig 
doctrine  that  a  minister  should  always  have  the  support  of  parliament. 


1788]  TRIAL    OF   WARREiq^   HASTINGS  94? 

It  was  upon  his  own  office,  that  of  the  treasury,  that  Pitt 
brought  his  splendid  business  abilities  to  bear  with  the  most 
marked  results.  The  legion  of  sinecure  offices  con- 
rej^orms^^  nectcd  with  the  customs  was  swept  away;  the  collecting 
of  duties  was  simplified ;  smuggling,  which  robbed  the 
government  annually  of  upwards  of  two  million  pounds,  was 
discouraged,  partly  by  reducing  certain  duties  and  partly  by  trans- 
ferring others  to  the  excise  list;  the  franking  privilege  which  had 
been  grossly  abused  by  members  of  parliament,  was  restricted; 
treasurers  and  paymasters  who  had  been  allowed  to  leave  office 
with  large  accounts  unsettled,  were  brought  to  book,  and  the 
entire  system  of  administering  the  finances  was  reorganized  and 
put  on  a  sound  basis.  When  taunted  by  Burke  with  prying  into 
holes  and  corners  after  *' vermin  abuses,"  Pitt  declared  that  he 
would  not  be  justified  in  omitting  *'any  exertion  that  might  tend 
in  the  most  minute  particulars,  to  promote  that  economy  on 
which  the  recovery  of  the  state  from  its  present  depressed  situa- 
tion so  much  depended." 

The  event,  however,  about  which  public  interest  specially 
centered  during  the  first  period  of  Pitt's  administration,  was  the 
impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings  upon  the  charge  of 
^yayrin  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  connected  •  with  his 
Indian  administration.  He  had  returned  to  England 
in  1785  and  was  almost  immediately  attacked  by  his  defeated  rival, 
Philip  Francis,  the  supposed  author  of  the  **  Junius"  letters,  and 
by  Burke  and  Sheridan.  The  trial  began  before  the  House  of 
Lords  in  1788,  and  dragged  on  for  seven  years,  when  Hastings, 
embittered  in  spirit  and  with  diminished  fortune,  was  finally 
acquitted. 

The  great  moral  awakening  which  had  been  stirring  England 
since  the  beginning  of  the  careers  of  Wesley  and  Whitfield,  the 
^^  ^  ^         influence  of  which  had  been  felt  even  within  the  murky 

Tvccu/  Or 

prison  atmosphere  of  corruption  and  bribery  which  surrounded 

reform.  ^  f      .       . 

the  court,  was  now  beginning  to  make  itself  felt  in  two 
very  practical  directions, — prison  reform  and  opposition  to  the 
slave  trade.  The  prisons  of  England  in  the  eighteenth  century 
were  a  reproach  to  civilization,  to  say  nothing  of  Christianity. 


948  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [geoege  in. 

To  avoid  the  window  tax,  originally  imposed  in  1696,  prisons  had 
been  built  with  little  or  no  light;  they  were,  moreover,  always 
overcrowded,  filthy,  and  haunted  by  contagion.  The  *'jail  fever" 
executed  more  criminals,  it  was  said,  than  the  hangman.  It  was 
not  unusual  for  both  judge,  and  jury  to  contract  the  fever  during 
the  course  of  a  trial,  and  atone  with  their  lives  for  the  inhumanity 
of  the  system  of  justice  which  they  represented.  Jails  were  let 
upon  a  sort  of  contract  system,  and  the  jailers  sought  by  means  of 
petty  persecutions,  more  or  less  brutal,  to  wring  the  largest  pos- 
sible fees  from  the  victims  whom  justice  placed  at  their  mercy. 
The  debtor  and  the  hardened  criminal,  the  innocent  and  the 
guilty,  male  and  female,  old  and  young,  were  herded  together 
without  sufficient  food,  air,  or  water.  Even  those  who  were 
acquitted,  or  who  were  discharged  by  the  grand  jury,  might  be 
dragged  back  to  prison  and  held  until  they  could  satisfy  the 
monstrous  charges  of  the  ogre  whom  the  state  had  put  in  charge 
of  the  jail. 

The  public  had  not  been  altogether  blind  to  these  abuses;  as 
early  as  1726  parliament  had  been  forced  by  certain  disclosures 
connected  with  the  Fleet  Prison  to  undertake  an  inquiry.  It  does 
not  appear,  however,  that  much  came  of  these  investigations, 
and  it  was-  not  until  fifty  years  later  that  the  matter  received  the 
John  serious    consideration   which    it    deserved.      In    1773' 

Howard.  John  Howard,  a  quiet  gentleman  of  Bedfordshire,  was 
appointed  sheriff  of  the  county.  His  duties  brought  him  into 
contact  with  the  miseries  of  the  jail  population.  Inquiry  and 
travel  soon  revealed  to  him  that  what  was  going  on  at  Bedford  was 
the  common  experience  of  jail  life  over  all  the  British  Islands. 
The  man,  who  up  to  this  moment  had  been  leading  the  useless 
life  of  a  valetudinarian,  had  at  last  found  his  mission.  He  hence- 
forth devoted  his  fortune  and  his  life  to  the  noble  purpose  of 
confronting  England  and  Europe  with  the  wrongs  which  society 
daily  heaped  upon  the  innocent  and  helpless.  He  visited  the 
prisons;  he  went  alone  and  unattended  into  the  pesthouses  of 
Constantinople,  where  he  could  hire  neither  physician  nor  dragoman 
to  follow  him;  he  put  himself  on  board  an  infected  ship  bound  for 
Venice,  that  by  personal  experience  he  might  know  the  horrors  of 


1774-1783]  JOHN  HOWARD  949 

the  Venetian  lazaretto.  After  twenty-seven  years  of  arduous  toil 
and  incessant  danger  he  died  at  last  of  camp  fever  in  Russia.  Of 
him  and  his  work  Bentham  wrote:  "In  the  scale  of  moral 
desert  the  labors  of  the  legislator  and  the  writer  are  as  far  below 
his  as  earth  is  below  heaven.  His  kingdom  was  of  a  better  world ; 
he  died  a  martyr,  after  living  an  apostle." 

In  England  Howard  was  very  early  permitted  to  see  some 
results  of  his  work.  In  1774  he  was  summoned  before  parlia- 
ment to  give  testimony  upon  the  condition  of  the 
formin^'  Ehglish  jails,  and  his  disclosures  had  much  to  do  in 
Botany^Bav  ii^^ucing  parliament  to  undertake  the  reforms  which 
followed,  chief  of  which  was  the  abolition  of  jailers'  fees 
and  of  the  numerous  abuses  which  had  sprung  of  the  custom. 
Justices  of  the  peace,  also,  were  required  to  see  that  jails  were 
kept  in  a  sanitary  condition  and  that  proper  infirmaries  were 
provided  for  the  sick.  In  1788,  as  the  result  of  an  effort  to  secure 
a  more  healthful  location  for  the  English  convict  colony.  Botany 
Bay  on  the  southern  coast  of  Australia  was  selected,  and  the  first 
load  of  convict  colonists  sent  out  to  begin  the  English  possession 
of  the  continent  of  the  southern  seas.  Captain  Cook  had  explored 
this  coast  nearly  twenty  years  before  and  upon  the  basis  of  this 
exploration  the  English  founded  a  claim  to  the  whole  island, 
although  it  had  been  long  known  to  Europeans. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  while  the  conscience  of  England  was 
thus  awakening  to  its  obligations  toward  the  helpless  and  the 
unfortunate,  some  mentors  should  arise  to  call  attention 
tradf^^^  to  the  horrors  of  the  African  slave  trade.  Up  to  the 
third  quarter  of  the  century  the  Quakers  had  stood 
almost  alone  in  denouncing  the  traffic  in  human  flesh.  Wesley,  it 
is  true,  had  denounced  it;  but  men  like  Whitefield  favored  it, 
and  John  Newton,  long  after  his  conversion  to  the  Evangelical 
faith,  continued  to  command  his  slaver.  Yet  the  consciences  of 
good  people  could  not  rest  easy  under  the  accumulating  horrors 
of  the  trade,  rumors  of  which  from  time  to  time  reached  Eng- 
land.^    In  1772  Chief  Justice  'Mansfield  gave  his  famous  decision 

^  In  1783  the  master  of  a  slave  ship  found  that  his  cargo  was  infected 
with  contagion  and  deUberately  threw  132  negroes  overboard,  because  if 


950  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [qeobgeIII. 

that  a  slave  brought  to  England  became  free.  In  1787  the 
"Society  for  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade"  was  formed,  the 
leading  spirits  of  which  w^ere  Thomas  Clarkson  and  William  Wil- 
berforce.  In  1788  the  Society  got  a  promise  of  assistance  from 
Pitt,  and  the  government  made  an  effort  to  lessen  the  horrors  of 
the  passage  from  Africa  to  America  by  limiting  the  number  of 
negroes  which  might  be  carried  in  a  single  cargo.  The  colony  of 
Sierra  Leone,  also,  was  established  in  western  Africa  as  a  refuge  for 
freed  slaves.  There  was  too  much  capital  invested  in  the  lucra- 
tive trade,  however,  to  make  the  victory  an  easy  one.  One-half 
the  wealth  of  Liverpool,  it  was  said,  came  from  this  source.  The 
king  and  the  Tories  oppos'ed  the  reform  on  principle ;  and  when 
the  French  Revolution  attacked  slavery,  the  conservative  English- 
man who  had  wavered  before,  was  satisfied;  that  "the  atheists 
and  anarchists  of  France"  had  abolished  slavery  was  reason  suffi- 
cient for  upholding  the  trade  in  England.  Yet  men  like  Clark- 
son  and  Wilberforce  continued  the  struggle,  and  after  repeated 
efforts,  the  trade  was  finally  abolished  by  the  act  of  1807. 

In  Pitt's  foreign  policy  there  was  nothing  of  the  "benevolent 
tolerance"  which  marked  his  handling  of  these  domestic  ques- 
tions. The  recent  partition  of  Poland  had  apparently 
pJyuIS'^fmt  whetted  the  appetite  of  the  Russian  Catherine  II.  for 
more  plunder  of  the  same  kind,  and  in  1783  she  seized 
the  Crimea,  proposing  to  destroy  Turkey  and  reestablish  a  Greek 
Empire,  but  under  Russian  control;  in  the  north,  also,  she  was 
threatening  Gustavus  III.  of  Sweden.  To  overawe  Russia  and 
meet  this  new  menace  to  the  existing  balance  of  the  northern 
powers,  Pitt  proposed  an  alliance  of  England,  Prussia,  and  the 
Dutch  Netherlands.  Frederick,  however,  could  not  forget 
Bute's  treachery,  and  as  long  as  Frederick  lived  any  active  con- 
cert of  England  and  Prussia  was  hardly  possible.  But  the  death 
of  Frederick  in  1786  removed  the  last  obstacle,  and  two  years  later 
a  new  Triple  Alliance  was  duly  formed  for  the  purpose  of  "pre- 
serving the  public  tranquillity  and  security,  for  maintaining  com- 

they  died  on  his  hands,  the  owners  would  have  to  bear  the  loss,  but  if  he 
threw  them  overboard  for  safety,  the  loss  would  fall  on  the  insurance 
companies. 


■PRT  r 


\    I 


/*" 


iwf- 


u-,\ 


n:' 


'  3    > 


'"^^iuk 


I 


1791]  PITT    AND   THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION  951 

mon  interests,  and  for  mutual  defense  and  guarantee  against  every 
hostile  attack."  In  the  north  the  protest  of  the  Alliance  was 
successful;  but  in  his  efforts  to  mediate  between  Kussia  and 
Turkey,  Pitt,  who  was  the  head  of  the  Alliance,  was  not  so  suc- 
cessful, although  he  succeeded  in  detaching  Austria  from  the 
support  of  Eussia. 

The  Triple  Alliance,  however,  was  soon  to  be  called  upon  to 
grapple  with  a  series  of  problems  very  different  from  those  sug- 
gested by  the  aggressions  of  Russia  in  the  Baltic  or  the 
Early  am-      Euxine.     Within  a  few  months  after  the  formation  of 

tude  of  Great 

uru^rds  ^^^  Alliance,  the  first  notes  of  coming  revolution  were 
Rev^iuSon  sounded  through  France.  Yet  up  to  the  time  of  the 
attempted  flight  of  the  French  king  in  June  1791,  the 
course  of  events  in  France  elicited  approval  rather  than  alarm  in 
England.  The  fall  of  the  Bastille  had  been  hailed  with  positive 
enthusiasm,  and  democratic  societies,  warmly  sympathetic  with 
the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  had  begun  to  come  into  prom- 
inence. Yet  such  movements  owed  their  strength  largely  to 
academic  interest,  rather  than  to  political  discontent,  and  it  soon 
became  evident  that  the  natural  conservatism  of  the  English 
people  was  taking  alarm  at  the  rapidity  with  which  the  radical 
element  was  winning  control  across  the  Channel.*  Pitt,  however, 
who  looked  upon  the  Revolution  with  coldness,  but  not  with 
distrust,  had  no  thought  of  interfering;  he  desired  the  continu- 
ance of  peace  in  order  to  carry  out  his  plans  of  financial  reform 
and  of  commercial  and  industrial  expansion.  The  menace  to  the 
peace  of  Europe  was  still  supposed  to  lie  in  the  east,  and  in  the 
presence  of  the  ambitious  schemes  of  Catharine,  England  no  more 
than  Austria  or  Prussia  had  any  wish  to  tie  her  bands  by  inter- 
fering in  the  domestic  affairs  of  France. 

With  the  year  1791,  however,  the  conflagration  in  France 
developed  so  rapidly  that  her  neighbors  saw  that  to  protect  their 
own  property,  they  must  turn  firemen  and  lend  a  hand  to  their 
Bourbon  fellow;  in  August  Frederick  William  of  Prussia  and 
the  Emperor  Leopold  II.  met  at  Pilnitz  and  declared  against  the 

^  As  early  as  1790  Burke  had  sounded  a  note  of  warning  in  his  "Reflec- 
tions on  the  French  Revolution." 


952  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [geobqe  ill 

Kevolution.      The  wrath  of  the  revolutionary  party  in  France  was 

particularly  aroused  against  Austria  because  of  the  well-known 

sympathies  of  her  court  with  the  hated  Marie  Antoin- 

Beginning  of 

the  war  ^  the  ette,  and  although  the  Declaration  of  Pilnitz  was  with- 
pubiicagainst  drawn  within  two  months  after  the  convention,  in  April 

Europe,  1792. 

following  France  declared  war.  In  September  the 
National  Convention  abolished  the  Bourbon  monarchy,  and  declared 
France  a  Republic.  In  December  Louis  XVI.  was  tried  and  on 
January  21,  1793,  executed.  In  October  following,  his  Austrian 
queen  suffered  the  same  fate.  The  death  of  the  weak  but  innocent 
king,  the  prison  massacres,  and  the  other  atrocities  that  followed 
each  other  so  rapidly  during  this  dreadful  year,  filled  Europe  and 
especially  England  with  horror.  At  the  same  time  the  advance 
of  the  French  upon  Holland  made  war  with  England  inevitable. 
In  the  hysteria  of  revolution  frenzy  which  had  seized  upon  France 
she  had,  in  fact,  run  amuck  into  the  whole  circle  of  neighboring 
states  and  compelled  them  to  arm  in  self-defense.  Thus  the 
young  Republic  soon  had  a  serious  war  upon  her  hands;  Holland, 
Prussia,  and  Austria  attacked  her  on  the  north-east  and  east; 
Sardinia  and  Spain  upon  the  south,  and  England  upon  the  sea; 
while  within  her  borders  dangerous  insurrections  against  revolu- 
tionary tyranny  had  already  sprung  up  in  La  Vendee  and  Brittany 
and  in  the  great  southern  cities  of  Marseilles  and  Lyons.  For 
this  strange  war  of  infatuation  France  was  poorly  prepared ;  her 
recruits  were  raw  and  without  discipline,  and  fled  in  wild  panic  at 
the  first  attack  of  the  allies.  Yet  her  energy  quickened  with 
resistance,  and  before  the  year  closed  her  armies  had  driven  the 
allies  from  her  northern  frontier;  Toulon  had  fallen,  and  the 
domestic  revolts  had  been  stamped  out.  The  next  year,  1794,  saw 
Holland  not  only  overrun  and  conquered,  but  organized  upon  the 
French  model  into  the'*Batavian  Republic,"  and  her  arms  turned 
upon  her  late  allies.  Only  at  the  seaboard  was  the  victorious  march 
of  the  young  Republic  checked;  on  the  ^'Glorious  First  of  June," 
1794,  Admiral  Howe  caught  the  French  fleet  off  Ushant,  and  all  but 
annihilated  it.  England  easily  took  possession  of  the  French  East 
Indies,  and  when  Holland  was  forced  to  join  France,  England  also 
seized  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Ceylon,  Java,  and  the  Spice  Islands. 


1795]  THE   FIRST   COALITIO]^  953 

But  the  picking  up  of  distant  islands  in  the  southern  seas  could 
not  materially  affect  the  great  continental  struggle.  The  allies, 
moreover,  were  fully  as  much  inclined  to  fly  at  each 
Failure  of  other  as  to  continue  a  contest  in  which  France  had 
tion,  1795.  proved  fully  able  to  defend  herself.  Austria  and  Prus- 
sia still  cherished  the  old  enmities  born  of  the  struggle 
of  Frederick  and  Maria  Theresa;  both  feared  Russia,  and  when 
the  Polish  revolt  of  1794  under  Kosciuszko  led  up  to  the 
third  partition  of  that  unhappy  country  in  the  following  year,  the 
two  powers,  although  subsidized  by  England,  withdrew  their 
troops  from  the  Rhine.  Austria  and  Sardinia  kept  up  the  strug- 
gle in  Italy;  but  it  was  evident  that  the  coalition  had  broken 
down.  In  April  1795  Prussia  made  peace  with  France  at  Basle, 
and  in  July  Spain  also  made  her  terms.  A  belated  royalist  rising 
in  La  Vendee  did  nothing  to  turn  the  scales;  it  was  overwhelmed 
by  Hoche  at  Quiberon  on  July  20,  and  the  prisoners,  including 
many  of  the  emigre,  were  massacred  in  cold  blood. 

In  England  the  reaction  against  the  Revolution  increased  in 
intensity  with  the  successes  of  the  French.  Parliament  passed 
laws  against  suspected  aliens,  and  against  treasonable 
servative  Correspondence  with  France.  The  various  societies, 
also,  which  had  been  formed  in  sympathy  with  the 
objects  of  the  Revolution,  if  not  with  its  methods,  were  put  under 
the  ban.  In  the  general  panic  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  sus- 
pended, and  finally  in  1794  the  leaders  of  the  ''London  Corres- 
ponding Society"  were  tried  for  high  treason.  The  panic,  however, 
was  subsiding  and  the  leaders  of  the  society  were  acquitted. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  continued 
its  reign  of  terror  within  the  boundaries  of  France,  until  at  last 
the  members  began  to  turn  their  fury  upon  each  other. 
End  of  the  No  man  was  safe  from  suspicion,  and  to  be  suspected 
Terror,  1795.  was  to  be  devoted  to  the  guillotine.  The  reaction 
began  in  1794;  the  death  of  Robespierre  and  the  fall 
of  the  Jacobins,  followed  by  the  establishment  of  the  Directory  in 
1795,  gave  a  new  phase  to  the  Revolution. 

The  defection  of  Prussia  and  Spain  left  Britain,  Austria,  and 
Sardinia  to  carry  on  the  struggle  alone.     The  cause  of  the  allies, 


954  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY   RULE  [gkoege  m. 

however,  was  by  no  means  hopeless.  The  Republic  had  long 
since  exhausted  its  financial  resources,  and  the  Directory  had  very 
early  proved  its  inability  to  solve  the  vexatious  prob- 
mice  of  Bon-  leuis  which  confronted  it.  The  spirit  of  its  armies  was 
Italy,  1796,  still  good;  yet  half-starved,  half-clad,  ill -paid  regi- 
ments, without  proper  arms  or  equipment,  could  not 
hope  to  keep  the  field  before  the  well  appointed  armies  which  the 
allies,  supported  by  English  gold,  continued  to  put  in  the  field 
against  them.  But  at  this  moment,  the  waning  prestige  of  the 
Directory  was  reinforced  by  the  splendid  genius  of  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  a  young  Corsican  officer  of  twenty-seven,  who  had 
recently  been  put  in  command  of  the  French  army  in  Italy.  At 
the  head  of  the  ragged  troops  of  the  Eepublic,  by  a  series  of 
brilliant  movements,  remarkable  for  their  rapidity  and  vigor,  he 
forced  Sardinia  to  sue  for  peace,  drove  the  Austrians  out  of 
Italy  and  compelled  the  frightened  emperor  to  accept  the  Peace 
of  Campo-Formio,  October  1797.  He  had  already  entrenched 
the  French  in  Italy  by  organizing  the  conquered  territories  into 
vassal  republics  under  a  French  protectorate. 

While   Britain  was  thus  shorn  of  her  last  ally  upon  the  land, 

she  still  maintained  her  command  of  the  seas.     But  the  transfer  of 

the   support  of  Spain  to  the  side  of  the  Republic  in 

continwd       Ausfust  1796,  had  once  more  raised  the  naval  power  of 

siiccess  of  <=>  y  r 

British  at       France,  alreadv  reinforced  by  the  alliance  of  the  Dutch, 

sea,  1797.  ■>  J  J  ^  ' 

to  a  respectable  footing,  and  enabled  it  to  compare  not 
unfavorably,  in  numbers  at  least,  with  the  navy  of  Great  Britain. 
It  takes  something  more  than  ships  and  men,  however,  to  win  bat- 
tles at  sea.  On  February  14,  1797  Sir  John  Jervis  with  fifteen 
ships  defeated  a  combined  fleet  of  twenty-seven  French  and  Span- 
ish ships  off  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and  on  October  11,  Duncan  defeated 
the  Dutch  off  Camperdown.  These  successes  were  of  the  utmost 
importance,  because  if  the  French  could  once  succeed  in  breaking 
through  the  wall  of  ocean,  they  were  certain  to  make  trouble  in 
Ireland,  if  they  did  not  attempt  a  direct  invasion  of  England 
from  France. 

England  was     now    feeling    the   severe    depression    that    is 
always  incident  to  any  prolonged  war.     Her  great  minister  had 


1793-1796]  EFFECT   OF   WAR   Ilf   ENGLAKB  955 

not  desired  the  war;  he  had  little  sympathy  with  that  undiscrim- 
inating    hostility     towards     France     which   inspired    the   great 

majority  of  Englishmen.  The  war,  moreover,  had  un- 
warupon^^  done  in  part  the  work  of  his  financial  reforms.  Taxation 
^ixicma  "^^  ^^^  increased  and  the  debt  had  been  swelled  by  new 

loans.  In  1793  more  than  one  hundred  English  banks 
had  failed,  and  in  1797  the  Bank  of  England  had  been  forced 
to  suspend  specie  payment.  The  navy,  upon  which  so  much 
depended,  was  growing  mutinous  and  discontented.  The  service 
was  badly  managed ;  the]  men  were  suffering  from  scanty  and 
unwholesome  rations;  their  pay  was  poor,  and  the  very  year 
of  St.  Vincent  and  Camperdown,  formidable  mutinies  broke 
out  at  Spithead  and  the  Nore.  Ireland,  also,  was  a  constant 
source  of  anxiety.  The  reforms  which  had  followed  the  American 
War  had  proved  a  disappointment,  and  instead  of  giving  to  Ire- 
land a  satisfactory  government  had  only  riveted  more  closely  the 
hold  of  the  corrupt  local  oligarchy.  The  Catholic  peasantry, 
whose  wrongs  were  hardly  less  than  those  of  the  French  peas- 
antry, formed  secret  organizations,  like  the  '*Peep  of  Day  Boys," 
and  terrorized  the  ruling  minority  by  their  secret  outrages.  The 
Anglican  Protestants  in  turn,  under  the  encouragement  of  the 
government,  organized  societies  of  ** Orangemen"  and  repaid  out- 
rage with  outrage.  Attempts  at  reform,  connected  with  the 
names  of  Grattan  and  Fitz-William,  were  made,  but  to  no  purpose. 
In  1796  the  ** Society  of  United  Irishmen,"  in  which  Presbyterians 
of  Ulster  made  common  cause  with  the  Catholics  of  the  middle 
and  upper  classes,  in  despair  of  securing  redress  from  England, 
sent  Wolfe  Tone  to  France  to  appeal  for  aid.  The  Directory 
welcomed  the  appeal,  and  in  December  dispatched  20,000  men 
under  Hoche  to  assist  an  Irish  revolt.  A  storm  dispersed  the  ves- 
sels and  Hoche  was  obliged  to  return.  The  leaders  in  Ireland  were 
seized ;  an  insurgent  camp  at  Vinegar  Hill  was  carried  by  assault, 
and  the  danger  was  over.  The  Directory,  in  the  meanwhile,  made 
a  second  attempt,  but  although  the  French  force  landed,  the  crisis 
was  passed,  and  after  a  few  successes  the  French  surrendered  to 
Cornwallis,  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  The  increasing  pressure  at 
home  and  the  constant  threat  of  trouble  in  Ireland,  were  not 


956  SECOKD   PERIOD   OF  TORY   RULE  [GEOEGBin. 

without  their  influence  upon  Pitt,  and  although  public  opinion 
still  ran  strong  against  any  thought  of  peace,  he  determined  to 
seek  some  opening  for  an  understanding  with  France.  All  efforts, 
however,  failed,  chiefly  because  Pitt  would  not  consent  to  allow 
France  to  retain  her  acquisitions  in  the  Netherlands. 

The  two  implacable  foes  then  once  more  addressed  themselves 
to  the  struggle.  Bonaparte,  whose  recent  successes  had  made  him 
an  all  powerful  influence  in  France,  persuaded  the 
Ea&^^^  Directory  to  enter  upon  a  scheme  wiiich  even  to-day 
looks  more  like  the  wild  vagary  of  a  dreamer  than  the 
sober  plan  of  a  man  of  affairs.  He  proposed  to  attack  England  in 
India,  by  first  securing  a  base  in  Egypt  and  Syria.  Yet  visionary 
as  the  scheme  appears,  it  might  have  succeeded,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  active  vigilance  of  Nelson,  who  on  August  1,  1798,  anni- 
hilated the  French  fleet  in  Aboukir  Bay  and  thus  severed  Bona- 
parte's communications  with  France.  Victorious  as  was  the  little 
army  of  invasion,  without  reinforcements,  and  without  connection 
with  France,  final  success  was  impossible.  After  overrunning 
Egypt,  destroying  the  Mameluke  power,  and  invading  Syria, 
Bonaparte  was  at  last  compelled  to  retrace  his  steps,  and  leaving 
his  army  in  Egypt  in  command  of  the  brave  Kleber,  he  ran  the 
gauntlet  of  the  English  fleet,  and  in  November  1799  reached 
France  in  safety. 

Pitt,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  fallen  back  upon  his  old  tactics 
and  sought  to  reach  France  by  forming  another  coalition,  in  which 
England,  Eussia,  and  Austria  were  the  chief  members. 
TheSecmd  Catharine  II.  had  died  in  1796,  and  her  successor,  Paul 
1798,1799!  I.,  had  abandoned  her  policy  of  aggrandizement  in  the 
east,  to  join  the  western  powers  against  France.  Tur- 
key, roused  by  the  attack  of  the  French  upon  Egypt  and  Syria, 
had  also  joined  the  league.  Prussia,  however,  refused  to  abandon 
her  neutrality.  The  attack  was  begun  upon  the  whole  line  of  the 
recent  conquests  of  France.  In  Italy  and  western  Germany,  the 
Austrian  and  Eussian  armies  were  everywhere  successful,  and 
had  soon  undone  the  work  of  Bonaparte.  Only  in  Holland  and  in 
Switzerland,  which  had  been  organized  in  1798  as  the  "Helvetic 
Republicr,"  the  French  managed  to  hold  their  own. 


1799,  1800]  THE   BILL   OF   UNION  957 

At  this  point  Bonaparte  landed.      The  Directory  was  thor- 
oughly discredited ;  its  corruption  was  a  matter  of  common  belief ; 
its  incompetence    had  been   fully  established.     Bona- 
of^sBrmn-    P^^'^^  grasped  the  situation  at  once.     He  first  unseated 
ber  9^1799"^'  *^^®  Directory  and  secured  for  himself  as  * 'First  Con- 
sul,"  the   authority  of    a  virtual  dictator;    he    then 
turned  upon  the  enemies  of  France.     He  succeeded  in  detaching 
from  the  alliance  the  Czar  Paul,  whose  enthusiastic  admiration 
for  ''the  man  of  the  people,"  rendered  him  an  easy  victim  to  the 
blandishments  of  the  First  Consul.     Bonaparte  then  crossed  the 
Great  St.  Bernard  and  in  June  1800  fell  upon  the  Austrians  at 
Marengo,  while  Moreau  won  an  even  more  overwhelming  victory 
over  a  second  Austrian  army  at  Hohenlinden.     The  strength  of 
Austria  was  broken,  and  at  Luneville,  February  1801,  the  emperor 
was  glad  to  accept  peace  on  the  terms  offered  by  the  First  Consul. 
Thus  a  second  coalition  had  dashed  itself  to  pieces  upon  the 
young    Republic,  and   England  was   left  again  single-handed  to 
face  her  enemy.     Her  position  was  worse  than  it  had 

of'^Jiand  ^®®^  ^^  ^'^^'^-  "^'^  *^®  other  burdens  incident  to  the 
war,  was  to  be  added  the  disheartening  influence  of  a 
depreciating  paper  currency.  The  land  tax  had  risen  to  4s  in 
the  pound,  and  in  1799  an  income  tax  had  been  added,  which 
taxed  all  incomes  above  £60  a  year.  Abroad,  also,  a  reckless  disre- 
gard of  the  rights  of  neutrals  had  led  the  Baltic  powers,  Sweden, 
Denmark,  and  Prussia,  under  the  leadership  of  Czar  Paul,  to 
revive  the  armed  -neutrality  of  the  period  of  the  American  war. 
This  action  was  ominous ;  Bonaparte  was  known  to  be  intriguing 
with  the  sea  powers  against  England,  and  Pitt  saw  himself  in 
turn  threatened  with  a  dangerous  coalition. 

Ireland  was  still  a  subject  of  deep  anxiety  to  English  states- 
men. The  failure  of  the  attempt  to  govern  Ireland  by  an  inde- 
pendent Irish  parliament  had  only  emphasized  the  needT 
^^mi^f  ^^^  ^^  some  more  satisfactory  plan  of  conciliating  the  hostile 
SS?"''"  elements  in  order  to  save  Ireland  if  possible.  Pitt 
accordingly  brought  forward  a  plan  of  legislative 
union,  which  resembled  the  union  that  already  existed  between 
England  and  Scotland.     It  was  accepted  by  the  Irish  parliament 


958  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [gkoege  iii. 

in  February  1800,  by  the  British  parliament  in  July,  and  went 
into  force  on  the  1st  of  January  1801,  creating  *'The  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland."  The  Irish  were  to  be 
represented  in  the  common  parliament  by  four  spiritual  lords, 
twenty-eight  temporal  peers,  chosen  by  the  Irish  peerage  for  life, 
and  one  hundred  members  for  the  Commons,  chosen  sixty-four  for 
the  counties,  thirty-five  for  the  boroughs,  and  one  for  the  University 
of  Dublin.  The  Anglican  Church  of  Ireland  was  to  be  united  to 
the  State  Church  of  England.  Taxation  was  to  be  distributed 
proportionately;  the  national  debts  of  the  two  countries  were  to 
be  kept  separate ;  and  no  restrictions  were  to  be  laid  on  commerce 
between  the  two  countries.^ 

By  the  terms  of  the  *'Bill  of  Union"  Ireland  apparently  was 
receiving  somewhat  more  generous  treatment  than  Scotland  in 
1707.  But  unfortunately  the  great  mass  of  the  popu- 
tionofPitt,  lation  in  Ireland  were  disfranchised  by  their  religious 
faith.  It  was  a  part  of  Pitt's  general  plan  of  concilia- 
tion, however,  to  follow  the  union  by  emancipating  the  Irish 
Catholics.  But  George  was  persuaded  to  believe  that  the  conces- 
sions proposed  by  Pitt  would  force  him  to  violate  his  coronation 
oath,  and  Pitt  saw  himself  checked  with  his  plan  of  union  only 
half  realized.  He  knew  the  king ;  he  knew  that  it  was  useless 
either  to  argue  or  plead,  and  like  the  man  of  spirit  that  he  was, 
resigned. 

The  successor  of  Pitt,  Henry  Addington,  his  old  time  friend, 

not  being  specially  committed  to  the  French  war,  was  free  to  take 

steps  towards  securing  the  much  needed  peace.    Recent 

The  peace  of  ,iii         -ij^i  i- 

Amiens,         events  had  alreadv  paved  the  way  by  impressmg  upon 

March,  1802.     _,  j.iiiv  J,  .  "^      ^  . 

Bonaparte  the  hopelessness  of  carrymg  on  a  war  m 
which  he  could  not  strike  his  antagonist.  In  1800  the  English 
had  got  possession  of  Malta;  in  March  of  the  next  year  Abercrom- 
bie  had  defeated  the  French  at  Alexandria,  and  by  midsummer  the 
French  had  surrendered  their  last  stronghold  in  Egypt.  Eng- 
land, moreover,  had  taken  the  armed  neutrality  of  the  northern 
powers  as  a  threat  of  war  and  had  promptly  sent  Admiral  Parker, 
with  Nelson  as  second  in  command,  to  seize  the  Danish  fleet  in 
1  Lee,  Source  Book,  pp.  483497. 


1802]  AMIENS  959 

the  harbor  of  Copenhagen.  In  March  Napoleon's  friend  Czar  Paul 
was  assassinated;  this,  with  the  loss  of  the  Danish  fleet,  put  an 
end  to  Napoleon's  dream  of  a  northern  coalition  against  England. 
In  June  the  British  government  recognized  the  justice  of  the 
claims  of  the  northern  states  by  conceding  the  disputed  points, 
chief  of  which  was  her  claim  of  the  right  to  seize  neutral  ships  if 
bound  for  an  enemy's  port  that  was  under  a  nominal  blockade. 
With  these  concessions  the  armed  neutrality  dissolved.  England 
was  thus  once  more  lord  of  the  seas,  but  she  could  not  strike 
France  without  continental  allies,  and  Napoleon  could  not  strike 
England  without  the  support  of  the  naval  powers.  Both  sides, 
moreover,  needed  a  breathing  spell.  In  March  1802  the  much 
needed  truce  was  concluded  at  Amiens.  The  recent  acquisitions 
of  France  and  the  extension  of  her  power  in  Europe  were 
conceded.  England  restored  to  France  and  her  allies,  Spain  and 
Holland,  all  her  conquests  except  Trinidad  and  Ceylon.  She  prom- 
ised, also,  to  restore  Malta  to  the  Knights  of  St.  John.  The  king 
of  England  renounced  the  title  of  King  of  France,  which  he  had 
held  since  the  time  of  Edward  III.,  and  the  Bourbon  lilies  hence- 
forth disappeared  from  the  royal  arms  of  England.  England,  also, 
recognized  the  French  Republic.  France,  in  turn,  renounced  all 
claims  founded  upon  her  unsuccessful  Egyptian  expedition.  The 
peace  with  its  one-sided  concessions  was  severely  criticised  by 
Pitt's  friends,  but  it  was  welcome  in  England,  for  taxation  was 
heavy  and  the  amount  of  the  debt  had  become  appalling.  Sheri- 
dan called  it  **a  peace  which  everyone  would  be  glad  of,  but  which 
nobody  would  be  proud  of."  Yet  men  hoped  it  might  be  sincere 
and  permanent. 

Thus  far  France  had  been  fighting  ostensibly  to  extend  the 
principles  of  the  Revolution.     Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the 

leaders  or  their  methods,  the  motive  of  the  men  who 
French  fought  in  the  ranks  was  high  and  holy, — to  liberate  the 

people  of  Europe  from  the  slavery  of  the  old  order. 
Before  that  sublime  impulse  the  abuses  of  a  thousand  years  had 
been  swept  away.  States  had  been  overthrown,  but  peoples  had 
been  redeemed.  Old  feudal  lines  of  partition  had  been  obliterated, 
nations  had  been  unified,  and  the  whole  political  system  of  Europe 


960  SECOND   PERIOD   OF   TORY   RULE  [GBOBGEin. 

made  more  compact.  England  had  looked  on  approvingly  during 
the  early  stages  of  the  Revolution ;  but  the  frenzied  earnestness  of 
the  heralds  of  "the  rights  of  man"  had  first  offended  her  and  then 
filled  her  with  alarm.  She  saw  in  the  triumph  of  the  Revolution 
not  only  the  overthrow  of  religious  and  social  order,  but  the 
destruction  of  the  European  balance  which  Englishmen  had  been 
toiling  to  establish  since  the  days  of  William  III.,  and  which  they 
regarded  as  so  essential  to  their  commercial  and  industrial  pros- 
perity. In  Napoleon,  moreover,  the  propaganda  of  revolution 
rapidly  assumed  a  new  phase;  he  entertained  no  benevolent 
schemes  for  the  liberation  of  the  oppressed ;  but  thought  only  of 
gathering  all  the  tremendous  energy  which  the  Revolution  had 
generated,  and  directing  it  to  the  crushing  of  England  and  the 
reducing  of  Europe  to  timid  submission  to  the  dictates  of  France. 
Unconsciously  the  Revolution  had  drifted  back  again  to  the  Louis 
XIV.  policy,  but  in  an  intensified  and  exaggerated  form.  Thus, 
whatever  disquieting  compunctions  the  conscience  of  England  may 
have  felt  early  in  the  struggle,  had  speedily  passed  away  when  the 
people  began  to  comprehend  the  real  nature  of  the  conflict, — the 
struggle  of  a  free  people  with  an  uncompromising  despot.  It  was 
this  struggle  which  England  now  faced. 

To  Bonaparte  the  peace  of  Amiens  was  merely  a  truce  to  give 

him  time  to  prepare  for  his  next  move.     The  Addington  ministry 

was  timid  and  committed  to  peace;  yet  even  Adding- 

Renewaiof     ^q^  ^^s  stunff  bv  the  iusolencc  of  the  First  Consul,  and 

war,  1803.  ®     "^  ^  ' 

believing  that  the  renewal  of  the  war  was  inevitable, 

refused  to  surrender  Malta.     Bonaparte  naturally  made  much  of 

the  breach  of  the  recent  peace,  and  in  May  1803  again  declared  war. 

Bonaparte,  for  France  was  now   Bonaparte,   was   apparently 

stronger  than  ever.     In  August  1802  he  had  been  made  Consul 

for  life,  and  on  May  18,  1804,  he  was  proclaimed 
fJrinvSii^  Napoleon  I.,  Hereditary  Emperor  of  the  French. 
ofEnifiand,     Toward  the  end  of  1804  he  persuaded  Spain  again  to 

join  France  against  England.  He  had  already  made 
extensive  plans  for  a  direct  invasion  of  England  and  had  man- 
aged to  stir  up  revolts  in  Ireland  and  India.  The  rising  in  Ire- 
land, however,  spent  itself  in  a  city  riot  in  Dublin,  and  the  leader, 


1805]  TRAFALGAR  961 

Robert  Emmett,  was  hanged.  France  was  equally  powerless  to 
help  the  native  princes  in  India,  where  Richard  Wellesley,  Lord 
Mornington,  the  English  Governor -General,  put  down  each  rising 
with  a  vigorous  hand.  He  was  aided  by  a  noble  corps  of  officers, 
among  whom  was  the  governor's  famous  brother  Arthur.  By  the 
end  of  1804  all  India  outside  of  the  Indus  valley  and  Rajputana, 
had  passed  under  the  English  yoke.  But  the  serious  threat  to 
England  came  not  from  Ireland,  much  less  from  India,  but  from 
Boulogne,  where  Napoleon  was  massing  a  splendid  army  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  with  evident  intent  of  a  direct 
descent  upon  the  English  coast.  Could  he  but  control  the  Channel 
for  a  few  hours,  and  bring  his  matchless  military  strength  to  bear 
directly  upon  England,  he  might  dictate  what  terms  he  pleased 
to  his  rival.  The  English  were  fully  awake  to  their  danger.  An 
army  of  three  hundred  thousand  volunteers  was  mustered  into 
service,  and  held  at  convenient  posts  where  they  could  be  readily 
massed  upon  a  threatened  point.  In  May  Pitt  was  again  called 
upon  to  assume  the  duties  of  Prime  Minister.  Through  the 
spring  Napoleon  pushed  forward  his  preparations,  only  to  postpone 
the  final  attempt  to  the  next  season. 

When  the  year  1805  opened.  Napoleon  seemed  at  last  ready  for 
action.  His  plan  was  well  laid;  the  scattered  ships,  shut  up  in 
the  various  harbors  of  France,  were  to  break  the  blockade  and 
with  the  Spanish  fleet  rendezvous  at  some  port  in  the  West  Indies 
in  hope  that  Nelson  would  follow  them.  They  would  then  make 
a  dash  for  the  English  Channel,  and  with  their  combined  strength 
might  possibly  hold  it  long  enough  to  enable  Napoleon's  transports 
to  empty  their  troops  into  the  island.  The  first  part  of  the  plan 
was  successfully  carried  out.  Nelson  not  only  gave  chase,  but 
the  French  Admiral  Villeneuve  managed  to  elude  him  and  get 
back  to  the  Spanish  coast  again  early  in  July.     Nelson,  however, 

had  divined  the  real  nature  of  the  manoeuver  and  sent 
October  21,      timely  warning  to  the  government,  so  that  Sir  Robert 

Calder  with  fifteen  ships  was  able  to  meet  the  allies 
off  Cape  Finisterre.  Calder  was  unable  to  prevent  the  return  of 
the  French  fleet,  but  Villeneuve  thought  best  to  retire  to  Cadiz 
where  he  remained  inactive  for   two  months ;  and  when  he  left 


962  SECOND    PERIOD   OF   TORY    RULE  [geouge  ill. 

Cadiz  in  October,  it  was  only  to  fall  in  with  Nelson  '4n  Trafalgar 
Bay"  and  lose  his  entire  fleet.  The  victory  of  Trafalgar  was 
decisive;  its  results  permanent;  but  it  cost  the  life  of  England's 
brave  admiral.  His  historic  battle  message,  "England  expects 
every  man  to  do  his  duty,"  was  characteristic  of  his  sturdy  patri- 
otism. 

The  English,  in  the  meanwhile,  were  busily  plying  negotiations 
preliminary  to  the  formation  of  a  new  coalition.     The  reckless 

disregard  which  Napoleon  had  displayed  for  the  feel- 
Coaiition.  ings  of  the  powers  made  the  task  easy.  Prussia,  though 
and  Press-      deeply  vcxed  by  the  establishment  of  a  French  force  at 

the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  remained  neutral;  but  Alex- 
ander of  Eussia  was  ready  to  accede  to  the  proposal  of  England, 
and  in  1805  entered  into  the  Anglo-Russian  Treaty  which  pur- 
posed to  form  a  European  league  capable  of  placing  five  hundred 
thousand  men  in  the  field.  No  peace  was  to  be  made  with  France 
except  by  common  consent.  England,  on  her  part,  agreed  to 
furnish  subsidies  to  each  of  the  allies.  The  immediate  object  of 
the  coalition,  as  in  the  league  of  William  III.  in  1701,  was  the 
recovery  of  French  conquests  and  the  establishment  of  barriers 
against  French  ambition.  Austria  desired  peace,  but  when  she 
saw  that  war  was  inevitable,  Joined  the  allies,  and  sent  General 
Mack  to  occupy  Bavaria,  whose  elector  was  friendly  to  Napoleon, 
But  Napoleon  was  already  moving  swiftly  forward  to  support  his 
ally,  and  before  October  closed  had  surrounded  Mack  at  Ulm  and 
forced  him  to  surrender  with  twenty-five  thousand  men.  He  then 
pressed  on  to  Vienna,  driving  the  Austrians  northward  to  a  Junc- 
tion with  their  Russian  allies;  and  on  December  2,  defeated  the 

combined  armies  at  Austerlitz  in  the  historic  *' Battle 
December 2,    of  the  Three  Emperors."     The  Russians  retired;  and 

Francis  to  save  himself,  on  December  26,  signed  the 
Peace  of  Pressburg,  by  which  he  ceded  his  Italian  possessions  to 
the  French,  and  the  Tyrol  to  Bavaria. 

In  less  than  three  months  after  Trafalgar,  death  robbed  Eng- 
land of  her  greatest  leader.  Pitt  had  been  steadily  sinking  under 
the  cares  of  his  position,  prematurely  aged  at  forty-six;  and  when 
the  news  of  the  awful  disaster  at  Austerlitz,  following  so  closely 


1806]  DEATH    OF   PITT  963 

that  of  Ulm,  reached  him,  he  never  recovered  from  the  shock.  He 
died  on  the  23d  of  January.     His  position  had  been  "one  of  almost 

tragic  irony.  An  economist  heaping  up  millions  of 
Death  of  debt  I  a  peace  minister  draffgred  into  the  costliest  of 
ary23,i806.     wars;  he  is  the  very  type  of  the  baffled  statesman."  He 

loved  peace,  yet  he  saw  that  with  Napoleon  there 
could  be  no  compromise;  the  fight  must  be  to  a  finish.  He  had 
built  up  coalition  after  coalition,  only  to  see  them  shattered  before 
the  marvelous  skill  of  this  master  of  war  craft.  Pressburg  he 
thought  was  the  end.  "Koll  np  the  map  of  Europe,"  he  said.  **it 
will  not  be  wanted  for  ten  years."  Yet  the  struggle  was  by  no 
means  over.  Trafalgar  was  after  all  to  be  more  enduring  than 
Austerlitz. 

The  moment,  however,  was  critical.     By  ceding  his   cgnquest 
of  Hanover  to  Prussia,  Napoleon  liad  bribed  the  Prussian  king  to 

join  him  against  the  coalition.  Before  the  end  of  1805 
supreme  in     he  had  placed  his   brother  Joseph  upon   the   ancient 

throne  of  Naples.  In  the  summer  following,  he  organ- 
ized the  German  States  into  the  "Confederation  of  the  Rhine" 
under  a  French  protectorate,  for  which  he  had  prepared  the  way  two 
years  earlier  by  abolishing  the  host  of  petty  independent  feudatories 
that  had  heretofore  made  any  larger  union  impossible.  The  same 
year  witnessed  the  formal  abandonment  by  the  emperor  of  the 
now  meaningless  titles  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  Thus  Napoleon 
had  all  western,  central,  and  southern  Europe  at  his  feet.  Spain 
and  even  Turkey  were  friendly.  Only  Britain  and  Russia  remained 
formidable. 

In  England  party  strife  was   hushed  by  the  death  of  Pitt. 
Whigs  and  Tories  united  in  the  "Ministry  of  All  the  Talents;" 

Grenville  became  Prime  Minister  and  Fox  and  Adding- 
''Ministryof  ton,   uow  Lord  Sidmouth,  Secretaries  of  State.     Fox 

AlltheTal-      ,       '  _    ^,  .       .    ,  -, 

entsr  1806.  had  opposed  the  war  on  principle,  and  saw  no  reason 
why  the  two  countries  could  not  come  to  some  fair  and 
rational  understanding.  But  Napoleon  soon  disabused  his  mindr 
of  its  peace  theories,  and  before  Fox's  death  in  September,  he  saw 
what  Pitt  had  long  since  seen,  that  nothing  would  satisfy  Napoleon 
but  the  destruction  of  the  British  Empire. 


964  SECOND   PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [georgeIU. 

The  treatment  which  Napoleon  meted  out  to  his  new  ally, 

Prussia,  was  fully  calculated  to  drive  to  desperation  a  brave  people 

who  had  not  yet  forgotten  the  day  of  the  Great  Fred- 

of  Prussia      ericK.     In  March   1806  he  closed  the  ports  of  Prussia 

and  the  Trea-         _^^  ,^_.,  _  _,_ 

ty  of  Tilsit,  and  Hanover  to  English  vessels.  England  retorted  by 
seizing  some  four  hundred  Prussian  vessels  that  lay  in 
her  harbors,  and  by  sweeping  Prussian  commerce  from  the 
seas.  Notwithstanding  these  sacrifices  Napoleon  coolly  proposed 
to  concede  Fox's  demand  that  the  restitution  of  Hanover  to  the 
king  of  England  should  be  the  first  condition  of  peace.  Prussia 
was  thus  unwillingly  put  at  odds  with  England,  at  the  very 
moment  when  national  honor  compelled  her  to  meet  Napoleon's 
insolence  and  tyranny  with  a  declaration  of  war.  She  was  poorly 
prepared  for  war ;  she  was  without  allies,  and  her  military  organi- 
zation was  an  antiquated  shell.  At  Jena  and  Auerstadt  Napoleon 
rudely  dispelled  the  inflated  conceit  of  the  Prussian  marshals,  and 
in  October  entered  Berlin  in  triumph.  The  fortresses  of  Prussia 
were  surrendered  with  shameful  haste.  Yet  Frederick  William 
refused  to  yield  to  Napoleon's  exorbitant  demands,  and  assured  of 
Kussian  support  continued  the  war.  Help,  however,  came  too 
late.  The  murderous  though  indecisive  battle  of  Eylau,  followed 
by  the  victory  of  the  French  at  Friedland,  brought  both  Alexander 
and  Frederick  William  to  consent  to  the  Peace  of  Tilsit,  July 
1807.  British  ships  and  British  trade  were  excluded  from  Prus- 
sian harbors,  and  Prussia  was  spoiled  of  half  her  territory,  part  of 
which,  with  Hanover,  was  erected  into  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia. 
In  a  secret  treaty  the  Eussian  emperor  agreed  to  an  alliance  with 
France  against  England,  should  she  refuse  to  accept  the  terms 
dictated  by  himself;  as  a  reward,  he  was  to  be  allowed  to  extend 
Kussian  influence  in  Sweden  and  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

England  was  now  oace  more  left  to  oppose  Napoleon  single- 
handed.  She  had  proved  herself  invincible  in  every  direct  attack 
The^ccmti'  ^P^^  ^^®  seas ;  but  with  the  new  Eussian  alliance 
tem^\m^'  Napoleon  virtually  controlled  the  entire  seaboard  of 
1807.  Europe,  and  at  last  it  was  possible  to  reach  a  vulner- 

able point  in  his  enemy's  harness.     If  he  could  only  exclude  the 
English  from  the  ports  of  Europe,  he  might  strike  a  telling  blow 


1806,  1807]  THE    CONTINENTAL    SYSTEM  965 

at  English  commerce  and  industry,  and  bring  the  nation  to  its 
knees.  In  November  1806  he  took  the  first  step  in  putting  into 
effect  his  so  called  "Continental  System,"  by  publishing  a  series 
of  decrees  from  Berlin  which  declared  the  British  Isles  in  a  state 
of  blockade,  forbade  all  commerce  between  Great  Britain  or  her 
colonies  and  the  territories  occupied  by  France  or  her  allies,  and 
ordered  the  confiscation  of  all  British  merchandise  wherever 
found.  In  January  1807,  England  retaliated  with  her  "First 
Orders  in  Council,"  declaring  the  ports* of  France  and  her  allies 
in  a  state  of  blockade  and  neutral  vessels  trading  between  them 
lawful  prize. 

The  struggle  had  now  passed  from  a  war  of  navies  and  armies 
to  a  duel  by  starvation,  to  see  which  people  could  endure  hunger 
the  longer.  In  this  grim  conflict,  however,  the 
ctAmtai^  advantages  still  rested  with  the  English.  They  still 
Sysum.  ^^^  their  colonial   trade,  which,  while   nothing   com- 

pared with  what  it  is  to-day  and  much  diminished  by  the  recent 
American  war  from  what  it  had  been  in  the  eighteenth  century,  was 
still  of  considerable  importance.  The  prohibition  of  trade,  more- 
over, so  raised  the  price  of  English  goods,  that  the  rewards  of 
smuggling  were  increased  enormously  and  it  was  impossible  for 
Napoleon  to  draw  the  meshes  so  tight  that  the  smuggler  could  not 
get  through,  or  the  English  manufacturer  find  an  outlet  for 
his  goods.  The  English  people,  also,  were  deeply  interested 
in  the  war,  and  were  far  more  willing  to  suffer  in  what  they 
regarded  as  the  cause  of  religion  and  humanity  against  the 
French  military  tyrant,  than  the  people  of  the  continent,  who  had 
taken  little  interest  in  the  struggle  apart  from  their  governments 
and  now  began  to  execrate  the  name  of  Napoleon  for  the  losses  and 
sufferings  occasioned  by  the  commercial  ruin  of  Europe.  In  one 
respect  Napoleon  succeeded;  the  English  carrying  trade  was 
ruined  for  the  time,  and  neutral  commerce  left  English  ships.  The 
Americans,  whose  position  had  thus  far  exempted  them  from 
taking  any  part  in  the  struggle,  were  the  chief  gainers. 

Not  long  after  the  Orders  in  Council  the  Grenville  ministry 
came  to  an  end.  The  ministers  had  proposed  to  abolish  the  military 
disqualifications  of  Catholics;  but  the   king   compelled   them  to 


966  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    mjLE  [georgk  ill. 

withdraw  the  measure,  and  when  they  refused  to  pledge  themselves 
not  to  reopen  the  question  of  disability,  he  dismissed  both  min- 
istry and  parliament,   and  appealed  to  the  country.     The  result 
was  to  entrench  the  Tories  more  strongly  than  ever  in 

Fallot  the  i      ,       «    ,i  ^  -, 

Orenviiie        control  of  the  government.      One  memorable   act   of 
reform  dates  from  the  Ministry  of   All  the  Talents; 
in    March    1807,     Great    Britain    formally   abolished   the   slave 
trade. 

The  new  administration  was  headed  by  the  inefficient  duke  of 

Portland,  but  included  Canning  and  Castlereagh  as  Secretaries, 

neither   of  whom  was  lacking  in  the  fire  and  energy 

TTie  Portland  that  were  needed  in  the  government  if  England  were 

ministry  and  -,        ^        -  -x^-i^n-,-, 

the vif)Jation    to  succced.     Kussia  was  now  Napoleon  s  avowed  ally: 

of  the  riofits 

of  neutrals.  Sweden  was  forced  to  renounce  her  neutrality,  and 
Denmark  also  was  apparently  to  be  dragged  into  the 
coalition  against  England.  Canning  acted  promptly.  He  sent  a 
fleet  to  Copenhagen  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  Danish  fleet 
under  pledge  of  returning  it  at  the  end  of  the  war.  When  the 
demand  was  refused,  the  bombardment  of  Copenhagen  followed ; 
the  Danish  fleet  was  taken  and  with  it  large  supplies  of  naval 
stores.  Canning  followed  this  bold  move  of  September  by  a  still 
more  daring  step  in  November  when  he  issued  a  second  series  of 
Orders  in  Council,  closing  to  the  ships  of  all  nations  every  port  in 
Europe  from  which  English  ships  were  excluded,  and  rendering  all 
vessels  bound  thither  liable  to  seizure,  unless  they  had  first 
touched  at  a  British  port.  In  December  Napoleon  replied  in  the 
*'Milan  Decree,"  which  made  neutral  vessels  liable  to  seizure  if 
they  touched  at  a  British  port,  or  submitted  to  be  searched  by 
British  cruisers.  These  orders,  which  not  only  threatened  the 
economic  ruin  of  every  state  in  western  Europe,  but  brought  the 
infant  American  Eepublic  at  last  within  the  sphere  of  the  war, 
completed  the  Continental  System.  Britain  in  her  desperate  effort 
to  retaliate  upon  her  powerful  antagonist,  had  fully  matched  his 
tyranny  in  disregarding  the  rights  of  neutral  powers. 

Napoleon's  plot  to  secure  naval  assistance  in  the  north  having 
been  frustrated  by  the  prompt  action  of  Canning,  his  next  move 
was   to   force  Portugal  to  turn  upon  her  long  time  friends  and 


THE   PENINSULAK  WAR  967 

join  the  Continental  System.  Portugal  refused  and  the  war 
which  followed  involved  the  entire  peninsula.     The  royal  family  of 

Portugal  fled  to  Brazil,  and  Lisbon  passed  into  French 
thePenin-       hands.     But  Portugal  had  no  sooner  been  overrun  than 

Napoleon  turned  upon  his  allies,  the  witless  Bour- 
bons of  Spain,  deposed  Charles  IV.,  and  made  his  own  brother 
Joseph  king. 

Heretofore  Napoleon  had  handled  the  principalities  and  powers 
of  Europe  with  the  indifference  with  which  a  chess  player  uses 
Uprising  of    his  picces.  Sweeping  ancient  families  from  the  board  or 

the  Spaniards.  n.  j.    i  •       j  iv  •  •         j  xt- 

Beginning  parcelling  out  Kingdoms  as  the  exigencies  of  the  game 
miar  War.  demanded.  He  had,  however,  utterly  ignored  one  ele- 
ment in  the  problem,  the  nation,  and  this  omission  was  now  to 
prove  his  ruin.  The  Spanish  people  rose  as  one  man  to  fight  for 
independence  and  national  honor,  and  to  avenge  the  wrong  which 
had  been  done  to  their  national  sovereign.  England  was  nominally 
at  war  with  Spain,  but  when  the  news  of  the  uprising  against 
Napoleon  reached  England,  Canning  declared,  '*Any  nation  oppos- 
ing France  becomes  instantly  our  ally."  Help  was  sent  at  once, 
and  on  August  1,  1808,  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  with  eighteen  thou- 
sand British  troops  landed  at  Mondego  Bay  in  Portugal,  and  within 
three  weeks  had  won  the  important  battles  of  Rorica  and  Vimiero. 
While  Vimiero  was  in  progress  Sir  Henry  Burrard,  an  old  officer  of 
no  distinction  but  Wellesley 's  superior  in  command,  landed  and 
assumed  direction  of  the  English  invasion  of  Portugal.  Against 
the  advice  of  Wellesley  he  entered  into  the  Convention  of  Cintra, 
by  which  he  allowed  Junot,  the  French  general,  to  retire  peaceably 
into  France.  The  English  public  were  justly  indignant  when  they 
learned  of  the  escape  of  the  French ;  the  officers  were  brought  to 
trial  and  the  command  of  the  peninsular  army  was  turned  over  to 
Sir  John  Moore.  Moore  was  a  gallant  officer,  but  in  his  attempt 
to  cooperate  with  the  Spanish  peasants,  he  got  little  support,  and 
found  himself  at  last  confronted  by  Napoleon  himself  with  an 
army  of  two  hundred  thousand  men.  He  made  a  skillful  retreat 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  Corunna  on  the  coast,  and  at  last 
got  his  little  army  safely  out  of  the  country,  though  at  the  cost  of 
his  own  life.     He  was  buried  on  the  ramparts  of  Corunna. 


968  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [gborgk  ill. 

Napoleon  had  left  Soult  to  pursue  Moore  and  end  what  he  con- 
temptuously called  "the  war  of  monks  and  peasants,"  while  he 
himself  turned  to  meet  a  new  rising  of  the  Austrians. 
of^wagram  "^^^  Austrians  lookcd  to  England  to  make  a  diversion  in 
cherm,^i809.  ^^^^^  favor  by  attacking  Antwerp.  But  before  the  expe- 
dition had  left  England,  Napoleon  had  overwhelmed  the 
Austrians  at  Wagram,  and  when  at  last  the  English  army,  forty 
thousand  strong,  landed  in  Holland,  they  were  sacrificed  to  the 
stupid  incompetency  of  their  commander,  the  earl  of  Chatham, 
Pitt's  elder  brother,  who  left  fifteen  thousand  men  to  die  in  the 
fever  haunted  marshes  of  the  island  of  Walcheren. 

Wellesley,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  returned  to  command  in  the 
Peninsula.  In  July  1809  after  two  days'  fighting,  he  won  a  com- 
Thevnth-  V^^^^  victory  over  the  French  at  Talavera,  for  which  he 
RStafrom  ^^^  Created  Viscount  Wellington.  His  losses,  how- 
nerSaisys-  ^^^^j  ^^^^  ^0  serious  that  he  was  compelled  to  retire  to 
tern.  Portugal   before   the   advance   of   fresh   troops   under 

Soult.  The  failure  of  England  to  make  the  promised  diversion 
left  Austria  at  the  mercy  of  Napoleon,  and  in  October,  1809,  she 
was  compelled  to  accept  the  humiliating  Treaty  of  Vienna,  and 
see  her  territories  still  further  partitioned  among  France  and  her 
allies.  Yet,  although  the  half-hearted  support  of  Britain  had 
done  little  for  Austria,  her  example  had  stimulated  the  rising  spirit 
of  patriotism  among  the  Germans ;  while  the  very  treaty  which 
marks  the  depths  of  Austria's  humiliation,  was  the  means  ulti- 
mately of  alienating  Russia  and  throwing  her  influence  against 
Napoleon.  In  December  1810,  Alexander  withdrew  from 
Napoleon's  commercial  system,  which  had  proved  ruinous  to 
Russian  trade,  opened  his  harbors  to  neutral  vessels,  and  imposed 
duties  on  many  French  products.  Neither  Russia  nor  France 
was  in  haste  for  war,  but  both  countries  saw  that  war  was 
unavoidable  and  continued  making  vast  preparations  during  the 
year  1811. 

In  Portugal  Wellington  was  still  living  up  to  his  reputation  as 
the  * 'hooked  nose  beggar  that  licks  the  French,"  a  title  which  had 
been  given  him  after  Talavera  by  his  admiring  soldiers.  In  Sep- 
tember 1810,  Massena,  who  stood  highest  in  military  reputation 


1810-1812] 


THE    LINES   OF   TOKRES   VEDRAS 


969 


among  all  Napoleon's  marshals,  entered  Portugal  with  seventy 
thousand  men,  only  to  be  driven  out  again  with  a  loss  of  thirty 
thousand  men.  This  triumph  Wellington  owed  largely  to  his  fore- 
thought in  shutting  off  Lisbon  from  the  rest  of  Por- 
tugal by  a  double  line  of  impregnable  barriers  which 
extended  from  the  Tagus  to  the  sea,  known  as  the  Lines 
of  Torres  Vedras.  He  had  also  systematically  wasted  the  outlying 
country  from  which  the  enemy  must  draw  their  support.  As  the 
French  retired  Wellington  advanced,  only  to  be  confronted  by  the 


The  ''Lines 
f  Torn 
''edras. 


of  Torres 


•J^       Peninsular  Campaigns 
of  WELLESLEY 

^ _^ 


approach  of  another  French  army  from  Spain  under  Sonlt,  and 
compelled  once  more  to  retire  within  his  lines.  Thus  Wellington 
and  Napoleon's  marshals  wrestled  back  and  forth  over  the  desolate 
peninsula  during  the  year  1811.  Fortresses  were  taken  and 
retaken;  the  assault  of  the  British  on  Badajoz  in  April  1812, 
stands  out  almost  alone  in  the  annals  of  war  for  the  fury  of  the 
attack  and  the  desperation  of  the  resistance. 


970  SECOND    PEEIOD   OF   TORY   RULE  [gkoegeIIL 

While  Wellington  was  thus  sustaining  the  honor  of  Britain  in 
the  Peninsula,  the  cabinet  became  the  scene  of  disgraceful  quarrel- 
ing between  Canning  and  Castlereagh ,  which  in  1809 
England^  ended  in  a  duel  and  the  resignation  of  both  ministers. 
The  same  month  Portland,  also,  retired  on  account  of 
failing  health,  and  Spencer  Perceval, '*an  industrious  mediocrity  of 
the  narrowest  type,"  became  Prime  Minister.  In  1810  George 
III.  celebrated  his  ''Jubilee."  Immediately  after  he  succumbed  to 
the  malady  which  had  haunted  him  since  1788,  and  which  now 
virtually  became  permanent  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  In  February 
1811  parliament  coiif erred  on  the  Prince  of  Wales  the  regency  with 
powers  restricted  as  in  1788,  but  the  next  year  in  the  prolonged 
illness  of  the  king,  the  restrictions  were  removed.  In  May  1812 
Perceval  was  assassinated  in  the  lobby  of  the  Commons  by  a  mer- 
chant named  Bellingham,  a  poor  madman,  who  had  lost  his  wits 
in  consequence  of  misfortunes  which  had  come  upon  him  as  a 
result  of  the  war.  It  was  hoped  in  some  quarters  that  the  Whigs 
might  return  to  power  now  that  George  III.  's  reign  had  virtually 
ended,  but  the  Whigs  were  pledged  to  Catholic  Emancipation, 
and  for  this  the  country  was  not  yet  ready.  The  Tory  ministry, 
therefore,  was  reorganized  under  Robert  Jenkinson,  Lord  Liver- 
pool; Castlereagh  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Foreign  Office, 
and  Sidmouth,  of  the  Home  Office. 

One  of  Castlereagh 's  first  acts  was  to  procure  the  repeal  of 

Canning's  Orders  in  Council  which  had  added  the  United  States 

to  the  enemies  of  England.     The  close  of  the  American 

The  second      Eevolution  had  by  no  means  ended  the  bitter  feeling 

war  imth  the  J  o 

^Sies  which  existed  between  England   and   America.      The 

mother  country  had  grudgingly  recognized  the  new 
Kepublic  in  the  Treaty  of  Amity  and  Commerce  of  1794.  The 
continental  struggle,  moreover,  had  raised  many  new  points  of 
dispute,  and  the  old  bitterness  revived.  The  orders  and  decrees 
of  Great  Britain  and  France  were  met  by  Jefferson's  embargo  pol- 
icy, which  accomplished  little  save  the  ruin  of  American  merchants. 
Under  Madison's  administration  a  more  vigorous  policy  was  urged 
by  Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Crawford,  the  young  and  enthusiastic  lead- 
ers of  a  war  party.     The  act  known  as  .''Macon's  Bill  No.  2"  pro- 


a,  Y  N    , 


-^s- 


While  Wer- 


1812-1815]  THE    AMERICAN   WAR   OF   1812  971 

vided  that  if  either  Great  Britain  or  France  should  revoke  its 
orders  or  decrees  the  United  States  would  prohibit  trade  with  the 
other.  Napoleon  was  quick  to  see  his  opportunity  and  by  an 
apparent  fulfillment  of  the  conditions  of  the  act  induced  the 
United  States  to  revive  the  nonimportation  act  against  Great 
Britain.  It  was  this  new  danger,  the  possibility  of  a  junction 
between  Napoleon  and  the  United  States  and  the  consequent  ruin 
of  English  industry,  that  hastened  Castlereagh's  action.  But 
it  was  already  too  late.  On  the  18th  of  June,  five  days  after  the 
repeal  of  the  Orders  in  Council,  the  United  States  declared  war 
against  Great  Britain.  In  the  campaigns  of  the  two  years  which 
followed  there  was  little  to  be  proud  of  either  in  the  American 
invasions  of  Canada  or  in  the  British  raid  on  Washington.  But  on 
the  Great  Lakes  and  at  sea  the  young  American  navy  won  some 
brilliant  victories  over  lier  mature  rival,  while  at  New  Orleans 
on  January  8,  1815,  Jackson  retrieved  the  faults  of  incapable 
military  leaders  by  defeating  the  veterans  of  the  Peninsular  War. 
Peace,  which  had-  already  been  made  at  Ghent,  December  24, 
1814,  settled  none  of  the  questions  which  had  occasioned  the  war, 
but  in  the  changed  conditions  which  followed  Waterloo,  they  faded 
rapidly  into  insignificance. 

While  America  was  thus  fighting  Napoleon's  battles  in  the 
western  hemisphere,  he  had  already  entered  upon  the  fatal  con- 
test with  Russia.     In  the  late  spring  of  1812  he  massed 
Campaign,     four  hundred  and  fiftv  thousand  men  on  the  Russian 

1812  " 

frontier,  and  in  Jiine  crossed  the  Niemen.  Austria 
and  Prussia  had  sent  their  contingents,  and  the  neighboring 
countries  were  swept  bare  in  order  to  furnish  supplies.  Alexan- 
der fully  understood  the  defensive  strength  of  Russia,  and  quietly 
retired  as  the  French  advanced,  knowing  that  every  day's  march 
into  his  territories  must  increase  the  difficulties  of  feeding  the 
vast  host  which  followed  Napoleon.  In  early  September  Alexan- 
der yielded  to  the  clamors  of  the  Russians  sufficiently  to  risk  a 
battle  at  Borodino,  in  which  he  lost  thirty  thousand  men;  yet 
although  the  French  losses  were  still  greater,  he  failed  to  arrest 
the  tide  of  invasion  and  continued  his  withdrawal  towards  Mos- 
cow.    On  the  14th  of  September  Napoleon  entered  the  Holy  City, 


972  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [gkorge  ill. 

only  to  find  it  silent  and  deserted.  Five  days  later  it  was  swept 
by  fire,  probably  the  work  of  the  Eussians.  Napoleon  could  ad- 
vance no  farther;  the  Czar  showed  no  intention  of  proposing 
peace,  and  on  October  19,  the  French  began  the  fatal  retreat. 
On  November  6,  the  Russian  winter  set  in  with  intense  cold,  blind- 
ing storms,  and  heavy  snows.  When  Napoleon  reached  the  Niemen 
on  December  13,  only  a  sad  and  shattered  remnant  of  the  magnificent 
army  that  had  crossed  in  June  remained.  Napoleon,  the  invincible, ' 
had  been  beaten  at  last,  not  by  the  Eussians,  but  by  Eussia. 

At  the  border  Napoleon  was  met  by  reinforcements  and  turned 

again  to  strike  his  foes,   but  the  spell  of  Napoleon's  name  had 

been  broken  and  everywhere  the  friends  of  liberty  took 

The  Fourth 

coaiitum,  fresh  heart.  In  February  the  Treaty  of  Kalisch, 
which  placed  Prussia  by  the  side  of  Eussia  and  Sweden, 
inaugurated  a  fourth  coalition.  In  June  Britain  and  Austria 
joined,  and  before  the  end  of  the  year  most  of  the  German  states 
had  risen  to  take  their  share  in  the  glorious  ''War  of  Liberation." 
In  August,  in  a  series  of  battles  fought  around  Dresden,  Napoleon 
won  his  last  victory  on  German  soil.  Yet,  though  he  managed  to 
hold  his  foes  at  bay  for  a  little  longer,  he  failed  utterly  to  break 
the  iron  ring  which  was  closing  about  him.  At  Leipsic,  in  a 
three  days'  battle,  October  16-18,  he  was  fairly  overwhelmed  by 
the  numbers  which  his  enemies  poured  upon  him,  and  compelled  to 
resume  his  retreat  toward  the  Ehine.  At  Frankfort  he  refused 
an  offer  of  peace,  and  early  in  January  1814  the  allies  crossed  the 
Ehine.  At  the  same  time  Wellington  was  slowly  fighting  his  way 
through  the  Pyrenees,  and  early  in  the  year  entered  France  from 
the  south.  In  March  the  allies  approached  Paris;  a  few  days 
later  Napoleon  abdicated  and  retired  to  the  island  of  Elba,  while 
the  Bourbons  were  once  more  restored  to  the  French  throne. 

Napoleon  was  now  beaten.  The  great  shadow  which  had  so 
long  hung  over  Europe  was  dispelled.  It  remained  for  the  allies 
The  Fifth  ^^  meet  and  undo  his  work.  Accordingly  in  Septem- 
^1814  15^^^'  ber,  a  congress  of  the  powers  met  at  Vienna.  But  the 
vaiaTaf'  commissioners  had  hardly  begun  their  work,  when 
Waterloo.  Europe  was  startled  from  its  dream  of  peace  by 
the  news  that  Napoleon  had  landed  in  France,  that  the  Second 


1815] 


WATERLOO 


973 


Bourbon  Monarchy  had  been  swept  away,  and  that  Napoleon 
was  again  Emperor  of  the  French.  The  ambassadors  of  the 
four  great  powers  at  Vienna,  Great  Britain,  Austria,  Prussia,  and 
Russia,  at  once  abandoned  their  diplomatic  quarreling  to  form  a 
fifth  coalition  in  order  to  destroy  the  common  enemy  before  he 
could  gather  the  strength  of  France.  Napoleon's  veterans  rallied 
to  his  support  and  in  a  few  weeks  he  had  gathered  a  powerful 
army  and  was  marching  toward  the  Belgian  border.     He  hoped 


by  the  rapidity  of  his  movements  to  crush  his  many  foes  in  detail 
before  they  could  concentrate  their  strength.  On  June  16  he 
beat  the  Prussian  Bliicher  at  Ligny  before  he  had  time  to  unite 
with  the  mixed  Anglo-Belgian  army  with  which  Wellington  held 
the  road  to  Brussels.  On  the  18th  Napoleon  advanced  to  meet 
Wellington  who  had  taken  up  a  strong  position  on  the  slope  of  Mont 
St.  Jean  near  Waterloo.  For  seven  hours  the  **Iron  Duke"  dog- 
gedly held  his  position,  while  Napoleon  hurled  his  cavalry  and 
infantry  upon  the  British  squares.     After  the  battle  of  the  16th 


974  SECOND    PERIOD    OF   TORY    RULE  [geobge  III. 

Napoleon  had  sent  Grouchy  after  Bliicher  to  keep  the  Prussians 
from  reforming,  but  Grouchy  had  failed  to  execute  his  mission,  and 
towards  evening  of  the  18th  Wellington  from  his  beset  position  on 
Mont  St.  Jean  saw  the  long  dark  line  of  the  Prussians  breaking  from 
the  woods  on  his  left.  With  a  shout  the  English  squares,  which 
had  stood  on  the  defensive  during  that  long  terrible  day,  advanced 
upon  their  foes.  Napoleon's  weary  troops  could  not  withstand  the 
fresh  masses  tliat  were  now  hurled  upon  them.  The  Old  Guard 
was  ordered  into  action;  for  a  moment  the  tide  of  battle  was 
stayed;  but  their  splendid  discipline,  their  matchless  courage, 
availed  nothing  before  the  odds  which  now  confronted  them.  In  a 
few  moments  the  last  army  of  Napoleon  was  a  wild  mob  of  panic- 
smitten  fugitives,  choking  the  roads  and  thronging  the  ravines 
which  led  from  the  battlefield.  Napoleon  fled  to  Paris,  abdicated 
a  second  time,  and  then  surrendered  himself  to  the  commander  of 
the  British  warship  Bellerophon.  He  was  finally  sent 
to  the  lonely  rock  off  the  coast  of  Africa,  where  he 
died  in  1821.  Louis  XVIII.  was  again  brought  back,  and  France, 
beside  paying  a  war  indemnity  of  £28,000,000,  was  compelled  to 
support  an  army  of  occupation  for  five  years.  Her  territories  were 
reduced  to  the  old  lines  which  had  prevailed  before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  of  1792.  Naples,  also,  was  restored  to  its  Bourbon 
kings.  Holland  and  the  old  Austrian  Netherlands  were  raised  into 
a  kingdom  under  the  House  of  Orange.  The  princes  of  Germany 
were  united  into  a  German  Confederation.  The  king  of  Sardinia 
received  Genoa  and  Upper  Savoy.  Great  Britain  restored  Java  to  the 
Dutch  but  retained  Heligoland,  Tobago,  St.  Lucia,  Ceylon,  and 
Cape  Colony,  the  beginning  of  her  power  in  South  Africa.  Her 
hold  in  the  Mediterranean  was  secured  by  the  retention  of  Malta 
and  by  the  inauguration  of  a  protectorate  over  the  Ionian  Islands. 
Thus  ended  at  last  the  Second  Hundred  Years'  War  between 
England  and  France.  Napoleon  had  been  compelled  to  take  up  the 
old  struggle  with  the  rising  power  of  Great  Britain  which  Louis 
XIV.  had  begun  in  1689,  and  had  failed  for  the  same  reason 
that  Louis  had  failed.  Pitt  had  been  forced  to  resume  the 
work  of  William  and  Marlborough  and  had  succeeded  as  they  had 
succeeded,    and    for  the  same   reason.     The    national  policy  of 


1689-1815]  THE   SECOND   HUNDRED  .YEARS'    WAR  975 

France  had  always  been  one  of  concentration  and  suppression. 
She  had  developed  a  vast  centralized  state,  all  powerful  on  the 
Thereiatimi  ^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^  eighteenth  century,  apparently  with- 
unni  wars'  ^^^  a  peer  in  Europe.  But  her  people  had  not  developed 
«Je  of  tS^  their  resources  correspondingly ;  they  had  not  learned 
l^nturv^^  to  help  themselves.  Their  poverty  presented  a  pitiful 
contrast  with  the  luxury,  the  pomp,  the  magnificence,  of 
the  court  of  their  Bourbon  kings.  England  on  the  other  hand  had 
followed  a  very  different  policy.  She  was  shut  off  from  expansion  at 
home,  but  the  sea  lay  open  to  her.  She  had  built  up  her  navy  and 
steadily  extended  her  commercial  activities  into  new  lands;  and 
while  she  had  distributed  political  power  among  her  people,  she 
had  sent  forth  her  excess  population  to  establish  new  Eng- 
lands  beyond  the  seas.  Her  people,  therefore,  unlike  the  great 
mass  of  the  French,  were  growing  ever  more  resourceful,  energetic, 
and  capable  of  self-help.  Hence,  in  all  the  early  stages  of  the 
long  struggle  England  had  been  successful,  driving  France 
out  of  India  and  North  America,  and  setting  barriers  to  French 
ambition  at  home.  But  at  the  end  of  the  century,  after  a 
hundred  years  of  bitter  conflict,  two  events  threatened  to  undo 
all  that  had  been  done  and  restore  again  the  supremacy  of  France 
in  Europe;  the  one  was  the  American  Revolution,  which  cutoff 
half  the  territory  of  the  British  Empire  and  for  the  moment 
obscured  the  prestige  which  had  been  won  by  a  hundred  years  of 
successful  war;  the  other  was  the  French  Eevolntion,  which 
aroused  the  French  from  the  sleep  of  centuries,  and  threatened  to 
bring  them  at  a  single  bound  alongside  of  the  English.  But 
France  unfortunately  for  herself  could  not  reorganize  her  navy  as 
readily  as  she  could  reorganize  her  army,  and  on  the  seas  England 
easily  maintained  her  position.  Moreover,  even  on  the  land,  it 
was  impossible  for  the  "French  people  to  sustain  for  a  long  period 
the  tremendous  exertion  which  had  won  their  first  battles,  and 
when  the  hectic  energy  of  the  great  uprising  had  at  last  spent 
itself,  France,  doubly  exhausted,  sank  into  nerveless  apathy.  The 
end  came ;  France  was  again  remanded  to  her  old  boundaries,  and 
the  supremacy  of  England  as  the  great  maritime  and  commercial 
power  of  the  world  was  definitely  secured. 


CHAPTER  YII 

THE   EASTERN    QUESTION    AND   THE   FIRST   ERA   OF   REFORM 

GEORGE  III.,  1815-1820 
GEORGE  IV.,  1820-1830 
WILLIAM  IV.,  1830-1837 
VICTORIA,         1837-1841 

During  the  generation  which  preceded  Waterloo  English  history 
had  centered  more  and  more  in  the  great  continental  straggle. 

All  questions  of  domestic  reform,  moral  or  political, 
Waterloo  (m  ^^^  heen  tabled  by  common  consent  and  the  energies 
Uc&nioru'  ^^   ^^^^   nation   been   concentrated    upon   the   one    all 

engrossing  topic, — the  defeat  of  France  and  the  over- 
throw of  Napoleon.  But  at  Waterloo  the  spell  was  broken ;  liber- 
alism, which  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  unpatriotic,  almost 
treason,'  began  again  to  raise  its  head,  and  the  people  of  Great 
Britain  turned  once  more  to  consider  the  reforms  which  the 
French  Revolution  had  arrested. 

The  first  signs  of  reaction  appeared  soon  after  Waterloo,  as 
soon  as  the  nation  began  to  adjust  itself  to  the  new  conditions 

created  by  the  peace.  If  the  war  had  arrested  English 
dStrS^  economic  life  in  some  directions,  it  had  abnormally 
^netwT^       stimulated  it  in  others.     The  productive  activities  of 

a  great  part  of  Europe  had  been  paralyzed  by  the  long 
struggle,  and  in  spite  of  the  Napoleonic  decrees  the  demand  for 
English  goods  and  especially  for  English  food-stuffs  had  continued 
to  increase.  The  rising  prices  of  grain  had  led  many  an  English 
landlord  to  plough  up  pastures  and  turn  into  cultivation  areas  from 
which  under  ordinary  conditions  the  yield  would  not  be  sufficient 
to  pay  the  cost.  With  the  dawn  of  peace,  this  unusual  stimulus 
was  lost;  the  continental  armies  were  broken  up  and  absorbed 
once  more  in  the  manifold  callings  of  peace;  Europe  began 
again  to  provide  for  her  wants  herself,  and  England  was  left  with 
millions  of  capital  invested  in  enterprises  that  were  no  longer 
remunerative.     Stocks  fell;  values  began  to  shrink ;  concerns  shut 

976 


1815-1817]  THE  CORK   LAW  911 

down,  and  stagnation  followed.  Thousands  were  thrown  out  of 
work;  other  thousands  who  had  been  employed  in  the  numerous 
activities  more  directly  connected  with  the  war,  were  thrown  back 
upon  England  without  means  and  without  employment. 

The  decline  in  the  demand  for  grain  and  the  inevitable  shrink- 
age in  land  values  had  not  been  unforeseen,  and  in  1815  parliament, 
where  the  influence  of  the  landlords  was  always  strong, 
Law'U)f78i5  ^^^^  promptly  passed  a  '*Corn  Law,"  by  which  the 
importation  of  foreign-grown  grain  was  prohibited 
whenever  the  price  of  British  wheat  should  fall  below  eighty  shill- 
ings a  quarter.  When  the  price  of  British-grown  wheat  should 
fall  below  sixty-seven  shillings  a  quarter,  the  importation  of 
colonial  wheat  also  was  prohibited.  This  of  course  was  class 
legislation  of  a  most  reprehensible  kind;  instead  of  forestalling 
the  approaching  distress  parliament  had  merely  shifted  the  burden 
of  the  "hard  times"  from  the  shoulders  of  those  who  were  most 
able  to  bear  it,  the  landlords,  to  the  shoulders  of  those  who  were 
least  able,  the  day  laborers  and  the  factory  hands. 

A  general  failure  of  the  crops  in  181 G  added  greatly  to  the 
accumulating  distress  of  the  people.  At  eighty  shillings,  foreign- 
grown  grain  was  admitted,  but  the  price  of  wheat 
troubles  Continued  to  rise  until  in  1817  it  reached  the  almost  pro- 
hibitive figure  of  ninety-six  shillings  a  quarter.  After 
two  years  of  uncertain  employment  and  low  wages,  in  thousands 
of  cases  of  no  employment  at  all,  the  English  laborer  at  last  saw 
himself  confronted  with  a  bread  famine.  He  could  not,  like  the 
French  peasant  in  the  days  of  the  great  Louis,  lie  down  and  die ; 
and  so  he  roused  himself  to  mend  matters,  but  in  a  blind,  aimless 
way.  Mobs  of  wretched  farm  hands  burned  the  hoarded  grain  of 
the  farmer ;  other  mobs  of  factory  workers  turned  upon  the  better 
favored  establishments,  smashing  the  newly  devised  labor-saving 
machines  which  were  regarded  as  responsible  for  the  troubles  of 
the  laborer,  and  burning  the  plants.  Monster  meetings,  also, 
were  held  at  various  places;  fiery  agitators  incited  the  people 
against  the  government  and  the  proprietary  classes,  and  wild 
schemes  were  proposed  of  marching  upon  London  and  compelling 
parliament  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  the  people. 


978  THE    FIRST    ERA    OF    REFORM  [georokUI. 

The  old  conservative  ministry,   which  since  1812  had  been 

directed  by  Robert  Jenkinson,  Lord  Liverpool,  was  still  in  power. 

The  ministers,  who  had  not  vet  passed  out  from  under 

Thereforms       .  ,,       ^      .  .  .  •    .     i        -^i      ^i 

of  Tories        the   spell  01  the  ffrim  memories  associated  with  the 

cmd  Whins. 

French  Eevolution,  at  first  naturally  thought  only  of 
repression.  Meetings  of  "radicals"  were  branded  as  "seditious;" 
magistrates  were  instructed  to  arrest  all  persons  accused  of  libel- 
ous publications,  and  in  March  1817  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was 
suspended.  Yet  the  party  in  power  could  not  close  their  ears 
altogether  to  the  cry  of  the  people;  the  ministers  soon  saw  that 
something  more  than  simple  repression  was  needed  and  in  a  char- 
acteristic Tory  fashion  set  to  work.  In  1817  'they  secured  the 
removal  of  the  disability  which  forbade  Catholics  and  noncon- 
forming Protestants  to  hold  commissions  in  the  army;  in  1818 
they  appropriated  £1,000,000  to  the  building  of  new  churches;  in 
1819  they  secured  a  bill  which  provided  for  the  resumption  of 
specie  payment  in  1822.  The  Whigs  with  somewhat  clearer 
insight  into  the  causes  of  existing  disorders  directed  their  efforts 
to  the  reduction  of  the  war  burdens,  which  still  rested  heavily  upon 
the  necks  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes.  In  1816  Brougham 
led  a  movement  to  compel  the  government  to  abandon  the  income 
tax  which  had  been  greatly  increased  as  a  war  measure,  but  which 
the  ministry  wished  to  continue.  The  Whigs  also  attacked  the 
repressive  measures  by  which  the  ministry  had  sought  to  check 
the  dissemination  of  political  literature.  The  people  quickly 
responded  to  these  signs  of  sympathy  among  the  Whig  leaders, 
and  in  the  general  election  of  1818  the  Whigs  could  show  consider- 
able gains  in  the  counties  and  in  boroughs  such  as  London  and 
Westminster,  where  the  popular  element  had  more  direct  control 
of  the  franchise. 

The  more  radical  elements  outside  of  parliament,  however, 
were  not  satisfied  with  the  slow  pace  of  the  regular  Whig  leaders. 
Pariiamen-  ^^^  ^^  clear  vision,  like  William  Cobbett,  the  editor  of 
^itlrioo^'  ^^^  WeeUy  Political  Register,  saw  that  under  the 
1819.  existing  restricted  franchise,  it  was   useless    to    talk 

of  relief,,  and    sought   to    direct    the   present   agitation  toward 
securing  parliamentary  reform.      Monster  meetings  were    called 


1820]  THE   SIX    ACTS  979 

in  the  unrepresented  towns  and  the  people  were  encouraged  to 
elect  what  were  called  "Legislatorial  Attorneys  and  Representa- 
tives," who  were  to  demand  seats  in  parliament  in  the  name  of 
their  constituents.  The  movement  accomplished  little  more  than 
to  bring  into  prominence  again  the  anomalies  of  the  existing 
franchise.  An  unfortunate  affair  at  Manchester,  where  some  fifty- 
thousand  people  who  had  gathered  in  St.  Peter's  fields  were 
stampeded  by  the  military,^  created  widespread  indignation  and 
greatly  quickened  the  awakening  sympathies  of  the  nation  with 
the  laboring  classes.  The  government,  however,  felt  justified  in 
adopting  still  more  vigorous  measures  of  repression,  and  in 
December  Lord  Sidmouth,  the  Home  Secretary,  secured  the  pas- 
sage of  the  *'Six  Acts,"  the  most  important  of  which 
^Lcte'^^  provided  that  public  meetings  could  be  held  only  after 
six  days'  notice  had  been  given  to  the  resident  Justice 
of  the  Peace  and  that  none  but  freeholders  or  residents  might 
attend  under  penalty  of  fine  or  imprisonment.  Any  meeting  at 
which  the  people  should  be  incited  to  hatred,  or  contempt  of  the 
king's  person,  or  of  the  government,  or  of  the  constitution,  was 
declared  unlawful ;  justices  were  given  special  powers  in  dispersing 
such  meetings  or  arresting  the  speakers,  and  were  not  to  be  held 
responsible  for  the  results  of  any  violence  which  they  might  see 
fit  to  use.  It  was  also  forbidden  under  penalty  of  two  years' 
imprisonment  to  attend  such  a  meeting  with  arms,  flags,  banners, 
or  other  emblems  calculated  to  rouse  the  people.  Organizations 
were  forbidden  to  practice  military  drilling;  magistrates  were 
empowered  to  search  for  arms  and  seize  them  wherever  found. 

In  the  midst  of  the  turmoil  poor  old  George  III.,  now  in  his 
eighty-second  year,  passed  away,  and  his  son,  the  fourth  of  the 
Georges,  who  as  regent  had  been  virtually  king  since 
George  III.,  1812,  Succeeded  to  the  full  honors  of  royalty.  The 
Ge(rrgeiv.,  ncw  king  was  already  heartily  detested  by  the  greater 
part  of  his  people.  He  had  spent  his  youth  in  dis- 
gusting dissipation;  in  1795  he  had  married  Caroline  of  Brunswick 

*  Many  of  the  people  were  injured  in  the  crush;  some  were  killed. 
The  affair  was  called  the  massacre  of  "Peterloo,"  in  imitation  of  "Water- 
loo." 


980  THE    FIRST   ERA    OF   REFORM  [george  IV. 

with  the  idea  of  turning  his  marriage  to  the  payment  of  personal 
debts  which  he  had  accumulated  to  the  amount  of  £800,000.  No 
woman  of  spirit,  however,  could  long  endure  such  an  utterly  vic- 
ious character  as  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  soon  after  the  birth  of 
a  daughter,  the  two  had  permanently  separated.  The  public, 
for  the  most  part,  took  the  queen's  side,  and  the  unsuccessful 
efforts  of  the  king  to  blacken  her  reputation  sufficiently  to 
induce  parliament  to  grant  him  a  divorce,  added  not  a  little  to  the 
increasing  burden  of  his  unpopularity.  She  died  soon  after  the 
coronation  in  which  her  husband  had  denied  her  a  part,  wearied 
and  broken  by  the  struggle  to  secure  a  recognition  that  was 
rightfully  hers.  The  king  at  the  time  was  on  a  royal  exhibition 
tour  to  Dublin.  When  he  heard  that  death  had  been  kinder  to 
him  than  his  parliament,  in  his  delight  he  got  roaring  drunk  on 
"goose  pie  and  whiskey;"  when  he  arrived  at  Dublin  he  had  to  be 
helped  to  his  lodgings. 

George  had  other  evidences  of  the  unpopularity  of  himself  and 
his  Tory  ministry,  even    more  disquieting    than  the  mourning 

multitude  that  followed  his  dishonored  wife  to  her 
the  govern-     grave.     He  had  hardly  begun  his  reign  when  Sidmouth 

unearthed  a  plot  to  murder  the  whole  Tory  ministry, 
fire  the  barracks,  and  raid  the  Bank  and  the  Tower.  Some  six  of 
the  leaders  were  tried  and  executed  in  February.  In  April 
another  radical  plot  was  also  foiled  at  Glasgow,  where  the  revo- 
lutionists were  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands,  and  blood  was  shed. 
These  affairs  proved  to  the  men  who  were  responsible  for  the 
government  the  seriousness  of   the  rumblings  which  they  heard 

beneath  their  feet,  and  satisfied  them  that  they  could 
Ized  ^Toru^^  never  allay  the  prevalent  discontent  by  building  churches 
SJiSS'        ^^  enforcing  the  Six  Acts.     In  1821,  therefore,  some 

important  changes  were  begun  in  the  ministry.  Sid- 
mouth, the  Home  Secretary,  whose  name  had  been  identified  with 
the  Six  Acts,  gave  way  to  Robert  Peel,  the  only  man  among  the  old 
Tories  with  practical  sense  and  clear  intelligence  sufficient  to  grasp 
the  full  meaning  of  present  conditions.  Canning,  who  also  belonged 
to  the  liberal  wing  of  the  Tories  but  had  left  the  ministry  rather 
than  mix  himself  up  with  the  shameful  attack  of  the  king  upon 


1815-1822]  THE    HOLY   ALLIANCE  981 

Queen  Caroline,  was  sought;  but  the  most  that  the  king  would 
give  him  was  the  Governor-Generalship  of  India.  But  fortunately 
just  as  he  was  about  to  start  for  India,  the  suicide  of  Castlereagh, 
now  Lord  Londonderry,  the  old  manager  of  the  Commons,  forced 
the  king  to  turn  to  the  only  other  Tory  who  could  manage  the 
House,  and  Canning  once  more  entered  the  ministry  as  Secretary 
for  Foreign  Affairs  and  leader  of  the  Commons.  Huskisson 
became  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade;  Frederick  Robinson, 
known  as  *' Prosperity  Robinson,"  because,  of  his  policy  of  always 
talking  up  prosperity,  became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ;  and 
Henry  Temple,  better  known  as  Lord  Palmerston,  became  Secre- 
tary at  War.  Liverpool  remained  nominally  Prime  Minister;  but 
he  was  entirely  overshadowed  by  the  influence  of  Canning,  whose 
liberal  tendencies  not  only  gave  him  the  support  of  those  Tories 
who  still  called  Pitt  their  leader,  but  also  of  the  moderate  Whigs, 
with  whom  in  all  questions  except  the  one  of  parliamentary  reform, 
Canning  virtually  stood  upon  common  ground.  These  changes  in 
the  ministry  gave  the  Liverpool  administration  and  the  Tory  party 
a  new  lease  of  life,  and  under  the  wise  leadership  of  Canning,  Peel, 
and  Huskisson,  entirely  reversed  the  older  reactionary  policy  of 
Liverpool,  abroad  withdrawing  England  from  the  support  of  the 
repressive  policy  which  the  powers  had  formally  adopted,  at  home 
reopening  the  question  of  Catholic  Emancipation,  freeing  trade 
from  the  foolish  restrictions  which  class  interests  had  thrown 
around  it,  and  completely  reforming  the  whole  spirit  of  English 
criminal  law. 

After  the  second  fall  of  Napoleon  the  work  of  the  Congress  of 

Vienna  was  resumed  at  Paris,  and  Europe  was  finally  adjusted  to 

the  new  conditions.     Italy  was  turned  over  to  its  petty 

and  the  Holy  despots ;  Milan  and  Venice  were  sriven  to  Austria  whose 

A.llia/nce. 

help  was  necessary  to  keep  the  newly  restored  crowns 
upon  the  unsteady  heads  of  the  Italian  monarchs.  In  GermLiny, 
also,  some  important  changes  were  made,  although  it  was  not 
possible  to  restore  the  old  empire  or  the  medieval  institutions 
which  Napoleon  had  swept  away.  Hanover  was  given  back  to  the 
English  king;  and  Prussia  in  compensation,  was  allowed  to  extend 
in  the  region  of  the  lower  Rhine.     The  German  States  were  united 


982  THE   FIRST   ERA    OF   REFORM  [GEOBaE  IV. 

into  a  loose  confederation  which  included  both  Prussia  and  Aus- 
tria with  a  capital  at  Frankfurt.  The  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw 
was  assigned  to  the  Czar  under  the  promise  of  a  constitution. 
Holland  and  Belgium  were  united  into  the  kingdom  of  the  Nether- 
lands with  the  Prince  of  Orange  for  king.  Subsequently  the  sover- 
eigns of  Eussia,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  had  invited  the  other  princes 
of  Europe  to  join  them  in  the  famous  *'Holy  Alliance"  for  the  pur- 
pose of  exercising  a  sort  of  protectorate  over  the  domestic  affairs 
of  the  weaker  states  and  assuriag  the  recognition  of  "Christian 
principles"  in  the  government  of  Europe.  But  unfortunately, 
with  Metternich,  the  reactionary  minister  of  Austria,  for  high 
priest,  the  new  princely  cult  under  the  specious  cant  of  enforcing 
Christian  principles  had  become  simply  a  league  of  the  despotic 
governments  of  Europe  against  the  liberal  tendencies  of  the  new 
nationalism  which  had  been  born  of  the  Napoleonic  Wars.  Cas- 
tlereagh  had  refused  to  enter  the  Alliance,  but  assured  Metternich 
and  Nesselrode,  the  Kussian  minister,  that  England  would  not 
interfere  with  them  in  carrying  oat  its  purpose. 

When  Canning  became  Foreign  Secretary  the  Holy  Alliance 
had  been  working  its  will  in  Europe,  unchecked  for  seven  years. 
Fortified  by  the  specious  maxim,  that  with  those  "whom 
Canning  and  God  had  rendered  responsible  for  power"  lay  the  sole 
Alliance.  right  of  making  changes  in  the  legislation  or  adminis- 
tration of  states,  the  leaguing  powers  had  not  only 
stamped  out  any  reappearance  of  liberalism  in  their  own  domin- 
ions, but  had  dispatched  armies  to  overthrow  the  newly  established 
constitutions  of  Italy  and  Spain,  and  were  seriously  meditating 
an  interference  in  Portugal,  which  had  imitated  the  example  of 
Spain  in  adopting  a  free  constitution,  and  in  the  Spanish- Ameri- 
can colonies,  where  the  people  had  taken  advantage  of  the  dis- 
tractions of  the  mother  country  to  declare  their  independence. 
Canning  at  once  set  his  face  against  the  further  recognition  of  the 
dangerous  doctrine  of  the  right  of  any  prince  or  group  of  princes 
to  interfere  in  the  domestic  concerns  of  an  independent  people. 
The  mischief  in  Italy  was  already  done -^  but  he  commissioned 
Wellington  to  protest  at  the  Congress  of  Verona  against  any 
further  interference  of  the  powers  in  Spain,  and  when  his  protest 


1821-1829]  THE   GREEK   REVOLT  983 

was    ignored,  he  proceeded  to   recognize  the  Spanish-American 
Republics. 

The  death  of  John  VI.,  the  constitutional  king  of  Portugal,  gave 

Canning  the  opportunity  of  interfering  still  more  vigorously  with 

the  plans  of  the  Holy  Alliance.     Don  Pedro,  the  eldest 

UrfS^es^iiT'    ^^^  ^^  John  and  heir  to  the  vacant  throne,  had  put 

pmugai,       himself  at  the  head  of  a  successful  movement  for  estab- 

laao. 

lishing  the  independence  of  Brazil,  and  having  no  vvish 
to  give  up  his  American  empire,  he  assigned  the  Portuguese 
crown  to  his  seven  year  old  daughter  under  the  regency  of  his 
sister  Isabella.  Don  Miguel,  however,  a  second  son  of  the  recent 
king,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  restored  absolutist  prince  of 
Spain,  began  a  struggle  for  the  overthrow  of  the  liberal  govern- 
ment in  his  own  interests.  On  Friday,  the  18th  of  December,  news 
reached  Canning  of  the  new  turn  of  affairs  in  Portugal;  and  on 
Tuesday  following,  *'the  troops  of  England  were  on  their  march  for 
embarkation."  As  a  result  of  this  vigorous  show  of  teeth  the 
Spaniards  withdrew,  and  the  liberal  government  of  Portugal  for 
the  time  was  saved. 

The  almost  contemporary  uprising  of  Greece  against  Turkish 
despotism  afforded  Canning  still  another  opportunity  of  putting 

his  new  foreign  policy  in  force.  In  Italy  and  Spain  the 
The  Greek  object  of  popular  uprisings  had  been  constitutional 
Revolt,  1821-29.  reform ;  but  in  Greece,  as  in  South  America,  the  object 

had  been  national  independence.  Greece,  moreover,  in 
a  peculiar  way  appealed  to  the  romantic  sentiment  of  Europe ;  her 
struggle  recalled  that  other  heroic  struggle  of  the  ancient  days 
when  Greece  stood  almost  alone  as  the  outer  bulwark  of  Europe 
against  Asiatic  conquest.  The  Greeks,  also,  were  a  Christian 
people;  the  Turkish  rule  was  notoriously  corrupt  and  cruel.  The 
contest,  moreover,  was  pitifully  unequal ;  the  Greeks  were  poor, 
without  organization,  without  arms,  and  without  a  navy.  The 
peculiar  formation  of  their  country,  the  deep  indentations  from 
the  sea,  the  narrow  isthmus  and  the  many  islands,  afforded 
Turkey  every  possible  opportunity  to  use  her  ships  to  the  best 
advantage  and  concentrate  her  troops  at  will,  while  it  prevented  any 
concerted  action  on  the  part  of  the  many  fragments  of  the  Greek 


984  THE    FIKST    ERA    OF    REFORM  [george  IV. 

people.  In  their  despair  the  Greeks  appealed  to  Czar  Alexander, 
whose  support  they  might  expect  by  reason  of  the  religious  sym- 
pathy of  the  Eussians  as  fellow  members  of  the  Greek  Church. 
But  Alexander  was  too  deeply  committed  to  the  cause  of  reaction- 
ary despotism,  to  heed  the  cry  of  his  suffering  co-religionists,  and 
in  heartless  words  that  were  inspired  by  Metternich,  replied, 
"The  sovereigns  are  determined  to  discountenance  rebellion, 
however  and  whenever  it  shows  itself."  It  was  impossible,  how- 
ever, to  stifle  the  generous  sentiment  of  the  people  of  Europe. 
Greek  unions  were  formed;  money  was  freely  contributed  to  the 
support  of  the  patriots,  and  individuals  hastened  to  offer  their 
lives  and  their  fortunes  to  the  cause  of  Greek  freedom.  Among 
these  was  the  wayward  poet,  George  Gordon  Byron,  who  forsook  a 
vicious  and  useless  life  in  Italy  to  die  a  hero's  death  among  the 
fever  stricken  swamps  of  Missolonghi.  Thomas  Cochrane,  the 
soldier  of  fortune  who  had  retired  from  defeat  and  disgrace  at 
home  to  take  part  in  the  Spanish- American  wars,  also  went  to 
Greece  to  assist  her  in  organizing  her  infant  navy.  The  English 
government  displayed  its  sympathy  by  recognizing  the  Greeks  as 
belligerents. 

The  death  of  Alexander  in  1825  and  the  succession  of  his 

brother  Nicholas  T.  put  a  new  aspect  on  the  relations  of  the  powers 

to  the  affairs  of  Greece.     Nicholas,  who  had  little  sym- 

ofthepow-      pathy  with  his  brother's  idea  of  government  by  '*Chris- 

Treatyof       tian  principles,"  and  who  saw  the  possible  advantage 

London,  1827.      ^  ,         .  „t^        .         .    n  •  .^         . 

of  an  extension  of  Kussian  influence  in  southeastern 
Europe  at  the  expense  of  Turkey,  eagerly  accepted  Canning's 
offer  to  unite  in  a  joint  demand  upon  Turkey  in  order  to  force 
her  to  accept  mediation.  The  Sultan,  however,  while  willing  to  put 
off  the  powers  by  vague  promises,  had  no  thought  of  stopping  the 
progress  of  his  lieutenant,  the  Egyptian  prince  Ibrahim  Pasha, 
who  was  engaged,  not  in  conquering,  but  in  exterminating  the  popu- 
lation of  the  Morea.  The  powers  saw  that  if  Greece  were  to  be 
saved,  something  more  serious  than  an  offer  of  mediation  must  be 
attempted,  and  on  July  6,  1827,  England,  Russia,  and  France 
entered  into  the  Treaty  of  London  by  which  they  agreed  to  insist 
upon  an  armistice  and  intervene  by  force  if  necessary.     A  powerful 


1828]  cannikg's  policy  985 

allied  fleet  under  the  command  of  the  English  Admiral  Codrington 

was  sent  to  the  coast  of  Messinia,  with  the  curious  instructions 

to  enforce  an  armistice  by  cannon  shot  but  "not  in   a  hostile 

spirit."     Codrington  persuaded  Ibrahim  to  agree  to  a  truce  for 

twenty  days,  but  it  was  not  so  easy  to  control  the  wild  spirits 

which  the  war  of  extermination  had  unchained.     Cochrane  and 

his  band  of  Greek  patriots  paid  little  attention  to  the  armistice, 

and  when  Ibrahim  heard  of  the  fall  of  Patras  he  once  more  let 

loose  his  savage  Egyptians  upon  the  Peloponnesus.     Codrington 

acted  promptly,  and  on  the  20th  of  October  sailed  into  the  Bay  of 

Navarino,   where    lay  the    combined    Turkish-Egyptian  fleet  of 

** sixty  men  of  war,"  carrying  twice  the  armament  of  the  allied 

squadron.      An  accident  brought  on  a  general  action   and   the 

Turkish  fleet   was  annihilated.      The   overwhelming   success   of 

Codrington,  however,  the  unexpected  thoroughness  of  his  work,  was 

hardly  regarded  by  the  western   powers  with  satisfaction.     The 

English   ministry,  weakened   by   the   recent   death   of   Canning, 

seemed  appalled  at  the  results  of  its  friendly  intentions,  and  the 

king  by  the  inspiration  of  Wellington,  the  new  premier,  spoke  of 

Navarino  as  *'a  most  untoward  event."     England,  in  fact,  had  at 

last  awakened  to  the  possible  results  of  the  growth  of  Kussian 

influence   in   the  eastern  Mediterranean,  and  the  ministers  were 

inclined  to  forget  the  justice  of  the  cause  of  the  Greeks,  in  a  rising 

suspicion  of  the  ulterior  motives  of  Nicholas.     England  and  France, 

therefore,  refused  to  interfere  further,  but  Eussia  had  no  thought  of 

retiring  from  the  conflict.     In  August   1829  she  dispatched  her 

first  army  across  the  Balkans,  and  in  September,  in  the  Treaty 

of  Adrianople,  compelled  Turkey  to  grant   the   independence  of 

Greece. 

The    battle   of    Navarino  was    fought  on  October   20,  1828. 

Canning  had  died  on  August  8.     His  work,  however,  was  done. 

He   had   protected   and   fostered  the   rising  spirit  of 
Results  of  ^.       ^.  ^  ^.  ,.        ,       _^,^  1^ 

Canning's      nationalism  on  the  continent.     He  had  saved  Europe 

from  the  reactionary  influence  of  the  Holy  Alliance, 

which  at  one  time  had  included  every  Christian  power  in  Europe 

except   Great  Britain  and   the   pope.      He   had   restored   Great 

Britain  to  her  old  controlling  position  in  European  politics.     His 


986  THE    FIRST    ERA    OF   REFORM  [george  iv. 

motives  were  undoubtedly  inspired  by  English  interests,  as  when 
by  coming  to  the  support  of  the  United  States  in  upholding 
the  Monroe  Doctrine,  he  effectually  checked  the  designs  of  the 
Holy  Alliance,  of  Kussia  in  particular,  upon  the  new  world.  Yet 
whatever  his  motive,  the  results  were  sound  and  lasting ;  the  open 
door  was  not  to  be  again  closed  to  Europe. 

While  Canning  had  been  upholding  the  cause  of  liberal  ideas 
abroad,  his  liberal  Tory  colleagues  were  steadily  pushing  forward 

the  cause  of  conservative  reform  at  home,  doing  all 
Theiiherai  that  Tories  could  do  to  cure  the  industrial  and  social 
^trnt^rT^^'  ills  of  the  era,  and  still  remain  Tories.     Peel,  the  able 

Home  Secretary,  would  not  support  Canning  in  his 
desire  to  secure  Catholic  Emancipation ;  yet  by  moderate  admin- 
istration and  sensible  economic  reforms,  he  did  much  to  allay 
the  existing  irritation  and  prepare  the  way  for  a  better  understand- 
ing, especially  between  the  middle  and  lower  classes.  His  influence 
was  particularly  felt  in  the  reformation  of  the  criminal  laws  of 
England,  in  which  he  abolished  barbarous  punishments  and  limited 
the  death  penalty  to  serious  offenses.  Eobinson,  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  and  Huskisson,  the  farsighted  President  of 
the  Board  of  Trade,  were  moving  forward  in  the  direction  of 
greater  freedom  of  labor  and  trade.  The  incessant  irritation 
which  the  progress  of  industrial  revolution  had  caused  between 
capital  and  labor,  had  led  to  the  enactment  of  many  unjust  laws, 
by  which  combinations  of  workingmen  had  been  forbidden  and 
the  migration  of  the  laborer  to  seek  work  or  better  wages  ham- 
pered. In  1824  many  of  these  laws  were  repealed.  In  1825  the 
right  of  labor  to  organize  in  self-defense  was  recognized  in  a  law 
which  attempted  to  distinguish  between  legal  and  illegal  com- 
binations. Huskisson  in  particular  was  seeking  to  realize  Pitt's 
dream  of  a  free  commercial  policy  for  England.  In  1823  he  got 
through  his  **Eeciprocity  of  Duties  Bill"  by  which  equality  of 
trade  was  offered  to  the  ships  of  all  nations  who  would  grant  the 
same  to  Great  Britain.  The  act  greatly  lessened  the  restraining 
influence  of  the  old  Navigation  Acts,  which  were  still  in  force,  and 
opened  the  way  for  a  wider  application  of  the  doctrine  of  free 
trade. 


1823-1827]  END   OF  LIVERPOOL  MINISTRY  987 

The  liberal  sympathies  of  the  later  Liverpool  ministry  are  also 

to  be  seen  in  its  attitude  toward  the  old  question  of  slavery.     Men 

began  to  see  that  economically  slavery  was  a  mistake. 

The  Liver-      In  1823  an  attempt  was  made  to  prevent  the  floffginff 

pooi  miniHtm  do     o 

and  shivery,    of   women.     The  West  Indian  planters  protested  and 

talked  wildly  of  independence.  Riots  followed  in 
Barbadoes  and  other  places.  John  Smith,  a  Congregational  mis- 
sionary and  a  friend  of  the  negroes,  was  imprisoned  and  left  to  die 
in  jail;  the  planters  sent  home  a  petition  that  no  new  missionaries 
be  sent  out,  and  protested  against  any  attempt  to  educate  the 
negroes.  The  result  of  the  agitation  was  greatly  to  increase  aboli- 
tion sentiment  in  England;  it  gave  a  new  life  to  the  movement  that 
lesulted  ten  years  later  in  the  abolition  of  slavery  throughout  the 
colonies  of  the  British  Empire. 

The  years  1824  and  1825  saw  a  great  revival  of  prosperity.    But 
unfortunately  the  hopefulness  of   trade  soon   outran   discretion. 

Overeager  investors  rushed  into  speculations  which  con- 
^mercia     (ji^iQjjg  ^\^  j^q^  justify,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the 

crash  came.  Many  banks  failed,  and  the  renewed  dis- 
tress of  the  poor  brought  on  another  series  of  riots  and  attempts  at 
breaking  up  the  machinery  of  which  the  laboring  classes  were  ever 
jealous.  The  harvest  of  1826,  also,  proved  to  be  a  failure,  and 
added  greatly  to  the  distress  of  the  poor,  in  so  much  that  the  gov- 
ernment seriously  contemplated  the  suspension  of  the  corn  laws. 

In  February  1827  ill  health  had  compelled  Liverpool  to  retire, 
and  Canning  had  continued  the  administration  ''on  the  lines  of 

enlightened  Toryism"  until  his  own  death  in  the  fol- 

(jcififiino 

Ooderich, and  lowing  Auffust.     The  kiuff  then  first  tried  "Prosperity 

Wellington,      ^   ..  ^         ,?  T^r^i-i.        i.  -i  i_i 

Prime  Kobinson,'    now  Lord  Goderich,  whose  nicknames  had 

apparently  kept  pace  with  his  titles,  and  who  was  now 
known  as  "Goody  Goderich."  Goderich,  however,  was  a  weak 
man  and  proved  utterly  unable  to  manage  the  conflicting  elements 
of  his  cabinet.  In  January  the  king  turned  to  a  very  different 
man,  and  invited  Wellington  to  form  a  ministry.  Wellington  and 
Peel  had  broken  with  Canning  upon  the  question  of  Catholic 
Emancipation,  but  the  new  ministry  could  not  do  without  the 
support  of  the  Canning  Tories.     Canning's  old  friends,  therefore, 


988  THE    FIRST    ERA    OF    REFORM  [georgk  IV. 

Huskisson,  Palmerston,  Grant,  and  Lamb,  remained  in  possession 
of  their  offices,  and  the  question  of  Catholic  Emancipation  was 
left  open  for  each  minister  to  consider  as  he  saw  fit. 

The  new  ministry  thus  started  out  tacitly  committed  to  the 
liberal  policy  of  Canning.  But  Wellington  had  really  little  sym- 
pathy with  Canning's  position  and  had  no  idea  of 
Spiiiinthe  dropping  into  the  place  of  nonentity  that  Liverpool 
1828.  '  had  held  so  long.  When,  therefore,  Huskisson  made 
the  statement  at  Liverpool  that  "he  had  positive 
pledges  that  His  Grace  would  tread  in  all  respects  in  the  footsteps 
of  Mr.  Canning,"  the  duke  angrily  resented  the  assumption  of  his 
subordinate  to  outline  his  policy  for  him.  The  opening  breach  in 
the  Tory  ranks  was  still  further  aided  in  February  by  the  success- 
ful attempt  of  Lord  John  Eussell  to  push  through  the  Commons  a 
proposal  to  repeal  the  old  Test  and  Corporation  Acts.  The  Can- 
ningites  voted  against  their  colleagues,  and  Peel  saved  the  minis- 
try only  by  bringing  forward  as  a  compromise,  a  modified  form  of 
the  Test  Act,  which  prescribed  instead  of  the  old  test,  a  simple 
declaration  in  which  the  maker  promised  ''on  the  faith  of  a  Chris- 
tian, never  to  injure  or  subvert  the  Established  Church."  The 
principle  implied  in  the  repeal  was  thus  recognized;  and  Dissen- 
ters, after  a  struggle  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  were  at  last 
accorded  the  legal  right  to  hold  civil  office. 

The  Tory  ministry  had  been  saved  by  the  tact  of  Peel,  but  even 
his  ingenuity  could  not  devise  compromises  enough  to  hold  such 
ill-assorted  elements  together  when  they  met  the  grand 
tSry^B^m  ^^^^  ^^  Parliamentary  Keform.  The  general  election 
of  1826  had  been  marked  by  shamefully  corrupt 
methods,  the  most  flagrant  offenders  being  the  boroughs  of 
Penryn  and  East  Retford.  In  the  latter  each  elector  was  accus- 
tomed to  receive  forty  guineas,  besides  having  free  access  ''for 
refreshment"  to  public  houses  kept  open  by  the  candidates.  At 
Penryn  the  candidates  had  attempted  to  abate  the  nuisance  by 
directing  "the  town  crier  to  declare  that  the  practice  previously 
resorted  to  of  making  the  electors  'comfortable'  would  be  discon- 
tinued." But  the  electors  became  sulky  and  refused  to  vote  at 
all,  unless  they  could  have  their  accustomed  "comforts."     The 


1827-1829]  CATHOLIC   EMANCIPATION  989 

liberals  in  parliament  took  the  matter  up,  and  in  1827  and  1828 
bills  were  presented  which  proposed  to  disfranchise  East  Retford 
and  Penryn  altogether  and  give  their  seats  to  Manchester  and 
Birmingham.  The  Penryn  Bill  passed  the  Commons  but  was 
thrown  out  by  the  Lords.  On  the  East  Retford  Bill  the  Can- 
ningites  took  a  determined  stand  against  Wellington  and  Peel, 
and  Huskisson  at  once  put  his  resignation  in  the  hands  of  his 
chief.  His  friends,  Palmerston,  Lamb,  Grant,  and  Dudley,  fol- 
lowed him.  Wellington  was  thus  left  alone  with  Peel  to  organize 
his  ministry  upon  purely  high  Tory  lines. 

Wellington  was  now  supreme  in  his  ministry  and  he  ruled  it 
as  he  had  ruled  his  aides  on  the  battlefield.  "The  duke  is  king  of 
England,"  declared  George  IV.  But  supreme  as  the 
Catholic  duke  might  be  at  his  Council  Board,  he  could  not  control 
tionS?'  the  elements  of  reform  that  were  gathering  without. 
The  Act  of  Lord  Russell,  which  had  relieved  Dissenters 
from  the  annoyance  of  the  Test  Act,  naturally  suggested  the 
relief  of  the  other  wing  of  the  Christian  community,  who  since 
the  days  of  the  early  Stuarts  had  suffered  under  still  more  grievous 
laws  ;  and  in  May,  Francis  Burdett  offered  a  measure  for  the 
relief  of  Catholics.  The  bill  succeeded  in  the  Commons,  but 
failed  in  the  Lords.  It  was  impossible,  however,  to  let  the  matter 
rest  here.  In  1823  Daniel  0' Council  had  organized  the  "Catholic 
Association"  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  Emancipation  of 
Catholic  Ireland.  In  1825  the  association  had  been  suppressed. 
O'Connell,  however,  had  managed  to  hold  the  members  together, 
and  when,  three  years  later,  the  prohibition  was  removed,  the 
influence  of  the  association  became  stronger  than  ever,  and 
O'Connell  seized  the  first  opportunity  of  showing  the  government  its 
strength.  In  1828  Fitzgerald,  a  member  from  County  Clare,  was 
appointed  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  in  accordance  with 
the  law,  had  to  vacate  his  seat  and  stand  again  for  reelection. 
O'Connell,  however,  chose  to  stand  for  the  vacant  seat  and  was 
returned  by  a  triumphant  majority.  But  O'Connell  was  a 
Catholic  and  could  not  legally  sit  in  parliament.  Here  then  was 
a  serious  issue  presented,  and  the  government  had  to  choose 
between  putting  Ireland  under  martial  law  or  removing  the  cause 


990  THE    FIRST    ERA    OF   REFORM  [v/illiam  IV. 

of  discontent.  With  the  growing  popularity  of  the  idea  of  Catho- 
lic Emancipation  in  England,  with  Whigs  and  Canningites  united 
to  support  it,  Wellington  and  Peel  determined  to  make  a  virtue 
of  necessity  and  lead  their  party  in  undertaking  the  necessary 
reform.  As  the  measure  came  from  the  hands  of  Peel  it  substi- 
tuted for  the  old  oaths  of  supremacy,  allegiance,  and  abjuration, 
a  new  form,  which  a  Catholic  might  take  without  doing  violence 
to  his  conscience,  admitting  him  to  membership  in  corporations, 
and  to  all  political  offices  except  those  of  Regent,  Lord  Chancellor 
in  England  or  Ireland,  and  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  As  a 
conservative  safe  guard  the'  qualification  of  an  elector  in  Ireland 
was  raised  from  forty  shillings  to  ten  pounds.  The  bill  readily 
passed  the  Commons,  but  was  carried  through  the  Lords  only  by 
the  influence  of  Wellington.^ 

Wellington  was  now  to  suffer  the  fate  of  a  leader  who  in  drift- 
ing from  old  party  moorings  severs  himself  from  old  friends  but 

does  not  go  far  enough  to  win  new  friends.  The  high 
Fall  of  the  Tories  could  not  forgive  him  for  his  support  of  Catho- 
ministnj-  ^     ^^^  Emancipation ;  the  Canningites  were  offended  by  his 

treatment  of  Huskisson,  and  the  Whigs  disliked  his 
reversal  of  Canning's  foreign  policy  in  allowing  Don  Miguel  to 
a(5complish  his  scheme  of  usurpation  in  Portugal.  The  death  of 
George  IV.  in  June  1830  and  the  succession  of  his  popular 
brother,  as  William  IV.,  whose  democratic  sympathies  were  well 
known,  also  encouraged  the  gathering  forces  of  reform.  In  July 
Charles  X.,  the  last  of  the  Bourbons,  was  driven  from  France,  and 
a  liberal  government  instituted  in  the  name  of  the  constitutional 
king,  Louis  Philippe.  The  orderliness  and  moderation  of  the  new 
French  revolution,  in  snch  marked  contrast  with  the  wild  excesses 
of  the  first  revolution,  did  much  to  disarm  the  suspicions  of  the 
conservative  classes  of  reformatory  measures,  while  the  distress  of 
the  poorer  classes  of  the  great  manufacturing  districts  called 
renewed  attention  to  the  inconsistencies  of  the  English  representa- 
tive system.  When,  therefore,  in  the  autumn  of  1830,  at  the 
opening  of  the  first  parliament  of  William  IV.,  in  response  to  a 
motion  of  Lord  Grey,  Wellington  reasserted   his   opposition   to 

*  Lee  Source  Book,  pp.  497-513. 


1830]  PARLIAMENTARY    REFORM  991 

reform,  and  his  confidence  in  the  existing  legislative  system,  it 
was  understood  that  the  fall  of  the  Wellington  ministry  was  at 
hand.  Before  the  end  of  the  following  month  the  resignations 
were  received. 

Lord  Charles  Grey,  the  veteran  Whig  champion  of  parliamen- 
tary reform,  who  had  presented  his  first  reform  measure  thirty- 
seven  years  before,  was  summoned  to  form  a  ministry. 
uirurS^m  Huskisson  had  been  recently  killed  in  an  accident  at  the 
Hom^f^im  ^V^^^^S  ^^  t^^^  Manchester  and  Liverpool  railway,  but 
the  other  Canning! tes,  Goderich,  Palmerston,  and 
Lamb,  now  Viscount  Melbourne,  were  invited  to  places  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  while  the  Whigs  were  represented  by  Althorp,  Rus- 
sell, and  Brougham.  The  ministry,  therefore,  to  all  intents  was 
not  only  a  W^hig  ministry,  but  was  pledged  to  the  cause  of  parlia- 
mentary reform,  and  Russell  was  instructed  at  once  to  prepare  a 
sketch  for  a  proper  bill.  On  March  1,  1831  the  bill  was  presented 
to  parliament;  it  was  supported,  as  Grey  declared,  by  '*the  unani- 
mous consent  of  the  whole  government."  It  proposed  to  disfran- 
chise sixty  English  boroughs,  deprive  forty-seven  others  of  one 
member  each,  and  distribute  among  the  larger  towns  and  counties 
the  seats  that  should  be  gained  .  It  proposed,  also,  to  allow  hold- 
ers of  houses  of  £10  a  year  rental  value  to  elect  to  parliament 
in  place  of  the  corporations  which  had  heretofore  enjoyed  the 
exclusive  franchise  in  most  English  towns.  Comprehensive^as  the 
bill  was,  however,  it  did  not  satisfy  the  extreme  radicals  who  were 
already  raising  a  cry  for  manhood  suffrage;  the  Tories  received 
it  with  shouts  of  derision.  On  the  21st  of  March,  in  a  House  in 
which  603  members  voted,  the  bill  was  saved  on  the  second  read- 
ing by  one  vote,  only  to  be  lost  in  the  committee.  The  ministry, 
however,  was  strong  in  the  support  of  the  good  natured,  simple- 
hearted,  and  affable  king,  who  was  deeply  touched  by  the  suffer- 
ings of  his  people  and  really  wanted  to  have  something  done. 
It  was  strong,  also,  in  the  support  of  the  counties  and  of  those 
boroughs  where  the  more  democratic  franchise  prevailed.  The 
opposition  was  naturally  entrenched  in  the  rotten  boroughs  which 
were  fighting  for  life;  some  of  which,  as  Old  Sarum  or  Gatton, 
had  lost  their  ancient  population  altogether,  yet   continued  to 


992  THE   FIRST    ERA    OF    REFORM  [william  iv. 

send  representatives  to  parliament.  The  ministry  determined  to 
appeal  to  the  country,  and  on  April  22  the  king  prorogued  parlia- 
ment as  the  first  step  towards  dissolution. 

As  the  ministry  had  foreseen  it  swept  the  counties  and  larger 
boroughs ;  a  second  bill  was  speedily  brought  forward,  and  in  spite 
of  long  and  tedious  tactics  of  delay  on  the  part  of  the 
^^rSorm  t)pposition,  passcd  the  Commons  by  a  vote  of  three 
Lords^Vsi  ^^^nd^^d  and  forty- five  to  two  hundred  and  thirty-six. 
The  attitude  of  the  Lords  was  still  doubtful ;  their  con- 
servative sympathies,  however,  were  known,  and  to  fortify  the 
popular  cause  sixteen  new  peers  had  been  created  in  hope  of 
diminishing  the  hostile  majority.  The  bishops,  however,  almost 
to  a  man  were  opposed  to  any  change  in  the  existing  order,  and 
when  the  vote  was  taken,  of  the  forty-one  votes  of  the  hostile 
majority,  twenty-one  were  from  the  church. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  agitation  of  the  public  had  continued  to 
increase  in  extent  and  violence.  The  fashion  of  forming  ''Political 
Unions,"  or  societies,  in  which  the  middle  and  lower 
Sin ^  a!r^^'  c^^sses  leagued  for  the  agitation  of  reform,  had  extended 
liamentaiu  ^0  all  the  greater  towns ;  fervid  orators  began  to  talk 
of  using  physical  force,  and  vague  hints  were  thrown 
out  of  the  possibility  of  raising  armies.  At  Birmingham  on 
October  3  the  people  declared  that  they  would  refuse  to  pay  taxes 
if  the  bill  were  thrown  out  by  the  Lords.  In  Bristol  an  infuriated 
mob  attacked  the  carriage  of  the  Tory  Justice  Wetheral,  who  had 
come  to  the  city  to  hold  the  assizes,  and  gave  further  evidence 
of  the  popular  displeasure  by  destroying  the  bishop's  palace,  the 
Custom  House,  and  the  Excise  Office.  The  military  tried  to  dis- 
perse the  mob,  and  in  the  struggle  twelve  people  were  killed  and 
nearly  a  hundred  wounded;  the  commandant,  Colonel  Brereton, 
committed  suicide.  In  November  an  attempt  was  made  to  unite 
the  many  political  unions  by  organizing  at  London  a  "National 
Union"  and  inviting  all  the  individual  unions  to  send  up  deputies. 
But  even  the  Whig  government  now  became  alarmed  and  warned 
the  leaders  to  desist. 

In  December  parliament  resumed  its  sitting;  the  Commons 
at  once   began   upon   a   third   bill,  and   pushed   it    through  the 


1822]  THE   REFORM   BILL   CARRIED  993 

preliminary   stages   before  the    Christmas  holidays.     It   reached 
the  third  reading  on   March  23  and  in  April  appeared    in   the 

Lords.  Here  the  fifi;ht  was  carried  on  with  renewed 
bill  in  me        Ditterncss.      Lord    Grey   fought    for    the   measure    to 

which  he  had  given  his  life,  devoting  to  the  struggle 
all  the  powers  of  that  "lofty  and  animated  eloquence"  of  which 
he  was  such  a  master.  Wellington  on  the  other  hand  rallied 
against  it  all  the  conservative  sympathies  of  the  aristocracy ;  even 
the  king  seemed  to  waver.  Yet  in  the  face  of  the  continued  oppo- 
sition the  courage  of  the  Lords  was  not  equal  to  the  strain,  and  on 
April  14  allowed  the  bill  to  pass  the  second  reading  by  a  majority 
of  nine  votes.  The  victory,  however,  was  not  yet  won.  On  May  7 
Lord  Lyndhurst  proposed  to  postpone  the  disfranchising  of  the 
small  boroughs,  and  carried  his  point  by  a  majority  large  enough 
to  threaten  the  final  success  of  the  bill. 

Beyond  the  walls  of  parliament  the  agitation  increased  with 
each  lengthening  moment  of  suspense.     A  gathering  of  Unions 

was  held  at  Birmingham  in  which  it  was  estimated  that 
miipSseT'  ^^®  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  people  were  present. 
June4%h     "^^^^  ^^^^  concourse  was  wrought  up  to  the  point  of 

violence ;  men  talked  freely  of  the  ultimate  extinction 
of  the  privileged  orders  if  the  bill  should  be  rejected;  and  a 
proposition  to  march  upon  London  was  formally  approved  by 
resolution.  The  ministry,  in  the  meanwhile,  as  a  last  resort 
was  bringing  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  king  to  induce  him  to 
create  enough  new  peers,  about  fifty,  to  swamp  the  opposition  in 
the  Lords.  Before  such  a  step,  which  Wellington  declared  would 
be  tl^  end  of  the  constitution,  the  king  hesitated;  Grey 
promptly  resigned.  The  king  then  turned  to  Wellington  and 
offered  him  the  premiership,  on  condition  that  he  would  undertake 
some  kind  of  reform.  Wellington  gave  his  word,  but  after  a  week 
spent  in  a  futile  effort  to  form  a  ministry,  gave  up  the  task  and 
the  king  was  obliged  once  more  to  return  to  Lord  Grey.  Grey 
again  assumed  office,  but  he  had  first  exacted  from  the  king  a 
written  pledge  to  create  a  sufficient  number  of  new  peers  to  carry 
the  bill.  The  threat,  however,  was  all  that  was  needed;  Welling- 
ton accompanied  by  a  large  body  of  the  peers  withdrew,  and  the 


994  THE   FIRST   ERA    OF    REFORM*  [ William  l v. 

bill  received  the  nominal  assent  of  the  Lords  by  a  vote  of  106 
to  22. 

As  the  Reform  Bill  finally  passed,  fifty-six  boroughs  that  had 
a  population  of  less  than  two  thousand  were  totally  disfranchised; 
thirty-two  boroughs  that  had  a  population  of  less  than 
four  thousand  were  allowed  one  member  each.  One 
hundred  and  forty-three  seats  were  thus  released.  They  were 
redistributed  among  twenty-two  newly  created  boroughs  em- 
powered to  return  two  members  each,  and  twenty-one  to  return 
one  each;  sixty -five  seats  were  divided  among  the  counties,  and 
thirteen  were  left  to  be  assigned  to  Scotland  and  Ireland.  The 
ancient  irregular  borough  franchise  was  displaced  by  a  new  £10 
household  franchise,  but  resident  freemen  who  had  possessed  the 
franchise  before  1831  were  allowed  to  retain  their  votes.  In  the 
counties  the  franchise  was  extended  to  copyholders  and  lease- 
holders, and  to  tenants  at  will  who  paid  a  rental  of  at  least  £50  a 
year.  The  time  to  be  given  to  a  county  election  was  reduced  from 
fifteen  to  two  days ;  borough  elections  were  reduced  to  one  day. 
Bills  were  also  passed  by  which,  of  the  seats  reserved  for  Scotland 
and  Ireland,  Scotland  received  eight  and  Ireland  received  five. 
The  franchise  was  remodelled  in  both  countries  upon  lines  some- 
what similar  to  those  adopted  in  England. 

Thus  another  great  stride  had  been  taken  in  the  progress  of 
representative  government.  The  Revolution  of  1688  had  settled 
Cmstitu-  ^^®  position  of  the  king  in  the  new  constitution,  but  it 
nificanceof  ^^^  ^^^^  parliament  virtually  in  the  hands  of  a  limited 
bill  oligarchy,  independent  of  the  nation  and  out  of  touch 

with  the  great  middle  class.  The  Reform  of  1832  dethroned  the 
oligarchy  and  transferred  the  control  of  parliament  to  the  farmers 
and  shopkeepers.  The  workingmen,  however,  the  great  laboring 
class,  who  had  done  so  much  to  force  the  issue  upon  the  government, 
were  apparently  farther  from  the  goal  than  ever.  Yet  much  had 
been  gained;  the  absurd  inconsistencies  and  inequalities  of  the 
old  borough  system  had  been  swept  away,  and  Englishmen  of  the 
same  social  grade  everywhere  enjoyed  the  same  political  privileges. 
It  was  much,  also,  that  the  right  of  the  great  middle  class  had 
been  formally  recognized.     The  Whigs  protested  that  the  act  was 


1833]  THE    IRISH    TITHE   WAR  995 

final,  that  no  further  approach  towards  a  political  recognition  of 
the  democracy  was  to  be  thought  of;  and  yet  in  the  continued 
spread  of  democratic  ideas,  with  the  majority  of  the  people  of 
Great  Britain  still  disfranchised,  in  the  nature  of  things,  the 
Reform  of  1832  could  not  be  a  finality;  it  could  not  be  more  than 
a  stage  in  the  advance  to  full  manhood  suffrage. 

The  results  of  the  election  of  1832  were  anxiously  awaited  by 
all  parties.     The  new  limit  of  two  days  for  the  county  election 

placed  a  decided  check  on  rioting  and  drunkenness, 
fg^f^^  0/      ajj(j  proved  a  helpful  feature  of  the  Reform  Act.     Some 

"new  men,"  notably  Cobbett,  the  agitator,  and  Gully, 
an  ex-prizefighter,  were  returned;  but  on  the  whole  the  election 
justified  the  extension  of  the  franchise  to  the  middle  classes  in 
spite  of  the  sneer  of  Richard  Grenville  at  what  he  was  pleased  to 
call  ''the  presumption,  impertinence,  and  self  sufficiency  of  the 
new  members." 

The  energy  which  the  Reform  Bill  agitation  had  called  out, 
was  by  no  means  spent,  and  the  ministers  soon  found  themselves 

confronted  with  a  list  of  serious  and  far  reaching  issues 

ISfs'W  issues 

The  Irish  which  their  position  as  reform  leaders  compelled  them 
to  consider.  The  state  of  Ireland  naturally  first 
claimed  attention,  where  a  *'Tithe  War"  had  sprung  up  as  a 
result  of  the  refusal  of  the  Irish  peasantry  to  pay  longer  the  rates 
which  were  prescribed  by  law  for  the  support  of  the  Anglican 
clergy.  The  extreme  destitution  increased  the  difficulty  and  the 
collection  of  tithes  had  become  quite  impossible.  A  ''Coercion 
Act"  was  proposed  and  passed  in  spite  of  O'Connell's  opposition. 
The  act  gave  special  powers  to  the  officers  of  the  law  in  order  to 
repress  the  lawlessness  which  in  parts  of  Ireland  had  created  almost 
a  reign  of  terror.  This  was  followed  by  a  "Church  Bill"  which 
attempted  to  diminish  the  burdens  of  the  people  by  cutting  down 
the  number  of  Irish  bishops  and  reducing  the  incomes  of  the 
remaining;  it  also  held  out  hope  of  the  final  extinction  of  the 
tithe  system. 

The  slavery  question,  demanded  the  attention  of  the  reform 
parliament.  Stanley,  the  chief  secretary  for  Ireland,  whose 
policy  of  "a  quick  succession  of  kicks  and  kindness,"  had  made 


996  THE    FIKST    ERA    OF    KEEOKM  [william  iv. 

him  thoroughly  detested  by  the  Irish  people,  was  transferred 
to  the  Colonial  Office  where  he  found  ample  opportunity  to  exer- 
cise his  fiery  spirit  in  handling  the  slave  question.  He 
ei^vei^^^  came  before  parliament  with  a  proposition  to  redeem 
^^^i  the  slaves  by  paying  their  owners  £20,000,000.  Tlie 
act  was  to  take  effect  April  1,  1834.  The  reform 
parliament  was  strongly  abolitionist ;  and  the  passionate  eloquence 
of  Stanley  in  picturing  the  cruelties  and  injustice  which  charac 
terized  slavery  in  the  colonies,  aided  by  Sir  Thomas  Fowell  Buxton, 
upon  whose  shoulders  had  fallen  the  mantle  of  Wilberforce,  met  a 
ready  response,  and  in  August  1833  the  ** Emancipation  Act" 
became  a  law.  Wilberforce  lived  to  hear  of  the  second  reading 
of  the  bill ;  he  died  July  29. 

The  relief  of  the  black  slave  could  not  fail  to  call  attention  to 
the  sufferings  of  the  white  slaves  at  home,  the  tens  of  thousands 
of  British  children  who  were  toiling  out  their  lives  to 
legislation,  enrich  English  investors.  Some  attempts  at  improving 
the  condition  of  factory  children  had  been  made  in 
1802,  and  again  in  1819.  But  the  act  of  1833,  presented  by 
Lord  Ashley,  known  as  the  ** Third  Factory  Act,"  differed  from  the 
others  in  that  it  applied  to  all  industries,  forbidding  the  employ- 
ment of  children  under  nine  years  of  age  altogether,  and  of  women 
or  of  young  people  under  eighteen,  for  more  than  twelve  hours  a 
day.  Provisions,  also,  were  to  be  made  for  the  education  of 
factory  children. 

Another  measure  introduced  by  the  Grey  ministry  proposed 
changes  in  the  Poor  Laws.  A  commission  of  inquiry  had  been 
appointed  in  1832,  and  its  report,  received  in  1834, 
Law'Imend-  ^"^P^Y  P^^oved  the  urgent  need  of  reform.  An  act  of 
mentAct,"  ^795  j^^d  provided  for  giving  individual  relief  to  the 
poor.  The  laborer's  wages  were  thus  eked  out  by  a 
pittance  from  the  government.  The  greed  of  the  manufacturers, 
however,  soon  found  a  way  to  take  advantage  of  the  charity  of  the 
government  and  by  paying  only  pauper  wages  made  it  impossible 
for  an  independent  worker  to  live  at  all.  The  effect  of  such 
legislation  was  to  encourage  pauperism  and  steadily  increase  the 
burden  to  the  state,  until  in  1833  the  total  cost  of  poor  relief 


1834]  FALL   OF   THE    REFORM   MIJiTISTRY  997 

exceeded  eight  million  pounds,  a  grievous  burden  for  a  population 
of  fourteen  million.  The  new  law  virtually  returned  to  principles 
laid  down  in  Elizabeth's  reign;  it  drew  a  line  between  poverty 
and  pauperism,  and  sought  to  relieve  the  former  without  creating 
the  latter.  Parishes  were  combined  into  unions  with  one  work- 
house, instead  of  several  and  relief  was  given  as  a  rule  only  to  those 
who  were  destitute  and  willing  to  submit  to  the  test  of  going  to 
the  workhouse  for  it.  This  measure  reduced  the  poor  rates  by 
upwards  of  three  million  pounds  in  three  years. 

Meanwhile   the   influence   of  the  Grey  ministry  had  already 
begun  to  wane.      Few    ministries  have  ever  been  more  useful; 

none  have  ever  introduced  so  many  sensible  reforms 
theOrey        in  SO   short   a   time.      It    had    not   only   successfully 

handled  the  question  of  parliamentary  reform,  the  Irish 
question,  the  slavery  question,  the  factory  question,  and  the  Poor 
Laws;  it  had  also  reconstructed  the  Bank  of  England,  and  renewed 
the  East  India  Company's  charter  for  twenty  years,  and  had 
ended  its  commercial  monopoly  by  throwing  the  China  trade  ^  open 
to  all  competitors.  Abroad,  also,  the  policy  of  Palmerston,  the  For- 
eign Secretary,  had  been  quite  as  successful.  The  reforms,  however, 
which  the  ministry  had  inaugurated  at  home  had  been  too  heroic; 
they  had  followed  each  other  with  such  bewildering  rapidity, 
that  public  opinion  began  to  take  alarm  and  the  conservative 
elements  gathered  new  strength.  Grey,  moreover,  had  a  feeling 
that  his  work  was  done;  he  was  weary  of  ofifice,  and  in  July  1834 
formally  tendered  his  resignation.  The  king  turned  to  Peel ;  but 
Peel  was  sufficiently  shrewd  to  see  that  the  Tories  were  not  yet 
strong  enough  to  support  him,  and  the  Grey  ministry  was  allowed 
to  remain  with  AYilliam  Lamb,  Viscount  Melbourne,  as  Premier. 
The  arrangement,  however,  could  only  be  temporary ;  the  Whigs 
were  breaking  up  into  as  many  factions  as  there  were  new  ideas  to 
be  exploited  in  the  heads  of  the  various  leaders.  And  when  in 
November  Althorp  resigned  to  take  the  place  opened  to  him  in 
the  House  of  Lords  by  the  death  of  his  father.  Earl  Spencer,  the 
king  determined  to  dismiss  the  Whig  ministry  altogether,  and 
turned  again  to  Robert  Peel. 

^  The  Indian  trade  had  been  thrown  open  in  1813. 


^8  THE    FIEST   EEA    OF    REFOKM  [william  IV. 

The  first  measure  of  the  new  minister  was  to  secure  the  dis- 
missal of  the  reform  parliament,  in  order  to  gain  for  his  adminis- 
tration the  advantage  of  the  rising  reactionary  sympa- 
ministry,  thies  of  the  nation.  In  the  "Tamworth  Manifesto," 
he  announced  as  his  policy,  conservative  reform.  The 
manifesto  was  greeted  with  general  satisfaction,  and  there  were 
some  gains  in  the  counties,  bnt  when  the  new  parliament  met  in 
February  1835,  it  was  evident  that  Peel  was  still  confronted  by 
a  determined  majority.  The  Liberals,  moreover,  whether  Whigs, 
or  Eadicals,  were  angry  at  the  dismissal  of  the  Melbourne  min- 
istry; they  regarded  the  act  as  arbitrary  and  without  justifica- 
tion. The  leaders  entered  into  a  formal  compact  at  the  house 
of  Lord  Lichfield  to  avenge  themselves  for  the  affront,  and 
steadily  defeated  every  reform  measure  which  Peel  introduced. 
With  such  an  opposition,  the  speedy  overthrow  of  Peel  was  a 
foregone  conclusion.  The  day  had  gone  by  when  a  minister  could 
hope  to  maintain  himself  in  the  face  of  a  determined  majority 
simply  because  he  was  the  king's  choice.  After  a  brave  fight  of 
six  weeks  Peel  gave  up  the  struggle  and  resigned. 

The  defeat  of  Peel  and  the  refusal  of  Grey  to  form  a  ministry 

forced  on  William  the  bitter  necessity  of  recalling  Melbourne  to 

office,  with  Palmerston  as   Foreign  Secretary  and  Rus- 

Meibourne's    gg^}  ^s  Home  Secretary  and  leader  of  the  Commons. 

second  mm-  *' 

Mry,i835-  As  SO  Organized  the  ministry  was  not  strong;  and  yet 
it  worthily  addressed  itself  to  the  work  of  completing 
the  cycle  of  reforms  which  has  made  the  reign  of  William  IV. 
famous,  but  with  which  AYilliam  himself  had  so  little  to  do.  The  act 
of  1832  had  left  the  corporations  of  the  old  boroughs  in  the  hands 
of  the  self-elected  ring,  who,  though  deprived  of  their  electoral 
monopoly,  still  administered  local  affairs  to  their  own  profit  or  pleas- 
ure. Another  act,  therefore,  was  necessary  to  complete  the  act  of 
1832,  and  in  1835  parliament  transferred  the  control  of  borough 
government  from  the  corporations  to  representatives  elected  by 
the  resident  ratepayers;  they  applied  the  measure  to  one  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  boroughs.  London,  however,  was  not  included. 
Measures  for  the  reform  of  municipalities  and  the  tithe  system  in 
Ireland  were  also  proposed  in  the  Commons  but  defeated  in  the 


1837-1840]  ACCESSION   OF    VICTORIA  999 

Lords.  A  Tithe  Commutation  Act  for  England,  which  permitted 
the  commutation  of  tithes  in  kind  into  a  money  payment,  succeeded 
better.  The  same  year  the  division  lists  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons were  published  for  the  first  time  by  the  House  itself. 

In  June  1837  William  IV.  died  and  was  succeeded  by  Victoria, 
the  daughter  of  George  III.  's  fourth  son,  the  duke  of  Kent.  In 
Hanover,  the  law  allowed  the  crown  to  pass  to  male 
Queen  Vic-  heirs  Only,  so  that  Ernest  Duke  of  Cumberland,  the 
fifth  son  of  George  III.,  succeeded  to  the  continental 
possessions  of  the  House  of  Hanover;  and  Hanover  once  more 
swung  clear  of  its  connection  with  the  English  crown.  Victoria 
had  just  passed  her  eighteenth  birthday ;  her  youth,  her  grace, 
her  dignity,  the  essential  goodness  of  her  character,  appealed 
powerfully  to  the  patriotism  and  sympathy  of  all  her  subjects. 
Her  accession  was  received  with  universal  enthusiasm.  She 
regarded  Melbourne,  moreover,  with  confidence  and  filial  affection; 
so  that  the  change  of  rulers  added  somewhat  to  the  strength  of 
the  Whig  ministry ;  the  ministers  at  least  were  no  longer  harassed 
by  the  hostility  of  William  IV. 

In  November  the  young  queen  met  her  first  parliament.  Her 
opening  address  called  attention  to  the  condition  of  Canada  and 
Ireland,  where  affairs  had  for  some  time  worn  a  serious  aspect. 
The  troubles  in  Canada  were  political  and  dated  back  to  the 
eighteenth  century.  Pitt's  Canada  Bill  of  1791  had  divided  the 
old   French    province    into    two    separate    provinces, 

TrouNein  i,       -^-u     •.  i  i      •  i   f • 

Canada,  each  With  its  own  governor-general,  a  legislative  coun- 
cil, and  a  representative  legislative  assembly.  The 
council  was  appointed  by  the  crown  and  was  responsible  only 
to  the  Colonial  Office.  The  result  was  to  concentrate  political 
power  in  each  province  in  the  hands  of  a  few  wealthy  families; 
the  administration  became  corrupt  and  ruinously  extravagant.  In 
the  spring  and  summer  of  1837  matters  came  to  a  deadlock 
between  the  provincial  representative  assemblies  and  the  respective 
councils.  The  Canadians  demanded  that  the  appropriation  of 
the  funds  raised  by  taxation  be  put  wholly  in  the  hands  of  their 
representatives;  that  the  council  be  changed  to  an  elective  body ; 
and  that  with  the  exception  of  the   governor,  the  members  of  the 


1000  THE    i'lKST    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victoeia 

executive  staff  be  responsible  to  the  provincial  parliament.  The 
British  Colonial  governments  have  since  been  reconstituted  sub- 
stantially upon  these  lines,  but  in  1837  public  opinion  had  not  yet 
reached  the  point  where  the  complete  autonomy  of  the  colonies 
could  be  regarded  with  favor.  Lord  Russell,  therefore,  offered  a 
series  of  resolutions  which  were  intended  to  be  conciliatory,  in 
which  he  recognized  the  existence  of  abuses,  but  unfortunately 
asserted  the  impossibility  of  granting  to  the  provinces  a  control  of 
the  executive  ministers  of  government. 

The   Canadians  were  not  satisfied,   and  when  the  provincial 
governors  attempted  to  use  repressive  measures,  in  order  to  bring 

to  terms  such  leaders  as  Papineau,  the  Speaker  of  the 
in  Canada,      Assembly  of  the  Lower  Province,  the  provinces  broke 

out  in  insurrection.  Although  the  rebellion  was  easily 
suppressed,  the  British  government  was  seriously  alarmed.  The 
revolt  had  found  many  sympathizers  along  the  American  frontier 
and  there  was  grave  danger  of  complications  with  the  United 
States.  The  American  vessel  Caroline  had  been  used  to  take  pro- 
visions from  the  American  shore  to  a  body  of  insurgents  who  were 
operating  from  ISTavy  island  in  the  Niagara  River.  The  British 
officials  had  seized  the  boat  in  American  waters,  set  it  on  fire,  and 
sent  it  over  the  falls. 

The  ministry  saw  that  a  serious  mistake  had  been  made.     The 
Russell  resolutions  were  hastily  withdrawn  and  Lord  Durham,  an 

able  and  energetic  character,  was  dispatched  to  Canada 
The  union  of  as  a  Special  commissioner  with  unusual  powers.  Great 
1840.  '   as  were  his  powers  Durham  managed  to  exceed  them, 

and  the  opposition  forced  the  ministry  to  recall  him. 
Durham  had  remained  in  the  country  long  enough,  however,  to 
discover  that  there  were  other  causes  of  trouble  that  lay  back  of 
the  constitutional  question.  The  population  of  Upper  Canada 
consisted  largely  of  English;  Lower  Canada  consisted  of  French. 
The  two  provinces  were  jealous  of  each  other,  and  the  two  races 
were  upon  anything  but  friendly  terms.  Pitt's  unfortunate  divi- 
sion into  an  English  Canada  and  a  French  Canada  had  only 
emphasized  the  race  differences,  and  encouraged  race  jealousies. 
What  the  Canadas  needed,  fully  as  much  as  constitutional  reform, 


1838]  THE    IRISH    POOR    LAW  1001 

was  such  a  political  union  as  in  time  would  make  of  the  two  peo- 
ples one  nation.  Durham's  report  was  accepted  and  was  made  the 
basis  of  the  Canada  Bill  of  1840.  By  this  bill  the  two  Canadas 
were  united  under  one  governor-general,  a  legislative  council, 
consisting  of  life  members  nominated  by  the  crown,  and  a  repre- 
sentative assembly.  The  responsibility  of  the  ministry  to  the 
provincial  parliament  was  not  granted  in  the  bill,  but  the  principle 
has  been  since  fully  established  by  practice.  The  appropriation 
of  public  funds,  also,  with  the  exception  of  a  fixed  civil  list,  was 
entrusted  to  the  popular  branch  of  the  provincial  parliament. 

The  affairs  of  Ireland,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  proved  fully  as 

vexatious  to  the  ministry,  if  not  as  urgent,  as  the  affairs  of  Canada. 

A  commission  of  inquiry  had  laid  bare  a  condition  of 

THb  Ivish 

Poor  Law,  misery  which  exceeded  the  expectations  even  of  the 
Irish  members,  and  in  1838  parliament  to  mend  mat- 
ters sought  to  extend  the  English  workhouse  system  to  Ireland. 
It  was  taken  for  granted  that  an  able  bodied  Irishman  who  wanted 
work  could  find  it  and  that  the  ordinary  living  of  the  Irish  poor 
was  to  be  preferred  to  life  in  the  workhouse.  The  suffering  of 
the  Irish,  however,  was  due  to  the  fact,  not  that  the  people  were 
unwilling  to  work,  but  that  they  had  outgrown  the  ability  of  their 
little  island  to  feed  them.  The  law,  therefore,  added  little  to  the 
credit  of  the  ministry.  Instead  of  allaying  the  sufferings  of  the 
Irish,  it  only  added  to  the  distress  of  the  destitute,  and  put  a  new 
premium  on  pauperism. 

From  the  Poor  Law  the  ministry  proceeded  to  take  up  the 
questions  of  tithes  and  corporations.  In  both  cases  it  succeeded 
in  putting  new  laws  on  the  statute  books,  but  only 
mv^  ^irish  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  given  unmistakable  signs  of  its  declining 
Municipal  strength  by  accepting  from  the  conservative  opposition 
amendments  which  made  the  laws  virtually  conserva- 
tive measures. 

The  nineteenth  century  had  brought  with  it  a  further  develop- 
ment of  the  inventive  genius  which  marked  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth. The  canal  system  of  Brindley  and  the  improved  roads  of 
Telford  and  Macadam  had  done  much  to  encourage  industry  by 
providing   better   facilities   of  exchange.     Yet   the  question  was 


1002  THE    FIRST   ERA    OF    REFORM  [victoeia 

very  early  asked  whether  steam  could  not  be  used  as  the  motive 
power  in   locomotion.     The   question   was   answered  in  part  by 

Fulton  in  America  in  1811,  and  by  Bell  in  Scotland  in 
Newinven-      x812,  and  long  before  Victoria  had  begun   her  reign, 

English  shipyards  were  turning  out  their  first  essays 
at  steam  craft.  The  application  of  steam  to  land  travel,  however, 
had  met  with  an  apparently  insuperable  obstacle  in  the  absence  of 
a  roadbed  of  the  requisite  smoothness  and  solidity.  Some  wild 
attempts  had  been  made  on  country  roads,  to  the  consternation  of 
the  rural  population  and  the  inevitable  destruction  of  engineer 
and  crew.  But  although  a  suggestion  lay  at  hand  in  the  horse 
tramways  which  were  in  common  use  in  the  mining  regions,  all 
efforts  to  get  at  a  practical  solution  of  the  problem  had  proved 
fruitless,  until  George  Stephenson,  the  son  of  a  poor  collier  of 
Northumberland,  and  a  self-educated  man,  as  the  result  of  many 
experiments  finally  constructed  an  engine  which  would  run  on  a 
prepared  track.  In  1825  he  opened  the  Stockton  and  Darlington 
railway  for  the  conveyance  of  both  passengers  and  freight.  Five 
years  later  he  opened  the  Manchester  and  Liverpool  line  when  his 
engines  outstripped  all  competitors,  attaining  a  speed  of  thirty-six 
miles  an  hour.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Huskisson,  who  was 
present  with  Wellington  and  Peel,  met  with  the  unfortunate  acci- 
dent which  resulted  in  his  death. 

Thus  far,  the  industrial  development  of  England  and  the  reforms 

of  parliament  apparently  had  benefited  only   the  upper  classes. 

The  poor  laborer  found  himself  as  in  the  eighteenth 

tists,i838,        century  still  swinging  between  moderate  prosperity  and 

abject  poverty.  The  Poor  Law,  which  cut  him  off  from 
state  help,  seemed  particularly  harsh.  Food  was  dear,  work  scarce, 
wages  low,  and  his  home,  especially  if  in  the  city,  filthy  and  over- 
crowded. Sometimes  a  whole  family,  parents  and  children,  occu- 
pied a  single  cellar  which  was  generally  wet  and  foul.  It  is  said 
that  in  Manchester  one-tenth  of  the  population  lived  in  these  dens 
below  the  street.  The  working  people,  although  generally  ignor- 
ant, yet  had  their  own  ideas  as  to  the  reforms  needed,  and  in 
1838,  in  a  meeting  near  Birmingham,  they  drew  up  a  national 
petition,  or  "People's  Charter,"  which  is  remarkable  both  for  its 


1837-1839]  THE  CHARTISTS  1003 

moderation  and  for  its  reasonableness.  They  demanded  (1) 
annual  parliaments,  (2)  universal  suffrage,  (3)  vote  by  ballot,  (4) 
abolition  of  the  property  qualification  for  members  of  parliament, 
and  (5)  payment  for  service  in  parliament.  A  demand  for  equal 
electoral  districts  had  been  originally  included  in  the  list  but  was 
later  withdrawn.  In  June  1839  the  charter  supported,  it  was  said, 
by  a  million  signatures,  was  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
but  only  to  be  rejected.  The  people  expressed  their  disappoint- 
ment in  rioting  and  other  lawless  acts ;  but  they  were  easily  put 
down  and  the  great  movement  from  which  so  much  had  been 
expected  subsided. 

The  era  of  the  Chartist  agitation  was  marked,  also,  by  a  revival 

of  the  old  agitation  against  the  Corn  Laws,     During  ten  years  of 

prosperity,  the  Corn  Laws  had  dropped  out  of  sight, 

^^iiauon        ^^^  ^^^®  series  of  unfavorable  seasons  which  began  in 

against  Com   1837  had  once  more  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 

Laws. 

price  of  bread  was  raised  by  artificial  means,  and  that 
much  of  the  ensuing  distress  was  needless  and  was  due  directly  to 
the  selfishness  of  landholders  and  their  tenants.  Associations  were 
formed  in  London  and  other  places  in  order  to  begin  a  systematic 
agitation  against  the  unjust  laws.  Prominent  in  the  movement 
was  Eichard  Cobden,  a  calico  printer  of  Manchester,  who  had 
traveled  much,  observed  keenly,  and  gathered  a  vast  amount  of 
valuable  information  concerning  the  social  conditions  which  pre- 
vailed in  Europe  and  America.  Another  man  of  the  era,  no  less 
noteworthy,  was  the  Quaker  manufacturer  of  Rochdale,  John 
Bright,  whose  marvelous  oratory  and  deep  sympathy  for  the  people 
made  him  for  years  a  conspicuous  political  force.  During  the 
Melbourne  ministry  the  direct  influence  of  these  men  was  exerted 
altogether  outside  of  parliament.  Within  parliament  the  cause  was 
represented  by  Charles  Villiers  who  persisted  in  offering  each  year  a 
bill  for  the  abolition  of  the  restrictions  upon  the  bread  of  the  poor. 
Since  1830,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  months,  the  conduct  of 
foreign  affairs  had  remained  in  the  hands  of  Lord  Palmerston.  In 
the  main  his  relations  with  France  had  been  friendly,  although  he 
had  stoutly  opposed  the  project  of  annexing  Belgium.  He  had 
also  stood  with  Louis  Philippe  in  favoring  the  claims  of  Isabella, 


1004  THE    FIRST   ERA    OF    REFORM  [victokia 

the  daughter  of  Ferdinand  YII.  of  Spain,   who  as   representing 

a   constitutional   party   against   the  absolutist   Don   Carlos,   her 

uncle,  naturally  carried  the  sympathies  of  the  consti- 

The foreign     tutional  king  of  France.     In  handling  the  eastern  ques- 

policy  of  .  ,  „ 

Paimerston.  tion,  however,  a  far  more  delicate  problem.  Palmers - 
ton  found  it  not  so  easy  to  keep  on  good  terms 
with  his  neighbor.  The  barbarism  of  Turkey  probably  was  no 
greater ;  her  ferocious  cruelties  no  more  flagrant  than  in  earlier 
centuries,  but  the  Christian  states  of  Europe  now  knew  more 
about  them  and  their  people  were  beginning  to  demand  that  the 
common  nuisance  be  abated.  It  was,  however,  not  such  a  simple 
matter  as  the  Treaty  of  London  and  the  battle  of  Navarino  seemed 
to  indicate,  because  while  the  western  powers  despised  the  Turk, 
they  distrusted  and  feared  Russia.  The  aim  of  Paimerston 's 
policy,  therefore,  was  not  to  reduce  Turkey  but  to  free  her  from 
the  shadow  of  Russia,  which  had  steadily  deepened  as  a  result  of 
the  war  of  Greek  liberation.  Moreover,  in  the  subsequent  revolt 
of  Mehemet  Ali,  Viceroy  of  Egypt,  Russia,  as  the  price  of  her 
support,  had  secured  a  pledge  from  Turkey  to  close  the  Dar- 
danelles to  the  warships  of  other  nations  whenever  Russia  should 
be  at  war.  Turkey,  Paimerston  believed,  if  kept  under  western 
influence  might  be  led  to  give  a  respectable  government  to  her 
own  people  and  support  England  against  the  encroachments  of 
Russia  in  the  east.  Thiers,  the  wily  minister  of  Louis  Philippe, 
had  at  first  supported  England,  but  in  order  to  secure  French 
influence  in  Syria  he  had  of  late  begun  to  encourage  Mehemet  Ali 
in  his  attempt  to  wrest  that  country  from  the  Sultan.  Palmers- 
ton  took  alarm  at  once,  and  declared  that  England  could  not  allow 
France  to  control  the  road  to  India.  In  July  1840  he  succeeded 
in  forming  an  alliance  with  Russia,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Turkey, 
nominally  to  end  the  revolt  of  Mehemet  Ali,  but  really  to 
put  a  stop  to  French  intrigues  in  Egypt  and  Syria.  Thiers 
desired  war,  but  Louis  Philippe  had  no  idea  of  imperiling  his 
throne,  in  order  to  support  the  schemes  of  his  minister,  and 
readily  accepted  the  resignation  of  Thiers.  Guizot,  an  advocate 
of  peace  and  an  ardent  admirer  of  English  institutions,  took  his 
place.     An  Anglo-Austrian  squadron  captured  Acre  and  forced 


1840-1842]  THE  OPIUM  WAR  1005 

Mehemet  Ali  to  terms,  compelling  him  to  restore  the  Sultan's 
fleet  which  had  deserted  to  the  rebels,  and  to  promise  to  content 
himself  with  Egypt,  his  hereditary  possession.  In  the  final  settle- 
ment made  by  the  powers,  the  ancient  ruling  of  the  Porte  was 
restored;  the  Dardanelles  was  again  closed  to  warships  of  all 
nations,  unless  the  Sultan  himself  should  be  at  war. 

In  his  conduct  of  affairs  in  the  remoter  east  Palmerston  was 
likewise  successful,  although  the  result  can  hardly  be  said  to 
redound  to  the  credit  of  England.  In  1840  England  be- 
w^aruHST  ^^^  -^^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^^  China,  which  was  fought  virtually 
18^1842  ^^  force  Indian  opium  upon  the  Chinese.  The  minis- 
try had  nobly  laid  down  the  principle  that  **her  maj- 
esty's government  could  not  interfere  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
British  subjects  to  violate  the  laws  of  the  country  with  which 
they  trade;"  but  unfortunately  the  government  did  not  have  the 
courage  to  stand  by  this  sound  principle,  and  allowed  itself  to 
be  dragged  into  the  war  on  the  plea  that  it  had  already  begun. 
The  Chinese  of  course  could  make  no  effective  resistance,  and  in 
1842  were  compelled  to  cede  the  Island  of  Hong  Kong,  to  open 
five  ports  to  British  trade,  and  pay  a  heavy  bill  of  indemnity. 

Until  1839  the  postal  system  had  remained  untouched  by  the 
reforming  mania  of  the  generation.    Some  improvements  had  been 
introduced  since  the  beginning  of  George  III.  's  reign, 
wuand         ^^^  ^^^  system  was  still  far  behind  the  needs  of  the 
refmin  ^^^'     "^^^  P^^^  ^®^®  practically  excluded  from  letter- 

writing,  and  the  idea  that  the  price  must  vary  with  the 
distance  also  precluded  the  use  of  the  mails  for  business  or  politics. 
In  1837  Kowland  Hill  began  investigating  the  postal  system  and 
soon  was  able  to  formulate  the  principles  which  lie  at  the  basis  of 
the  modern  system,  that  is,  that  the  cost  of  carrying  a  letter  does 
not  vary  with  the  distance,  and  that  up  to  a  certain  point  it  costs 
the  government  no  more  to  carry  many  letters  than  one.  Hill, 
accordingly,  proposed  to  charge  one  uniform  rate;  to  reduce  the 
price  to  one  penny,  and  to  secure  prepayment  by  the  use  of  a 
stamp.      His  plan  was  adopted  by  the  government  in  1839.^     The 

^  The  stamp  was  first  printed  on  the  envelope.     In  1840  the  familiar 
adhesive  was  devised. 


1006  THE    FIKST   ERA    OF    REFORM  [victobia 

increased  facility  in  the  use  of  the  mails  came  in  just  in  time  to 
aid  powerfully  in  the  Corn  Law  agitation. 

In  the  same  year  the  government  made  an  important  advance 
in  the  encouragement  of  public  education.  Since  1833  parliament 
had  regularly  appropriated  £20,000  for  this  purpose. 
mUinVf^o-  ^^^  ^^  ^^^^  ^^  r2A^Qdi  the  annual  grant  to  £30,000, 
and  taking  the  administration  of  the  fund  from  the 
treasury  put  it  in  the  hands  of  a  special  committee  of  the  Privy 
Council.  Yet  parliament  was  by  no  means  awake  to  the  needs 
of  the  three  million  English  children,  of  whom  fully  one-half  w^ere 
growing  up  in  a  state  of  utter  ignorance.  The  very  year  in  which 
it  raised  its  appropriations  for  the  education  of  the  children  of 
England  to  the  magnificent  sum  of  £30,000,  it  voted  £70,000  for 
building  stables  for  the  queen's  horses. 

An  event  of  prime  importance  to  the  happiness  of  the  young 
queen  that  is  associated  with  the  last  days  of  the  Melbourne  min- 
istry, was  her  marriage  on  February  10,  1840  to  the 
Hageoffhe  young  prince  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.  Prince  Albert, 
as  he  is  commonly  known,  was  a  singularly  felicitous 
combination  of  the  scholar,  the  poet,  and  the  man  of  affairs ;  the 
kind  of  man  who  could  sit  alone  at  the  organ  and  play  to  himself 
by  the  hour,  who  delighted  in  the  singing  of  birds,  in  the  happy, 
placid,  calm  days  of  a  quiet,  unostentatious  home  life,  who  loved 
letters,  knew  history,  grasped  the  great  problems  of  political 
science,  was  interested  in  farming,  in  machinery,  in  the  industrial 
arts,  and  in  a  word  touched  with  a  deep,  true  sympathy  the  many- 
sided  life  in  which  he  moved.  His  was  one  of  those  calm,  sweet 
natures,  free  from  vice  or  foible,  inspired  by  an  all-pervading 
sense  of  duty,  in  whose  presence  weak  men  become  strong  and 
the  wearied  and  careworn,  confident.  With  rare  good  sense  he 
accepted  a  position  which  a  smaller  man  might  have  found 
humiliating,  constituting  himself  a  sort  of  ^'minister  of  art  and 
education  without  portfolio,"  holding  severely  aloof  from  all  party 
affiliations,  and  for  the  rest,  conducting  himself  as  a  sort  of  private 
secretary  and  unofficial  counsellor  of  the  queen.  **I  study  the 
politics  of  the  day  with  great  industry,"  he  wrote.  "I  speak 
quite  openly  to  the  ministers  on  all  subjects,  and  endeavor  quietly 


1840-1861]  PRINCE   ALBERT  1007 

to  be  of  as  much  use  to  Victoria  as  I  can.  In  foreign  affairs  I 
think  I  have  done  some  good."  He  grasped  fully  the  spirit  of 
the  English  constitution  and  comprehended  as  none  of  the  Han- 
overian monarchs  had,  that  henceforth  the  strength  of  the  English 
monarchy  lay  in  the  character  of  the  monarch,  and  that  if  the 
monarchy  were  to  rise  in  the  esteem  of  the  nation,  the  monarch 
must  be  a  good  man.  He  grasped,  also,  as  neither  Wellington 
nor  the  easy-going  Melbourne  had,  the  significance  of  the  new  drift 
given  to  English  politics  by  the  reforms  of  the  last  decade,  and 
exerted  his  influence  to  bring  the  monarchy  into  touch  with  the 
new  era  which  had  opened.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  such  a 
man  was  deeply  loved  and  respected  for  his  own  sake  by  the  young 
queen,  who  needed  just  such  a  sage  and  disinterested  counsellor, 
one  whom  she  could  trust  when  her  ministers  failed  her,  and  that 
when  he  died  in  1861,  his  death  was  mourned  by  the  people  as  a 
national  calamity. 

The  Melbourne  ministry  had  long  since  exhausted  the  new 
stock  of  popularity  that  had  come  to  it  from  the  accession  of 

the  young  queen,  and  had  been  for  some  time  steadily 
M/eoTt^e*^  losing  ground.  Even  the  brightest  spot  in  its  late 
minSjr      iii story,  the  able  handling  of  the  Turkish  question  by 

Palmerston,  did  not  escape  criticism.  It  was  said  that 
he  had  been  unnecessarily  meddlesome,  and  that  he  had  lost  the 
friendship  of  France  for  his  pains.  In  May  1839  the  ministry  had 
brought  forward  a  bill  which  proposed  to  suspend  the  constitu- 
tion of  Jamaica  for  five  years.  The  occasion  of  such  a  bill,  so 
contrary  to  all  the  traditions  of  the  Whig  party,  was  the  lamenta- 
ble condition  in  which  Jamaica  had  fallen  as  a  result  of  the 
obstinate  determination  of  the  planters  to  defeat  the  object  of  the 
recent  abolition  of  slavery.  The  bill  made  such  a  poor  showing 
upon  the  second  reading  that  Melbourne  at  once  sent  in  his  resig- 
nation. Peel  was  called  on  to  undertake  the  government,  but 
refused,  unless  the  queen  should  dismiss  with  the  ministers  the 
sisters  and  wives  whom  Melbourne  had  placed  about  the  young 
sovereign  as  "Ladies  of  the  Bedchamber."  The  queen  naturally 
objected  to  have  her  family  circle  broken  up.  *'They  would  treat 
me  like  a  girl"  she  indignantly  exclaimed;  "I  will  show  them  that 


1008  THE    FIRST    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victoma 

I  am  Queen  of  England."  So  she  turned  again  to  Melbourne, 
who  had  been  her  tutor  in  the  first  trying  years  of  her  reign  and 
upon  whose  fatherly  sympathy  and  counsel  she  had  learned  to  rely, 
and  for  two  years  longer  her  favor  alone  kept  him  and  his  fellow 
ministers  in  power. 

In  1841,  however,  even  the  support  of  the  queen  could  not 

sustain  longer  the  failing  strength  of  the  Melbourne  ministry. 

Melbourne,   indolent  and  easy-going,   had    long  since 

Melbourne     ceased   to  lead  even  the  members  of  his  own  partv. 

ministry.  rr^i  t  a        ^ 

The  pendulum,  moreover,  which  had  been  so  long 
swinging  towards  reform,  had  already  begun  the  backward  sweep, 
and  when  Melbourne  appealed  to  the  country  upon  a  proposition 
to  substitute  a  moderate  duty  for  the  old  Corn  Law  tax,  the  conserv- 
ative^ rallied  the  agrarian  interests,  and  came  back  to  Westminster 
with  a  majority  of  81  members  in  the  new  parliament.  Melbourne 
promptly  resigned  and  Peel  was  again  invited  to  undertake  the 
government. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PEEL  AND  THE  DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  OLD  PARTIES.       THE  CRIMEAN 
WAR.       PALMERSTON  AND  BRITISH  FOREIGN  POLICY 

VICTORIA,  lMl-1865 

The  remaining  years  of  Victoria's  reign  fall  into  two  strongly 
marked  periods.     The  first  period  closes  with  the  death  of  Pal- 

merston  in  1865,  and  is  marked  by  the  dissolution  of 
Victoria's       the  old  Whig  and  Tory  parties,  and  the  reorganization 

of  the  political  elements  of  the  nation  about  the  new 
issues  which  have  since  divided  Liberals  and  Conservatives.  The 
second  period  is  marked  by  the  struggle  of  the  new  parties  to 
control  and  direct  the  policy  of  Great  Britain,  and  by  the  results 
thus  far  attained. 

Peel  began  his  administration  in  September  1841.     Nominally 
the  appointment  was  a  Tory  triumph.      Peel,   however,    was   a 

thorough-going  business  man,  and  inclined  to  approach 
ffi**^^  °"^      public  questions  from  a  practical  rather  than  from  a 

sentimental  point  of  view.  He  had  stood  out  against 
the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  to  the  last;  but,  like  Wellington,  he  had 
then  accepted  the  results  as  final,  and,  abandoning  the  name  of 
Tory  which  had  become  associated  in  the  minds  of  many  with  the 
older  reactionary  elements  which  the  nation  had  repudiated,  under 

the  new  name  of  "Conservatives,"  he  had  rallied  his 

1834' 

shattered  ranks,  and  taken  his  stand  upon  what  was  vir- 
tually conservative  Whig  ground.  On  many  points,  however,  he 
was  still  far  in  advance  of  the  great  mass  of  his  party  which  still 
represented  the  landlords  rather  than  the  millowners  and  man- 
ufacturers, and  was  haunted  by  the  traditions  of  Castlereagh  and 
Addington. 

1009 


1010  DlSSOLtJTIOX    OF    THE    OLD    PARTIES  [victoria 

The   first   efforts   of   the   new   ministry  were  addressed  to  a 

reorganization  of  the  national  finances,  which  had  been  left  in  a 

lamentable  condition  by  the  outgoing  Whigs.     In  many 

tariff  and  in-  cascs  the  existing  tariff  was  virtually  prohibitive  and  the 

the  Income      treasury  had  been  steadily  depleted  by  the  diminisliins: 

Tax  1842.  ^        J.  ^  o 

returns.  Peel,  therefore,  selected  750  articles  of  com- 
mon consumption  and  by  reducing  the  tariff  hoped  to  encourage 
importation,  and  thus  lay  the  foundation  for  a  subsequent  increase 
in  the  national  revenues.  He  believed,  also,  that  the  great  gain 
to  the  consumers,  would  more  than  atone  for  the  direct  loss  to  the 
protected  interests.  He  saw,  moreover,  that  the  first  effect  upon 
the  treasury  would  be  to  deplete  still  further  the  present  income, 
and  proposed  to  tide  over  the  interval  by  an  Income  Tax,  but  under 
pledge  that  it  should  be  dropped  at  the  close  of  five  years.  The 
pledge,  however,  was  never  redeemed.  Before  the  five  years  had 
expired.  Peel  was  out  of  office,  and,  in  the  steady  advance  of  Eng- 
land towards  free  trade  since,  his  successors  have  never  been  able 
to  dispense  with  the  increasingly  important  revenue  derived  from 
this  source. 

The  Peel  administration  fell  heir  also  to  the  annoyance  caused 
by  the  troublesom^e    agitations    which  had  been   gathering   new 

strength  during  the  later  days  of  the  Melbourne  minis- 
ofirai^^S?^^  try.     The  Chartists  were  still  holding  monster  meetings 

and  sending  up  their  monster  petitions  to  parliament. 
The  tones  of  these  petitions,  moreover,  were  growing  more  per- 
sistent. But  Peel  was  not  a  minister  to  be  coerced  into  action, 
and  after  a  petition  with  a  million  signatures  had  been  ignomin- 
iously  turned  out  of  parliament  without  so  much  as  a  hearing,  the 
Chartists  subsided  again  for  a  season. 

A  far    more    serious  agitation    appeared    in    Ireland,    where 
O'Connell  had  been  for  some  time  stirring  up  the  country  upon  a 

proposition  to  repeal  the  Act  of  Union  and  reestablish 
Irish  ques-  the  Irish  parliament.  His  plan  was,  by  holding  monster 
o'c'fmneii  in    meetings  at  different  historic  places,  to  keep  the  matter 

before  the  English  government  until  it  should  be 
forced  to  yield  to  moral  pressure  and  comply  with  the  demands, 
of  a  long-suffering  people.      He   disclaimed   all  thought  of  vio- 


1842-1847]  DANIEL    O'CONNELL  1011 

lence,  or  of  seeking  his  ends  by  unlawful  measures.  He  held 
an  unquestioned  sway  over  the  great  mass  of  the  Irish  people  and 
controlled  the  vote  of  the  Irish  representatives  in  parliament, 
Neither  Whigs  nor  Tories,  however,  were  ready  to  grant  Home 
Rule  to  Ireland  for  the  sake  of  securing  the  Irish  vote,  so  that 
thus  far  the  enthusiasm  of  the  great  leader  had  accomplished  little 
more  than  to  keep  his  cause  before  the  public.  But  in.  1842  a 
body  of  younger  enthusiasts,  to  whom  the  ponderous  methods  of 
O'Connell  seemed  slow  as  well  as  aimless,  broke  away  in  a  separate 
party  which  they  called  the  * 'Young  Ireland  Party."  They 
adopted  the  maxims  and  watchword  of  the  United  Irishmen  of 
'98,  and  proposed  to  secure  by  arms  what  they  could  not  gain  by 
peaceful  measures.  The  chiefs  were  Charles  Gavan  Duffy,  Smith 
O'Brien,  Thomas  Davis,  John  Dillon,  and  Thomas  Meagher.  The 
party  was  small,  their  cause  hopeless,  and  by  their  rashness  they 
soon  brought  the  larger  but  more  innocent  movement  of  O'Con- 
nell into  discredit  with  the  government.  O'Connell  had  secured 
a  great  meeting  at  Clontarf,  but  the  government  thought  it  time 
to  interfere  and  forbade  the  meeting.  O'Connell,  true  to  his  prin- 
ciple of  securing  his  ends  by  moral  suasion  only,  yielded,  and 
issued  a  proclamation  recalling  the  summons.  He  was  arrested, 
however,  tried  and  convicted  on  a  charge  of  conspiracy.  An 
appeal  was  made  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  Lords  had  the 
wisdom  to  reverse  the  decision  of  the  lower  court.  But  the  hold 
of  O'Connell  on  the  Irish  people  was  broken.  The  Young  Ireland 
Party  left  him  in  disgust.  The  people  refused  longer  to  support 
useless  meetings  that  evaporated  in  fine  speeches,  and  turned  to 
the  hotheads^  who  only  waited  an  opportunity  to  attempt  to  win 
by  violence  what  O'Connell  had  failed  to  secure  by  milder  meas- 
ures.    O'Connell  finally  retired  to  Italy  where  he  died  in  1847. 

The  agitation,   however,   had    not  been  altogether   fruitless. 

Peel  saw  that  something  must  be  radically  wrong  where  there  was 

so   much   disquiet,    and    appointed   a   commission   to 

PeeVs  meas-      .         .       .  «    i       t  •  i    i       t 

ures  for         mquire  into  the  workmg  of  the  Irish  land  system.     He 

also   made  a  public  grant  to  the  Catholic  College  of 

Maynooth  to  assist  in  the  better  education  of  the  priesthood,  and 

established  three  secular  colleges  at  Belfast,  Cork,  and  Galway, 


1012  DISSOLUTION^    OF   THE    OLD    PARTIES  [victoeia 

known  as  Queen's  Colleges  where  Catholic  and  Protestant  youth 
might  be  trained  side  by  side.  These  measures  were  not  suffered 
to  pass  unchallenged.  At  the  idea  of  using  public  money  to  help 
educate  Catholic  priests,  "the  Orangeman  raised  his  war-whoop," 
while  neither  Catholics  nor  Protestants  were  satisfied  with  the 
Queen's  Colleges,  which  they  were  pleased  to  denounce  as  "God- 
less and  atheiistical."  Of  even  more  importance  were  the  results 
of  the  commission  in  revealing  to  the  public  by  an  authoritative 
report  the  deep  reproach  of  the  Irish  land  system.  Nothing  could 
be  done  yet,  however;  Peel's  party  were  against  him.  The  dead 
inertia  of  old  Tory  bigotry  could  not  be  overcome  in  a  day. 

In  the  early  days  of  Peel's  ministry,  also,  the  Webster- 
Ashburton  Treaty  brought  to  a  peaceful  issue  the  long  dispute 
with  the  United  States  over  the  boundary  of  Canada 
States'  ^^^  Maine.     The  Maine  boundary,  however,  was  hardly 

^^uSm  settled  before  the  good  understanding  between  the  two 
countries  was  again  threatened  by  a  similar  dispute 
over  the  Oregon  boundary  in  the  northwest.  But  after  a  good 
deal  of  bluster  and  noisy  talk  on  the  part  of  American  politicians, 
whose  common  sense  had  been  wafted  away  on  the  rhythmic  jingle 
of  their  "fifty-four  forty  or  fight,"  the  people  came  back  to  earth 
and  accepted  the  present  boundary,  giving  the  English  Vancouver 
Island  and  allowing  them  to  share  in  the  navigation  of  the 
Columbia  Kiver. 

Peel  was  compelled  auring  his  early  years  to  give  a  good  deal 
of  his  attention  to  colonial  matters.  The  outward  expansion  of 
England  had  never  ceased  during  all  the  early  decades 
m^ress  ^^  ^^^  century.  The  Napoleonic  wars  .  had  greatly 
broadened  and  extended  the  sphere  of  colonial  enter- 
prise. South  Australia  had  been  colonized  in  1836  and  its  capital 
named  Adelaide  in  honor  of  the  Queen  of  William  IV.  In  1837 
the  Dutch,  who  had  not  taken  kindly  to  English  rule  in  the  old 
Cape  settlement,  had  turned  their  backs  upon  the  colony  and  passed 
over  the  northern  boundary  into  Natal.  Here  they  had  remained 
independent  until  1843,  when  the  English  once  more  took  posses- 
sion. In  1839  the  English  had  established  themselves  at  Aden  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Eed  Sea.    In  1840  they  began  a  permanent  settle- 


1840-1849]  COLONIAL  PROGRESS  1013 

ment  in  New  Zealand.  In  India,  also,  the  English  had  been 
steadily  pushing  forward.  The  general  disorganization  and  mutual 
jealousies  of  the  native  States  had  created  some  such  political  con- 
ditions as  the  Romans  found  in  Gaul  in  Caesar's  time,  and  English 
officials  found  little  difficulty,  by  appealing  to  the  selfish  interests 
of  individual  princes,  in  persuading  them  to  submit  to  a  protec- 
torate, or  alliance,  as  the  Romans  would  have  called  it,  which 
swallowed  them  up  as  soon  as  their  continued  independence  became 
an  inconvenience  to  the  English  Indian  government.  Yet  the  loss 
of  independence  was  not  without  some  solid  advantages.  Under 
Lord  William  Bentinck  the  suttee  was  abolished  and  the  thugs 
broken  up.  Bentinck,  also,  gave  his  support  to  Christian  missions, 
which  the  company  had  discouraged  from  policy.  He  introduced 
the  steamboat  on  the  Ganges  and  proposed  a  scheme  of  carrying 
mails  to  Europe  by  way  of  the  Red  Sea. 

In  the  thirties  a  new  menace  to  English  influence  in  India 
appeared  in  the  extension  of  Russian  influence  in  the  Afghan 

country  and  led  directly  to  the  unfortunate  attempt  of 
Afghcmistan  ^^^^   Auckland,   Bentinck 's   successor,   to   set   up   in 

Afghanistan  a  vassal  prince,  who  should  be  committed 
to  English  interests.  For  two  years,  1839-1841,  this  vassal  prince, 
Shah  Shuja,  was  kept  upon  his  precarious  throne  by  the  presence 
of  English  garrisons  in  the  cities  of  Kandahar  and  Kabul,  only 
to  be  murdered  at  last  by  his  subjects,  while  his  allies  were  driven 
out  of  the  country.  The  retiring  British  army  with  some  12,000 
camp  followers  was  cut  off  in  the  mountain  passes.  Only  one 
European,  a  Dr.  Bryden,  succeeded  in  making  his  way  to  Jelalabad 
with  the  awful  story.  The  English  returned  of  course  to  carry 
on  a  war  of  vengeance,  but  only  to  retire  again  and  leave  Afghan- 
istan to  the  rightful  ruler.  Dost  Mohammed,  whose  supposed  Rus- 
sian sympathies  had  made  all  the  trouble.  The  Afghan  War  was 
hardly  over  before  a  destructive  war  with  the  Sikhs  of  the  Punjab 
began.  After  some  of  the  hardest  fighting  which  the  English  have 
ever  met  in  India,  in  1849,  under  the  rigorous  administration  of 
Dalhousie,  the  power  of  the  Sikhs  was  finally  broken;  the  impor- 
tant Punjab  was  annexed,  and  Lahore  and  the  whole  region  of  the 
**Five  Rivers"  passed  under  British  rule. 


1014  DISSOLUTION    OP   THE   OLD    PARTIES  [victoma 

In  1843  the  dissatisfaction  of  a  powerful  party  in  the  Scottish 
Church  with  the  system  of  lay  patronage  led  to  open  revolt.     Five 

hundred  clergymen,  headed  by  Thomas  Chalmers,  left 
Church  of      the  State  Church  and  organized  the  Free  Presbyterian 

Church  of  Scotland.  Within  eight  years  the  attend- 
ants of  the  Free  Church  outnumbered  those  who  attended  the  old 
Established  Church.  Almost  simultaneously  another  protest 
against  the  lifelessness  of  a  State  Church  was  making  itself  felt 
in  England.  The  English  movement  advanced  in  a  very  different 
direction  from  that  of  the  Free  Church  in  Scotland.  Like  the 
The  Tractor  Wesleyan  movement,  it  began  in  Oxford  where  a  few 
nSnUn^^  earnest  men,  among  whose  names  those  of  Keble,  New- 
Engiand.  man,  and  Pusey,  are  prominent,  sought  to  stimulate 
the  spiritual  life  of  the  country  and  check  the  growing  liberalism 
of  English  religious  thought,  by  leading  the  church  back  to  the 
forms  and  ideals  of  a  primitive  Christianity.  They  sought  to 
bring  the  church  public  under  the  influence  of  their  views  by  the 
publication  of  a  series  of  Tracts  for  the  Times.  Pusey  remained 
in  the  English  Church,  but  Newman  and  many  others  finally  left 
the  English  Church  altogether  and  entered  the  Catholic  com- 
munion. 

Peel's  attempts  to  reduce  tariffs  thus  far  had  not  affected  the 
Corn  Laws.     From  1841  to  1846  the  agitation  had  been  kept  before 

the  public  by  Cobden  and  Bright,  and  their  meetings, 
Lawagitor     especially  those  held  in  Covent  Garden  Theatre  in  1843, 

had  attracted  considerable  attention.  Yet  crops  had 
been  good,  the  price  of  grain  moderate,  and  public  interest  had 
flagged.  But  in  1845  the  attention  of  the  public  was  again  directed 
to  the  matter  by  a  complete  failure  of  the  crops  and  a  correspond- 
ing rise  in  the  price  of  bread.  In  Ireland  where  the  heavy  rains 
had  completely  destroyed  the  potato  crop,  the  case  was  even  more 
serious  than  in  England.  With  millions  of  people  starving  for 
cheap  bread.  Peel  felt  that  it  was  no  time  to  talk  of  '^interests," 
and  proposed  that  the  council  declare  the  ports  open  for  the  free 
importation  of  bread  stuffs.  He  was  overruled,  however,  by  the 
opposition  of  Stanley  and  Wellington,  and  abandoned  his  humane 
proposition.     Then   the   Whig  leaders,  who  had   been   as   much 


1845]  REPEAL   or    CORN    LAWS  1015 

opposed  to  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  as  the  Tories,  took  the 
matter  up.  It  was  not  a  time,  however,  to  allow  party  considera- 
tions to  dictate  a  policy,  and  in  spite  of  the  stolid  indifference  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  Tories,  Peel  himself  determined  to  champion  the 
cause  of  free  bread.  Many  of  his  colleagues,  including  Wellington, 
agreed  to  stand  by  him.  But  the  representatives  of  the  great 
wheat-growing  shires,  who  thought  they  beheld  in  the  repeal  of 
the  Corn  Laws  the  ruin  of  their  constituents,  and  of  the  old  Tory 
families,  whose  wealth  lay  still  in  agricultural  lands,  stoutly 
opposed  him.  They  were  led  by  Benjamin  Disraeli,  a  man  whom 
the  House  had  not  yet  taken  seriously.  He  was  of  Jewish  descent; 
he  had  been  known  to  the  public  as  a  writer  of  some  ** curious, 
high-flown  novels,"  and  to  his  friends  for  his  gorgeous  taste  in  the 
matter  of  dress.  About  this  man  with  the  strange  oriental  mind 
the  Tory  protectionists  rallied.  They  taunted  Peel  as  a  traitor  to 
his  pa<rty,  as  a  recreant  to  the  real  interests  of  the  country.  They 
predicted  the  direst  calamities;  rents  would  be  lowered;  land 
would  be  worthless,  and  every  farmer  who  held  land  by  a  lease 
would  be  bankrupt;  vast  areas  would  be  thrown  out  of  cultivation 
and  thousands  of  agricultural  laborers  would  be  added  to  the  mul- 
titudes who  were  already  crying  for  bread.  Yet  in  spite  of  the 
stubborn  fight  of  Disraeli  and  his  supporters,  Peel,  by  the  help  of 

his  personal  following,  the  free  traders,  and  the  great 
the  Com        body  of  the  Whigs,  Carried  his  measure.     The  existing 

duties  were  to  be  reduced  rapidly  during  a  period  of 
three  years  and  then  to  remain  fixed  at  one  shilling  per  quarter, 
which  was  to  be  retained  as  a  registration  duty.  In  the  case  of 
Ireland  even  the  registration  duty  was  at  first  suspended  and 
finally  abolished.  As  usual,  none  of  the  dire  calamities  that  the 
opponents  of  the  bill  had  predicted  ever  appeared.  The  price 
of  grain  fell  rapidly  to  the.  normal  level,  but  the  growth  in  the 
town  populations,  the  continued  prosperity  of  the  manufactur- 
ing industries,  and  the  ever-increasing  multitude  of  those  who 
depended  upon  the  farmer  for  subsistence,  kept  up  the  demand 
for  all  kinds  of  farm  products.  It  was  not  until  1870  when  the 
extension  of  the  American  railway  system  and  the  increased  facili- 
ties for  navigation  on  the  Great  Lakes  brought  the  western  grain 


1016  DISSOLUTION^    OF   THE    OLD    PARTIES  [victoria 

fields  of  America  into  close  touch  with  the  British  home  markets, 
that  English  farmers  began  to  feel  any  serious  competition  with 
the  foreign  farmer. 

Peel  had  carried  his  point  and  abolished  the  Corn  Laws;  but 

his  humanity  had  disrupted  his  party.     Too  many  bitter  things 

had  been  said  on  both  sides  to  be  easily  forgotten  or 

Dzsvu/otioTt  of 

the  Tory  lightly  forgiveii ;  and  when,  later,  Peel  brought  in  the 
*'Arms  Act,"  which  was  designed  to  repress  the  law- 
lessness that  had  arisen  in  Ireland  as  the  result  of  so  much  suffer- 
ing, Disraeli  and  his  followers,  knowing  that  the  measure  would  be 
opposed  by  the  Irish  members  and  by  many  of  the  Whigs  upon 
principle,  took  the  opportunity  for  revenge,  and  by  going  over  to 
the  opposition,  defeated  Peel  so  hopelessly  that  he  at  once  resigned. 
The  breach  was  so  serious  and  the  real  sympathies  of  the  Peelites, 
as  with  the  Canningites  in  1828,  were  so  much  with  the  more 
liberal  and  progressive  Whigs,  that  in  time  most  of  Peel's  follow- 
ers were  merged  in  the  ranks  of  their  old  enemies.  Among  these 
were  George  Hamilton  Gordon,  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  and  William 
Ewart  Gladstone.  The  disruption  of  the  Tory  party  was  final ; 
broken  and  divided  it  went  out  of  office,  virtually  to  stay  out  until 
1874,  when  it  returned  again  in  the  new '* Conservatives"  under  the 
lead  of  Disraeli. 

Lord  John  Russell,  whose  name  had  been  so  long  associated 

with  the  cause  of  reform  and  who  had  been  among  the  first  of  the 

Whiff  leaders  to  announce  his  conversion  to  the  repeal 

The  Ttussell 

minMry,  of  the  Com  Laws,  was  the  natural  standard  bearer  of 
the  new  liberal  party  formed  of  progressive  Whigs  and 
Peelite  Tories.  Lord  Palmerston  became  Foreign  Secretary; 
Earl  Grey,  son  of  the  old  Whig  reformer,  became  Colonial  and 
War  Secretary,  and  Macaulay,  the  historian,  became  Paymaster 
of  the  Forces.  The  ministry,  however,  was  not  strong;  Russell 
was  not  really  an  able  man,  and  Palmerston,  the  strong  man  of 
the  ministry,  who  had  been  originally  a  Canningite  Tory,  had  not 
the  fall  confidence  of  the  Liberals. 

Ireland,  as  usual,  demanded  all  the  spare  attention  of  the 
government;  a  repetition  of  the  disaster  of  1845  had  again 
brought  one-half  the  population  of  the  island  to  the  verge  of  star- 


1845-1848]  THE   FAMIN^E    IN    IRELAND  1017 

vation.  The  government  wrestled  bravely  with  the  problem;  the 
Arms  Act,  which  the  Whigs  when  in  opposition  had  defeated,  was 
taken  up  and  carried  with  the  help  of  Peel,  whose  mag- 
in  Ireland  ^animity  shines  out  in  this  connection  in  marked  con- 
trast with  the  vindictiveness  of  the  man  who  had 
dethroned  him.  An  "Encumbered  Estates  Court"  was  set  up  with 
the  hope  partly  of  enabling  bankrupt  landlords  to  sell  a  portion  of 
their  lands  and  pay  off  some  of  their  liabilities,  and  partly  of  intro- 
ducing a  new  class  of  landlords  who  would  bring  in  fresh  enterprise 
and  capital.  To  relieve  the  immediate  distress  relief  works  were 
established,  and  finally  the  government  undertook  the  actual  feed- 
ing of  the  population,  opening  soup-kitchens  and  free  food  depots 
in  all  parts  of  the  famine-smitten  country. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  Irish  landlords  had  got  hold  of  a  danger- 
ous half^ruth:  that  the  cutting  up  of  their  estates  into  small 
farms  had  been  the  cause  of  most  of  the  trouble.  As 
?/^r^iand^  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^^  famine  was  over,  therefore,  in  their  own  way 
they  set  about  mending  matters,  uniting  the  small 
farms  into  large  farms,  raising  rents,  and  evicting  unnecessary 
tenants.  The  landlords,  in  many  cases  absentees,  who  knew 
little  of  their  tenants  and  cared  only  for  the  rent  rolls,  urged  on 
their  agents  in  the  work  of  forcible  eviction,  and  reaped  in  return 
for  their  ruthless  haste  and  cruelty  a  harvest  of  fire  and  pillage, 
of  wanton  destruction  of  life  and  property.  In  a  few  years  the 
work  of  reorganizing  Ireland  had  reduced  its  population  from 
8,000,000  to  5,000,000. 

The  year  1848  was  a  year  of  revolution  over  all  Europe.  Louis 
Philippe,  the  constitutional  king  of  France,  was  driven  from  his 
throne  to  die  in  exile.  In  November  Louis  Napoleon, 
revolution,  a  hungry  fortune  seeker,  became  President  of  the 
second  French  republic.  In  France  the  revolution 
hfid  been  inspired- largely  by  the  upgrowth  of  new  socialistic  ideas, 
but  in  the  other  parts  of  Europe  it  drew  its  inspiration  from  the 
long-repressed  spirit  of  nationalism.  In  Hungary,  under  the 
fiery  Kossuth,  the  people  rose  to  assert  their  independence  of 
Austria  and  to  establish  a  free  constitution,  and  were  suppressed 
only  by  the  intervention  of  Kussia.     In  Italy  the  people  of  Lorn- 


1018  DISSOLUTION    OF   THE    OLD    PARTIES  [victoria 

bardy  and  Venetia  rose  against  Austrian  rule,  and  supported  by- 
Charles  Albert,  King  of  Sardinia,  seemed  on  the  point  of  establish- 
ing a  free  national  government  when  the  Sardinians  were  beaten 
by  the  Austrian  Radetzky  at  ISTovara,  and  Charles  Albert  was 
forced  to  abdicate;  Mazzini  and  other  patriot  leaders  succeeded 
in  establishing  a  republic  at  Eome  only  to  be  overthrown  by 
the  interference  of  the  new  Kapoleon.  In  Germany  the  desire  for 
free  institutions  went  hand  in  hand  with  a  desire  for  national 
unity,  and  although  the  time  for  national  union  had  not  yet  come, 
many  of  the  states  succeeded  in  securing  constitutions. 

It  would  be  strange  if  England  and  particularly  Ireland,  where 
the  experience  of  the  past  two  years  had  been  so  severe,  should 

not  show  some  sympathy  with  the  revolutionary  activity 
tionafy^spirit  ^^^^^  was  abroad  once  more  in  Europe.  In  England, 
akdlrefand.  howevcr,  the  movement  evaporated  in  a  farcical  attempt 

of  the  Chartists  to  invade  parliament  with  another  one 
of  their  monster  petitions.  In  Ireland  the  deliberate  attempts  of 
the  Young  Ireland  Party  to  goad  the  people  into  revolt,  for  a 
time  caused  some  anxiety ;  but  the  people  had  been  so  crushed  by 
their  sufferings,  that  they  had  no  heart  for  a  strife  of  arms,  and 
the  attempt  ended  with  the  transportation  of  the  leaders,  Mitchell, 
Meagher,  and  O'Brien. 

A  more  congenial  field  for  the  activity  of  the  Liberal  ministry 
presented  itself  in  the  colonies,  where  it  was  not  compelled  to 

prejudice  its  cause  by  repressive  measures.  In  1849 
The  Rmseii  Russell  introduced  into  the  Australian  colonies,  a  sys- 
thecoiwiies.     tcm  of  local  self-government,  similar  to  that  which  the 

Melbourne  ministry  had  introduced  in  Canada  in  1840. 
The  home  government  reserved  to  itself  simply  a  control  over  foreign 
affairs  with  the  responsibility  of  providing  for  the  common  defense; 
the  colonies  undertook  to  administer  local  affairs,  levy  and  collect 
customs,  and  raise  and  equip  the  local  militia.  •  In  a  general  way 
the  form  of  the  local  government  was  a  close  imitation  of  that  of 
the  mother  country.  The  governors,  who  were  appointed  by  the 
queen,  represented  the  constitutional  sovereign,  and  like  her  they 
acted  through  a  body  of  ministers  responsible  to  a  bicameral 
legislative  body.     The  same  year,  also,  saw  the  successful  repeal 


1842-1847]  FACTORY   LEGISLATION  1019 

of  the  last  of  the  old  Navigation  Acts.  The  commerce  of  Eng- 
land with  her  colonies  or  of  one  colony  with  another,  must  still 
be  carried  on  in  British  bottoms.  The  Canadians  objected  to  the 
monopoly  of  British  shipowners  and  claimed  a  right  to  get  trans- 
portation at  the  lowest  rate  offered  in  the  general  market,  in  this 
case  the  American,  which  offered  to  underbid  the  English  ship- 
owners. Lord  Grey,  the  Colonial  Secretary,  supported  the  claim 
as  a  fair  application  of  the  free  trade  principle,  which  England 
had  adopted  in  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws;  he  saw  in  the  meas- 
ure, moreover,  ''the  best  security  for  the  attachment  of  the  North 
American  colonies  to  the  British  crown." 

The  Russell  ministry  further  proved  its  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  the  people  by  completing  a  series  of  humane  laws  designed  to 

protect  the  victims  of  industry.  In  1842  Lord  Ashley 
isiation,  supplemented  his  Factory  Bill  of  1833,  with  a  second  bill 

designed  to  regulate  the  labor  of  children  and  women  in 
mines  and  collieries.  A  parliamentary  investigation  had  revealed 
a  startling  state  of  affairs.  The  mines  were  wet;  the  heat 
intense;  the  men  dispensed  with  clothing  altogether;  the  women 
wore  only  coarse  trousers  made  of  gunny  sacking.  Children,  also, 
were  set  to  work  in  the  mines  at  six,  five,  and  four  years  of  age. 
The  women  and  children  were  hitched  to  the  coal  carts  by  a  chain 
attached  to  a  heavy  band  about  the  waist.  Here  in  endless  dark- 
ness, far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  rays  of  the  sun,  they  toiled 
through  weary  hours,  frequently  on  alternate  days  for  twenty-four 
hours  at  a  stretch,  tugging  at  the  heavy  carts,  and  often  com- 
pelled by  the  low  passages  to  crawl  upon  hands  and  knees.  The 
slave  plantations  in  the  West  Indies  in  their  palmiest  days  were 
charged  with  nothing  more  degrading  or  brutalizing.  The  Lords 
modified  the  bill  somewhat ;  but  the  main  features  were  secured, 
making  it  no  longer  lawful  to  employ  women  and  children  under 
ground,  or  to  keep  children  between  ten  and  thirteen  at  work  for 
more  than  three  days  a  week.  In  1844  the  working  time  of  chil- 
dren was  reduced  to  six  and  a  half  hours  a  day,  in  order  to  give 
time  for  attending  school.  In  1847  the  work  of  those  under 
eighteen  was  reduced  from  twelve  to  ten  hours  a  day  and  to  eight 
on  Saturdays.     In  these  wise  and  humane  laws  the  protectionist 


1020  DISSOLUTION^    OF   THE   OLD    PARTIES  [victoria 

often  seemed  more  devoted  to  the  cause  of  humanity  than  men 
like  Bright  and  Cobden,  who  blinded  by  their  devotion  to  the 
cold-blooded  principles  of  the  Manchester  School,  were  iaclined 
to  regard  any  remedial  action  on  the  part  of  the  government  as  an 
interference  with  the  divine  law  of  competition. 

It  was  the  glory  of  Kussell's  free  trade  ministry  to  devise  and 
carry  out  the  first  great  World's  Fair.  A  huge  building  of  glass 
and  iron,  designed  by  Joseph  Paxton  and  known  as  the 
Paiace^issl  ^^T^tal  Palace,  was  raised  in  Hyde  Park,  and  here  the 
nations  of  Europe  were  invited  to  put  on  exhibition  in 
friendly  rivalry  the  best  results  of  their  attainments  in  arts  and 
manufactures.  Prince  Albert  acted  as  President  of  the  exposition 
and  found  in  the  furthering  of  such  a  scheme,  full  scope  for  the 
exercise  of  that  broad  and  liberal  sympathy  which  was  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  man.  The  exposition  was  a  success  as  it  deserved 
to  be;  the  more  backward  nations  of  Europe  were  brought  face  to 
face  with  the  civilization  of  their  more  advanced  neighbors  and 
received  a  new  stimulus  in  all  the  arts  of  life. 

Its  great  world's  fair  was  destined  to  be  the  last  triumph  of 
the  Russell  ministry.  The  end,  however,  came  not  because  Eng- 
lishmen were  weary  of  the  liberal  Whigs,  as  the  sequel 
Rmsd/mtn-  P^^^^d,  but  because  the  liberal  leaders  could  not  live 
ary^mf^^^  together  without  quarreling.  Palmerston  had  been 
left  to  conduct  foreign  affairs,  generally,  in  his  own  way; 
but  he  had  been  headstrong,  impetuous,  inclined  to  bluster  in 
dealing  with  weaker  nations,  and  overquick  to  dispatch  the  war- 
ships of  England  to  assert  the  dignity  of  the  flag.  In  1850 
an  Athenian  mob  had  sacked  the  house  of  Don  Pacifico,  a  Jew  of 
Gibraltar,  who  claimed  to  be  a  British  subject.  Palmerston, 
instead  of  resorting  to  the  quieter  methods  of  diplomacy  to  secure 
redress,  promptly  blockaded  the  Piraeus.  At  home  many  were 
displeased,  particularly  the  queen.  The  next  year,  however,  the 
conduct  of  the  minister  passed  the  bounds  of  further  endurance, 
when  without  consulting  his  colleagues  he  gave  his  approval  to 
the  work  of  the  corrupt  ring  of  politicians  who  had  overturned  the 
second  French  republic  and  made  Louis  lN"apoleon  emperor.  The 
queen   was   deeply   offended  and    Russell  in  order  to   disclaim 


1850,  1852]  THE    FIRST   DERBY   MIKISTRY  1021 

responsibility  for  the  act  was  compelled  to  get  rid  of  his  officious 
colleague.  Kussell  himself,  however,  was  not  so  secure  in  his 
position  that  he  could  defy  the  minister  who  regarded  his  chief  as 
the  principal  cause  of  his  overthrow.  In  1850  he  had  failed  to 
arrest  a  measure,  presented  by  Locke  King,  which  proposed  to 
assimilate  the  county  and  borough  franchises,  and  had  promptly 
resigned;  but  the  recent  death  of  Peel  and  the  declining  strength 
of  Wellington  had  left  the  opposition  without  a  leader  of  sufficient 
influence  to  undertake  a  ministry,  and  Russell  was  persuaded  to 
remain  in  office.  The  conversion  of  Palmerston,  therefore,  from 
a  supporter  to  a  bitter  foe  was  a  doubly  serious  matter,  and  when 
in  February,  1852,  Russell  brought  in  a  bill  to  strengthen  the 
militia,  Palmerston  seized  the  opportunity  to  carry  an  amendment 
against  the  government,  and  forced  Russell  to  resign.  "I  have 
had  my  tit-for-tat  with  John  Russell,"  he  boasted;  "I  turned 
him  out  on  Friday  last." 

The  Peelites,  deprived  of  their  leader,  were  not  strong  enough 
to  undertake  a  ministry,  and  the  queen  turned  to  Edward  Stan- 
ley, since  1851  Lord  Derby,  who  organized  a  govern- 
Theflrst  mcnt  with  Disraeli  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and 
ui^,i852^^^  leader  of  the  Commons.  Although  the  Conservatives 
had  gained  recently,  they  were  not  yet  strong  enough 
to  face  the  Liberals  and  Peelites  combined.  Disraeli's  chief 
political  capital  had  been  the  sufferings  and  wrongs  which  the 
free  traders  had  brought  upon  the  farmers  by  repealing  the  Corn 
Laws;  and  although  parliament  by  a  test  vote  of  four  hundred  and 
sixty-eight  to  fifty- three  had  bound  itself  to  support  Peel's  free 
trade  position  as  the  policy  of  the  nation,  when  Disraeli  brought 
forward  his  budget,  .while  cunningly  pretending  to  accept  free 
trade  as  a  finality,  by  a  skillfully  rearranged  scheme  of  taxation 
he  proposed  to  give  an  undue  advantage  to  the  farming  commu- 
nities over  the  tow^is.  At  once  the  Liberals  took  alarm  and  a  bitter 
fight  began,  in  which  the  new  Chancellor  was  finally  beaten; 
Derby  at  once  resigned. 

It  was  full  time  for  the  organization  of  a  strong  ministry,  and 
the  queen  turned  to  George  Gordon,  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  who  had 
been  Peel's  foreign  secretary,  and  had  commanded  the  respect  not 


1022  DISSOLUTION    OF   THE    OLD    PARTIES  [victoeia 

only  of  his  old  companions  but  of  the  Whigs  as  well.     The  result 
was  a  coalition  ministry,  in  which  Gladstone  became  Chancellor  of 

the  Exchequer,  Lord  John  Russell  Foreign  Secretary, 
minSi^y^^^  and  Palmerston  Home  Secretary.  The  new  ministry 
December  ^^^  particularly  happy  in  the  man  who  had  undertaken 
aru  %55^^^'  ^^^  organization   of   the   finances   of   the  government. 

Ho  had  a  remarkable  power  of  imparting  something 
of  his  own  virility  to  the  most  indifferent  of  subjects.  Under 
his  wizard-like  touch,  columns  of  figures  glowed  with  interest; 
the  darkest  corners  of  his  ofiice  were  compelled  to  disclose  their 
mysteries,  and  the  dullest  of  his  colleagues,  to  grasp  the  financial 
problems  which  confronted  the  state.  Yet  there  was  nothing 
novel  or  startling  in  the  policy  which  he  proposed ;  it  was  simply 
the  traditional  policy  already  adopted  by  Peel, — to  continue 
the  reduction  of  duties  and  retain  the  income  tax  until  the  increase 
of  trade  should  restore  the  income  of  the  treasury.  In  its  treat- 
ment of  foreign  affairs,  the  new  ministry  was  not  so  happy  and 
soon  managed  to  embroil  the  nation  in  a  costly  and  profitless  war, 
which  added  much  to  the  glory  of  English  arms  but  little  to  the 
credit  of  English  diplomacy. 

Czar  Nicholas  had  never  given  up  his  early  scheme  of  securing 
**the  key  to  the  Russian  house,"  and  now  that  his  friend  Lord 

Aberdeen  had  become  Prime  Minister,  he  seemed  to 
Causes  of  the  think  that  the  time  had  come  for  a  movement  against 
War.  the  Ottoman  Empire.     ''The  sick  man"  he  said,  *'is  in 

extremities ;  the  time  has  come  for  a  clear  understand- 
ing between  England  and  Russia."  The  Czar,  however,  had  not 
calculated  upon  the  influence  of  the  new  French  emperor,  who 
had  an  ambition  of  his  own  to  fulfill  in  making  the  Bonaparte 
throne  again  a  power  in  Europe,  and  had  seized  upon  a  quarrel 
between  the  Greek  and  Latin  monks  over  the  guardianship  of  the 
Holy  Places  in  Palestine  as  a  pretext  for  intervention  in  Turkey. 
For  two  years  the  diplomatists  quarreled  over  the  matter;  the 
emperor  of  the  French  and  the  Czar  each  claimed  to  be  the 
natural  protector  of  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Porte  and  each 
refused  to  allow  the  other  to  interfere. 

The  English  ministry  was  divided,  and  while  the  ministers 


1853-1855]  THE   CRIMEAK  WAR  1023 

quarreled,  Russia  determined  to  act  and,  by  taking  forcible  posses- 
sion of  the  Turkish  states  on   the  Danube,  secure  a  guarantee 

for  the  better  government  of  the  fourteen  million  Chris- 
the  War,        tian  subjocts  of  the  Sultan.     Such  high-handed  action 

of  course  meant  war;  but  Nicholas  believed  that 
the  Turk  could  make  little  resistance,  England  would  not  inter- 
fere, and  the  French  emperor  would  not  dare  to  expose  his  brand 
new  throne  to  the  hazards  of  a  foreign  war.  He  did  not 
appreciate,  however,  the  deep-seated  fear  of  Russia  which  was 
the  one  tenet  common  to  all  the  political  creeds  of  the  west. 
The  advance  to  the  Danube  at  once  roused  Austria  and  Prussia, 
who  were  not  pleased  at  the  extension  of  the  Russian  boundary 
in  their  direction.  Nicholas  had  the  wisdom  to  withdraw 
before  he  came  to  open  rupture  with  his  near  neighbors,  but 
elsewhere  Russians  and  Turks  were  already  fighting.  A  Turkish 
fleet  had  been  destroyed  at  Sinope,  and  Nicholas  had  secured  the 
Black  Sea.  A  Russian  army  had  entered  Bulgaria  and  the  Czar's 
soldiers  were  swarming  about  the  border  fortresses  of  the  Sultan. 
As  the  Czar  had  foreseen,  the  French  emperor  was  afraid  to 
act  alone ;  but  the  Aberdeen  ministry  could  not  hold  back  while 
the  Ottoman  empire  was  overwhelmed  before  their  eyes,  and  in 
spite  of  himself  Aberdeen  was  forced  into  a  war  for  which  neither 
he  nor  the  English  were  prepared. 

On  March  27,  1854,  England  and  France  declared  war,  and  late 
in  the  summer  their  armaments  entered  the  Black  Sea,  to  unite 

with  the  Turks  and  begin  a  combined  attack  upon 
War,  1854,      Sebastopol,    Russia's   great    southern   fortress    in    the 

Crimean  peninsula.  The  allies  landed  in  September 
1854,  and  after  defeating  the  governor  of  the  Crimea  in  the  battle 
of  the  Alma,  began  the  siege.  From  the  first  the  conduct  of  the 
siege  was  marked  by  divided  councils,  continued  blundering,  and 
stupid  inefficiency  on  the  part  of  the  allied  commanders,  but  by 
the  most  heroic  endurance  and  brilliant  daring  on  the  part  of  the 
troops,  the  French  and  the  Turks  being  not  one  whit  behind  the 
English  in  displaying  all  the  finest  qualities  of  the  soldier.  The 
winter  of  1854  found  the  allies  without  tents,  without  hospital 
supplies,  without  even  suitable  food.     They,  had  been  seriously 


1024  DISSOLUTION   OF  THE   OLD   PAKTIES  [victoeia 

crippled,  also,  by  the  hard  but  aimless  fighting  of  the  autumn  which 
had  given  the  names  of  Balaclava  and  Inkerman  to  English  war 
history.  Something  was  done  by  the  heroic  Florence  Nightingale 
in  restoring  order  in  the  plague  smitten  hospitals ;  still  the  sick 
and  the  wounded  perished  by  thousands.  In  England,  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  soldiers,  which  as  usual  were  charged  to  the 
vmdeF^me  ii^^fficiency  of  the  ministry,  roused  an  outburst  of  indig- 
MinisterFeb.  nation;  Aberdeen  was forccd  to  resign,  and  Palmerston, 

5,  laoD.  '  o     J  ' 

the  Home  Secretary,  whose  pugnacious  promptness  in 
the  Don  Pacifico  episode  was  remembered  with  more  favor  now 
that  England  was  in  trouble,  was  advanced  to  the  first  place  in 
the  government. 

Palmerston,  who  had  been  virtually  shelved  as  Home  Secretary, 
now  found  full  scope  for  his  magnificent  energy,  and  soon  infused 

order  and  efficiency  in  all  the  branches  of  service  con- 
ofthe  war,     ncctcd  with  the  war.     The  allies  plucked  up  new  heart; 

Russia  was  finding  it  increasingly  difficult  to  maintain 
a  war  in  a  region  so  remote  from  the  seat  of  government  and  yet 
so  accessible  to  her  foes,  and  was  showing  unmistakable  signs  of 
exhaustion ;  the  death  of  Nicholas  in  March  and  the  accession  of 
Alexander  II.  still  further  encouraged  the  hope  of  a  speedy  issue  of 
the  struggle.  Neither  side,  however,  was  willing  to  make  the 
necessary  concessions,  and  with  the  opening  of  the  season  the 
fighting  before  Sebastopol  was  renewed.  The  affairs  of  the  allies 
were  now  in  very  different  stead  from  what  they  had  been  in  the 
autumn.  The  efficiency  of  the  British  army  had  been  greatly 
increased.  The  French  poured  in  reinforcements,  and  Sardinia, 
who  had  joined  the  alliance  in  January,  also  sent  her  contingent, 

a  small  but  efficient  army  of  15,000  men.  The 
Scbrdinia  strength  of  the  allies  left  them  free  to  push  forward 
Jan.  26,1855.'  i\iQix  siege  works   without  fear  of   attack.     In   June 

they  began  the  series  of  direct  assaults  which  after 
varying  success,  resulted  at  last  on  Sept.  8  in  the  storming  of  the 
Malakoff  and  the  Little  Eedan  by  the  French  under  Marshal 
McMahon;  the  English  succeeded  in  entering  the  Great  Eedan 
but  failed  to  hold  it.  The  capture  of  the  Malakoff  forced 
the  Russians  to  retire      In  the  night  following,  Gortchakoff  the 


1856]  THE    PEACE   OP   PAEIS  1026 

commander,  blew  up  the  works  which  still  remained  in  his  hands, 
sunk  his  ships,  and  retired  to  the  north  side  of  the  harbor,  destroy- 
ing his  bridge  of  boats  behind  him. 

The  fall  of  Sebastopol  virtually  ended  the  war.     There  were 
some  minor  engageme'its  at  sea,  and  on  November  27  the  great 

Turkish  fortress  of  Kars  on  the  Armenian  frontier, 
Pari^^^^^  after  a  heroic  resistance  of  six  months,  surrendered  to 
wsT^'*^^'       Mnravieff.     All   parties,  however,  were  eager  to  end  a 

war  which  right  thinking  men  generally  regarded  as  the 
result  of  blundering  diplomacy  and,  hence,  unnecessary.  "When, 
therefore,  on  the  25th  of  February,  the  representatives  of  the  pow- 
ers met  in  congress  at  Paris,  no  serious  obstacle  lay  in  the  way  of  a 
settlement,  notwithstanding  the  many  interests  at  stake,  and  in  a 
month's  time  their  work  was  done.  Sebastopol  was  restored  to 
Russia  but  not  to  be  again  fortified.  The  Danube  was  declared  free, 
and  the  Black  Sea  thrown  open  to  the  merchantmen  of  all  nations, 
but  no  warship  of  Russia  or  Turkey  or  any  other  power  might  enter 
its  waters.  TheDanubian  principalities,  Moldavia,  Wallachia,  and 
Servia,  were  placed  under  the  protection  of  the  powers.  The 
powers,  further,  exacted  a  promise  from  the  Sultan  to  allow  his 
Christian  subjects  to  enjoy  privileges  similar  to  those  of  his 
Mohammedan  subjects.  The  congress  also  took  advantage  of  the 
occasion  to  agree  to  abandon  privateering  and  to  acknowledge  the 
right  of  a  neutral  flag  to  protect  all  goods  except  munitions  of  war. 
Thus  the  Crimean  War  ended  in  the  complete  success  of  the 
allies,  in  so  far  as  treaties  and  protocols  could  concede  the  points 

at  issue.  But  unfortunately  Russia  has  since  shown 
Uwwarf       ^^  intention  of  abandoning  her  earlier  policy,  and  the 

Turk  has  proved  himself  as  incorrigible  a  sinner  as 
ever  against  the  laws  of  civilization.  No  sooner  had  the  western 
powers  become  involved  in  the  struggle  of  1870,  than  Russia 
coolly  renounced  tiie  neutralization  of  the  Black  Sea,  proceeded 
to  rebuild  and  fortify  Sebastopol,  and  to-day  patrols  its  Baltic  shores 
with  one  of  the  most  powerful  fleets  of  Europe;  nor  has  she  hesi- 
tated to  interfere  again  in  the  internal  affairs  of  Turkey  or  openly 
wage  war  against  Turkey  in  the  interests  of  the  Christian  subjects 
of  the  Turk. 


1026  DISSOLUTION    OF   THE    OLD    PARTIES  [victokia 

Palmerston  was  now  supreme.  He  had  not  been  a  great  Home 
Minister;  he  had  never  quite  outgrown  his  early  Tory  training  and 

was  always  more  or  less  suspicious  of  projects  of 
math^oflhe  ^omestic  reform.  He  had,  however,  very  definite  ideas 
Crimean        about  English  influence  abroad;  and  England,  dazzled 

by  the  success  of  the  Crimean  War,  the  hollo wness  of 
which  was  not  then  apparent,  was  not  disinclined  to  a  "brilliant 
foreign  policy."  Until  his  death,  therefore,  in  1865,  with  the 
exception  of  a  temporary  reaction  in  1858,  Palmerston  was  left  to 
conduct  the  government  as  he  pleased.  Nor  was  it  long  before 
the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  Britain  found  that  there  was  more  work 
cut  out  for  them.  The  Crimean  struggle  was  in  fact  followed  by 
an  aftermath  of  petty  wars,  in  all  of  which  England  was  more  or 

less   interested.     First    the   Shah   of   Persia,    directly 

The  PcTsiidTi 

War,  1856,  inspired  by  Russian  influence,  had  taken  advantage  of 
the  distraction  of  England  to  invade  Afghanistan  and 
take  Herat.  The  Shah  well  understood  that  this  advance  toward 
India  meant  war,  and  as  soon  as  the  Treaty  of  Paris  freed  the 
hands  of  Palmerston,  the  Shah  was  forced  to  abandon  Herat  and 
was  glad  to  accept  such  terms  as  Palmerston  saw  fit  to  enforce. 

The  Persian  war  had  hardly  closed  before  the  Palmerston  gov- 
ernment became  involved  in  a  quarrel  with  China  over  the  arrest 
of  some  Chinese  pirates,  who  had  taken  the  precaution 
CMnSeWar  ^^  shelter  themsclves  under  the  British  flag.  The  jus- 
tice of  Palmerston's  position  was  by  no  means  apparent, 
even  to  his  own  followers.  The  Conservatives  under  Disraeli's 
lead  opposed  the  war  as  a  matter  of  course ;  but,  Gladstone  and 
Russell,  Cobden  and  Bright,  with  a  considerable  following  of 
Peelites  and  Liberals,  also  supported  the  opposition  in  its  protest 
against  the  course  of  the  pugnacious  chief  of  the  Liberals  and 
managed  to  pass  a  vote  of  disapproval.  Palmerston,  however, 
appealed  to  the  country,  and  the  people  showed  their  continued 
confidence  in  the  minister  by  returning  a  decided  majority. 

Before  the  new  war  was  well  under  way  Palmerston  found  him- 
self with  a  far  more  serious  matter  on  his  hands.  The  Sepoys,  the 
native  professional  soldiers  of  India,  had  for  some  time  been  grow- 
ing restless  under  English  rule.     The  Indian  caste  system  did  not 


1848-1856]  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY  10^7 

lend  itself  readily  to  the  exigencies  of  military  etiquette.     Men  who 
believed  that  their  bliss  or   misery  during  unnumbered  ages  to 

come  depended  on  the  preservation  of  the  exclusiveness 
Mutiny,         prescribed  by  the   religious  traditions  of  a  thousand 

years,  were  in  no  mood  to  submit  quietly  to  the  petty 
requirements  of  barrack  life,  often  imposed  with  unnecessary 
offensiveness  by  some  reckless  "Mulvaney"  or  hot-headed 
"Ortheris,"  to  whom  the  "regulations,"  when  administered  upon 
the  members  of  the  subject  race,  were  as  unalterable  as  the  laws  of 
the  Medes  and  Persians,  good  for  the  soul  and  "an  honor  to  the 
service. "  The  Bengal  army  in  particular  had  long  been  disaffected. 
It  was  composed  of  superb  fellows,  endowed  with  fine  soldierly 
qualities;  but  under  a  corrupt  system,  discipline  had  become 
irregular  and  spasmodic,  and  the  respect  of  the  soldiers  for  the 
comparatively  small  number  of  European  officers  was  rapidly 
diminishing. 

In  the  last  twenty  years,   moreover,  western  civilization  had 
made  startling  inroads  in  India.     From  1848  to  1856  the  brilliant 

Dalhousie  had  ruled  India  with  a  daring  hand.  He 
India,  1848-     had  not  only  conquered  the  Sikhs  of  the  Punjab  and,  in 

1849,  formally  annexed  their  territories,  but  he  had  also, 
in  1852,  fought  out  the  second  Burmese  war  to  a  successful  issue 
and  annexed  Lower  Burmah.  He  had,  moreover,  formally  adopted 
the  policy  of  annexing  the  protected  states,  whenever  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  direct  line  of  a  ruling  house  gave  him  the  opportunity, 
refusing  longer  to  recognize  the  Hindu  custom  of  adoption.  In 
this  way  he  had  seized  and  annexed  three  of  the  states  of  the  once 
great  Mahratta  confederation,  Sattara  in  1849,  and  Nagpore  and 
Jhansi  in  1853.  Poonah,  another  of  the  Mahratta  states,  that 
had  made  trouble  in  1817,  had  already  been  annexed,  and  the  last 
of  the  Peishwas  had  been  established  at  Bithoor  as  a  regular  pen- 
sioner of  the  East  India  Company.  In  1853  the  Peishwa  died, 
and  his  adopted  son,  the  infamous  Nana  Sahib,  claimed  the  patron- 
age of  the  company  as  heir  by  Hindu  law.  Dalhousie,  however, 
had  felt  no  obligation  to  continue  the  pension  longer  and  left  Nana 
without  his  portion.  In  1856  Dalhousie  had  abolished  the  out- 
rageous despotism  which  the  kings  of  Oudh  had  carried  on  since 


1028  DISSOLUTION^    OF   THE    OLD    PARTIES  [victobu 

1819;  but  ill  annexing  their  vast  territories,  he  managed  to 
antagonize  the  wealthy  lauded  aristocracy  of  the  kingdom. 

Not  less  radical  had  been  Dalhousie's  management  of  the  domes- 
tic relations  of  his  government;  the  great  missionary  societies  had 
been  encouraged  to  multiply  their  activities ;  the  railroad  and  the 
telegraph  had  been  introduced  and  rapidly  extended;  the  Ganges 
Canal  had  been  completed;  and  the  Indian  civil  service  had  been 
thrown  open  to  all  British  subjects,  regardless  of  color  or  religion. 
These  measures  were  commendable;  but  the  energetic  governor 
had  not  accounted  sufficiently  for  the  immobility  of  the  oriental 
mind,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  his  innovations  had  succeeded 
one  another,  had  roused  among  the  natives  a  feeling  of  uncer- 
tainty and  resentment.  The  masses  were  deeply  attached  to  the 
old  order  both  by  interest  and  by  sentiment,  and  saw  with  no 
kindly  feeling  the  progress  of  a  revolution  which  threatened  to 
overthrow  the  system  which  they  had  received  from  their  fathers. 
Exaggerated  accounts,  also,  of  the  mismanagement  of  the  Crimean 
War  began  to  reach  India,  and  were  eagerly  seized  upon  by  the 
disaffected  elements,  still  further  exaggerated,  and  industriously 
circulated  as  evidence  of  the  declining  prestige  of  England  and  the 
approaching  downfall  of  British  rule. 

Thus  the  mine  was  well  prepared,  when  in  the  spring  of  1857 
the  new  Enfield  rifle  was  introduced  into  the  English  service.  In 
order  to  load,  it  was  necessary  for  the  soldier  to  tear 
Su&^^"^  off  the  end  of  the  paper  cartridge  with  his  teeth.  But 
unfortunately,  in  order  to  lubricate  the  cartridge  and 
the  better  protect  the  powder  from  the  dampness,  the  makers  had 
used  paper  well  soaked  in  grease.  In  this  grease  the  suspicions  of 
the  Sepoys  discovered  a  diabolical  mixture  of  cow's  fat  and  hog's 
lard,  designed,  as  they  thought,  to  force  them  to  do  violence  to 
their  religious  faith,  since  neither  Hindoo  nor  Mohammedan  could 
touch  the  cartridge  with  his  lips  without  defilement.  In  vain 
the  authorities  attempted  to  assure  the  troops  of  the  innocence  of 
the  oiled  paper,  or  to  withdraw  the  cause  of  disturbance.  Mutinous 
outbreaks  spread  from  barrack  to  barrack,  until  in  a  short  time 
all  the  middle  and  upper  Ganges  was  in  uproar. 

Delhi,  which  was  the  residence  of  the  aged  descendant  of  the 


U-       i^       ^1,    .^       ,v.-...il» 


L. 


1856]  EXTENT   OF   MUTINY  1029 

Grand  Mogul,  became  the  center  of  the  revolt  in  the  north.     The 
population  of   the  newly  annexed  khigdom  of  Oudh  rose  in  the 

name  of  their  king,  who  was  still  a  prisoner  at  Calcutta, 
mtentof  me  and  flocked  to  the  siege  of  Lucknow,  where  Sir  Henry 

Lawrence  had  withdrawn  the  resident  garrison,  consist- 
ing of  a  single  regiment,  into  the  Residency  buildings  in  hope  of 
holding  out  until  relieved.  At  Cawnpore  Nana  Sahib  placed 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  mutineers  and  also  began  the  siege  of 
the  resident  garrison.  Everywhere  the  Sepoys  inaugurated  the 
rising  by  murdering  the  English  officers  and  their  families.  At 
Delhi  there  was  no  foreign  garrison,  and  the  Sepoys  had  little 
trouble  in  overpowering  the  resident  officers  and  their  servants. 
At  Cawnpore  the  garrison  capitulated  only  to  be  massacred,  but 
by  some  freak  of  pity  or  policy,  some  one  hundred  and  thirty  of 
the  women  and  children,  were  saved  by  order  of  Nana. 

Fortunately  for  the  English   the  presidencies  of  the  Lower 
Ganges  were  not  affected.     The  Ghurkas  of  Nepal  and  the  Sikhs 

of  the  Punjab  also  remained  faithful,  while  the  rulers 
^^^f  f^e    of  Gwalior  and  Indore  refusod  to  join  their  mutinous 

troops.  Fortunately,  also,  the  British  troops  who  had 
been  occupied  in  the  Persian  war  were  returning;  the  army  des- 
tined for  the  Chinese  war  was  on  the  ocean,  and  when  the  trans- 
ports reached  Cape  Town,  Sir  George  Grey,  the  governor  at  the 
Cape,  assumed  the  responsibility  of  sending  them  to  India.  Thus, 
from  all  sides  ample  means  were  within  reach  for  speedily  crush- 
ing the  revolt.  The  new  governor-general.  Lord  Canning,  son  of 
the  former  minister,  acted  promptly  and  vigorously.  By  enlisting 
Sikhs  and  mustering  the  resident  garrisons  of  the  Punjab,  he  was 
able  to  dispatch  an  army  from  the  northwest  under  John  Nichol- 
son against  Delhi.  The  siege,  however,  lasted  from  May  to  Sep- 
tember; and  the  city  finally  had  to  be  carried  by  assault.  In  the 
meanwhile  Henry  Havelock,  a  soldier  of  the  Cromwellian  type, 
was  fighting  his  way  from  lower  Bengal  to  Cawnpore.  His  entire 
force  amounted  only  to  1,500  men.  Between  the  7th  and  16th  of 
July  in  spite  of  the  fierce  heat,  he  marched  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  miles  and  fought  four  engagements  in  the  desperate 
hope  of   rescuing  Nana's  victims.     But  on  news  of  Havelock's 


1030  DISSOLUTION   OF   THE   OLD   PARTIES  [victokia 

approacli  two  Sepoys  with  arms  bared  to  the  elbow  and  drawn 
swords  entered  the  prison  where  the  women  and  children  who  had 
been  spared  from  the  former  massacre  were  crowded 
caumpore,  together.  When  the  next  day  Havelock's  men  entered 
the  place  the  victims  were  gone,  but  the  blood-plashed 
wainscoting  and  the  reeking  floors  told  of  the  pitiful  struggle. 
The  bodies  were  found  in  a  well  near  by,  where  they  had  been 
thrown,  the  dead  and  the  still  living.  At  the  awful  sight  hard 
visaged  men  broke  down.  They  had  fought  over  those  terrible 
hundred  and  twenty-six  miles  in  the  intense  heat  of  an  Indian 
summer,  to  see  this. 

Colonel  Neill  remained  to  punish  those  who  were  responsible 
for  the  awful  crime,  while  Havelock,  with  fresh  troops  that  raised 
his  column  to  3,000  men,  pressed  on  to  Lucknow, 
iMckrmv  where  the  little  garrison  of  1,000  men  from  behind  the 
walls  of  the  Residency  were  standing  off  the  whole  male 
population  of  Oudh.  The  gallant  Lawrence  had  been  mortally 
wounded  on  June  1,  and  had  committed  the  defense  to  General 
Inglis,  with  a  dying  injunction  never  to  surrender.  Havelock 's 
progress  in  the  face  of  the  overwhelming  odds  against  him  was 
necessarily  slow,  and  it  was  not  until  September  25  that  he  at 
last  succeeded  in  fighting  his  way  tlirough  the  streets  of  the  city 
and  reaching  the  Eesidency,  where  the  British  flag  still  floated. 
His  little  band  was  too  feeble  to  raise  the  siege,  but  he  brought 
new  strength  and  assurance  to  the  besieged,  and  enabled  them  to 
keep  up  the  defense.  The  siege  was  not  raised  until  November 
17,  when  Sir  Colin  Campbell  with  the  reinforcements  which 
had  been  sent  from  England,  at  last  reached  the  city.  The  brave 
Havelock  died  on  the  24th. 

Campbell  was  compelled  to  withdraw  with  the  garrison  to 
Cawnpore,  before  which  he  fought  a  successful  battle  on  December 
6.  In  the  spring  he  again  marched  upon  Lucknow  and 
Close  of  the  carrying  the  city  by  storm,  followed  the  retreating  insur- 
gents to  Bareilly,  and  there  in  May  1858  delivered  a 
final,  crushing  blow.  While  Campbell  was  thus  stamping  out  the 
war  in  Oudh,  Sir  Hugh  Rose  had  advanced  from  the  Bombay 
Presidency  against  the  Mahrattas,  and  on  June  16  fought   the 


1858]  EKTD    OF   EAST   INDIA    COMPANY  1031 

last  battle  of  the  war  before  Gwalior.  Thus  ended  this  ferocious 
struggle  between  civilization  and  barbarism,  in  which  the  civilized 
European  proved  that  he  could  be  quite  as  merciless  if  not  as 
treacherous,  as  his  cruel  enemy,  marring  his  victories  by  ruthless 
massacres,  blowing  prominent  prisoners  to  pieces  at  the  cannon's 
mouth  and  hanging  meaner  folk  by  the  hundred.  Yet  if  the 
triumph  of  the  victor  was  marked  by  acts  of  vengeance  unknown 
to  civilized  warfare,  his  provocation  was  great.  One  bitter  drop 
of  disappointment,  however,  remained.  The  English  never  suc- 
ceeded in  catching  Nana  Sahib.  He  eluded  his  pursuers  to  the 
last,  and  probably  died  in  the  jungles  of  Nepal. 

Public  sentiment  at  home  was  satisfied  that  the  time  had  come 
for  the  abolition  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  in  1858  the 
transient  Derby  ministry  formally  dissolved  it  and 
End  of  the  transferred  its  political  authority  directly  to  the  crown, 
Company.  which  was  to  act  through  a  Secretary  of  State  for  India. 
The  general  administration  was  placed  in  the  hands  of 
a  viceroy,  although  each  province  still  retained  its  separate  local 
government.  The  company's  navy  was  abolished,  but  its  army 
was  merged  in  the  army  of  the  empire.  Lord  Canning,  the  last 
governor-general  of  the  company,  became  the  first  Viceroy  of  India, 
and  remained  in  office  until  1862.  The  queen,  further,  in  order  to 
quiet  the  country  and  allay  the  suspicions  of  the  neighboring 
princes,  formally  disclaimed  by  proclamation  any  desire  to  seek 
new  accessions  of  territory,  and  promised  to  maintain  all  existing 
treaties,  to  admit  qualified  Indians  to  office,  to  pardon  all  rebels 
who  had  not  been  connected  with  the  massacres,  to  grant  full 
religious  toleration  and  to  respect  the  ancient  customs  of  her 
subjects. 

The  English  government,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  not  forgotten 
the  quarrel  with  China,  although  operations  for  the  moment 
had  been  delayed  by  the  more  serious  struggle  in  India.  In  the 
The  second  Summer  of  1858  Canton  was  bombarded,  the  Taku  forts, 
^m^lsss-  which  held  the  approach  to  Pekin,  were  seized,  and  the 
1862.  Chinese  forced  to  consent  to  the  Treaty  of  Tientsin  by 

which  they  opened  a  number  of  new  ports  to  the  English  traders 
and  allowed  a  Britiah  ambassador  to  take   up   his  residence  at 


1032  DISSOLUTION    OF   THE    OLD    PARTIES  [victoria 

Pekin.  In  1859  the  war  was  again  renewed;  France,  also,  joined 
with  England,  and  in  1860  they  compelled  the  Chinese  to  confirm 
the  recent  treaty  and  pay  a  war  indemnity  of  £4,000,000. 

Before  the  China  war  had  been  well  under  way,  the  great  war 
premier  had  temporarily  come  to  grief  at  home.  Curiously  enough, 
the  reason  for  dissatisfaction  was  not  that  he  was  too 
affair^ms  ^^^^  ^^  dealing  with  foreign  powers,  but  that  he  was 
not  bold  enough.  Orsini,  an  Italian  refugee,  had  taken 
advantage  of  the  safe  harborage  which  London  afforded  him,  to 
hatch  a  plot  for  the  assassination  of  the  emperor  of  the  French. 
The  bomb  had  missed  the  emperor;  but  it  killed  or  wounded 
some  one  hundred  and  fifty  bystanders.  Public  opinion  in  France 
was  greatly  wrought  up  over  the  dastardly  act,  and  the  emperor, 
reasonably  enough,  demanded  such  a  change  in  the  laws  of  England 
as  should  make  similar  plots  impossible  in  the  future.  Under 
ordinary  circumstances  the  sympathies  of  the  English  people  would 
probably  have  supported  a  minister  who  proposed  to  punish  such 
an  inexcusable  crime  as  Orsini's,  but  the  furious  attack  of  the 
French  press  and  the  vainglorious  boasting  of  some  French  col- 
onels, who  sent  a  formal  address  to  the  emperor  asking  him  to 
permit  his  army  to  "destroy  the  infamous  haunt  where  such 
infernal  plots  are  hatched,"  roused  the  bitterest  feelings  in  Eng- 
land, and  when  Palmerston  brought  in  a  ''Conspiracy  to  Murder 
Bill,"  which  made  such  a  crime  a  penal  offense  whether  commit- 
ted in  England  or  out  of  England,  the  opposition  took  advantage 
of  the  popular  clamor  to  denounce  what  they  stigmatized  as  the 
cringing  policy  of  the  minister.  His  bill  was  beaten  and  he  was 
forced  to  resign. 

The  logical  outcome  of  the  resignation  of  Palmerston  was  a 

return  to  a  conservative  administration,  and  the  queen  recalled 

Derby  and  Disraeli.     While  the  war  scare  lasted  the 

Derby's         new  ministry  had  some  showing  of  strength  in  the  tre- 

second  min-  ,  i-ii  -,     ■,  ,  •        ,       i 

istry,  1858-9.  mendous  enthusiasm  with  which  the  whole  nation  took 
to  drilling  and  organizing  volunteer  companies, — a 
patriotic  but  harmless  activity,  in  which  the  ministers  shrewdly 
encouraged  the  people.  The  ministry,  however,  never  had  the 
confidence  of  the  Commons  sufficient  to  command   a   majority, 


1859-1865]  THE   AMERICAN   CIVIL  WAR  1033 

and  although  Disraeli  sought  to  gain  favor  with  the  Liberals  by 
bringing  in  a  bill  which  proposed  to  extend  the  £10  household 
franchise  of  the  boroughs  to  the  counties,  his  effort  to  * 'educate 
his  party"  as  he  called  it,  was  not  taken  seriously.  His  proposal 
to  give  the  franchise  to  university  graduates,  physicians,  and  law- 
yers, regardless  of  property  qualifications,  and  to  any  one  who  could 
show  a  balance  of  £60  in  a  savings  bank,  was  derided  as  a  proposal 
to  create  ''fancy  franchises."  The  bill  was  Boston  the  second 
reading.  An  appeal  was  then  made  to  the  country  and  a  new 
parliament  summoned,  but  the  very  first  division  proved  that  the 
ministry  was  without  the.  necessary  majority  and  Derby  and  his 
colleagues  resigned. 

The  French  war  scare  had  now  blown  over,  and  the  sober 

second  thought  of  the  people  once  more  turned  to  the  great  leader 

who  had  brought  them  out  of  the  Crimean  War,  and 

Paimeritton's  carried  them  through  the  trying  period  of  the  Mutiny. 

second  minis-    _^,  ,  ti,  t.  •• 

try,  1859-1865.  Palmerston  accordingly  returned,  to  remain  in  power 
until  his  death  in  18G5.  These  years  were  years  of 
great  anxiety;  there  were  stirring  times  abroad,  and  although 
after  the  Chinese  War,  England  remained  at  peace  with  the  world, 
her  foreign  relations  called  for  the  exercise  of  a  clear  head  and  a 
steady  hand. 

The  year  1859  saw  the  interference  of  Napoleon  III.  in  Italy, 
the  overthrow  of  the  Austrians  at  Magenta  and  Solferino,  and  the 
rapid  advance  of  Italy  to  national  unity  under  the  lead 
secured,  of  the  king  of  Sardinia  and  his  able  minister,  Cavour. 

The  year  1861  saw  this  movement  finally  consummated 
when  an  Italian  parliament  formally  declared  Victor  Emmanuel 
King  of  Italy. 

The  same  year  saw  the  outbreak  of  the  American  Civil  War. 
England  was  deeply  interested  from  the  first.  The  blockading  of 
TheAmeri-  ^^®  southern  ports  cut  off  her  cotton  mills  frorft  their 
war%fi-65  ^^PP^y  ^^  ^^^  cotton  and  forced  them  to  shut  down; 
me^ngiish  ^^S^^  ^^^^^  stopped;  thousands  of  operatives  were 
people.  thrown  out  of  work  and  their  families  brought  to  the 

verge  of  starvation.  All  related  business  also  suffered;  and  noth- 
ing but  the  generous  gifts  of  private  charity  saved  the  great  Lan- 


1034  DISSOLUTION   OF   THE   OLD    PARTIES  [victoria 

cashire  mill  district  from  distress  as  serious  as  that  caused  in 
Ireland  by  the  potato  famine.  The  relations  of  the  two  govern- 
ments remained,  therefore,  under  serious  tension  during  the  whole 
course  of  the  war.  A  noisy  party  who  cared  little  for  other  than 
English  interests,  would  have  Palmerston  actively  interfere  in 
order  to  separate  the  warring  sections,  but  the  starving  operatives, 
although  they  believed  that  it  would  be  a  simple  matter  to  send  a 
British  fleet  to  America,  break  the  blockade  and  secure  cotton  and 
work  in  abundance,  saw  more  clearly  the  real  issue  at  stake,  and 
determined  that  they  would  go  without  work  and  suffer,  rather 
than  be  relieved  by  supporting  the  cause  of  slavery. 

The  Palmerston  ministry  affected  to  respect  the  laws  prescribed 

by  civilized  nations  in  such  cases;  but  hastened  to  recognize  the 

Confederate  States  as  belligerents  at  the  first  oppor- 

Attitude  of     tunitv.      It   Certainly   was   not    a    friendly   act,    and 

the  POilmcvs-  J  ' 

ton  Ministry,  arouscd  great  bitterness  in  the  north.  Yet  the  English 
had  a  right  to  place  their  sympathies  where  they 
would,  and  as  the  laws  of  nations  go,  the  Confederate  States 
could  be  justly  recognized  as  belligerents.  In  1861  the  relations 
of  the  two  governments  were  strained  almost  to  the  point  of  war 
as  a  result  of  the  action  of  Captain  Wilkes,  a  United  States  naval 
officer,  whose  name  had  been  heretofore  associated  with  a  peaceful 
and  all  but  forgotten  exploring  expedition  in  the  southern  Pacific. 
Wilkes  had  overhauled  the  British  steamer  Trent  and  taken  from 
her  Mason  and  Slidell,  two  Confederate  envoys  who  had  been 
sent  by  the  Confederate  government  to  England.  The  overzeal 
of  Captain  Wilkes  undoubtedly  put  the  Federal  government  in 
the  wrong,  and  Palmerston  promptly  seized  the  opportunity  to 
assert  the  majesty  of  the  British  flag,  a  course  which  probably  any 
other  foreign  state  not  particularly  friendly  to  the  United  States 
would  have  taken  under  the  circumstances,  poured  troops  into 
Canada  and  made  a  great  bluster  of  his  determination  to  have 
reparation  or  flght.  Lincoln  and  Seward  did  the  only  thing  to 
be  done  under  the  circumstances;  they  restored  the  arrested 
envoys  and  offered  the  apologies  prescribed  by  the  convention  of 
nations  under  such  cases.  If,  however,  the  British  ministers 
were  inclined  to  an  ostentatious  punctiliousness  in  observing  the 


1865-1872]  ALABAMA  CLAIMS  1035 

laws  of  nations  in  dealing  with  the  Federal  government,  they  were 
not  so  careful  in  dealing  with  the  Confederate  cruisers  which 
from  time  to  time  were  fitted  out  in  English  ports  for  the  purpose 
of  preying  upon  Northern  commerce.  The  United  States  at  the 
time  could  not  take  action,  but  when  the  war  was  over  the  matter 

was  taken  up  and  pushed  to  a  final  settlement  in  the 
ctoiwus"         Geneva  award  of  1872;    the  Southern  sympathies  of 

Palmerston's  ministry  cost  the  British  government  the 
sum  of  £3,000,000. 

Before  the  American  War  had  closed,  another  war  cloud  had 
begun  to  rise  in  Germany.     The  desire  for  national  unity  which 

had  been  first  quickened  by  the  War  of  Liberation  in 

Beginnirws       ^n-io    i     j  -      j   •  -^       £   ^i^ 

of  German  1813,  had  survived  m  spite  oi  the  repressive  measures 
of  the  Metternichian  system.  In  1834  a  very  signifi- 
cant step  had  been  taken  in  the  direction  of  closer  union  by  the 
formation  of  the  ZoUverein,  in  which  the  German  states  joined  in 
a  customs  union  for  the  purpose  of  securing  free  trade  among 
themselves.  Yet  Austria,  which  was  really  an  aggregation  of 
many  nationalities,  had  little  interest  in  encouraging  the  desire  for 
German  national  unity;  and  as  long  as  she  remained  the  dominant 
influence  among  the  group  of  German  states,  the  cause  of  national 
union  could  make  little  progress.  But  in  1861  William  I.  became 
king  of  Prussia.  No  such  man  had  ascended  the  German  throne 
since  the  days  of  the  Great  Frederick.  He  was  a  thorough  Ger- 
man in  all  his  sympathies,  an  untiring  worker,  and  possessed  a 
mind  able  to  grasp  correctly  all  the  conditions  of  the  problem 
which  confronted  Germany,  and  a  soul  great  enough  to  enter  into 
the  deep  longing  of  the  German  people  for  unity.  William,  also, 
had  the  discernment  to  draw  to  his  side  two  of  the  most  remark- 
able men  of  the  century,  Bismar^ck  and  von  Moltke.  Through  the 
one  he  addressed  himself  to  the  diplomatic  problem;  through  the 
other  to  the  military  problem.  As  a  result  it  was  not  long  before 
Austria  had  been  outwitted  in  the  council  chamber  and  out- 
fought on  the  battle  field,  and  was  at  last  respectfully  bowed  out 
of  the  German  family  house  altogether,  leaving  William  and  Bis- 
marck to  carry  out  their  plans  for  securing  German  unity. 

As  in  the  American  War  Palmerston  showed  little  appreciation 


1036  DISSOLUTION   OF   THE   OLD    PAKTIES  [victoria 

of  the  real  merit  of  the  struggle,  and  in  the  first  stages  which  fell 

within  his  ministry,  was  inclined  to  interfere.     In  this  case,  how- 
ever, as  in  the  almost  contemporary  troubles  in  Poland, 

fiv^strmai^  in  which  Palmerston  also  thought  himself  called  upon 

^unihi^^^^^    to  meddle,  the  officious  minister  received  a  humiliating 
snub,  and   after   blustering  somewhat  was   compelled 

to  sit  still  and  witness  the  making  of  German  states  out  of  the 

duchies  of  Schleswig  and  Holstein. 

On  October  18,  1865  Palmerston  died  at  his  post,  at  the  ripe 

age  of  eighty-one.     In  spite  of  his  many  faults,  his  fondness  for 
''jingo"  methods,  his  frequent  rashness  in  speech  and 

Death  of        action,  his  over  confidence  and  frequent  inclination  to 

1865.  '    needless  meddling  in  the  quarrels  of  others,  he  is  yet 

the  great  figure  of  the  middle  years  of  Victoria's  reign. 

No  other  minister  since  the  death  of  William  Pitt  had  so  long 

enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  English  nation. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    RISE   OF   THE   NEW    DEMOCRACY.       GLADSTONE    AND   THE 
SECOND   ERA    OF    REFORM 

VICTORIA,  lb65-1901 

The  death  of  Palmerston  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in 
English  politics.    The  Whigs  of  the  middle  class,  who  had  carried 

through  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  had  long  since  ceased 
ofUberai-      to   represent   the   advanced  political   thought   of    the 

nation.  They  had  taken  their  stand  upon  the  results 
of  that  redoubtable  struggle,  and  were  as  reluctant  as  the  old 
Tories  to  consider  any  further  extension  of  political  rights  among 
the  people ;  their  venerable  chief.  Lord  John  Russell,  the  hero  of 
the  fight  of  1832,  had  won  the  nickname  of  **Finality  John"  by 
the  persistent  way  in  which  upon  any  and  all  occasions  he  had 
continued  to  assert  the  ''finality"  of  that  measure.  Yet  shrewder 
men  like  Disraeli  had  seen  that  further  reform  was  inevitable,  and 
even  Lord  Russell  at  last  had  been  compelled  to  leave  his  ''final- 
ity" pedestal.  A  new  revolution,  in  fact,  had  been  quietly 
enlarging  the  whole  sphere  of  English  thought.  The  extensive 
introduction  of  the  railroad  and  the  steamboat,  the  penny  post 
and  the  electric  telegraph,  the  vast  increase  in  the  number  and 
quality  of  books,  the  multiplication  and  cheapening  of  newspapers, 
the  enlargement  of  existing  ideals  of  education  and  the  adoption 
of  more  rational  methods,  the  granting  of  self  government  to  the 
colonies,  and  the  growth  of  a  sense  of  unity  and  mutual  interest 
among  the  widely  extended  members  of  the  empire,  had  bred  new 
conditions  and  brought  in  a  whirl  of  new  ideas.  In  this  vigorous 
atmosphere  had  developed  a  new  liberalism,  founded  upon  con- 
fidence in  the  democracy  and  faith  in  the  British  Empire;  a 
liberalism   which,   while  it  did  not   shrink  from  assuming   tfie 

1037 


1038  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF   REFORM  [victoria 

responsibility  of  empire,  insisted  that  in  administering  the  vast 
trust  the  government  treat  all  with  honesty  and  equal  fairness, 
and  that  in  order  to  guarantee  an  administration  which  should  be 
fair  to  all,  the  government  be  so  constituted  as  to  represent  all. 
While  Palmerston  lived,  his  long  continued  popularity,  his 
commanding  personality,  as  well  as  the  deep  respect  in  which  he 
was  held  by  the  younger  members  of  his  party, 
cifnservativi  restrained  the  restless  activity  of  his  more  radical  fol- 
Sapart^^  lowers.  Yet  long  before  his  death  it  had  become  evi- 
dent that  the  two  wings  of  his  party  were  rapidly 
drifting  apart.  The  conservative  wing  that  represented  the  old 
Whigs  who  had  fought  to  bring  the  government  into  touch  with 
the  middle  class,  shrank  from  the  idea  of  a  government  by  the 
people,  as  Wellington  and  the  older  Tories  had  once  shrunk  from 
any  interference  with  the  *'God  given"  system  in  vogue  before 
1832.  The  liberal  wing  of  the  party,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
drifting  dangerously  near  the  Chartist  ground,  boldly  facing  the 
responsibility  of  extending  the  suffrage,  but  with  the  suffrage, 
proposing  also  to  extend  the  facilities  of  public  education  and 
rear  a  generation  who  should  be  worthy  of  the  great  trust  of  self 
government. 

While  the  wings  of  the  Whig  party  had  been  thus  steadily 
drifting  apart,  the  Tories  had  been  moving  as  steadily  forward 
toward  conservative  Whig  ground.  The  older  Toryism, 
mTTorUs{o  which  had  rallied  its  shattered  columns  about  the 
Whigl'i^oSid  standard  of  Peel  after  the  defeat  of  1832,  only  to  draw 
back  and  abandon  him  when  he  began  the  fight  against 
the  Corn  Laws,  could  no  longer  shut  their  eyes  to  the  abuses,  the 
suffering  and  misery,  inflicted  by  the  ancient  class  laws  upon  the 
toiling  masses  of  England  and  Ireland.  The  older  immobile  pol- 
icy, the  blank  quietus  which  ancient  Toryism  had  for  every  project 
of  reform,  had,  therefore,  long  since  been  abandoned  for  a  more 
generous  policy  of  conservative  reform,  and  although  the  leaders 
hesitated  to  raise  the  Liberal's  cry  of  '^government  by  the  people," 
they  fully  and  cordially  espoused  the  cause  of  ''government  for  the 
people."  Thus,  even  within  the  Conservative  ranks  the  old  stupid 
and  selfish  conservatism,  which  had  drawn  its  breath  in  the  atmos- 


1853-1865]  GLADSTONE   AND   THE   NEW   LIBERALS  1039 

phere  of  privilege  and  vested  interests,  was  rapidly  giving  way  to 
an  **enlightened  paternalism." 

The  new  liberalism  had  found  a  natural  spokesman  in  Glad- 
stone.    He   possessed  a   peculiarly  organized  mind,   wonderfully 
ffifted   by   nature    and   enlarged   by  studies   in   many 

Gladstone         °   .,  •;_.  ,        .  ,i     l-  •    -uj.       •      x 

the  fields.      He   was    deeply   sympathetic,    upright,    lust, 

spokesman  of   .  .  .         n      .        -,    ,.  -,  ..         .i- 

the  new  incapable   of    simulation,  and   uncompromising  m  his 

lAherals.  ^  ±  o 

hatred  of  all  sham  or  charlatanry.  During  his  long 
and  successful  career  as  administrator  of  the  exchequer,  he  had 
been  steadily  progressing  as  a  liberal  leader.  He  had  not  hesitated, 
as  new  conditions  offered  the  opportunity,  in  presenting  his  annual 
budget,  to  apply  the  free  trade  principle  which  since  Peel's  day 
had  been  an  accepted  tenet  of  the  Whig  party.  Thus,  in  the 
famous  budget  of  1853,  while  retaining  the  income  tax,  he  had 
boldly  proposed  the  further  reduction  or  repeal  of  the  duties  on 
some  270  different  articles,  in  the  retention  of  every  one  of  which 
some  powerful  *' interest"  was  concerned.  In  1857  he  had 
opposed  his  chief  in  the  China  War,  and  had  joined  the  opposition 
in  registering  the  disapproval  of  parliament.  Again,  in  1861,  he 
had  led  a  determined  fight  against  the  old  heavy  tax  on  paper,  and 
carried  his  point  at  last  in  the  teeth  of  a  serious  opposition  in  the 
Lords.  He  had  also  recognized  the  justice  of  the  demand  of  the 
unrepresented  classes  for  a  more  generous  recognition  in  parlia- 
ment, but  while  men  like  Disraeli  and  Kussell  were  raising  the 
cry  of  reform  largely  for  political  effect,  he  had  been  quietly 
probing  existing  evils  and  had  come  at  last  to  the  conviction  that 
further  parliamentary  reform  was  not  only  inevitable  but  that  it 
was  the  only  sure  and  permanent  means  of  betterment ;  and  that 
it  was  to  be  regarded  not  as  so  much  political  treacle  for  catching 
voters,  but  as  a  great  and  holy  cause  to  be  advanced  at  the  cost  of 
place  or  preferment,  if  need  be.  The  radical  elements  of  the 
party,  therefore,  naturally  looked  to  him  as  their  leader.  Palmer- 
ston  had  recognized  his  strength  and  predicted  that  he  would  be 
his  successor,  but  had  significantly  added,  "When  he  gets  my 
place,  we  shall  have  strange  doings." 

On  the  death  of  Palmerston  little  change  was  made  in  the  min- 
istry.   His  war  secretary,  Lord  John  Russell,  whose  name  had  long 


1040  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victoria 

been  identified  with  the  triumphs  of  the  Whig  party,  was  advanced 
to  the  vacant  premiership,  but  Gladstone  was  now  the  con- 
trolling influence  in  the  cabinet.  It  was  ominous  for 
'uijMt^^^^  the  continued  harmony  of  the  Whig  party.  Russell 
Bill  ofm^  ^i^^self  had  for  ten  years  been  committed  to  moderate 
reform,  and  it  was  not  difficult  for  Gladstone  to  per- 
suade his  chief  to  consent  to  reopen  the  dangerous  issue.  In 
the  measure  which  was  presented,  Gladstone  proposed  to  reduce 
the  franchise  qualification  in  counties  to  the  possession  of  a  £14 
holding  and  in  boroughs  to  the  possession  of  a  £7  house;  further, 
any  man  who  could  show  a  deposit  in  a  savings  bank  of  £50,  of 
two  years'  standing,  was  also  to  be  allowed  to  vote.  The  measure 
certainly  was  moderate  enough ;  at  the  utmost  it  could  add  only 
about  four  hundred  thousand  voters  to  those  already  enjoying  the 
franchise.  Its  moderation,  however,  was  its  undoing.  The 
radicals  felt  little  enthusiasm  in  supporting  it,  while  the  Whigs 
of  the  Palmerston  following  broke  away  from  their  colleagues  and 
united  with  the  opposition.  Eussell  resigned,  and  Derby  and 
Disraeli  came  back  to  office.  Derby,  however,  was  now  well  along 
in  years,  and  the  real  management  of  the  party  fell  largely  to 
Disraeli.     In  February,  1868,  Derby  retired  altogether. 

The  Conservatives  had  come  into  power  as  the  result  of  the 
opposition  to  Gladstone's  reform  bill;  bnt  they  in  their  turn  were 
forced  to  face  the  dangerous  problem  and  devise  some  measure 
which,  while  satisfying  the  popular  demand,  might  yet  avoid 
arousing  the  fears  of  the  Conservatives  who  had  no  desire  to 
increase  the  influence  of  the  democracy  in  the  House.  Disraeli 
fully  expected  that  the  Liberals  would  oppose  him  simply  as  a 
matter  of  party  spite;  but  he  knew  also  that  he  would  have  no 
little  difficulty  in  holding  his  own  Conservatives 
Disraeli  and  together.  He  was  careful,  therefore,  to  outline  his  posi- 
tary  reform,  tion,  which  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  presentation  of  the 
platform  of  the  new  Conservative  party.  He  was  not 
opposed  to  reform,  **for  in  a  progressive  country,  change  is 
inevitable;"  the  part  of  a  Conservative  leader  is  not  to  oppose  all 
reform,  but  to  see  that  reforms  "are  carried  out  in  deference  to 
the  customs  and  traditions  of  the  people."     But  as  he  understood 


1867,  1868]  THE    REFORM    BILL   OF   1867  1041 

these  traditions,  the  government  of  England  was  founded  upon 
the  distinctions  of  classes;  the  franchise  was  a  privilege,  not  a 
right,  and  should  be  bestowed  only  upon  those  who  were  fit  to 
exercise  such  a  high  trust.  He  hoped  that  it  might  never  be  the 
fate  of  his  country  to  live  under  a  democracy. 

The  measure  which  Disraeli  finally  proposed  was  a  curiously 

complex  scheme,  devised  with  characteristic  cunning  to  fool  the 

people  and  quiet  the  alarm  of  his  followers.     It  pre- 

Disraeivs       tended  to  erlve -what  it  really  withheld;  it  proposed  to 

Reform  Bill  j_       .    j.-,  ^      ^  .  i  .    .1  i- 

of  1867.  extend  the  vote  to  a  large  class  oi  the  workmgmen, 

but  by  a  complicated  scheme  of  double  voting  for  the 
*' higher  classes,"  it  proposed  really  to  swamp  the  influence  of  the 
workingmen  at  the  polls  by  the  correspondingly  increased  influence 
of  the  wealthier  classes.  Not  satisfied  with  this,  Disraeli  vir- 
tually proposed,  also,  to  put  into  the  hands  of  the  wealthier  classes 
in  each  parish  the  power  to  admit  to  the  franchise  as  they  saw  fit. 
The  plan  was  further  cumbered  by  the  old  array  of  "fancy  fran- 
chises" that  had  once  before  been  laughed  out  of  parliament. 
The  House,  however,  felt  the  urgency  of  immediate  action,  and 
refused  to  support  Gladstone  in  his  proposal  to  make  a  minis- 
terial issue  of  the  bill.  Disraeli  himself,  although  vague  threats 
were  thrown  out  of  appealing  to  the  country,  had  no  idea  of  push- 
ing his  elaborate  scheme  of  "safeguards"  to  the  alternative  of 
victory  or  resignation,  and  declared  himself  very  willing  to  receive 
suggestions  or  amendments  from  the  House,  a  hint  which  the 
House  was  not  slow  to  avail  itself  of,  leaving  the  bill  in  its 
final  form  really  more  radical  than  the  one  which  had  turned  out 
the  Russell  ministry  in  1866. 

The  amended  bill,  shorn  of  its  safeguards  and  fancy  franchises, 
received  the  royal  assent  August  15,  1867.  The  next  year  by 
other  similar  acts  the  principle  of  the  bill  was  also 
B^form^^^^  applied  to  Scotland  and  Ireland.  As  in  the  acts  of 
mf."  ^^^'  183'^ 5  I'eal  property  was  still  regarded  as  the  basis  of  the 
franchise;  a  man  to  vote  must  either  own  real  property 
or  rent  real  property.  In  application,  however,  the  principle  was 
greatly  extended.  ^  In  boroughs,  in  England  and  Scotland,  any 
householder  whose  house  was  of  sufficient  value  to  be  assessed  for 


1042  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victobia 

the  local  poor  rates  could  vote;  in  Ireland,  where  a  lower  assess- 
ment prevailed,  the  property  must  pay  a  poor  tax  upon  an  assessed 
valuation  of  at  least  £4.  In  boroughs,  in  the  three  kingdoms, 
all  male  lodgers  who  could  show  a  residence  of  one  year  and 
who  paid  at  least  £10  a  year  for  unfurnished  lodgings,  could 
vote.  In  the  counties  the  franchise  was  extended  to  all  who 
owned  land  of  an  annual  value  of  £5 ;  but  tenants  in  order  to  vote, 
in  England  or  Ireland,  must  occupy  land  of  at  least  £12  a  year 
rental  value;  in  Scotland,  of  at  least  £14' a  year.  Scotland,  also, 
was  allowed  seven  additional  members,  raising  its  representation  in 
the  House  to  sixty.  Ireland  was  left  as  fixed  by  the  acts  of  1832. 
A  successful  attempt,  also,  was  made  to  readjust  the  represen- 
tation in  parliament  in  accordance  with  the  growth  of  population. 
Eleven  boroughs  were  disfranchised;  thirty-five  of  less  than  10,000 
inhabitants  lost  one  member  each ;  the  vacant  seats  were  divided 
between  London  and  the  great  northern  shires.  The  new  prin- 
ciple of  minority  representation  was  also  recognized;  wherever 
three  members  were  to  be  returned,  the  voter  was  allowed  to  vote 
for  two  only.  The  *' Second  Reform  Acts,"  as  they  are  called, 
mark  an  important  stage  in  the  progress  of  Great  Britain  towards 
democracy.  In  the  boroughs  virtually  any  man  who  could  earn 
a  living  was  entitled  to  vote;  while  in  the  counties  the  farm 
laborer  was  almost  the  only  man  left  without  the  franchise. 
Disraeli  in  adopting  household  suffrage  had  thus  stolen  the  pow- 
der of  the  Liberal  party,  and  they  had  not  dared  to  oppose  him. 
The  Conservatives,  however,  were  not  pleased;  Derby  had  called 
it  a  leap  in  the  dark;  others  of  Disraeli's  colleagues  had  resigned 
in  disgust,  among  them  the  Colonial  Secretary,  Lord  Carnarvon, 
and  the  Secretary  for  India,  Lord  Cranbourne.^ 

While  press  and  public  were  eagerly  watching  the  first  stages 
of  the  contest  for  parliamentary  reform,  a  matter  of  hardly  less 
moment  to  the  future  of  the  empire  had  quietly  pushed  its  way 
through  parliament  and  had  become  a  law  almost  unnoticed.  This 
measure  was  the  now  famous  ** British  American  Colonies  Confed- 
eration  Act,"  which  empowered  the  British  Colonies  of  North 

^Robert  Arthur  Talbot  Gascoyne  Cecil,  Viscount  Cran bourne,  but 
after  April  12,  1868,  Marquis  of  Salisbury. 


1867,  1868]  CANADIAN^    FEDERATION      ^  1043 

America  to  form  themselves  into  a  federation  to  be  known  as  the 

** Dominion  of  Canada. "  By  this  act,  in  November,  the  two  Canadas 

which  had  been  united  in  1840,  were  organized  with 

'^J]^!?^^^^  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  under  a  federal  gov- 

A  merican  ° 

fede?ation^^'  ^^nment  with  full  powers  for  the  regulation  of  **Cur- 
t/^i867^^^^^  rency,  Customs,  Excise,  and  Revenue  generally;  for  the 

adoption  of  a  uniform  postal  system;  and  for  the  man- 
agement and  maintenance  of  public  works  and  properties  of  the 
Dominion ;  for  the  adoption  of  a  plan  of  military  organization  and 
defense;  for  the  introduction  of  uniform  laws  respecting  the 
naturalization  of  aliens  and  the  assimilation  of  criminal  law."* 
Not  of  least  importance  among  the  duties  imposed  by  the  act 
upon  the  Dominion  Parliament  was  the  construction  of  the  Inter- 
colonial Railway.  Later  were  added  Manitoba  and  British  Colum- 
bia with  the  Northwest  Territory,  which  extended  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Dominion  Government  to  Alaska  and  the  Arctic  Ocean. 

The  foreign  relations  of  the  Derby-Disraeli  ministry  were  quiet 
enough.      Austria  was  expelled   from  Germany  by   Prussia  and 

from  Italy  by  Victor  Emanuel ;  but  England  was  no 
sinianwctr      longer  concerned  in  the  misfortunes  of  her  ancient  ally. 

of  1S68 

In  the  year  1868,  an  expedition  numbering  12,000  troops 
from  the  Indian  army  was  sent  under  General  Napier  to  compel 
Theodore,  an  Abyssinian  king,  to  release  some  British  subjects 
whom  he  had  imprisoned.  The  prisoners  were  released  and  the 
column  retired  as  quickly  as  possible.  King  Theodore,  a  brave 
and  reckless  barbarian,  slew  himself  in  chagrin  at  being  humiliated 
before  his  people. 

A  series  of  outbreaks  in  Ireland,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  once 
more  forced  the  Irish  problem  into  the  foreground.  Since  the 
y^^  potato  famine  and  the  breaking  up  of  the  Young  Ireland 

tZubies'       party,  the  land  had  been  comparatively  quiet.      The 
1863-67.  thousands    of    Irishmen,   however,  who   had   come   to 

America  had  not  forgotten  the  kindred  whom  they  had  left  behind. 
In  1863  a  secret  society  was  organized  with  a  membership  both  in 

iFrom  speech  of  the  Governor-General  on  opening  the  first  Parlia- 
ment of  the  Confederation,  Nov.  7,  1867.  Amiual  Register,  1867,  Part  I., 
pp.  281  and  283. 


9 


1044  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victobia 

Ireland  and  the  United  States,  called  the  *'Irish  Republican 
Brotherhood,"  but  better  known  by  the  more  popular  name  of 
** Fenians,"  an  Anglicized  form  of  the  name  of  the  followers  of 
Finn,  or  Feona,  the  legendary  king  of  Erin,  who  occupied  some 
such  place  in  Irish  legend  as  King  Arthur's  knights  in  British 
legend.  The  purpose  of  the  order  was  revolutionary;  and  in  1865, 
when  Eussell  was  Prime  Minister,  their  plans  were  divulged  and 
several  arrests  were  made.  O'Donovan  Rossa,  an  editor  of  the 
** Irish  People,"  was  sentenced  to  a  life  imprisonment.  The  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  was  suspended  in  Ireland  and  many  Irish  leaders  fled 
to  America.  Here  they  laid  plans  for  an  invasion  of  Canada  in 
the  hope  of  embroiling  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  in  a 
quarrel  on  their  account.  In  May  1866  some  twelve  hundred  men 
crossed  the  Xiagara  river.  The  expedition  was  poorlv  managed 
and  easily  discouraged  by  the  determined  front  of  the  local  militia; 
while  the  disavowal  of  the  United  States  Government  took  from 
the  leaders  their  only  possible  hope  of  success.     Other  revolts  no 

more  successful  followed  in  Ireland.  The  next  year 
D^ember,      [^   December  an  attempt  was  made  to  rescue  several 

Fenian  prisoners  from  Clerkenwell  by  blowing  out  the 
walls  of  the  prison.  The  attempt  was  unsuccessful,  but  many 
innocent  persons  were  killed  or  injured  by  the  explosion,  and 
London  was  thoroughly  frightened. 

The  Liberal  leaders  fully  believed  that  they  could  quiet  Ireland 
only  by  removing  the  causes  of  grievance,  the  chief  of  which  at 

the  time  were  the  enforced  support  of  the  Protestant 
Gia&ne  Episcopal  Church  of  Ireland  by  the  Irish  peasantry, 
ministry,         j^^d  the  system  of  rack  rents,  by  which  the  tenantry 

were  left  to  the  mercy  of  the  landlords.  Disraeli 
stoutly  resisted  every  proposition  to  disestablish  the  Irish  Protes- 
tant Church,  and  after  an  unsuccessful  appeal  to  the  new  constitu- 
encies that  had  been  created  by  his  recent  reform  bills,  in 
December  1868  he  resigned,  and  Gladstone  became  Prime  Min- 
ister. Gladstone's  majority  enabled  him  at  once  to  carry  out 
his  proposed  plan  of  disestablishment;  the  church  courts  were 
abolished  and  the  Irish  bishops  were  deprived  of  their  seats  in  the 
House  of  Lords;   the  churches,  cathedrals,  parsonages,  and   all 


1860-1870]  THE    IRISH    LAND    ACT  1045 

private  endowments  which  had  been  given  to  the  Irish  Episcopal 
Church  since  1660,  were  left  in  its  hands,  but  it  became  henceforth 
a  free  church ;  the  clergy,  also,  were  compensated  for  their  life 
interests.  The  anomaly  of  the  Irish  Episcopal  establishment  was 
generally  conceded,  and  the  great  body  of  English  Protestants  as 
well  as  Catholics  recognized  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  the  Act  of 
Disestablishment.  A  far  more  serious  problem,  how- 
Disestahiish-  ever,  confronted  Gladstone  in  the  Irish  land  ques- 
tion. In  Ireland,  as  in  England,  rents  were  fixed  by  free 
competition.  In  Ireland,  however,  the  competition  among  land- 
lords for  tenants  was  largely  theoretical,  while  the  competition 
among  tenants  for  land  was  a  grim  fact.  Hence  in  Ireland  it  was 
quite  impossible  for  the  tenant  to  meet  his  landlord  on  equal 
terms.  The  landlord,  therefore,  generally  made  what  terms  he 
chose  with  his  would-be  tenant,  compelling  him,  ordinarily,  to 
make  all  improvements,  even  to  the  erection  of  buildings,  and  sub- 
jecting him  to  eviction  on  six  months  notice.  If  the  tenant  should 
prove  to  be  thrifty  and  enterprising  and  should  seek  to  improve 
his  land,  the  temptation  was  strong  for  the  landlord  to  exact  in 
increased  rents  all  that  the  improvements  were  worth,  or,  since 
the  improvements  belonged  to  the  landlord,^  -to  evict  upon  the 
slightest  pretext,  or  upon  no  pretext  at  all,  in  order  to  get  the  full 
advantage  of  his  improved  estates. 

Ill  1870  Gladstone  bravely  took  in  hand  the  knotty  Irish  land 

question.      He  proposed  to  recognize  the  claim  of  an  outgoing 

tenant  to  receive  some  compensation  for  improvements ; 

The ''Irish        ^  ^.  ,  -^n^  .i 

Land  Act"  tenants,  also,  who  were  evicted  for  any  cause  other 
than  nonpayment  of  rent,  were  to  be  entitled  to  dam- 
ages. He  further  proposed,  by  lending  public  money  to  those  who 
wished  to  buy  their  farms  to  put  it  into  the  hands  of  Irish  ten- 
ants to  escape  permanently  from  the  tyranny  of  the  landlord. 
Gladstone  had  great  confidence  in  the  "Land  Act"  and  fully 
believed  that  he  had  settled  the  Irish  land  question.  But  he 
had  not  yet  fathomed  the  depths  of  the  greed  of  the  landlord. 

'This  was  the  general  custom.  In  the  north  of  Ireland  where  the 
"Ulster  custom"  prevailed,  the  outgoing  tenant  might  sell  his  improve- 
ments to  the  incoming  tenant. 


1046  THE   SECOND    ERA   OF   REFORM  [victoeia 

The  landlord  simply  raised  the  rent  of  the  undesirable  tenant 
until  it  passed  beyond  his  ability  to  pay,  and  then  turned  him  out 
upon  the  charge  of  nonpayment,  when,  by  the  condition  of  the 
Land  Act,  the  tenant  forfeited  all  interest  in  his  improvements. 
The  purchase  clause  of  the  act  likewise  proved  to  be  of  little 
value,  since  landlords  were  never  willing  to  sell. 

The  same  year  saw  the  inauguration  by  the  Liberal  ministry 
of  another  reform  which  was  destined  to  be  more  fruitful  in 
results.  It  was  felt  that  the  simple  extension  of  the 
to^'^^wca-"  franchise  was  not  sufficient ;  but  that  it  ought  to  be 
jwo.^^*'  followed  by  some  consistent  and  far  reaching  plan 
for  public  education.  William  E.  Forster,  the  vice- 
president  of  the  council,  took  up  the  matter  and  succeeded  in 
pushing  through  the  "Elementary  Education  Act."  Since  1839 
the  education  grant  had  been  regularly  administered  by  the  com- 
mittee of  the  Privy  Council.  The  grant  had  been  increased  from 
time  to  time  until  in  1859  it  had  reached  £1,000,000.  This 
money  had  been  used  in  supporting  training  colleges  for  teachers, 
building  schoolhouses,  and  maintaining  schools.  In  1862  an 
unwise  measure  had  made  grants  for  the  maintenance  of  schools 
conditional  on  the  success  of  the  pupils  in  passing  prescribed 
tests.  This  was  a  good  thing  for  the  best  schools,  but  the  dis- 
tricts that  were  most  in  need  of  help  were  shut  out  by  the  tests 
and  for  ten  years  there  was  little  increase  in  the  annual  appropria- 
tion. Forster  now  proposed  to  allow  any  district  to  elect  its 
own  school  board  and  levy  a  local  rate  to  support  its  school ;  it  might 
also  compel  the  attendance  of  the  children.  Teachers  were  to  be 
allowed  to  read  and  explain  the  Bible;  but  the  time  for  such  an 
exercise  must  be  fixed  and  regular,  and  parents  who  wished  might 
keep  their  children  away.  In  no  instance,  however,  was  the 
teaching  of  the  catechism  or  the  creed  of  any  particular  church 
to  be  allowed.  The  bill  was  bitterly  opposed  by  some  Dissenters, 
but  on  the  whole  was  well  received  and  marks  a  most  important 
advance  in  English  public  school  education. 

In  1871  Cardwell,  Gladstone's  war  minister,  presented  the 
first  of  a  series  of  important  army  reforms,  one  of  which  proposed 
to  abolish  the  old  absurd  system  of  purchasing  army  commissions. 


1871-1873]  THE   JUDICATURE    ACT  1047 

The  army  influence,  naturally  conservative  in  such  a  matter,  made 
a  desperate  fight,  and  so  obstructed  the  bill  that  the  ministry 
Arm  ^^^    obliged    to    gain    its     object     by    advising    the 

reforms.  queen  to  cancel  the  royal  warrant  by  which  the  pur- 
chase, of  commissions  had  been  authorized.  An  *'Army  Enlist- 
ment Act"  shortened  the  term  of  service  from  twenty-one  years 
to  six  years  with  the  regiment  and  six  years  in  the  reserve. 
Direct  control  over  the  militia  and  volunteers,  which,  since  the 
reign  of  Mary,  had  been  vested  in  the  lords-lieutenant  of  the 
counties,  was  now  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  crown  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  reorganization  of  the  army  upon  a  territorial  basis. 
The  regiments  were  named  from  their  counties ;  the  militia  and 
volunteers  of  the  county  became  battalions  of  the  county  regi- 
ment. The  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  was  placed  directly 
under  the  control  of  the  war  office. 

In  1872  the  government  attempted  to  prevent  bribery  at  elec- 
tion by  the  '* Ballot  Act,"  which  by  making  the  voting  for  mem- 
The  ''Ballot  ^^^^  ^^  parliament  secret,  prevented  the  buyer  of  votes 
Act"  from  knowing  whether  the  voter  had  fulfilled  his  part 

of  the  agreement  or  not.  In  1873  Lord  Selbourne,  the  Chan- 
cellor, brought  forward  the  "Judicature  Act"  which 
catureAct,''  merged  the  old  courts  of  Common  Pleas,  Kings  Bench, 
Exchequer,  and  Chancery,  into  one  Supreme  Court  of 
Judicature,  but  still  subject  to  the  ultimate  appellate  authority  of 
the  House  of  Lords.  The  result  has  been  greatly  to  cheapen  and 
simplify  the  processes  of  law,  by  removing  the  old  lines  which 
centuries  of  custom  had  drawn  between  the  ancient  courts. 

While  the  Gladstone  ministry  was  thus  in  almost  bewildering 
rapidity  bringing  forward  reforms  at  home,  most  important  events 
were  crowding  upon  each  other  on  the  continent.  The  Franco- 
Prussian  War  had  broken  out  in  1870,  and  before  the  march  of  the 
German  legions  the  second  French  empire  had  melted  away. 
The  overthrow  of  Napoleon  and  the  establishment  of  the  present 
French  Republic,  however,  were  not  the  most  significant  results  of 
the  war.  All  Germany  had  rallied  to  the  support  of  King  Wil- 
liam of  Prussia;  an  intense  national  enthusiasm  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  all  classes,  and  would  be  satisfied  only  by  the  union  of  all 


1048  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victobia 

the  German  states  in  a  great  German  federal  state  with  the  King 
of  Prussia  as  its  hereditary  sovereign.  The  King  of  Italy  was 
also  quick  to  seize  the  opportunity  offered  by  the  troubles  of 
France.  He  moved  upon  Rome,  and  putting  an  end  to  the  tem- 
poral power  of  the  pope  made  the  ancient  city,  at  last,  the  capital 
of  a  united  Italy.  These  two  events,  the  unification  of  Germany 
and  the  unification  of  Italy,  mark  the  culmination  of  the  two  most 
significant  movements  in  continental  history  since  the  close  of  the 
£rst  Napoleonic  era. 

In  its  attitude  toward  these  foreign  struggles,  the  Gladstone 
ministry,  in  accordance  with  modern  Liberal  ideas,  had  attempted 
to  carry  out  a  high-minded  and  unselfish  policy.  Granville,  the 
Foreign  Secretary,  insisted  upon  the  neutrality  of  Belgium;  but 
when  Russia  announced  her  determination  to  repudiate  the  pledges 
which  she  had  made  at  Paris  in  1856,  with  France  and  Germany 
at  war,  there  was  nothing  left  for  England  but  to  submit  and 
quietly  strike  out  of  the  treaty  the  clauses  which  Russia  had 
declared  invalid.  The  same  ministry  saw  also  the  long  pending 
dispute  with  the  United  States  over  the  Alabama  claims,  settled  by 
the  Geneva  award,  June,  1872. 

The  first  ministry  of  Gladstone  had  now  run  a  remarkable 
career.  He  had  taken  up  and  carried  to  a  successful  issue  about 
every  reform  which  had  thus  far  occupied  the  attention 
The  fall  of  ^^  ^^®  generation,  and  there  was  danger,  apparently,  that 
*fjf-^^^^?}f^'  as  the  head  of  a  reform  ministry,  he  would  soon  be 
try,  1874.  without  a  brief.  Disraeli,  with  his  inimitable  power 
of  phrase-making,  had  sneeringly  alluded  to  the 
thorough  way  in  which  the  ministry  had  cleared  off  the  reform 
docket  by  referring  to  the  ministers  as  they  sat  on  the  treasury 
bench  before  him,  as  "a  row  of  extinct  volcanoes."  The  country, 
moreover,  was  weary  of  reform.  Many  severely  criticized  Glad- 
stone's foreign  policy  as  weak  and  truckling.  Many  Dissenters, 
also,  were  not  pleased  with  the  Elementary  Education  Bill,  and 
when  in  1873,  in  order  to  find  some  neutral  ground  upon  which  all 
parties  in  Ireland  might  stand  without  quarreling,  Gladstone  pro- 
posed to  establish  a  secular  University  at  Dublin,  in  which  neither 
theology,  nor  history,  nor  philosophy,  should  be  taught,  the  very 


1874-1877]  DISRAELI  IN   POWER  1049 

elements  whom  he  sought  to  serve  turned  upon  him  and  defeated 
the  bill.  Gladstone  at  once  resigned,  and  although  the  refusal  of 
Disraeli  to  take  office  kept  Gladstone  in  power  a  few  months 
longer,  when  the  Conservative  gains  in  the  election  of  1874  left  no 
further  doubt  as  to  the  drift  of  public  sentiment,  Gladstone  again 
resigned  and  Disraeli  once  more  came  into  power. 

Disraeli  had  now  been  before  the  country  thirty  years.     His 

party,  however,  had  always  been  in  the  minority  and  although  at 

three  different  times  the  Conservatives  under  the  nom- 

the  natvm       inal  leadership  of  Derby  had  been  permitted  to  form  a 

withconserv-        .  •<  i  ^     £  n   i.  •    •  j.      >» 

ativeprogres-  ministry,  it  was  always  as  a  sort  oi     stop-gap  ministry 

and  had  never  been  allowed  to  stay  long  enough  to 
accomplish  anything.  The  reform  bill  of  1867  had  really  been 
the  work  of  the  Liberal  opposition,  and  the  Conservative  ministry 
had  simply  submitted.  Now,  however,  it  was  evident  that  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  were  coming  to  look  with  suspicion  upon 
further  reforms  and  that  the  times  were  ripe  for  a  successful  min- 
istry based  upon  a  policy  of  '*rest  from  violent  changes,"  "good 
administration,"  practical  improvements,  and  a  more  vigorous 
foreign  policy  in  which  the  larger  interests  of  the  empire  should 
be  the  first  care. 

The  outbreak  of  new  troubles  between  the  Turks  and  their 
European  subjects  soon  afforded  the  ministry  a  chance  to  show 
what  it  could  do  in  the  way  of  protecting  English 
Theoutbreah  interests  abroad.  In  1875  the  Christian  population  of 
tween  Russia  Herzegovina  rose  against  the  Turks ;  the  neighboring 
1877.  '    provinces  also  were  soon  thrown  into  wild  ferment.    The 

Turks  began  to  put  down  these  uprisings  with  their 
customary  ferocity,  and  their  cruelties,  particularly  those  per- 
petrated in  Bulgaria,  once  more  stirred  the  resentment  of  Europe. 
The  most  natural  thing  under  the  circumstances  would  have  been 
for  the  British  ministry  to  give  Russia  a  free  hand  in  forcing  the 
Turk  to  grant  the  reforms  which  the  provinces  in  revolt  demanded. 
But  the  ministers,  still  under  the  sway  of  the  Conservative  tradi- 
tions of  the  past,  saw  in  such  a  course  the  inevitable  overthrow  of 
the  Turkish  empire  and  a  vast  accession  of  power *if  not  of  actual 
territory  for  Russia  in  southeastern  Europe.     Yet  in  the  present 


1050  THE   SECOND    ERA   OF   REFOEM  [victohu 

state  of  public  opinion  it  would  not  do  to  repeat  the  Crimeau  War 
and  a  second  time  protect  Turkey  against  the  demands  of  Russia. 
The  only  hope,  therefore,  of  a  happy  solution  of  the  puzzling 
question  was  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  all  the  powers  in  enforc- 
ing reforms  upon  Turkey.  The  attempt  was  made,  but  failed, 
owing  partly  to  the  stolid  determination  of  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment not  to  yield,  and  partly  to  the  refusal  of  England  to  agree  to 
some  definite  aggressive  action  on  the  part  of  the  powers.  This 
was  a  blunder  diplomatically,  since  it  left  the  Russian  government 
to  declare  war  upon  Turkey  on  her  own  account,  and  precipitated 
the  very  issue  which  the  Conservative  ministry  wished  to  avoid. 
In  June  1877  the  Russians  crossed  the  Danube,  and  began  the 
occupation  of  Bulgaria.  The  Turks  made  a  brave  stand  at  Plevna 
and  from  behind  its  vast  earthworks  held  the  Russian  army  at  bay 
until  December,  when  their  works  were  finally  carried  by  assault 
and  the  Russians  poured  through  the  passes  of  the  Balkans.  Con- 
stantinople was  practically  without  defenses  and  its  occupation  by 
the  Russians  seemed  imminent.  If  Turkey  were  saved,  action 
must  be  taken  at  once,  and  accordingly  Disraeli,  who  had  been 
raised  to  the  peerage  in  1876  as  Earl  of  Beaconsfield,  dispatched 
a  powerful  English  fleet  into  the  eastern  Mediterranean,  called  out 
the  reserves  in  England,  and  ordered  Sepoy  regiments  from  India 
to  Malta.  The  Foreign  Secretary,  Lord  Derby,  who  was  not  in 
sympathy  with  a  course  that  promised  war  between  England  and 
Russia,  resigned,  and  Lord  Salisbury  was  put  in  his  place. 

In  the  meanwhile,  on  March  3,  1878,  Russia  and  Turkey  had 
already  agreed  upon  a  peace  at  San  Stefano,  the  conspicuous  fea- 
ture of  which  was  the  proposed  formation  of  an  inde- 

San  Stefano,  t  t^    i         •  i      i  .  ,    . 

March  5,  pendent  Bulgaria  out  of  the  regions  lying  between  the 
Danube  and  the  upper  Aegean.  To  this  Beaconsfield 
objected  because,  in  the  first  place,  such  a  state  would  cut  European 
Turkey  in  two,  and  in  the  second  place  would  virtually  bring 
Russia  to  the  Aegean,  since  from  the  first  the  new  state  must 
necessarily  be  devoted  to  Russian  interests.  He  accordingly  con- 
tinued his  preparations  for  war;  the  opposition  protested  and 
Gladstone  with  his  fiery  appeals  awoke  the  country.  Yet  Beacons- 
field for  once  had  his  way ;  he  forced  Russia  to  consent  to  submit 


1878]  THE   COIS^GRESS   OF   BERLIN  1051 

the  treaty  of  San  Stefano  to  the  approval  or  modification  of  a  con- 
gress of  the,  powers  to  be  called  at  Berlin.  The  now  famous 
congress  met  in  June  1878 ;  Beaconsfield  and  Salisbury 
of  Berlin.  '  represented  Great  Britain.  Before  the  meeting,  how- 
ever, Russia  and  Great  Britain  had  come  to  an  under- 
standing by  which  the  proposed  Bulgaria  was  to  be  broken  up  as  fol- 
lows: (1)  Bulgaria  between  the  Balkans  and  the  Danube  was  to  have 
autonomy  but  was  to  be  tributary  to  Turkey ;  (2)  Bulgaria  south  of 
the  Balkans,  Eastern  Roumelia,  was  to  be  allowed  administrative 
autonomy,  but  under  a  Christian  Pasha;  (3)  Montenegro,  Servia, 
and  Roumania  were  to  be  independent  and  to  receive  new  acces- 
sions of  territory;  (4)  Russia  was  to  be  allowed  to  extend  her  fron- 
tiers to  the  mouth  of  the  Danube  and  be  given  Kars  and  Batoum 
in  Asia,  though  Batoum  was  not  to  be  fortified;  (5)  Turkey  was  to 
carry  out  reforms  which  for  the  future  should  secure  her  Christian 
subjects  in  Crete  and  Armenia.  In  return  for  this  friendly  inter- 
ference and  for  the  further  guarantee  of  the  protection  of  the 
Asiatic  dominions  of  the  Turk  against  Russia,  the  Porte  gave  Eng- 
land control  of  the  island  of  Cyprus,  thus  adding  one  more  to  the 
list  of  English  milestones  on  the  way  to  India  up  the  Mediter- 
ranean. The  Congress  of  Berlin  did  little  more  than  ratify  the 
terms  of  the  amended  Treaty  of  San  Stefano ;  Beaconsfield  returned 
highly  satisfied  with  his  work,  having,  as  he  declared,  "secured 
peace  with  honor."  In  the  main  object  of  his  policy  he  had  suc- 
ceeded; he  had  secured  British  interests  in  the  east.  But  to  this 
he  had  sacrificed  the  interests  of  the  Christian  population  who 
still  groaned  under  the  tyranny  of  the  Turk ;  he  had  made  pos- 
sible all  the  later  atrocities  in  Armenia  and  Crete,  and  prepared 
the  way  for  future  war  between  Greece  and  Turkey.  Yet  it  is 
fair  to  ask,  if  Russia  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  take  possession  of 
Constantinople  and  herself  expel  the  Turk  from  Europe,  what  more 
could  have  been  accomplished? 

The  Beaconsfield  ministry  had  now  reached  high-water  mark. 
The  noisy  bluster  of  the  "Jingoes"  who  had  supported  the  min- 
ister's high-handed  dealing  with  Russia,  their  boastful  talk  of  the 
power  of  English  armies,  or  the  prestige  of  the  English  navy,  their 
vaunting  confidence  in  the  future  of  the  British  Empire  and  their 


1052  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF    REPORM  [victoria 

cold-blooded  assumption  of  the  paramount  importance  of  its  inter- 
ests to  all  considerations  of  justice  or  right  in  dealing  with  other 

nations,  could  not  long  prevent  the  conscience  of  the 
Decline  qf  ^  British  people  from  getting  a  hearing,  especially  with 
inpience.        such  a  mentor  as  Gladstone  to  rouse  it  to  new  activity. 

The  studied  ostentation  with  which  Beaconsfield  had 
conducted  his  administration,  the  fanfare  of  trumpets  with  which 
each  new  achievement  had  been  announced  to  the  public,  had  for 
a  time  influenced  a  certain  class  of  minds.  But  the  interest  of 
the  people  was  now  flagging;  a  wave  of  commercial  depression 
swept  over  the  country;  nor  could  the  addition  of  the  ostentatious 
''Empress  of  India"  to  the  simple  but  majestic  titles  which  gener- 
ations of  Englishmen,  heretofore,  had  thought  good  enough  for 
their  sovereigns,  or  the  effort  to  establish  English  influence  in 
Afghanistan,  where  an  English  army  was  sent  to  force  an  envoy 
upon  the  reluctant  Ameer,  simply  because  he  had  seen  fit  to  receive 
one  from  Russia,  or  an  attempt  to  draw  the  South  African  States 
into  a  confederation  after  the  Canadian  pattern,  or  the  annexation 
of  the  Transvaal,  or  a  war  with  the  Zulus,  prevent  the  attention  of 
the  public  from  turning  once  more  to  the  consideration  of  urgent 
needs  at  home.  In  the  election  of  March  1880  Beaconsfield 
attempted  to  rally  the  Conservatives  by  appealing  to  their  old  time 
fear  of  radicalism,  painting  in  lurid  colors  the  mischief  that  would 
follow  should  the  Radicals  again  come  into  power.  But  Gladstone 
in  his  magnificent  Midlothian  campaign,  in  which  he  exposed  with 
telling  effect  the  many  vulnerable  points  of  Beaconsfield's  foreign 
policy,  carried  everything  before  him,  and  returned  to  office  with 
a  powerful  Liberal  majority.  Beaconsfield  died  the  next  year, 
leaving  the  leadership  of  his  party  to  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury. 

Gladstone  was  now  stronger  than  when  he  had  taken  oflfice 
twelve  years  before.     He  had  a  clear  majority  of  fifty  votes  over 

the  Conservatives  and  Irish  Home  Rulers  combined. 
oiadstnne's  He  sccured  the  Radicals  of  his  own  party  by  giving  posi- 
try,is8o-85.     tions  to    Bright,   Fawcett,   and  Dilke,  while  he  made 

Joseph  Chamberlain,  *Hhe  reforming  mayor  of  Birm- 
ingham," President  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  Dilke  and  Chamber- 
lain were  Radicals  of  the  new  school,  who  unlike  the  followers  of 


1880-1885]  Gladstone's  second  ministry  1053 

the  Manchester  school,  believed  in  a  vigorous  interference  on  the 
part  of  the  state,  not  only  as  a  remedy  in  domestic  evils,  but  also  in 
colonial  and  foreign  affairs.  The  * 'extinct  volcanoes,"  which  had 
so  aroused  Disraeli's  mirth  in  1873,  were  soon  in  full  eruption 
again.  The  "Burials  Act"  tore  away  almost  the  only 
remaining  shreT^  of  the  tissue  of  legislation  by  which 
ancient  bigotry  had  once  sought  to  bind  the  limbs  of  nonconform- 
ity, allowing  the  nonconformists  the  use  of  churchyards  for 
funeral  purposes.  By  the  "Employers'  Liability  Act,"  the 
employer  was  made  responsible  for  the  results  of  carelessness  or 
negligence  in  subjecting  workmen  to  unnecessary  danger.  By  the 
"Grand  Game  Act,"  the  crops  of  tenants  were  preserved  from  the 
inroads  of  such  pests  as  the  hares  and  rabbits  that  had  been  here- 
tofore protected  for  the  master's  hunting.  Ireland,  also,  where 
experience  had  revealed  the  weak  points  of  the  earlier  Liberal 
legislation,  early  attracted  the  attention  of  the  ministry,  which 
in  almost  its  first  legislation  attempted  to  secure  a  law 
that  would  allow  a  tenant  who  was  evicted  for  nonpayment  of 
rent  to  recover  "compensation  for  disturbance."  The  Lords 
defeated  this  important  provision,  but  the  next  year 
The^'Secnnd    the    "Sccoud  Irish  Land  Act"  was  more  successful. 

[rish  Land       _„,  .  ,     „  ,.  .in  •    i        i  .  * 

AcV  This  act  formally  recognized  the  co-proprietorship  of 

the  tenant  in  the  land  which  he  tilled,  and  allowed  him 
to  sell  his  interest  to  the  highest  bidder;  it  established  aland 
court  to  fix  rent  by  Judicial  action,  the  action  to  be  revised  every 
fifteen  years;  it  further  gave  the  tenant  a  right  to  apply  to  this 
court  at  any  time.  These  regulations,  which  in  many  respects 
were  a  distinct  return  to  older  feudal  ideas,  show  the  despair  of 
the  ministers  of  ever  dealing  with  the  Irish  trouble  justly  or  satis- 
factorily by  applying  principles  which  ordinarily  regulate  the  rela- 
tions of  landlord  and  tenant. 

These  measures,  acceptable  as  they  would  have  been  in  1870,  did 
not  satisfy  the  Irish  leaders  who  wanted  to  abolish  "landlordism" 
The ''Land  altogether.  They  had  Organized  a  "Land  League,"  by 
League.''  which  they  proposed  to  gain  their  end  through  a  system 
of  terrorism,  waylaying  landlord  or  agent  or  constable,  and  leav- 
ing the  dead  body  as  a  mute  testimony  of  the  danger  of  offend- 


1054  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victoria 

ing  the  League.  A  far  more  efficient  as  well  as  less  dangerous 
method  of  intimidation  was  devised  in  the  "boycott,"  so  called 
from  the  name  of  the  first  victim,  Captain  Boycott,  the  agent  of 
Lord  Earne.  Side  by  side  with  the  war  against  landlords,  the  old 
agitation  for  Home  Eule  was  also  revived,  finding  its  champion 
in  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  a  man  of  ability  and  resolution,  and 
without  scruples  in  selecting  methods.  Home  Rule,  however,  for 
the  time  was  hopelessly  confused  in  the  public  mind  with  Land 
Leaguism,  and  leaders  like  Parnell  naturally  fell  under  the  dis- 
approval which  was  aroused  by  the  murders  and  outrages  ascribed 
to  the  League.  Forster,  the  Irish  secretary,  was  goaded  to  des- 
peration by  the  inability  of  the  government  to  bring  the  perpe- 
trators of  the  secret  murders  to  justice,  and  in  1881  in  spite  of 
bitter  opposition  pushed  through  parliament  his  "Protection  for 
Life  and  Property  Act,"  which  empowered  the  government  to 
arrest  and  imprison  without  trial  persons  "reasonably  suspected." 
Parnell,  Dillon,  and  some  fifty  more  of  the  Irish  leaders  were 
arrested  and  thrown  into  Kilmainham  jail.  The  Land  League 
responded  by  issuing  a  manifesto  which  forbade  tenants  to  pay 
rent  altogether.  The  government  replied  by  a  direct  attack  upon 
the  League  itself  as  "an  illegal  and  criminal  association." 

Gladstone,  apparently,  now  thought  that  his  subordinate  had 
gone  too  far,  and  in  1882  released  Parnell  and  his  fellow  prisoners 

from  Kilmainham  jail ;  he  had  first,  however,  come  to  an 
The  Phoenix  understanding  with  them  that  they  would  support  the 
ders,  1882.       government  m  its  effort  to  introduce  liberal  measures 

and  bring  order  out  of  the  chaos.  Forster  resigned  in 
disgust,  and  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish  was  appointed  to  succeed 
him.  The  new  secretary  had  hardly  arrived  in  Ireland  before  he, 
with  the  permanent  Under-secretary,  Thomas  Henry  Burke,  was 
set  upon  in  Phoenix  Park  by  representatives  of  a  secret  society 
called  the  "Invincibles,"  and  stabbed  to  death.  All  thought  of 
conciliation  was  abandoned.  A  "Prevention  of  Crimes  Act," 
authorized  the  government  to  examine  witnesses  secretly  and  to 
try  suspected  pei*sons  before  a  special  jury.  A  "gag  law"  was 
also  passed  by  the  Commons  for  its  own  government,  designed 
to  check  the  obstructive  tactics  which  Parnell  had  adopted  in  the 


1881] 


THE    BOER   WAR 


1055 


House  and  which,  supported  by  the  Irish  vote,  he  had  used  to  con- 
siderable purpose. 

While  the  ministers  were  thus  heroically  grappling  with  the 
Irish  problem,  they  were  compelled  to  face  another   series  of  no 

less  perplexing  problems  connected  with  the  wars 
wIt^'mu-  ^^^^  ^^^  fallen  to  them  as  a  result  of  the  high- 
2?m8t^^^^'  l^^^^^d  foreign  policy  of  Beaconsfield.     The  heart  of 

the  great  Liberal  premier  was  not  in  these  wars; 
yet  to  withdraw  from  them  required  great  moral  courage  as  well 
as  wisdom.     The  Afghans  had  overwhelmed  a   British  army  at 


INDIAN 
OCEAN 


SOUTH  AFRICA 


oj^-Elizabeth 


SCALE   OF    MILES 
0         60      100      150     200     260    300     360    400 


Mai  wan,  but  in  1880  the  famous  march  of  General  Roberts, 
"Bobs,"  from  Kabul  to  Kandahar  and  the  defeat  of  the 
Afghans  at  Pir  Paimal,  afforded  an  opportunity  to  retire  from 
the  country  with  dignity,  and  the  Afghans  were  left  to  them- 


1056  THE    SEC0:N^D    era    of    reform  [victoria 

selves.  The  annexation  of  the  Transvaal,  also,  had  been  followed 
by  a  revolt  of  the  Boers,  who  had  no  desire  to  lose  their  independ- 
ence for  the  sake  of  consolidating  English  power  in  South  Africa. 
The  British  soldier  made  but  a  poor  showing  in  conflict  with  the 
Boer,  who  was  far  better  skilled  in  the  art  of  frontier  warfare,  and 
after  a  series  of  disasters,  asi  English  army  was  cut  to  pieces  at 
Majuba  Hill  and  their  commander  Sir  George  Colley  killed.  A 
large  English  force  under  General  Wood  was  at  hand,  but  Glad- 
stone was  unwilling  to  continue  the  further  waste  of  human  life  in 
a  struggle  in  which  he  from  the  first  felt  that  right  was  on  the  side 
of  the  Boers,  and  accordingly  ended  the  war  by  granting  them 
substantial  independence.  Unfortunately,  for  the  sake  of  salving 
British  pride  he  retained  a  vague  suzerainty  over  the  Transvaal. 
As  the  sequel  has  shown  this  was  a  mistake.  It  would  have  been 
better  either  to  have  renounced  all  authority  or  to  have  pressed 
the  war  to  the  last  issue. 

A  still  more  formidable  trouble  confronted  the  government  in 
Egypt.     In  1863,  Ismail,  the  grandson  of  the  old  Mehemet  AH  of 

the  Palmerston  days,  had  become  Viceroy,  or  Khedive^ 
Egypt,  Eng-  of  Effvpt.  He  was  a  progressive  man  and  anxious  to 
Suez  Canal    introduce    western     enterprise    and    civilization    into 

Egypt.  He  encouraged  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps  in  his 
scheme  of  cutting  a  ship  canal  across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  and  saw 
the  great  work  finally  opened  in  1869.  Ismail's  daring  schemes, 
however,  had  run  far  ahead  of  his  ability  as  a  financier.  The 
wretched  peasantry  of  Egypt,  the  fellahin,  upon  whom  rested  the 
crushing  burden  of  his  telegraphs  and  railroads,  his  harbors  and 
his  canals,  his  army  and  his  fleets,  were  entirely  unable  to  meet 
the  ever  increasing  demands  of  the  government,  and  in  1875  the 
Khedive  was  compelled  to  sell  to  England  his  share  in  the  canal. 
The  money,  however,  only  brought  a  temporary  relief;  and  in 
1879  Ismail  tried  to  shake  himself  loose  from  foreign  control,  but 
failed,  and  was  deposed  in  favor  of  his  son,  Tevvfik;  England  and 
France  entered  into  a  dual  protectorate,  or  control  of  the  country. 
This  was  the  condition  of  things  when  Gladstone  assumed  power 
in  1880.  The  native  Egyptians  resented  the  subjection  of  their 
country  to  foreigners;    they  were  jealous  of  the  French  and  Eng- 


1882-1884]  ENGLAND   IN   EGYPT  1057 

lish  army  officers  and  engineers,  who  as  usual  had  begun  to  displace 
the  natives  in  the  employ  of  their  own  government,  and  in  1882 
the  discontented  elements  rallied  about  an  Egyptian  soldier,  known 
to  the  world  as  Arabi  Pasha,  organized  an  insurrection,  and  seized 
the  forts  which  commanded  the  harbor  and  city  of  Alexandria. 
The  Khedive  was  powerless  to  protect  his  people ;  rioting,  pillage, 
and  violence  followed  in  the  city.  France,  who  was  iy  at  ease  over 
the  growing  influence  of  England  in  Egypt,  refused  to»  assist  in 
maintaining  order  and  left  England  to  settle  affairs  as  best  she 
could.  An  English  fleet  was  sent  to  Alexandria,  and  in  July 
Admiral  Seymour  bombarded  the  city ;    ti'oops  were  landed,  and 

finally  in  September  General  Wolseley  wound  up  the 
^mfofAUx-  affair's  of  Arabi  at  Tel-el-Kebir.  The  Khedive's  nom- 
Jiau^%82       ^"^^  authority  was  restored,  but  Egypt  has  remained 

since  virtually  under  English  control,  and  when  the 
day  comes  for  the  dismemberment  of  the  Sultan's  dominions, 
Egypt  with  enough  of  Syria  to  secure  the  canal,  will  probably  be 
England's  share  of  the  partition,  thus  adding  the  last  stepping 
stone  through  the  Mediterranean  to  India. 

The  end,  however,  was  not  yet;   the  weakening  of  the  Khe- 
dive's power  had  encouraged  a  great  religious  uprising  among  the 

Mohammedan  population   of    the   upper   Nile.      The 

The  Soudan,  ^        .■,-,,        ,  ,      •  i.        .  •     i 

Gordfrn's  movement  gathered  about  a  mysterious  lanatic  known 
as  the  Mahdi,  or  "the  expected  prophet,"  who  accord- 
ing to  certain  Mohammedan  sects  is  to  appear  on  the  earth  in  the 
last  days  and  reduce  the  whole  world  to  the  reign  of  righteousness 
after  the  Mohammedan  idea.  In  November,  1883,  an  Egyptian 
army  under  an  English  officer  known  as  Hicks  Pasha, 
vemberi        was  defeated  by  the  Mahdi  and  Hicks  slain,  and  the 

18S3 

whole  Soudan  virtually  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
fanatics.  Gladstone  had  no  wish  to  assume  responsibility  for  the 
government  of  the  wild  and  lawless  Soudan,  yet  he  could  not 
leave  the  few  Egyptian  garrisons  that  still  remained  faithful  to  be 
exterminated  by  the  fanatical  followers  of  the  Mahdi,  and  in  Jan- 
uary 1884  dispatched  Charles  George  Gordon  on  his  fatal  errand 
to  arrange  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  Egyptian  garrisons  from  the 
Soudan.      Gordon,  who    had   begun   his    career  as  an  engineer 


1058  THE    SECOXD    ERA    OP    REEORM  [victoru 

officer,  had  had  a  wide  experience  with  the  barbaric  races  of  the 
Orient.  In  1864  he  had  performed  a  great  service  for  the  Chinese 
government  in  putting  an  end  to  the  Taiping  revolt;  a  service 
which  had  fastened  upon  him  the  name  of  "Chinese  Gordon." 
He  was  well  known  in  the  Soudan,  where,  from  1874  to  1879,  as 
representative  of  the  Egyptian  government,  he  had  made  strenuous 
efforts  to  pi^t  a  stop  to  the  slave  trade.  He  reached  Khartoum 
unarmed*  and  almost  unattended.  He  saw  at  once  that  it  was  use- 
less to  attempt  to  treat  with  the  Mahdi  and  sent  for  military 
assistance.  Gladstone,  however,  still  shrank  from  the  enterprise, 
and  hesitated  to  send  an  army  to  the  Soudan,  until  the  Mahdi 's 
hordes  began  to  close  upon  the  city  and  the  popular  outcry 
against  leaving  Gordon  to  his  fate  compelled  him  to  act.  In 
August  1884  General  Wolseley  was  sent  up  the  Nile 
Woiseiey  with  a  relieving  force.  After  five  months  of  super- 
Khartoum,  human  toil,  on  the  28th  of  January  1885,  a  flying 
1885.  '     column  which  Wolseley  had  sent  ahead,  reached  Khar- 

toum, only  to  find  that  the  city  had  been  betrayed 
two  days  before  and  Gordon  slain.  After  some  pretense  of  a 
more  energetic  handling  of  the  Soudan  question,  the  English 
troops  were  withdrawn  to  the  Egyptian  frontier,  and  the  remain- 
ing garrisons  left  to  make  the  best  terms  they  could  with  the 
Mahdi. 

The  natural  reaction  which  attended  the  unfortunate  outcome 
of  the  Soudan  affair,  greatly  weakened  the  hold  of  the  Gladstone 
administration  upon  the  country.     But  the  appearance 
The^^Third     of  *'The  Third  Keform  Act"  in  1884  and  the  agitation 
1884.  which  loUowed,  regained  something  of  the  confidence 

of  tlie  Liberal  element  in  the  nation.  By  this  act, 
which  completed  the  work  begun  in  1832,  the  counties  were 
given  the  same  franchise  as  the  boroughs,  thus  virtually  making 
household  suffrage  the  law  of  England.  Boroughs  with  less  than 
15,000  inhabitants  were  deprived  of  separate  representation  in 
parliament;  boroughs  with  less  than  50,000  were  cut  down  to  one 
representative ;  each  boroughs  with  a  population  between  50,000  and 
165,000,  received  two  members  each.  The  representation  of  Scot- 
land in  the  Commons  was  raised  to  72,  but  Ireland  was  left  as  in 


1885]  SALISBURY'S   FIRST   MINISTRY  1059 

1868.*     The  act  marks  a  great  advance  toward  uniform  electoral 
districts  with  uniform  representation  on  the  basis  of  population. 

The  government,  thus  far,  had  carried  out  its  reform  program 
with  triumphant  success.     Gladstone,  however,  by  his  continued 

hostility  to  Home  Rule  had  roused  the  enmity  of  the 
Second  Irish  Nationals,  and  in  the  very  session  which  adopted 

Ministry.       the  Redistribution  Bill,  they  seized  the  opportunity, 

offered  by  some  unimportant  details  of  the  budget,  to 
transfer  their  voting  strength  to  the  opposition.  The  defeated 
measure  was  a  proposal  to  put  a  new  tax  on  beer  and  spirits,  and 
was  without  political  significance ;  but  the  vote  revealed  the  fact 
that  the  Nationals  held  the  balance  of  power  and  were  prepared  to 
force  the  government  either  to  compromise  or  to  resign.  Glad- 
stone chose  the  latter  course. 

The  Conservatives  were  thus  returned  to  power;  but  their 
position  was  precarious.    They  were  dependent  upon  the  good-will 

of  the  Irish  Nationals  for  their  majority,  and  this 
Salisbury's     support  must  necessarilv  be  uncertain.    Lord  Salisbury, 

first  ministry,  ^^  .  ;  ^  .     tj 

1885.  the  new  premier,  was  lully  as  much  opposed  to  Home 

Rule  as  Gladstone;  yet  he  had  not  been  identified 
with  the  recent  repressive  measures  of  the  Liberal  ministry  and 
was  able  to  make  conciliatory  advances  to  his  new  allies  by  drop- 
ping the  Crimes  Act  and  by  appropriating  a  largo  sum  under  the 
"Ashbourne  Act"  to  assist  Irish  peasants  in  buying  their  farms. 
The  general  election  of  November,  however,  made  little  change  in 
the  relation  of  parties.  In  Ireland  the  recently  extended  franchise 
told  for  Home  Rule  and  increased  the  Nationals  in  parliament  to 
eighty-six;    but  in  England    and    Scotland,  where  the  Liberals 

1  Parliament  as  thus  constituted  still  remains.  Of  the  Commons  there 
are,  in  all,  670  members,  assigned  as  follows :  To  England  and  Wales  495,  to 
Scotland  72,  and  to  Ireland  103.  Of  these  members,  further,  377  repre- 
sent counties,  284  represent  boroughs,  and  9  represent  universities.  The 
membership  of  the  House  of  Lords  is  constantly  varying.  At  present  it 
consists  of  about  580  members.  Of  these,  26  are  Lords  Spiritual,  16  are 
Scottish  representative  peers  elected  for  the  present  parliament,  28  are 
Irish  representative  peers  elected  for  life;  the  remaining  are  peers  of 
the  United  Kingdom. 


1060  THE    SECOXD    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victoeia 

received  the  support  of  the  newly-enfranchised  laborers,  the 
National  gains  were  fully  met  by  corresponding  Liberal  gains. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  announcement  had  been  made  from 
various  sources  that  Gladstone  himself  had  embraced  the  cause 
Gladstone  ^^  Home  Rule.  The  rumor  was  vigorously  denied 
RtSe^^Third  ^^  ^^^  Liberal  press,  and  when  parliament  assembled 
Februm-y-  ^^  Consider  the  queen's  address,  much  doubt  still 
July,  1886.  existed  as  to  Gladstone's  position.  The  Nationals, 
however,  were  already  suspicious  of  their  new  friends,  and  the 
announcement  by  Lord  Salisbury  that  he  proposed  to  suppress  the 
National  League,  which  had  taken  the  place  of  the  old  Land 
League,  was  enough  to  send  them  all  packing  again  to  the  Liberal 
benches.  They  soon  found  that  their  confidence  this  time  was 
not  misplaced.  Gladstone  returned  to  power  and  Home  Rule  was 
formally  added  to  the  platform  of  the  Liberal  party. 

It  was  certain  that  all  the  Liberal  members  would  not  follow 
their  chief  in  the  espousal  of  Home  Rule ;  but  how  serious  the 
defection  would  be,  and  whether  the  accession  of  the 
of  Liberal  Irish  vote  would  sufficiently  recruit  the  depleted  ranks 
to  enable  them  to  hold  their  own,  remained  to  be  seen. 
Hartington  and  Goschen  and  sixteen  other  Liberals  had  already 
refused  to  assist  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Salisbury  government. 
Others  waited  in  the  hope  that  Gladstone  might  yet  be  able 
to  hold  the  party  together  and  at  the  same  time  satisfy  the 
demands  of  the  Irish  members.  But  when  the  expected  Home 
Rule  Bill  at  last  appeared.  Chamberlain,  Bright,  Trevelyan, 
and  some  ninety  others  also  withdrew.  They  refused,  however, 
to  be  merged  in  the  ranks  of  the  Conservatives,  and  standing  by 
the  old  Whig  policy  of  the  legislative  union  of  the  two  kingdoms, 
adopted  the  name  of  the  "Liberal  Unionists." 

The  Bill  proposed  to  give  the  Irish  a  local  parliament,  pro- 
hibited from  endowing  or  disabling  any  religious  body.  It  cut 
off  the  Irish  from  all  representation  in  the  imperial  parliament, 
but  required  Ireland  to  pay  her  share  toward  the  expenses  of  the 
imperial  government.  A  '*Land  Purchase  Bill"  was  added  that 
proposed  to  advance  from  the  imperial  treasury  £50,000,000  to 
be  used  by  the  Irish  government  to  assist  the  tenants  in  buying 


1886,  1887]  FIRST   HOME   RULE   BILL  1061 

their  farms  under  the  Ashbourne  Act.     At  the  second  reading 
the  bill  was  thrown  out  largely  by  the  vote  of  the  Union  Liberals, 

although  many  of  the  Irish  Nationalists  also  voted 
FMmml  ^^^^^  ^^®  opposition  because  of  the  proposed  exclusion 
ml^  ^*'^'       ^^  ^^^  ^^^^^  ^^'^"^  ^^^®  imperial  parliament.     Gladstone 

then  appealed  to  the  country.  The  excitement  was 
intense;  rival  candidates  attacked  each  other  with  the  utmost 
bitterness,  and  after  one  of  the  most  heated  campaigns  of  modern 
times  the  Conservatives  and  Liberal  Unionists  were  sent  back 
with  a  combined  majority  of  118  votes  over  the  Irish  and  Liberal 
Home  Rulers. 

Salisbury  had  now  returned  in  triumph  and  Home  Eule  appar- 
ently was  dead.     Something,  however,  must  be  done  for  Ireland, 

where  the  peasantry  were  growing  desperate  under  their 
fecond^S-  sufferings.  The  plan  of  fixing  rent  by  judicial  action 
new'irwi^  had  Only  increased  the  burdens  of  the  tenants,  since  the 
Load  Act,       rates  were  fixed  at  a  money  valuation  and  the  prices  of 

farm  products  had  steadily  declined.  Thus,  where  it 
took  one  pig  to  pay  the  rent  in  1881,  it  took  two  pigs  in  1886. 
Salisbury  who  had  promised  to  the  electors  '*a  government  that 
would  not  flinch,"  although  he  had  dropped  the  Crimes  Act  when 
he  needed  the  Irish  votes,  now  proposed  to  make  the  Act  perpet- 
ual, and  carried  the  measure  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  Glad- 
stone and  the  Home  Rulers.  Hand  in  hand  with  this  measure, 
however,  the  government  passed  a  new  Land  Act,  by  which  judicial 
rents  that  had  been  fixed  before  1886,  were  to  be  revised;  lease- 
holders, also,  that  is  those  who  held  land  under  contracts,  who 
had  been  excluded  from  the  benefit  of  the  act  of  1881,  were 
included.  The  act  was  passed,  although  a  similar  act  proposed 
by  Parnell  the  year  before  had  been  defeated.  In  1888,  £10,000^)00 
were  added  to  the  sum  appropriated  for  the  purchase  of  Irish 
farms  under  the  Ashbourne  Act,  and  the  next  year  parliament 
formally  took  in  hand  some  much  needed  public  works  in  Ireland, 
such  as  the  construction  of  a  system  of  drainage  and  the  intro- 
duction of  railroads. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Home  Rule  was  seriously  suffering  in  the 
public  estimation  as  the  result  of   a  personal  attack  upon  Par- 


1062  THE   SECOND   ERA   OP   REFORM  [victoeia 

nell.     A  series  of  articles  were  published  in  the  Times  under  the 
head  Parnellism  and  Crime^  in  which  an  attempt  was  made  to 

show  by  means  of  fac-simile  letters,  that  Parnell  had 
Pameii^^^^   been  connected  with  the  Phoenix  Park  murders.     The 

letters  were  proved  afterward  to  be  forgeries  and 
Parnell  secured  damages  to  the  amount  of  £5,000.  But  in  1890 
he  became  further  involved  in  a  divorce  suit,  which  had  the  effect 
of  completely  destroying  the  confidence  of  the  public  and  led  to  a 
defection  in  the  ranks  of  his  party  in  favor  of  Justin  McCarthy. 
Parnell,  however,  refused  to  yield  his  position  as  leader,  and  the 
disruption  of  the  party  was  probably  saved  only  by  his  timely 
death  in  1891. 

The  government  was  by  no  means  so  engrossed  with  the  Irish 
question  that  it  did  not  find  time  for  many  other   useful  acts. 

In  1887  the  empire  celebrated  the  queen's  Jubilee  in 
Ug^mum  ^^®  midst  of  great  rejoicing.  In  1888  Goschen, 
minStry^^^^  the  new  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  carried  out  a 

plan  by  which  the  interest  on  the  public  debt  was 
reduced  from  3,  to  2^  per  cent.  In  1889  the  government  author- 
ized the  building  of  seventy  new  warships  at  an  expense  of 
£21,500,000.  In  1890  and  1891,  important  educational  measures 
were  adopted,  which  proportioned  grants  to  the  needs  of  districts 
and  made  elementary  education  free  in  England  aud  Wales.  In 
1888  elective  county  governments  were  introduced  patterned  after 
the  elective  Corporation  Councils  of  1835,^  and  in  1890  a  sum  of 
money  was  applied  to  such  councils  of  counties  as  were  willing  to 
undertake  the  establishment  of  technical  and  intermediate  schools. 
In  the  general  election  of  1892  Gladstone  again  came  be- 
fore the  country,  but  upon  a  somewhat  broader  platform  than 
*  in  1886,  known  as  the  Newcastle  Platform,  and  the 

Snistramn    liberals  were  returned  to  parliament  with  a  majority  of 
sione^ish       fo^^y  votes.     Salisbury  resigned  and  Gladstone  resumed 

office  for  the  fourth  and  last  time.  Gladstone  at  once 
presented  his  second  Home  Kule  Bill  which  differed  from  the  first 
largely  in  giving  the  Irish  a  representation  in  the  imperial  parlia- 
ment.    At  first  he  proposed  to  allow  the  Irish  members  to  vote 

1  See  page  998. 


1892-1894]  KETIREMEKT   OF   GLADSTONE  1063 

upon  imperial  questions  only;  but  the  injustice  of  this  restriction 
was  so  apparent  that  it  was  speedily  abandoned,  and  the  bill  was 
so  amended  that  the  votes  of  the  Irish  members  should  be  fully 
equal  to  those  of  other  members  of  parliament.  After  three 
months  of  vigorous  discussion  the  bill  finally  passed  the  House. 
The  Lords,  however,  rejected  it  by  a  vote  of  419  to  41.  Before 
such  a  majority  even  Gladstone  flinched,  and  although  in  the 
Newcastle  Program  he  had  pledged  himself  'Ho  mend  or  end"  the 
House  of  Lords,  he  refused  to  raise  the  gauntlet ;  only  by  a  revo- 
lution could  he  have  met  such  an  overwhelming  opposition. 

Home  Rule,   accordingly,  was    abandoned,   and  the  ministry 

turned  to  meet  other  pledges  which  it  had  made  to  the  people. 

Chief  of  them  in  importance  was  the  creation  of  Parish 

Cfnmciis         and  District  Councils,  completing  the  system  of  local 

Bill  "  1892.  7  X  o  J  •  ^ 

self-government  begun  by  the  Act  of  1835.  By  this 
act  ** Parish  Councils"  were  established  in  all  the  larger  parishes, 
and  ^'Parish  Meetings"  in  the  smaller  parishes;  the  parishes,  also, 
were  grouped  into  districts  and  over  each  district  was  placed  a 
"District  Council."  Thus  a  regular  chain  of  local  elective  gov- 
erning bodies  was  instituted,  rising  from  the  parish  councils 
through  the  district  and  the  county  councils  to  the  imperial 
parliament ;  a  system  which  to  an  American  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  somewhat  similar  chain  of  town,  county,  state,  and  nation.^ 
Gladstone  was  now  approaching  his  eighty-fifth  year.  His 
service  had  been  almost  continuous  since  1832,  and  if  ever  a  serv- 
ant had  earned  the  right  to  rest  from  his  labors,  he 
of  Glad-        had.     He  still  carried  his  burden  of  years  with  rare 

stune,  1894.  T        T       .  -  ^ 

grace  and  dignity;  the  marvelous  intellect  was 
undimmed ;  the  lofty  courage,  which  had  never  faltered  in  the 
paths  of  righteousness  and  justice,  still  faced  the  future,  with 
the  upward  look,  the  clear-eyed  faith  of  old;  and  yet  in  the  course 
of  nature  the  end  could  not  be  far  off.  Gladstone  determined, 
therefore,  to  resign,  and  on  March  3,  1894,  took  leave  of  his  col- 
leagues and  retired  to  the  peace  of  his  beautiful  home  at  Hawarden 

^  Of  course  when  we  pass  the  county  the  comparison  will  not  bear 
pressing,  for  the  relations  of  state  and  nation  in  America  are  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  English  county  and  the  imperial  parliament. 


1064  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victoria 

Castle.      Here   he   died  four  years   later,    May   19,    1898;— the 
'*  Grand  Old  Man"  to  the  last. 

Upon  the  retirement  of  Gladstone  his  duties  were  turned  over 

to  his  foreign  secretary,  Archibald  Philip  Primrose,  better  known 

as  Lord  Eosebery,  who  made  few  changes  in  the  cabinet 

hery  minis-     and  thus  virtually  continued  the  Gladstone  ministry. 

tnj,  March  i  •    i      x,  •  -, 

1894-June  Ihe  program  which  the  new  premier  announced  was 
formidable  but  practical,  following  lines  already  laid 
down  by  his  chief,  even  to  the  continued  shelving  of  Home  Rule. 
It  soon  became  evident,  however,  that  with  the  retirement  of 
Gladstone  the  spirit  had  departed  which  had  so  long  held  the 
Liberal  party  together.  Other  views,  also,  were  beginning  to  be 
heard  outside  the  walls  of  the  Parliament  House;  the  ghost  of  the 
old  Chartist  movement  was  abroad  again;  Socialism  was  daily 
gaining  its  adherents;  new  claims  were  pressing  for  a  hearing,  as 
strange  to  the  Liberals  of  the  sixties  and  the  eighties,  as  parlia- 
mentary reform  had  been  to  the  followers  of  Peel  and  Wellington. 
Hardly  ten  days  after  the  retirement  of  Gladstone,  Henry  Labou- 
chere  formally  presented  to  the  Commons  a  resolution  that  pro- 
posed, in  plain  words,  to  abolish  the  legislative  functions  of  the 
House  of  Lords.  The  resolution  was  carried  by  two  votes.  The 
attendance  was  small,  the  resolution  was  unexpected,  and  the  vote 
could  not  be  taken  in  any  sense  as  an  expression  of  the  opinion  of 
the  Lower  House ;  yet  the  fact  that  such  a  resolution  could  pre- 
vail in  any  assembly  of  the  House,  carried  with  it  an  ominous 
threat  for  the  future,  and  served  to  quicken  fears  which  had 
been  allayed  somewhat  by  Gladstone's  moderation.  The  Irish 
National  party,  moreover,  had  been  shattered  by  the  fall  of  Par- 
nell,  and  their  divided  forces  could  no  longer  be  counted  as  an 
element  of  Liberal  strength.  The  strength  of  the  ministry,  there- 
fore, was  rapidly  waning;  and  in  June  1895,  an  adverse  vote  upon 
a  question  of  comparative  unimportance  forced  Rosebery  to  resign. 
Upon  the  resignation  of  Rosebery,  Salisbury  was  for  the  third 
time  invited  to  form  a  ministry.  He  had  little  reason  to  expect 
support  from  a  parliament  whose  liberal  majority  had  forced  him 
to  resign  three  years  before,  and  at  once  appealed  to  the  nation. 
The  results  fully  revealed  the  strength  of  the  Conservative  reac- 


1895-1901]  THE  THIRD   SALISBUKY   MINISTRY  1065 

tion.  In  the  new  House,  out  of  588  members,  the  Conservative 
ministry  commanded  411  votes.  The  campaign,  however,  had 
been  fought  out  chiefly  on  the  issue  of  Home  Rule,  and 
servative  re-  i^^^smuch  as  the  Liberal  Unionists  had  returned  sev- 
<^^wnof  enty-one  members,  in  making  up  his  Cabinet  Lord  Salis- 
bury saw  fit  to  strengthen  his  position  still  further  by 
recognizing  this  element  in  the  appointment  of  Joseph  Chamberlain 
as  Colonial  Secretary,  Goschen  as  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty 
and  Spencer  Compton  Cavendish,  the  duke  of  Devonshire,^  as 
President  of  the  Council.  Lord  Salisbury  himself  assumed  the 
duties  of  foreign  secretary,  and  James  Arthur  Balfour,  his  nephew, 
became  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  leader  of  the  Com- 
mons. 

The  third  Salisbury  ministry  is  thus  strictly  a  coalition  minis- 
try ;  and,  as  with  most  of  the  coalition  ministries  of  the  past,  it 
has  not  only  proved  unusually  stronsr,   but   has   also 
tendency  of     advanced  to  the  very  ground  now  held  by  the  party 
third  min-       which  it  lias  nominally  supplanted.     Its  Liberal  tend- 

istry.  . 

encies  have  been  singularly  illustrated  by  its  attitude 
toward  Irish  Home  Rule.     While  its  opposition  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  separate  Irish  parliament  has  remained  as  uncompromis- 
ing as  ever,  it  has  fully  acknowledged  the  justice  of 
Oovernment    Irish  discontent,  and  by  the  "Local  Government  Act" 

for  Ireland  pi 

Act,''Au-       of  1898,  has  extended  to  Ireland  the  system  of  ffovern- 

giist,  1898.  .  J  G 

ment  by  means  of  local  councils,  recently  established  in 
Great  Britain,  thus  really  adopting  the  principles  of  the  Union 
Liberals  rather  than  the  Conservatives,  and  granting  to  Ireland  a 
position  within  the  empire  which  approximates  nearly  to  that 
of  Scotland  and  Wales. 

The  attitude  of  the  Salisbury  ministry  towards  the  colonies, 
also,  is  far  different  from  the  position  of  the  earlier  Conservatives; 
Australian  ^^  ^^  ^^^^  liberal  even  than  that  of  the  Gladstone  min- 
f£Sryl  is^^y  of  IS^*^-  "I-'hus  the  six  Australian  states  have 
1^^-  been  allowed  an  absolutely  free  hand  in  forming  the 

federal  constitution  that  went  into  effect  on  the  first  day  of  the 
new  century,   although  the  new  constitution  is  not   only  more 

*  Before  1891,  Marquis  of  Hartington. 


1066  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF    REFORM  [victoeia 

democratic  than  the  Canada  Federation  Act,  but  in  some  impor- 
tant features  it  is  more  democratic  even  than  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States. 

The  foreign  administration  of  Lord  Salisbury,  in  its  patience 
and  moderation,  has  also  resembled  the  conduct  of  that  office  by 
the  Liberals  rather  than  the  Conservatives,  and  for  the 
policy  of  same  reason  has  been  severely  criticised.  Even  Con- 
servatives have  not  failed  to  rail  at  their  chief,  for 
what  they  have  been  pleased  to  call  a  vacillating,  truckling  policy. 
They  have  remembered  the  glorious  days  of  the  Berlin  Congress, 
and  have  not  failed  to  contrast  the  forbearance  of  Salisbury  with 
the  somewhat  ostentatious  bluster  of  the  old-time  chief  of  the 
Jingoes.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  criticism,  as  far  as  the  issue  has  yet 
been  revealed,  as  in  the  Venezuela  affair,  the  wisdom  of  Lord 
Salisbury's  position  has  certainly  been  vindicated.  Li  general, 
while  paying  little  heed  to  the  bogies  which  in  the  days  of  Palm- 
ers ton  or  Beaconsfield  used  to  send  English  politicians  into  such 
paroxysms  of  alarm,  and  persistently  refusing  to  go  to  war  simply 
to  avert  some  hypothetical  danger  to  the  empire  in  the  future,  he 
has  yet  steadily  insisted  upon  the  integrity  of  the  empire,  the 
respect  of  existing  treaties  by  foreign  nations,  and  the  duty  of 
the  government  to  protect  its  subjects,  and  has  been  content  to 
advance  the  interests  of  the  empire  upon  the  more  substantial 
basis  of  commercial  treaties  and  international  friendships. 

It  is  too  early  to  write  the  history  of  the  present  Boer  war,  or 
to  attempt  to  pass  judgment  upon  its  causes  or  to  tabulate  its 
results.  It  is  interesting,  however,  to  note  that  in  the 
The  Second  ^^®  ^^^^  where  Lord  Salisbury  has  allowed  himself  to 
Boer  war.  j^q  forced  from  his  policy  of  moderation  and  forbear- 
ance, he  has  been  more  severely^ criticised  than  for  all 
the  other  measures  of  his  administration  put  together.  But 
whatever  the  rest  of  the  world  may  think,  or  whatever  may  be  the 
ultimate  verdict  of  history,  the  people  of  Great  Britain  have  cer- 
tainly given  their  judgment  in  the  recent  elections  of  1900,  and 
the  Salisbury  ministry  crosses  the  threshold  of  the  new  century, 
apparently  stronger  than  ever  in  the  confidence  of  the  nation. 
From  present  indications  he  is  destined  to  remain  in  power  as  long 


190l]  DEATH   OF   QUEEN   VICTORIA  1067 

as  his  advancing  years  will  permit  him  to  perform  the  duties  of  his 
high  office. 

On  the  22d  of  January  1901,  the  long  reign  of  Queen  Victoria 

came  to  an  end.     She  had  entered  the  sixty-fourth  year  of  her 

reign  and  was  completing  the  eighty-second  year  of  her 

Death  of        ^ge.     In  the  length  of   her  reign,  few  monarchs  have 

toria,Jan-      surpassed  her;  in  the  solid  achievement  of  her  reign,  no 

uary  22,  1901.  r  ^  ^  o    7 

monarch  can  rival  her.  It  is  true  that  the  greatness 
of  England  during  this  long  period  has  been  due  to  ten  thousand 
forces,  working  many  of  them  in  unseen  and  even  humble  chan- 
nels, and  that  with  much  of  this  achievement,  directly  and  person- 
ally, Victoria  has  had  little  to  do.  This  fact,  however,  is  not  by 
any  means  to  be  ascribed  to  the  personal  nonentity  of  the  sover- 
eign, but  to  the  complexity  of  modern  national  life  and  to  the  very 
multiplicity  of  the  sources  from  which  it  springs.  But  if  a  list  of 
these  sources  were  to  be  drawn  out,  of  the  elements  that  have 
moulded  and  directed  British  character,  that  have  contributed 
most  to  British  greatness  daring  the  past  sixty  years,  there  must 
be  mentioned  among  the  first  the  goodness,  the  personal  nobility, 
the  sweet  womanhood  of  her  who  has  so  long  borne  the  title  of 
Queen,  who  has  imparted  a  new  dignity  to  monarchy,  and  made 
the  sovereign  once  more  an  object  of  patriotic  affection. 

With  the  new  king,  Edward  VII. ,  who  enters  into  the  posses- 
sion of  this  priceless  inheritance  of  affection  and  loyalty,  to  all 
appearances  there  begins  a  new  era  in  the  development 
hegimwith     of  British  Mstorv.     Since  Gladstone's  retirement,  the 

Edward  VII.  .  "^  ... 

party  in  power  has  shown  no  disposition  to  undo  his 
work.  But  just  as  the  Conservatives  of  1841  accepted  the  work 
of  the  first  era  of  reform  as  a  finality,  and  joining  with  the  Con- 
servative Whigs  advanced  to  Whig  ground  under  the  leadership  of 
Peel,  so  the  Conservatives  of  to-day,  uniting  with  the  less  radical 
wing  of  the  Liberals,  have  accepted  the  reforms  of  the  Gladstone 
period,  and  under  the  leadership  of  Salisbury  and  Chamberlain 
have  boldly  faced  the  future. 

The  goal,  moreover,  is  not  so  remote  that  it  may  not  be 
already  discerned; — the  release  of  the  dependent  populations  of 
the  British  Empire  from  their  political  nonage  and  the  union  of 


1068  THE    SECOND    ERA    OF   REFORM  [edwabdVU. 

all  in  a  vast  system  of  self-governing  federations,  all  the  members 

of  which  shall  have  equal  political  rights  and  equal  standing  before 

the  laws.     This  is  democracy  pure  and  simple ;  the  verv 

Democracy  ,  ,   .      _        _      ^  .  ^     _  ,,  i 

and  the  new  democracy  which  Lord  John  Russell  so  vehemently 
disclaimed  in  1832  and  which  Beaconsfield  decried  in 
1SB7.  And  yet  to-day  only  the  blindest  of  Conservative  prejudice 
can  look  upon  the  approach  of  Great  Britain  to  a  gov^nment 
by  the  people  with  other  than  confidence.  For  if  democracy  is 
making  rapid  strides,  public  education  is  likewise  advancing, 
redeeming  the  people  of  Great  Britain  from  the  curse  of  illiteracy 
and  preparing  them  for  the  trust  of  self-government. 

In  the  colonies  the  advance  of  the  democracy  was  long  feared 
as  the  presage  of  the  ultimate  dissolution  of  the  empire.  But 
the  people  of  the  widely -extended  dependencies  have  proved  them- 
selves quite  as  capable  of  a  vigorous,  healthy  loyalty  to  the  empire, 
quite  as  susceptible  to  pride  in  ttie  British  name  as  the  old-fash- 
ioned land-oligarchy  that  once  ruled  within  the  narrow  seas.  If 
democracy  has  advanced,  the  principle  of  federation  has  also 
advanced.  The  empire  is  "no  longer  the  empire  of  England,  or 
the  empire  of  Great  Britain,  but  the  empire  of  all  the  British 
possessions, "  an  empire  resting  not  upon  force  but  upon  loyalty 
and  mutual  interest,  an  empire  in  which  is  to  be  recognized  in  the 
future  as  the  fundamental  law  of  its  constitution, — absolute  equal- 
ity of  rights  among  all  its  members. 


PROMINENT   BRITISH  STATESMEN  OF  MODERN   TIMES  WHO  HAVE 
ENTERED  THE  PEERAGE. 

When  date  of  assuming  title  is  important  it  is  given  in  parentheses.    Courtesy  titles 
are  given  in  quotation  marks. 

Aberdeen,  E.  of  * George  Hamilton  Gordon d.  1860. 

Albemarle,  D.  of,  (1660) George  Monk d.  1670. 

Al thorp,  see  Spencer 

Ashley,  see  Shaftesbury 

Beaconsfleld,  E.  of,  (1876) Benjamin  Disraeli  d.  1881. 

Bolingbroke,  V. ,  ( 1714) Henry  St.  John d.  1751. 

Bute,  E.  of John  Stuart d.  1792 

Carmarthen,  see  Leeds 

Castlereagh,  see  Londonderry 

Chatham,  E.  of William  Pitt  d.  1778. 

Chestertield,  E.  of  Philip  Dormer  Stanhope d.  1773. 

Clarendon,  E.  of,  (1660) Edward  Hyde d.  1674. 

Clyde,  B. ,  (1858) Colin  Campbell d.  1863. 

Dalhousie,  E.  of,  (1860)  Fox  Maule  Ramsay  (1882),  Baron  Panmure d.  1874. 

Danby,  see  Leeds 

Derby,  E.  of,  (1851) Edward  Geoffrey  Smith  Stanley,  Baron  Stanley.t^.  1869. 

Devonshire,  D.  of,  (1891) Spencer  Compton  Cavendish,  "Marquis  of  Hart- 

ington" 

Glenelg,  B.,  (1885) Charles  Grant d.  1866. 

Goderich,  see  Ripon 

Grey,  E Charles  Grey,  Viscount  Howick d.  1845. 

Granville,  E.,  (1744) John  Carteret,  Baron  Carteret    d.  1763. 

Guilford,  E.  of,  (1690) Frederick  North,  "Lord  North" d.  1792. 

Hartington.  see  Devonshire 

Halifax,  M.  of George  Savile <?.  1695. 

Halifax,  E.  of Charles  Montague,  Baron  Halifax,  (1700) d.  1730. 

Howick,  see  Grey .^. 

Lansdowne,  M.  of,  (1784) William  Petty,  Earl  of  Shelbume,  (1761) d.  1805. 

Lansdowne,  M.  of Henry  Petty-FitzMaurice d.  1863. 

Londonderry,  M.  of,  (i82i) .... . . .  Roisert  Stewart,  "  Viscount  Castlereagh'*'". ....... d.  1822. 

Leeds,  D.  of Thomas  Osborne,  Lord  Latimer,  Earl  of  Danby, 

Marquis  of  Carmarthen d,  1696. 

Mahon,  see  Stanhope 

Marlborough,  D.  of,  (1702) John  Churchill,  Earl  of  Marlborough,  (1689) .  ..d.  1723. 

Melbourne,  V William  Lamb d.  1848. 

Melville,  v.,  (1802) Henry  Dundas d.  1811. 

Newcastle,  D.  of Thomas  Pelham d.  1768. 

North,  see  Ouilford 

Nottingham,  see  Winchelsea 

Oxford,  E.  of ,  (171 1) Robert  Harley <i.  1724. 

Palmerston,  V Henry  John  Temple d.  1865. 

Panmiu'e,  see  Dalhousie 

Portland,  D.  of William  Henry  Cavendish  Bentinck d.  1809. 

Ripon,  E.  of,  (1833) Frederick  John  Robinson,  Viscount  Goderich, 

(1827) d.  1859. 

Rockingham,  M.  of  Charles  Watson  Wentworth d.  1782. 

Rosebery,  E.  of Archibald  Philip  Primrose         

Russell,  E.,  (1861) John  Russell,  "Lord  John  Russell" d.  1878. 

Salisbury,  M.  of,  (1868) Robert  Arthur  Talbot  Gascoyne  Cecil,  "Lord 

Robert  Cecil, "  "Viscount  Cranbourne"  (1865). 

Sandwich,  E.  of John  Montague d.  1792. 

Shaftesbury,  E.  of,  (1672) Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  Baron  Ashley d.  1683. 

Shelbume,  E.  of,  see  Lansdotvne 

Shrewsbury,  D.  of,  (1694) Charles  Talbot,  Earl  of  Shrewsbiiry d.  1718. 

Sidmouth.  V.,  (1805) Henry  Addington d.  1844. 

Spencer,  E.,  (1834) John  Charles  Spencer,  "Viscount  Althorp" d.  1845. 

Stanhope,  E Philip  Henry  Stanhope,  "Lord  Mahon" d.  1875. 

Sunderland,  E.  of,  (1643) Robert  Spencer d.  1702. 

Wellington,  D.  of,  (1814) Arthur  Wellesley,  Viscoimt   Wellington,  (1809,) 

Earl  and  Marquis  of  Wellington,  (1812) d.  1852. 

Winchelsea,  E.  of Daniel  Finch,  Earl  of  Nottingham d.  1730. 

♦  D.  =  Duke.    M.  =  Marquis.    E.  =  Earl.    V.  =  Viscount.    B,  =  Baron, 


INDEX 


Aachen,  Treaty  of,  895. 

Aberdeen,  see  Gordon. 

Abyssinian  war,  1043. 

Addington,  Henry,  Viscount  Sid- 
mouth,  prime  minister,  958; 
secures  peace  with  France,  959 ; 
member  of  ministry  of  All  the 
Talents,  963 ;  of  Liverpool  min- 
istry, 970;  the  Six  Acts,  979; 
resigns,  980. 

Addison,  Joseph,  860. 

Afghanistan,  war  in,  1013,  1026. 

Agincourt,  battle  of,  446. 

Agrarian  revolution,  in  George 
Ill's  reign,  916. 

Agricola  in  Britain,  10-12. 

Aidan,  23,  41. 

Aids,  feudal,  defined,  177. 

Air--la-Chapelle,  Treaty  of,  895. 

Alabama  claims,  1035,  1048. 

Albert,  Prince  Consort,  1006,  1007, 
1020. 

Alcuin,  64. 

Alexander  I.,  czar  of  Russia,  rela- 
tions with  Napoleon,  963-966, 
968,  971,  972. 
II.,  czar,  closes  war  with  Eng- 
land, 1024,  1025;  war  with  Tur- 
key, 1049-1051. 
III.,  king  of  Scotland,  324. 

Alexandria,  bombardment  of,  1057. 

Alfheah,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 113,  119. 

Alfred,  king  of  England,  wars  with 
Danes,  63,  65-68;  government 
of,  68,  74-76;  death  and  char- 
acter, 76,  77. 

Alien  Bill,  847. 

Alma,  siege  and  battle  of  the,  1023. 

Alney,  Truce  of,  117. 

Althorp,  Viscount,  see  Spencer. 

America,  early  English  settlements 
in,  809,  896 ;  wars  with  French 
in,  897,  898;  condition  of  colo- 
nies, 923,  925,  926,  933,  934;  the 
Revolution,  935-940;   civil  war 


in,  attitude  of  English  people 
toward,  1033,  1034. 

American  Duties'  Bill,  926;  re- 
pealed, 933. 

Amicable  Loan,  the,  of  Henry 
VIII.,  522. 

Amiens,  Mise  of,  288. 
Peace  of,  958. 

Amity  and  Commerce,  treaty  of, 
970. 

Angles,  settlements  of,  in  Britain, 
19,  21,  22. 

Anglicana  Ecclesia,  541. 

Annates,  defined,  273;  seized  by 
Henry  VIII.,  539;  restored  to 
church  by  Anne  (Queen  Anne's 
Bounty),  842. 

Anne,    Queen,    accession    of,    836; 
political    sympathies    of,    837, 
852;    relations  to  church,  842; 
death,    856;     England    under, 
856-860. 
Boleyn,  see  Boleyn. 
of  Bohemia,  wife  of  Richard  II., 
413;    relation  to  Lollards,  413, 
420. 
of  Cleves,  wife  of   Henry  VIII. , 

551,  552. 
Neville,  see  Neville. 

Annual  Indemnity  Act,  880. 

Anselm,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 187,  192,  193. 

Antoninus,  wall  of,  11. 

Appellant,  Lords,  rising  of,  418; 
fall  of,  421. 

Aquitaine,  acquired  by  Henry  II., 
208;  wars  of  English  in,  209, 
214,  226,  240,  362;  reorganized 
by  Edward  IIL,  382;  adminis- 
tration of  Black  Prince  in,  383- 
386;  recovered  by  France,  464. 

Arabi  Pasha,  1057. 

Architecture,  Cistercian,  201 ; 
changing  styles  of,  370,  496. 

Argyle,  Archibald,  earl  of,  694, 
703,  754. 


1070 


INDEX 


1071 


Argyle,  Archibald,  marquis  of,  re- 
bellion of,  783,  784. 
Arkwright,    Richard,    inventor    of 

spinning  by  rollers,  912. 
Armada,  the  Spanish,  609-612. 
Armagnacs,    origin     of     name    of 

party,  437,  447. 
Arminians,   the,   party  in  English 

church,  650. 
Arms  Act,  the,  1016,  1017. 
Army,  Council  of  the,  699. 
Declaration  of  the,  699. 
Enlistment  Act,  1047. 
Plot,  671. 

English,   regular,   beginning   of, 
748. 
Arras,  Congress  of,  456. 
Arte  veldt,  James  van,  "the  Brewer 
of  Ghent,"  358,  359. 
Philip  Van,  successor  of  former 
slain  at  Rosbecque,  413. 
Arthur  of  Brittany,  245,  247. 
Prince  of  Wales,  son  of  Henry 
VII.,     marries     Catharine     of 
Aragon,  510. 
Articles,  the"  Forty-two,  570. 
the  Six,  549,  550;  repealed,  576. 
the  Ten,  548. 
the  Thirty-nine,  596,  814. 
Arundel,  see  Fitz-Alan. 

Thomas,  archbishop,  437,  440. 
Ashbourne  Act,  the,  1059,  1061. 
Ashburton,  940,  941. 
Ash  down,  battle  of,  63. 
Ashingdon,  battle  of,  116. 
Assembly,   the    General,   of    Scot- 
land, 663. 
Asser,  biographer  of  Alfred,  73. 
Assiento,  the,  855,  872,  883. 
Assize  of  Arms,  the,  226. 
of  Clarendon,  220. 
of  Northampton,  226. 
Athelney,  66. 
Athelstan,  83,  85. 
Auckland,  Lord,  in  India,  1013. 
Augsburg,  League  of  794,  795,  829, 
830,  834. 
Peace  of,  617. 
Augustine,  St.,  in  Britain,  35;  con- 
ference at  Augustine's  oak,  40. 
Aumale,  William  of,  270,  271. 
Austerlitz,  battle  of,  962. 
Australia,   South,    settlements    in, 

1012.  1018,  1019. 
Australian  Federation,  1065. 


Austria,  see  under  wars  of  Spanish 
succession;  wars  of  Austrian 
succession;  Seven  years'  war; 
French  Revolution;  and  Napo- 
leon. 

Austrian  succession,  the  war  of  the, 


Babington  Plot,  607. 

Bacon,  Francis,  Sir,615:  impeached, 
639. 

Bacon,  Roger,  320. 

Bailiff,  the,  in  the  manor,  181. 

Balaclava,  battle  of,  1024. 

Balfour,  James  Arthur,  1065. 

Ball,  John,  popular  agitator,  405. 

Balliol,  Edward,  king  of  Scotland, 
354;  expulsion  of  from  Scot- 
land, 355. 
John,  claimant  to  Scottish 
throne,  324;  does  homage  to 
Edward  I.,  325;  breaks  with 
Edward  L,  327;  death,  327, 
note. 

Ballot  Act,  1047. 

Bank  of  England,  founded,  823. 

Bannockburn,  battle  of,  338,  339. 

Barbadoes,  colonized,  809. 

Barebone's   Parliament,  see  Nomi- 
nated Parliament. 

Barnet,  battle  of,  483. 

Barons'  war,  288-291. 

Basing,  battle  of,  63. 

Batavian  Republic,  952. 

Bauge,  battle  of,  449. 

Beachy  Head,  battle  of,  820. 

Beaconsfield,  see  Disraeli. 

Beauchamp,  Richard,  earl  of  War- 
wick, 457. 
Thomas,  earl   of  Warwick,  418; 
421,  422. 

Beaufort,  Edmund,  duke  of  Somer- 
set, minister  of  Henry  VI.,  459; 
reverses  of  in  France,  460 ;  sup- 
ports   king    against    Yorkists, 
463,466;  death,  467. 
Henry,  duke  of  Somerset,  477. 
Henry,    bishop    of    Winchester, 
451,  456;   cardinal,  455;   favors 
peace,  457 ;  death  of,  458,  459. 
Lady  Jane,  marries  James  I.  of 
Scotland,  436. 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  617. 

Becket,    Thomas,   early    life,    214; 
archbishop,  215,  216;   at  Coun- 


1072 


INDEX 


cil  of  Woodstock,  216;  quarrel 
with  Henry  II.,  217-223;  death, 
223. 

Bede,  at  Wearmouth,  52;  "Ecclesi- 
astical History"  of,  52. 

Bedford,  John,  duke    of,  regent   of 
France  and   protector  of  Eng- 
land, 450 ;  French  campaigns  of, 
451,  456 ;  death  of,  457. 
-Grenville  ministry,  921. 

Belesme,  Robert  of,  190,  191. 

Belfast  College,  1011. 

Benedict  Biscop,  43,  49,  52,  64. 

Benevolences  of  Edward  IV.,  487; 
abolished  by  Richard  III.,  491; 
Henry  VIII.,  522;  Charles  I., 
645. 

Bentinck,  William,  duke   of  Port- 
land, prime  minister,  966;   re- 
tires, 970. 
William.  Lord,  in  India,  1013. 

Beowulf,  73. 

Berlin,  Congress  of,  1051. 
Decrees,  the,  965. 

Bermuda,  colonized,  809. 

Bernicia,  see  of,  divided,  47. 

Bertha,  wife  of  Ethelbert  of  Kent, 
34. 

Berwick,  won  by  English,  355  and 
note. 

Bible,  the  Great,  549. 
Translations:  Alfred,  73;  Wycliff, 
412;    Tyndale,  537;    Coverdale, 
549;  authorized  version,  632. 

Bigod,  Roger,  earl  of  Norfolk,  312. 

Bill,  the  Great,  580. 

Bishops'  War,  the  first,  665. 
the  second,  667. 

Bismarck,  1035. 

Black  Death,  371,  373,  375. 

Black  Friars,  see  Franciscans. 

Black  Prince,  Edward  the,  at  Crecy, 
367;  campaigns  of,  376-378; 
interferes  in  Spain,  384 ;  last  war 
in  France,  385-386;  death,  394. 

Blake,  Admiral,  716,  719,  735,  747. 

Blenheim,  battle  of,  841. 

Bloody  Assizes,  the,  785. 

Blount,  Charles,  Lord  Mountjoy, 
in  Ireland,  632. 

Bliicher  at  Ligny,  973:  Waterloo, 
974. 

Boadicea,  9,  10. 

Boer  War,  the  first,  1055,  1056. 
the  second,  1066. 


Boethius,  "Consolations  of  Philos- 
ophy," 73. 

Bohun,  Humfrey  de,  earl  of  Here- 
ford, 312. 

Bolingbroke,  see  St.  John,  and 
Henry  IV.  of  England. 

Bolevn,  Anne,  524,  527,  539,  540 
541,  550. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  in  Italy,  954 
in   Egypt,    956;     First   Consul 
957 ;  Peace  of  Amiens,  959 ;  be 
conies   emperor  of  the  French 
960;  proposed  invasion  of  Eng 
land,  961;    Austerlitz,  962;   su- 
preme in  Europe,  963 ;  the  Con- 
tinental     system,     964-966; 
Peninsular    War,     967;     over- 
throw of  Austria,  968 ;  Russian 
campaign,  971,  972;   Elba,  972; 
Waterloo,  973;  St.  Helena,  974. 

Boniface  VIII  ,  pope,  quarrel  with 
Edward  I.,  310;  claims  Scot- 
tish overlord  ship,  330. 

Bonner,  bishop,  564,  575,  584. 

Book-land,  30,  152,  note. 

Boston  Massacre,  933. 
Tea  Party,  934. 

Bosworth,  battle  of,  492. 

Botany  Bay,  convict  colony  estab- 
lished 949 

Bothwell  Brigg,  battle  of,  775. 

Bothwell,  earl  of,  murders  Darnley, 
598;  marries  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots,  598;  death,  599. 

Boulogne,  Treaty  of,  556. 

Bourbon  Family  Compacts,  883,  890, 
909. 

Bouvines,  battle  of,  258. 

Boycott,  origin  of  name,  1054. 

Boyne,  battle  of  the,  816. 

Braddock's  campaign,  898. 

Bramham  Moor,  battle  of,  435. 

Breaute,  Faulkes,  de,  263,  270,  271. 

Breda,  Declaration  of,  744. 
Peace  of,  756. 

Bretigny,  Treaty  of,  380,  382. 

Bretwalda,  55,  note. 

Bridgewater,  Francis,  duke  of, 
builder  of  Manchester-Liver- 
pool canal,  914,  915. 

Brigham,  Treaty  of,  324. 

Bright,  John,  1003,  1052. 

Britain,  early,  population  of,  2-7; 
under  Romans,  7-17;  Roman- 
izing of,  8 ;  Roman  policy  in,  9 ; 


INDEX 


1073 


revolt  of  Boadicea,  9,  10;  or- 
ganization of,  by  Romans,  14, 
15;  decline  of  Roman  power  in, 
16.  17. 

British  American  Colonies  Con- 
federation Act,  1042,  1043. 

British  Museum,  beginning  of,  895. 

Brougham,  Henry,  Lord,  991. 

Bruce,  Robert,  the  elder,  claimant 
to  Scottish  throne,  334. 
Robert,  the  younger,  see  Robert 
I.,  king  of  Scotland. 

Brunanburh,  battle  of,  84. 

Buckingham,  see  Stafford  and  Vil- 
liers. 

Bull,  John,  origin  of  name,  832  and 
note. 

Bunker  Hill,  battle  of,  936. 

Bunyan,  John,  his  "Pilgrim's  Prog 
ress,"  751. 

Burgh,  Hubert  de,  justiciar  of 
Henry  III.,  270;  suppresses 
barons,  271 ;  recrowns  Henry 
III.,  271;  his  fall,  272-274. 

Burghley,  see  Cecil. 

Burgundy,    Charles,  duke  of,    ally 
of  Edward  IV.,  485. 
Philip,   duke    of,  ally  of  Henry 

V. ,  and  Bedford,  448. 
John,  duke  of,  ally  of  Henry  V. , 
444,  445 ;  murdered  at  bridge  of 
Montereau,  448. 

Burke,  Edmund,  interest  in  India, 
932;  sympathy  with  Ameri- 
cans, 935;  Whig  leader,  940, 
941,  943,  944,  945,  950;  takes 
part  in  attack  on  Warren  Hast- 
ings, 947. 

Burials  Act,  1053. 

Bute,  John  Stuart,  earl  of,  minister 
of  George  III.,  908,  921. 

Butler,  James,  duke  of  Ormond, 
lord  -  lieutenant  of  Ireland, 
710;  the  act  of  settlement, 
753. 
Bishop  of  Bristol,  "the  Analogy," 
866. 

Buttington,  battle  of,  75. 

Bye  Plot,  the,  625. 

Byng,  George,  Admiral,  wins  bat- 
tle of  Cape  Pesaro,  871. 
John,  Admiral,  fails  at  Minorca, 
900;  shot,  904. 

Byron,  Lord  George,  joins  Greek 
insurgents,  984. 


Cabal,  the,  760. 

Cabinet  government,  beginning  of, 
443,  761,  825,  879. 

Cade  Rebellion,  461,  462. 

Cadiz,  Drake's  expedition  to,  609. 

Cadwalla,  50. 

Cadwallon,  39,  40. 

Caedmon,  47. 

Caesar  in  Britain,  7. 

Calais,  siege  of,  by  Edward  III., 
368;  importance  of  possession, 
369 ;  loss  of,  585. 

Calcutta,  beginning  of  English  pos- 
session of,  808 ;  Black  Hole  of, 
900,  901. 

Calder,  Admiral  Robert,  meets  Vil- 
leneuve  off  Finisterre,  961. 

Calendar  Bill,  Chesterfield's,  895. 

Calverts,  the,  found  colony  in 
Maryland,  662. 

Canibridge,  Richard,  earl  of,  con- 
spiracy of,  against  Henry  V., 
445. 

Cambuskenneth,  battle  of,  328. 

Cameron,  Richard,  leader  of  Scots 
in  revolt  against  Charles  II., 
774,  775. 

Campbell,  Sir  Colin,  Lord  Clyde, 
raises  siege  of  Lucknow,  1030. 

Campeggio,  cardinal,  papal  legate, 
525. 

Camperdown,  battle  of,  954. 

Campion,  Edmund,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary  to  England,  604;  death, 
605. 

Campo  Formio,  treaty  of,  954, 

Canada,  struggle  of  English  and 
French  for,  897,  898,  907;  early 
discontent  of  people  of,  946, 
999;  insurrection  in,  1000;  the 
Caroline  affair,  1000;  Pitt's  Bill, 
999;  union  of,  1000,  1042,  1043; 
Fenian  invasion  of,  1044. 

Canning,  George,  foreign  secre- 
tary, 966,  967;  resigns,  980;  re- 
called, becomes  leader  of  Com- 
mons, 981 ;  opposes  Holy  Alli- 
ance, 981-986;  favors  Catholic 
emancipation,  986 ;  interferes 
in  Greece,  984;  prime  minister 
and  death,  987. 

Canterbury,  early  Jutish  settle- 
ment of,  47;  establishment  of 
Christian  mission  at,  34;  be- 
comes seat  of  archbishop,  35. 


1074 


INDEX 


"Canterbury  Tales,"  401,  402. 

Canute,  struggle  with  Edmund 
Ironsides,  114,  115;  succeeds  to 
English  throne,  117;  policy  of, 
117;  charter  of,  118,  119;  in 
Italy,  119;  death  and  results  of 
reign,  120,  121 ;  laws  of,  122. 

Cape  Colony,  seized  by  British,  952 ; 
permanent  annexation  of,  974. 

Carausius,  15,  16. 

Cardinal  College,  later  Christ 
Church  College,  founded  by 
Wolsey,  523. 

Caroline    of    Anspach,    queen    of 
George  II.,  influence  of,  877. 
of    Brunswick,    wife   of    George 
IV.,  979;  death,  980. 

Carr,  Robert,  viscount  of  Roches- 
ter, earl  of  Somerset,  favorite 
of  James  I. ,  634. 

Carta  3Iercatoria,  304. 

Carteret,  John,  Earl  Granville, 
ministry  of,  887 ;  involves  Eng- 
land in  war  of  Austrian  suc- 
cession, 889;  his  Austro-Sar- 
dinian  treaty,  890;  resigns,  891. 

Cartwright,  Edmund,  inventor  of 
power  loom,  913. 

Carucage,  levied,  236,  240. 

Cassivellanus,  7. 

Castlereagh,  see  Stewart. 

Cateau  Cambresis,  592. 

Catesby,  Robert,  leader  in  Gun- 
powder Plot,  627. 

Catharine  of  Aragon,  marries 
Arthur  Prince  of  Wales,  510; 
Henry  VIII.,  514;  divorced, 
524,  525,  539;  death,  551. 
of  France,  queen  of  Henry  V.,  448. 
of  Portugal,  queen  of  Charles  II., 
755. 

Catholic  Emancipation,  Indul- 
gences of  Charles  II.,  758,  764; 
the  Hales  Case,  788;  Indul- 
gences of  James  II.,  790,  792; 
opposed  by  Gordon  rioters,  931 ; 
favored  by  Pitt  for  Ireland,  958 ; 
military  disability  removed 
from  Catholics,  978;  opposed 
by  WeUington,  987;  the  Act  of, 
989. 

Cavendish,  Frederick,  Lord,  1054. 
Spencer     Compton,     duke     of 
Devonshire,   marquis  of  Hart- 
ington,  1060. 


Cawnpore,  massacre  at,  1029,  1030. 

Caxton,  William,  English  printer, 
499. 

Ceawlin,  conquests  of,  22,  23,  25, 
33. 

Cecil,  Robert,  earl  of  Salisbury, 
minister  of  Elizabeth,  615;  of 
James  I. ,  624 ;  defeats  Cobham 
Plot,  625;  financial  policy  of, 
631;  foreign  policy  of,  635; 
part  in  marriage  of  Princess 
Elizabeth,  635. 
Robert  Arthur,  viscount  Cran- 
bourne,  marquis  of  Salisbury, 
refuses  to  support  Disraeli's 
reform  bill,  1042 ;  foreign  secre- 
tary, 1050;  first  ministry  of, 
1059;  second  ministry  of,  1061, 
1062;  third  ministry  of,  1064, 
1067;  foreign  policy  of,  1066. 
William,  Lord  Burghley,  secre- 
tary of  state  under  Elizabeth, 
589;  defeats  the  Ridolfi  Plot, 
601 ;  death,  615. 

Celts,  in  Europe,  3;  migrations  to 
Britain,  4;  customs  of,  4-6. 

Ceorl,  defined,  28. 

Cessation  of  Arms,  the,  688,  689. 

Chad,  45. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  Free  Church 
movement  in  Scotland,  1014. 

Chalons,  Little  battle  of,  322. 

Chamberlain,  Joseph,  president  of 
Board  of  Trade,  1052,  1053; 
colonial  secretary,  1065. 

Chapter  of  Myton,  340. 

Charles  Edward,  "the  Young  Pre- 
tender," invades  Scotland,  892; 
failure  of  and  death,  894. 
v.,  emperor,  king  of  Spain,  517; 
elected  emperor,    519;    ally  of 
Henry  VIII.,  520,  521;   wars  in 
Italy,  521 ;  abdication  of,  579. 
VI.,  emperor  (archduke  Charles), 
claimant    to    Spanish     crown, 
831,  832,  843,  849;   elected  em- 
peror, 854;  death,  888. 
VII.,  emperor  (elector  of  Bava- 
ria), claimant  to  Austrian  suc- 
cession, 888;  elected  emperor, 
889. 
of  Burgundy,  see  Burgundy. 
I.  of  England,  journey  to  Madrid, 
641;   accession,   642;   character 
and  policy,  642,  643 ;  first  quar- 


INDEX 


1075 


rel  with  parliament,  643-646; 
troubles  with  his  third  parlia- 
ment, 647-652 ;  first  era  of  Stuart 
despotism,  653  -  666 ;  troubles 
with  Scotland,  663-668;  in  Scot- 
land, 675 ;  plots  with  Irish  lords, 
676 ;  attempts  to  impeach  five 
members,  678-680;  civil  war, 
681-696;  a  prisoner,  696,  697; 
intrigues  with  Scots,  701; 
second  civil  war,  702,  703 ;  trial 
and  execution  of,  704,  705. 
Charles  II.  of  England,  in  Scotland, 
712;  invades  England,  715,  716; 
issues  Declaration  of  Breda, 
744;  restoration  of,  745;  char- 
acter and  policy,  745,  746 ;  mar- 
ries Catharine  of  Portugal,  755 ; 
renews  commercial  attack 
upon  Holland,  756;  personal 
rule  of,  760;  Treaty  of  Dover, 
762;  allies  with  Louis  XIV. 
against  Holland,  762-765 ;  strug- 
gle against  Exclusion  Bill,  771, 
772 ;  second  era  of  Stuart  tyr- 
anny, 778-781;  attacks  the 
charters,  780;  death,  781;  abil- 
ity of,  781. 

V.  of  France,  first  Dauphin,  379; 
wars  with  Edward  III.,  378, 
380,  383,  385,  386,  388. 

VI.  of  France,  condition  of 
France  under,  448;  death  of, 
451. 

VII.  of  France,  murder  of  John 
of  Burgundy,  451 ;  assisted  by 
Joan  of  Arc,  454,  455 ;  crowned 
at  Rheims,  455. 

VIII.  of  France,  his  wars  in  Italy, 
509;  wars  with  Henry  VIL, 
504. 

IX.  of  France,  religious  wars  of, 
596,  600. 

X.  of  France,  deposed,  990. 

II.  of  Spain,  relations  to  war  of 
Devolution,  761,  762;  to  parti- 
tion treaties,  830,  831;  declares 
Philip  of  Anjou  his  heir,  832; 
death,  833. 

III.  of  Spain,  war  with  England, 
909,  910. 

IV.  of  Spain,  deposed  by  Napo- 
leon, 967. 

XII.  of  Sweden,  death  of,  871. 
Charter,  the  Great,  260-262;  strug- 


gle for,  266-293;   confirmed  by 
Edward!,  314. 
of  the  Forests,  the,  269. 

Chartist  agitation,  1002,  1003,  1010, 
1018. 

Chatham,  see  Pitt. 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  399,  400;  the 
"Canterbury  Tales,"  401,  402. 

Chester,  battle  of,  23,  24. 

Chevy  Chase,  see  Otterburn. 

Chichester,  Sir  Arthur,  in  Ireland, 
632,  633. 

China,  first  war  with,  1005 ;  second 
war  with,  1026,  1031,  1032. 

Chippenham,  battle  of,  66. 

Chivalry,  321-323. 

Christian  Brothers,  the,  537,  538. 

Christianity,  planting  of  in  early 
Britain,  13,  14;  reintroduction 
in  Teutonic  Britain,  34,  35,  42. 

Chronicle,  Anglo-Saxon,  73,  181. 

Churchill,  John,  duke  of  MarlV)or- 
ough,  in  service  of  James  II., 
784;  deserts  James  II.,  799;  in 
Ireland,  817,  820;  influence 
under  Anne,  837-839;  character 
of.  838;  military  career  of, 
839-841,  844,  845,  851;  breaks 
with  Tories,  842,  843 ;  disgraced, 
853 ;  end  of  career,  867. 
Sarah,  Lady  Marlborough,  influ- 
ence over  Anne,  837 ;  dismissed, 
853. 

Cistercians,  in  England,  200,  201. 

City,  the,  79,  89,  151,  198,  242-244; 
growth  of,  172 ;  see  also  London. 

Civil  list,  adopted,  821. 

Civil  war.  the  first,  681-695;  the 
second,  702. 

Clare,  Richard  de,  "Strong-bow," 
earl  of  Strigul  and  Pembroke, 
invades  Ireland,  224. 
Richard  of,  earl  of  Gloucester, 
friend  of  Simon  de  Montfort, 
284;  opposes  Simon,  285,  287. 
Gilbert  of,  earl  of  Gloucester,  ally 
of  de  Montfort,  287;  joins  his 
enemies,  291 ;  defeats  Simon  at 
Evesham,  291-293 ,  forces  Henry 
III.  to  accept  terms  of  the  bar- 
ons, 295. 
Gilbert  of,  earl  of  Gloucester, 
335 ;  one  of  the  Lords  Ordain- 
ers,  336 ;  slain  at  Bannockburn, 
339. 


1076 


INDEX 


Clarence,  George,  duke  of,  476,  479, 
480;  deserts  Warwick,  483; 
death,  486. 

Clarendon,  assize  of,  380. 
Code,  750. 

Constitution  of,  218. 
Edward  Hyde,  earl  of,  see  Hyde. 

Claverhouse,  John  Graham  of. 
Viscount  Dundee,  see  Gra- 
ham. 

Claudius,  emperor,  in  Britain,  7,  8. 

Clement  VI.,  pope,  see  Schism,  the 
Great. 
VH.,  pope,  521;  action  in  divorce 
case  of  Henry  VIII.,  524,  525. 

Clergy,  low  moral  tone  of,  in  time 
of  Georges,  865. 

Clericis  Laicos,  the  Bull,  311. 

Clive,  Robert,  Lord,  successes  in 
India,  900;  conquers  Bengal, 
905;  death,  931. 

Closter-seven,  convention  of,  903. 

Cluniac  movement,  the  influence  of 
the,  in  England,  199. 

Clyde,  see  Campbell. 

Coalition  against  France,  the  first, 
953;  the  "Second,  956;  the  third, 
962;  the  fourth,  972;  the  fifth, 
972,  973. 
Ministry,  the,  942;  overthrow^n, 
943. 

Cobbett,  William,  agitates  for  par- 
liamentary reform,  978 ;  elected 
to  parliament  under  Reform 
Bill  of  1832,  995. 

Cobden,  Richard,  prominent  in  at- 
tack on  Corn  Laws,  1003. 

Cobham  Plot,  the,  625. 

Cochrane,  Thomas,  assists  Greek 
insurgents,  984;  forces  battle 
of  Navarino,  985. 

Coercion  Act,  995. 

Coffee,  first  introduced  in  England, 
859;  houses  under  Charles  II., 
769. 

Coinage,  early  adulteration  of,  205, 
212,  556,  567.  568,  575;  restored 
by  Elizabeth,  595 ;  by  William 
III.,  827,  828;  specie  payment 
suspended  during  French  Revo- 
lution, 955;  resumed,  978. 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,  chief  justice, 
supports  independence  of 
courts,  636;  dismissed,  637;  re- 
news struggle  in   parliament, 


639  641 ;  attacks  judicial  abuses, 
647,  648;  death,  606. 

Cold  Stream  Guards,  origin  of,  748. 

Colonies,  English,  in  western  hem- 
isphere, 809,  896;  French,  in 
western  hemisphere,  810;  rela- 
tions of  English  and  French, 
897 ;  progress  of  English,  1012, 
1013. 

Commons,  development  of  the. 
Council  of  St.  Albans,  254;  of 
Oxford,  257;  Montfort's  parlia- 
ment, 290;  the  model  parlia- 
ment, 307-309;  the  parliament 
of  York,  344 ;  later  years  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  397;  under  Lancas- 
trian kings,  430,  441,  442,  443, 
475,  476 ;  nature  of  struggle  of, 
with  Stuarts,  618-623;  see  also 
parliament. 

Communa,  the,  243. 

Commendation,  defined,  175. 

Commerce,  English,  growth  of,  304, 
494,  495,  807,  808,  809. 

Commonwealth,  proclaimed,  708 ; 
on  the  seas,  716;  respected  in 
Europe,  716,  717;  war  with 
Spain,  735 ;  war  with  Holland, 
719-730. 

Company  of  Jesus,  see  Jesuits. 

Comprehension  Act,  the,  750. 

Comvn,  John,  victor  at  Roslin,  330; 
death,  331. 

Congregation,  Lords  of  the,  593. 

Conservatives,  origin  of  party,  1009. 

Continental  system,  954 ;  effect  of, 
965 ;  completion  of,  966 ;  failure 
of,  968. 

Contract,  the  Great,  631. 

Conventicle  Act,  the,  751. 

Cook,  Captain,  discoveries  of,  949. 

Cooper,  Anthony  Ashley,  earl  of 
Shaftesbury,  member  of  Cabal, 
761 ;  lord  chancellor,  764 ;  leader 
of  Country  Party,  768;  im- 
prisoned, 769 ;  the  Habeas  Cor- 
pus Act,  772;  favors  Mon- 
mouth, 775,  776,  779;  struggle 
for  Exclusion  Bill,  771 ;  end  of 
career,  778,  779. 

Coote,  Colonel  Eyre,  defeats  Count 
Lally  at  Wandewash,  907. 

Copenhagen,  battle  of,  958,  959. 

Copyholder,  the,  373. 

Corbiesdale,  battle  of,  712,  713. 


INDEX 


1077 


Corn  Law  of  1815,  976,  977. 

Corn  Laws,  agitation  against,  1003, 
1014;  repealed,  1015. 

Cornwall,  conquered  by  West  Sax- 
ons, 54. 

Cornwallis,  Lord,  in  America,  939; 
in  Ireland,  955. 

Corporation  Act,  750. 

Corporations,  attacked  by  Charles 
II.,  779,  780;  by  James  II.,  791, 
792;  reform  of  the,  991-994. 

Cotton  famine,  the,  1033,  1034. 

Council  of  Clarendon,  the,  Henry 
II. 's,  218. 
Lillibourne,    the,    William    I.'s, 

135. 
Oxford,  the,  John's,  257. 
Oxford,  the,  Henry  III.'s,  281. 
Salisbury,  the,  William  I.'s,  171. 
St.  Albans,  the,  John's,  254. 
St.  Paul's,  the,  John's,  256. 
Westminster,  William  I.'s,  155. 
Westminster,  Henry  II. 's,  218. 
Woodstock,  Henry  II.  's,  216 ;  con- 
tinued   under    parliament,   see 
also  Magnum  Concilium. 

Counties  palatine,  established  by 
William  L,  168. 

County  Councils,  1062. 

Court-baron,  the,  176. 

Counts,  the  royal,  194,  212,  302,  620, 
621^,  see  also  Judicature  Act. 

Courtenay,  Edward,  conspires 
against  Queen  Mary,  577,  578; 
death,  579. 

Courts,  local,  decline  of,  194 ;  source 
of  royal  revenue,  195. 

Covenant,  the  Scottish  National, 
664. 

Covenanters,  persecutions  of,  755. 

Cranmer,  Thomas,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  aids  Henry  VIII. 
in  divorce,  539,  550;  favors 
Protestantism,  557 ;  issues 
Prayer  Book,  564;  death,  583. 

"Craftsman"  the,  860,  878. 

Crecy,  battle  of,  365-367. 

Crimean  War,  1022-1026. 

Crompton,  Samuel,  inventor  of  the 
spinning  mule,  912. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  member  from 
Huntingdonshire,  687 ;  organ- 
izes the  Ironsides,  688 ;  at  Mars- 
ton  Moor,  690;  Naseby,  693; 
seizes  Charles  I.,  699;  Preston, 


703;  crushes  Levellers,  709;  in 
Ireland,  711,  712;  Dunbar,  714; 
crushes  rising  of  Scots,  715; 
attitude  toward  Dutch  war, 
718;  expels  the  Rump,  721; 
position  after  expulsion  of 
Rump,  722,  723;  the  Nominated 
Parliament,  724 ;  lord  protector, 
727-729;  reforms  of,  731,  732; 
his  parliaments,  733,  735,  737; 
absolute  rule  of,  734 ;  death,  738 ; 
character  and  personal  trails, 
738,  739. 
Richard,  succeeds  Oliver  as  lord 

protector,  739 ;  failure  of,  741. 
Thomas,  secretary  of  state  to 
Henry  VIII.,  543;  favors  re- 
forms, 544-551;  his  Lutheran 
alliance,  551;  fall  and  death, 
522 

Crusades,  188,  227,  233,  234,  296, 
414. 

Crystal  Palace,  1020. 

Cumberland,   Ernest,   duke  of,  be- 
comes king  of  Hanover,  999. 
George,  duke  of,  Fontenoy,  892; 
Hastenbeck,  903;  Colloden,  894; 
Closter-seven,  903. 

Cunobelinus,  7. 

CuHa  Regis,  169,  170,  194,  213. 

Custom,  the  Great,  304. 

Cuthred,  54. 

Dacre,  homage  of,  83. 

Dalhousie,  Lord,  in  India,  1013; 
annexations  of,  1027,  1028. 

Danby,  see  Osborn. 

Danegeld,  first  payment  of,  108; 
second,  109;  third.  111;  abol- 
ished by  Edward  the  Confessor, 
170;  revived  by  William  I., 
156,  170,  171. 

Danelagh,  the,  established,  63,  67. 

Danes,  the,  in  England,  55,  56,  57, 
62-65,  74,  75,  107-115. 

Danish  kings  in  early  England, 
106-124. 

Darien  Company,  the,  846. 

Darnley,  Henry  Stuart,  Lord,  mar- 
ries Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  898. 

David  I.,  king  of  Scotland,  ally  of 
Matilda  of  Anjou,  204. 
II.,   king  of  Scotland,  355,   368, 
432. 

Dauphin,  the,  origin  of  title,  379. 


1078 


INDEX 


Dawstone,  battle  of,  23. 

Debt,  the  national,  founded,  822. 

Decemvirate,  the,  723. 

Declaratory  Act,  the,  925. 

Delhi,  capture  of,  1029. 

Demesne,  the,  173. 

Dennisburn,  battle  of,  41. 

Deorham,  battle  of,  23. 

Derby,  see  Stanley. 

Dermot  of  Leicester,  Irish  chief- 
tain, 224. 

Derwentwater,  revolt  of,  868. 

l5esniond,  see  Fitzgerald. 

Despenser,    Hugh  le,   justiciar    of 
Henry  III.,  killed  at  Evesham, 
293. 
Hugh  le,  the  elder,  342 ;   triumph 

of,  344;  death  of,  346. 
Hugh  le,  the  younger,  342 ;  influ- 
ence of ,  344;  fall  of,  346. 

Dettingen,  battle  of,  889. 

Devereaux,  Robert,  earl  of  Essex, 
favorite  of  Elizabeth,  in  Ire- 
land, 614;  intrigue  and  death, 
615. 
Robert,  second  earl  of  Essex, 
parliamentary  general,  cam- 
paign of  Edgehill,  684 ;  relieves 
Gloucester,  686;  at  Newbury, 
686;  at  Lostwithiel,  691;  loses 
position  by  Self -Denying  Ordi- 
nance, 693. 

Devolution,  war  of,  761. 

De  Witt,  grand  pensioner  of  Hol- 
land, 756,  764. 

Disestablishment,  the  Act  of,  1045. 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  earl  of  Beacons- 
field,  opposes  repeal  of  Corn 
Laws,  1015,  1016;  member  of 
first  Derby  ministry,  1021;  of 
second  Derby  ministry,  1032, 
1033 ;  prime  minister,  1040 ;  re- 
form bill  of,  1040, 1041 ;  opposes 
Irish  disestablishment,  1044;  re- 
signs, 1044;  second  ministry, 
policy  in  Russia-Turkish  war, 
1049,  1050,  1051;  decline  of  in- 
fluence, 1052;  death,  1052. 

Dissenters,  founding  of  body  of, 
751,  752,  756;  see  also  Claren- 
don Code,  and  the  Corporation 
Act. 

Distraint  of  knighthood,  304,  672. 

Divine  right  of  kings,  619,  622,  803, 
804,  806. 


Domesday  Survey,  the,  171. 

Dominicans,  the,  in  England,  320. 

Dona,  defined,  177. 

Dost  Mohammed,  regains  Afghanis- 
tan, 1013. 

Douglas,  Archibald,  earl  of,  cap- 
tured at  Homildon  Hill,  433; 
part  in  first  rising  of  the  Per- 
cies,  434,  435. 

Dover,  treaties  of,  762,  763. 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  voyages  of,  603 ; 
expedition  to  Cadiz,  609,  616. 

Drapier  Letters,  the,  860. 

Druids,  the,  6. 

Dry  den,  John,  his  "Absalom  and 
Achitophel,"  778. 

Ducal  families,  disastrous  results 
of  creating,  428. 

Dudley,  Edmiind,  minister  of 
Henry  VII.,  508;  death,  513. 
John,  earl  of  Warwick,  560 ;  suc- 
ceeds Somerset  in  council,  567 ; 
his  Protestantism,  568;  his  re- 
forms, 569;  duke  of  Northum- 
berland, 572;  proclaims  "Queen 
Jane,"  573;  fall  and  death,  574. 
Guilford,     marries     Lady     Jane 

Grey,  572;  death,  578. 
Robert,  earl  of  Leicester,  favorite 
of  Elizabeth,  537 ;  expedition  to 
Holland,  607. 

Dunbar,  battle  of,  713,  714. 

Dundee,  see  Graham. 

Dunois,  general  of  Charles  VII.  of 
France,  452. 

Dunkirk,  acquisition  of,  735,  741; 
sale  of,  755. 

Dunstan,  early  career  of,  93-95;  at 
Glastonbury,  95 ;  character  and 
accomplishments,  95,  96;  ex- 
pelled from  Wessex,  98;  arch- 
bishop, 99;  part  in  monastic 
controversy,  103;  death,  105. 

Dupplin  Moor,  battle  of,  354. 

Duquesne,  Fort,  built  897,  898; 
Braddock's  campaign  against, 
898 ;  captured  and  renamed  by 
English,  906. 

Dutch,   the,   see    Netherlands  and 
Holland, 
the    first     war,    717,    738;     the 
second,  756. 

Earldoms,  founding  of  the  great, 
91. 


IN^DEX 


1079 


East  Anglia,  early  settlement  of, 
21;  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity, 38;  confederation  of 
Raedwald,  34,  36;  see  Danes  in 
England. 

Eastern  question,  the,  origin  of, 
950;  influence  of  French  Revo- 
lution on,  951,  956;  reopened 
by  Greek  revolt,  984;  Palnier- 
ston's  policy  toward,  1004; 
Afghan  wars,  1013,  1026;  the 
Crimean  war,  1022;  the  Russia- 
Turkish  war,  1049,  1050. 

East  India  Company,  the,  613,  808, 
830,  1031 ;   see  also  Clive,  Hast- 
ings, Dalhousie,  Mutiny, 
the  French,  811. 

Eastland  Company,  809. 

Ecclesiastical  courts,  organized  by 
William  I.,  179,  180;  supported 
by  Becket,  217.  218;  powers  of, 
restricted  by  Edward  III.,  390. 

Edbald,  36,  40. 

Edgar,  the  Peaceful,  accession  to 
crown,   98;    conduct  of  reign, 
99,  101;    death,  101;  character 
of  reign,  102. 
Etheling,  elected  king,  146. 

Edgehill,  battle  of,  684. 

Edinburgh,  founding  of,  37. 

Edington,  battle  of,  66. 

Edith,  queen  of  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor, 127,  129. 

Edmund  Crouch  back,  earl  of  Lan- 
caster, 294,  427,  429. 
king  of  East  Anglia,  the  Martyr, 

62. 
king  of  West  Saxons,  86-89,  96. 
Ironside,  115-117. 

Edred,  87 ;  relations  to  Dunstan,  95. 

Edric,  the  Grasper,  115,  116,  117. 

Education,  public,  grant  of  1839, 
1006;  Forster's  Elementary 
Education  Act,  1046. 

Edward  I.,  in  Barons'  War,  286- 
291 ;  wins  Evesham,  292 ;  cru- 
sade of,  296 ;  character  and  suc- 
cession, 297;  Welsh  campaign, 
298,  299;  reforms  of,  300-310;  re- 
lations to  church,  310 ;  quarrels 
with  barons,  312-315;  confirms 
charters,  314;  arbitrator  in 
Scottish  succession,  325;  war 
of,  with  France,  326;  Scottish 
wars  of,  327-332;   death  of,  332. 


Edward  IT.,  first  prince  of  Wales, 
350;  accession  to  English 
crown,  335;  troubled  reign  of, 
336-348;  deposition  and  death, 
348. 

III.,  appointed  guardian  of  the 
kingdom,  346;  accession  of, 
350;  seizes  and  executes  Mor- 
timer, 352;  character  of,  352; 
restores  order  in  kingdom,  353; 
interferes  in  Scottish  affairs, 
354;  begins  Hundred  Years' 
War,  355-369;  claims  French 
crown,  359 ;  Crecy.  362-367 ;  in- 
fluence of  war  on  England,  369- 
375 ;  campaigns  of  Black  Prince, 
376-380;  decline  of  prestige, 
381-396;  death,  396. 

IV.,  Mortimer's  Cross,  472;  pro- 
claimed, 473;  first  reign,  476- 
480;  character,  477;  expelled 
by  Warwick,  480,  481 ;  return 
of,  482;  second  reign,  486; 
death,  487. 

v.,  supplanted  by  Richard  III., 
488,  489;  murdered  in  the 
Tower,  491. 

VI.,  551,  557,  559,  585. 

VII.,  accession  of,  1067;  new  era 
begins  with  his  reign,  1068. 

j)rince  of  Wales,  son  of  Henry 
VI. ,  465,  481 ;  slain  at  Tewkes- 
bury, 484. 

the  Confessor,  accession,  125; 
character,  126;  reign,  125-134; 
death,  134. 

the  Elder,  accession  of,  77;  re- 
conquest  of  Danelagh,  78-81; 
death  of,  82;  law^s  of ,  82. 

the  Etheling,  recall  and  death, 
133,  134. 

the  Martyr,  102,  103. 
Edwin,  king  of  Northumbria,  36-39. 

earl  of  Mercia,  138,  146,  150. 
Edwy,  accession  of,  97;  death,  99. 
Egbert,  53,  54,  55,  59,  61. 
Egfrid,  46,  49. 
Egypt,   Napoleon  in,   956;    English 

secure  control  of,  1056,  1057. 
"Eikon  Basilike,"   appearance   of, 

705. 
Eliot,   Sir  John,   644,  645,   attacks 
the  crown,  647 ;  his  resolutions, 
653 ;   imprisonment  and  death, 
653. 


1080 


INDEX 


Elizabeth,  queen,  birth,  541;  im- 
prisoned, 579;  character  and 
policy,  587,  588;  religious  sym- 
pathies, 589,  590 ;  policy 
toward  Philip  of  Spain,  592; 
peace  policy,  595,  596;  toward 
Catholics,  596;  relations  with 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  595,  599 ; 
excommunication  of,  600,  601 ; 
authority  over  church,  602; 
wars  of,  603,  606,  612;  persecu- 
tion under,  604;  death,  615. 
of  York,  marries  Henry  VII.,  501. 

Elizabethan  age,  the,  615,  616. 

Ellandune,  battle  of,  54. 

Ellesmere  canal,  constructed,  915. 

Emma,  Norman  wife  of  Ethelred, 
109,  110;  of  Canute,  123,  124. 

Emmet,  Robert,  Irish  patriot,  961. 

Employers'  LialDility  Act,  1053. 

Empson,  Richard,  minister  of 
Henry  VII.,  508;  death.  513. 

Enclosure  Acts  of  George  III."s 
reign,  918. 

Engagement,  the,  701. 

English,  increased  use  of,  language, 
growth  of,  literature  in  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries, 
398-402. 

Enniskillen,  siege  of,  815,  816. 

Eorl,  the,  28. 

Escheat  and  forfeiture,  177. 

Escurial,  Treaty  of,  the,  see  Bour- 
bon Family  Compact. 

Essex,  see  Devereaux. 

Estates,  the,  306.  307. 

Etaples,  Treaty  of,  504. 

Ethelbald,  51,  52,  60. 

Ethelbert,  of  Kent,  33,  34;  laws  of, 
35,  36. 

Ethelburga,  instrumental  in  intro- 
ducing Christianity  into  North- 
umberland, 37. 

Ethelfrid,of  Northumbria,  23,  24,  36. 

Ethelings,  55. 

Ethelred  the  Redeless,  accession  of, 
104;  character  of,  105-107;  mar- 
riage of,  109;  Danish  wars  of, 
107-115;  deposed  and  restored, 
114;  death,  115. 

Ethelwulf,  father  of  Alfred,  59,  60. 

Eugene  of  Savoy,  commands  im- 
perial army  in  Italy,  839 ;  joins 
Marlborough  at  Blenheim,  841 ; 
later  campaign  of,  845,  850. 


Eugenius  IV.,  pope,  calls  Congress 

of  Arras,  456.   - 
Eustace  of  Boulogne,  visit  to  Eng- 
land, 128. 
son  of  Stephen,  209,  210. 
Evesham,  battle  of,  291-293. 
Exchequer,    court    of,    see    Courts 
Royal, 
table,  method  of  computation  at, 

213. 
stop  of  the,  763. 
Excise,  and  customs,  880. 

Bill,  the,  880. 
Exclusion  Bill,  the,  772,  777. 

Factory  legislation,  996,  1019. 

Fairfax,  Ferdinand,  Lord,  parlia- 
mentary general,  685,  686. 
Sir  Thomas,  at  Hull,  686,  687; 
Nantwich,  689;  at  Marston 
Moor,  690;  at  Langport,  695; 
placed  in  command  of  New 
Model,  699;  wins  Naseby,  700; 
suppresses  royalists,  703;  re- 
tires, 713;  raises  northern 
counties  to  resist  Charles  II., 
715 ;  supports  Monk,  744. 

Falaise,  Treaty  of,  226. 

Falkirk,  battle  of,  329. 

Familists,  the,  706. 

Family  party,  the,  853. 

Fawkes,  Guy,  627. 

Felix  of  Burgundy,  missionary  to 
East  Anglians,  38. 

Fenians,  the,  1044. 

Fenwick,   Sir  John,  last  death  by 
attainder,  827. 

Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  conquers 
Grenada,  509,  note ;  unites  with 
Maximilian  against  Charles 
VIII.  of  France,  509;  ally  of 
Henry  VII.,  510;  of  Henry 
VIII.,  515;  death,  517. 
of  Brunswick,  marshal  of  Fred- 
erick II. ,  905 ;  wins  Cref eld  and 
Minden,  906,  907,  908. 

Feudal  customs,  176,  177. 
reaction,  202-229. 

Feudalism,  introduced,  172. 

Fifth  Monarchy  Men,  the,  706. 

Finch,    Daniel,   speaker  of  House, 
652,  653,  666,  671. 
earl  of  Nottingham,  the  Tolera- 
tion Act,  814 ;  favors  Occasional 
Conformity  Bill  842. 


INDEX 


1081 


Fire,  the  Great,  of  1666,  757.. 

First  Fruits,  see  Annates. 

Fisher,  John,  bishop  of  Rochester, 
540-543. 

Fitz-Alan,  Richard,  earl  of  Arundel, 
403,  410,  421,  423. 

Fitzgerald,  Garrett,  earl  of  Des- 
mond, revolt  of,  632. 

Fitz-Osbern,  lieutenant  of  William 
I.,  154,  155,  182. 

Fitz-Osbert,  William,  "Long- 
beard,"  popular  agitator,  238, 
239. 

Fitz-Peter,  Geoffrey,  justiciar  of 
John  and  Richard  I.,  240,  246, 
256,  257. 

Fitzroy,  Augustus,  duke  of  Graf- 
ton, ministry  of,  925-929. 

Five  Boroughs,  the,  of  Mercia,  64; 
conquest  of,  81. 

Five  Mile  Act,  the,  751. 

Flambard,  Ralph,  minister  of  Wil- 
liam II.,  185,  186. 

Flanders,  alliance  of  court  of,  w^ith 
William  I.,  136;  alliance  with 
Edward  III.,  356,  358;  cam- 
paigns of  Marlborough  in,  839, 
850,  851 ;  see  also  Burgundy  and 
Netherlands. 

Flodden,  battle  of,  516. 

Folk-land,  30,  152. 

Fontenoy,  battle  of,  892. 

Forestallers,  the,  376,  377. 

Forest  courts,  the,  172, 
laws,  171. 

Forests,  charter  of  the,  269. 

Forfeiture,  176. 

Forster,  William  E.,  his  Education 
Act,  1046;  his  Protection  for 
Life  and  Property  Act,  1054. 

Four  Bills,  the,  702. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  932;  Libel 
Act,  930 ;  s  y  m  p  a  t  h  y  with 
America,  933;  Whig  leader, 
940,  941 ;  in  coalition  ministry, 
942 ;  his  India  Bill,  943 ;  in  min- 
istry of  All  the  Talents,  963; 
death,  963. 

Francis  I.,  emperor,  election  of, 
903,  note. 
II.,  wars  with  France,  952,  953, 
954,  956,  962;  renounces  im- 
perial title,  963. 
I.  of  France,  517;  candidate 
for  imperial  honors,  518;  wars 


with  Charles  V.,  519-521;  the 
Field  of  Cloth  of  Gold,  520; 
wars  with  Henry  VIII.,  555, 
556 ;  death,  560. 
Sir  Philip,  supposed  author  of 
Junius  letters,  928 ;  attack  upon 
Warren  Hastings,  947. 

Franciscans,  the,  in  England,  319, 
320. 

Frankpledge,  the,  168. 

Frederick  I.,  emperor,  Barbarossa, 
222,  233. 
II.,   emperor,    w^ars  with  popes, 

278;  death,  279. 
elector  of  Saxony,  candidate  for 

imperial  honors,  578. 
Louis,  Prince  of  Wales,  joins  op- 
position, 881 ;  death,  886. 
II.  of  Prussia,  W9,rs  of, with  Maria 
Theresa,     888,    889,    890,     891; 
in    Seven  years'  war,  899-910; 
death,  950. 
William  of   Prussia,   declares 
against  French  Republic,   951, 
952;   wars  with  Napoleon,  963, 
964,  972,  973,  974. 

Free  trade,  advocated  by  Adam 
Smith,  918;  adopted  by  Wil- 
liam Pitt,  946;  furthered  by 
Huskisson,  981;  by  Peel,  1014; 
by  Gladstone,  1039. 

French  Republic,  wars  with  Europe, 
952,  953,  954. 

French  Revolution,  early  attitude 
of  Great  Britain  toward,  951; 
effect  upon  England  and  Ire- 
land, 955 ;  change  in  character 
of  movement,  959. 

Fyrd,  the  ancient  land,  27,  28,  71 ; 
reorganized  by  Henry  II.,  226, 
227. 
the  ship,  74,  111,  112. 


Gaels,  division  of  Celts,  5,  15. 

Gage,  general,  in  Boston,  934-937. 

Gaillard  Chateau,  241. 

Gardiner,  Stephen,  bishop  of  Win- 
chester, supports  conservative 
reform,  553 ;  deposed  by  Somer- 
set, 568;  adviser  of  Mary,  575, 
577,  579,  581,  582;  death,  585. 

Gaveston,  Piers,  favorite  of  Edward 
II. ,  334 ;  first  fall  of,  335 ;  second 
fall,  and  death,  336. 


1082 


INDEX 


Geoffrey,  duke  of  Brittany,  son  of 
Henry  II.,  225,  333. 
Plantagenet,    count    of    Anjou, 

fatherof  Henry  II.,  208. 
son  of  Henry  II.,  archbishop  of 
York,  opposes  Longchamp,  228, 
233,  235. 

Geneva  Award,  the,  1035,  1048. 

George  I.,  accession  of,  856;  Eng- 
land at  time  of  accession,  861- 
867;  reign  of,  867-876;  last 
years  and  death,  876. 
II.,  as  prince  of  Wales,  870;  ac- 
cession of,  877;  supports  Wal- 
pole,  884 ;  favors  Austrian  war, 
890;  repudiates  convention  of 
Closter-seven,  905;  death  of, 
908. 
III.,  accessioi^and  policy  of,  908; 
England  under,  911-919;  char- 
acter of,  919;  the  "king's 
friends,"  920;  attempts  to  pun- 
ish Wilkes,  922,  927;  attitude 
toward  America,  935;  personal 
rule  abandoned,  941 ;  opposes 
Catholic  emancipation,  966 ; 
madness  of,  970 ;  death  of,  979. 
IV.,  appointed  regent,  970;  acces- 
sion, 979;  unpopularitv  of,  979- 
980;  reign,  979-989;  death,  990. 
prince  of  Denmark,  husband  of 
Anne,  abandons  James  II.,  799; 
nonentity  of,  836. 

German  unity,  beginning  of,  1035. 

Gesiths,  the,  28. 

Gibraltar,  taken  by  English,  843. 

Gild,  the,  9,  242, 

Gin  Act,  the,  882. 

Ginkel,  Dutch  commander  of  Wil- 
liam III.,  in  Ireland,  816,  817. 

Gladstone,  William  Ewart,  1016; 
chancellor  of  exchequer,  1022; 
spokesman  of  Liberals,  1039; 
Reform  Bill  of,  1040;  first  min- 
istry, 1044;  dealing  with  Irish 
question,  1045;  reforms  under, 
1046,  1047 ;  foreign  policy,  1048 ; 
fall  of  first  ministry,  1048; 
second  miDistry,  1052;  new  re- 
forms, 1053.  1054,  1058;  the 
Soudan,  1057,  1058;  defeat  of 
second  ministry,  1059;  con- 
verted to  Home  Rule,  1060; 
third  ministry  of,  1060;  first 
Home  Rule  Bill,   1061,    fourth 


ministry  of,  1062 ;  second  Home 
Rule  Bill,  1063;  retirement, 
1063;  death,  1064. 

Glanville,  Ranulf  de,  justiciar  of 
Richard  I.,  231,  234,  300. 

Glencoe,  massacre  of,  819,  820. 

Glendower,  Owen,  revolt  of,  433; 
submits  to  Henry  IV. ,  436. 

Gloucester,  siege  of,  by  Charles  I. , 
686. 
see  Clare. 

Humphrey,  duke  of,  brother  of 
Henry  V.,  450,  451,  456;  death, 
459. 
Thomas,  duke  of,  415,417;  expels 
Richard  II. 's  favorites,  418; 
dismissed  from  council,  419, 
421 ;  death,  422. 

Goderich,  see  Robinson, 

Godiva,  w^ife  of  Leofric  of  Mercia, 
124. 

Godolphin,  in  ministry  of  Anne, 
847,  853, 

Godwin,  earl  of  Wessex,  123,  124; 
popularity  of,  127,  128;  out- 
lawed, 129;  return  of,  132; 
death  and  character  of,  132, 
133 ;  sons  of,  133. 

Goodwin's  case,  629. 

Gordon,  Charles  George,    "Chinese 
Gordon,"  in  the  Soudan,  1058. 
George  Hamilton,  earl  of  Aber- 
deen,    1016;    prime     minister, 
1022,  1023. 
Riots,  931. 

Goring,  royal  governor  of  Ports- 
mouth, 683;  at  Marston  Moor, 
690;    defeated  by  Fairfax,  695. 

Grace,  Act  of,  821. 

Graces,  the,  659. 

Grafton,  see  Fitzroy. 

Graham,  John,  of  Claverhouse, 
viscount  of  Dundee,  attempts 
to  suppress  Covenanters,  774; 
supports  Jacobites  in  Scotland, 
818;  death,  819. 

Grand  Alliance,  the,  834. 
Game  Act,  1053. 

Granville,  earl,  see  Carteret. 

Great  Britain,  see  Union,  Act  of. 

Great  Council,  see  Magnum  Con- 
cilium. 

Greek  Revolt,  the,  983-985. 

Gregory  I.,  pope,  interested  in  Eng- 
lish missions,  34,  35. 


IKDEX 


1083 


Gregory  VII.,   pope,    relations    to 
William  I.,  179,  180. 
IX. ,  pope,  relations  to  Henry  III. , 

273,  277. 
XI.,   pope,   removes    papal    resi- 
dence from  Avignon  to  Rome, 
413. 
XIII. ,   devises  Gregorian  Calen- 
dar, 895. 

Grenville,  George,  minister  of 
George  HI,  921;  the  Wilkes 
case,  921-923;  the  Stamp  Act, 
923;  the  Regency  Bill,  924;  bill 
transferring  disputed*  election 
cases  to  special  committee  of 
House,  929. 
William,  Lord,  prime  minister, 
963;  defeated  in  proposal  to 
remove  military  disqualifica- 
tions from  Catholics,  966;  abol- 
ishes slave  trade,  966. 

Gresham,  Sir  Thomas,  founder  of 
Royal  Exchange,  616. 

Grey,  Charles,  Lord,  Whig  leader 
and  advocate  of  parliamentary 
reform,  990;  prime  minister, 
991;  the  Reform  Bill,  991-994; 
slavery  abolished,  966;  Poor 
Laws  reformed,  996,  997 ; 
resigns,  997;  success  of  min- 
istry, 997. 
Henry,    duke    of    Suffolk,    rises 

against  Mary,  578. 
Lady    Jane,    marries    Guilford 
Dudley,  672 ;  proclaimed  queen, 
573;  death,  578. 

Grosseteste,  Robert,  bishop  of  Lin- 
coln, 278,  319. 

Gualo,  papal  legate  to  Henry  III., 
267,  268,  269. 

Guesclin,  Bertrand  du,  383,  385,  386, 
387,  452. 

Gunpowder,  use  of,  365-367,  487. 
Plot,  the,  627,  628. 

Guthrum,  Danish' king,  submits  to 
Alfred,  65,  67. 

Guy  of  Lusignan,  227,  233. 

Habeas  Corpus  Act,  the,  772;   sus- 
pended, 827,  953,  1044. 
Hadrian's  wall,  11. 
Haeretico  Comburendo,  the  Bill, 440. 
Hales  case,  788. 
Halidon  Hill,  battle  of,  354. 
Halifax,  see  Montague  a7id  Saville. 


Hamilton,  James,  representative  of 
Charles  I.  in  Scotland,  665; 
beaten  at  Preston,  703. 

Hampden,  John,  refuses  to  pay  ship 
money,  657 ;  parliamentary 
leader,  670,  676,  679;  death  of, 
685. 

Hampton  Court  Conference,  626. 

Hanover,  Convention  of,  894. 
House    of,   succeeds   to    English 

throne,  856,  861. 
separated    from  English  crown, 
999. 

Hardicanute,  123,  124. 

Harfleur,  battle  of,  445. 

Hargreaves,  James,  inventor  of 
spinning  jenny,  912. 

Harley,  Robert,  earl  of  Oxford, 
856,  868,  872. 

Harold  Hardrada,  137,  139. 
Harefoot,  123. 
of  Denmark,  115. 

son  of  Godwin,  127,  128,  134;  king 
of  England,  134;  northern  cam- 
paign of,  138-140;  loses  battle 
of  Hastings,  141-144. 

Harrison,  parliamentary  general, 
721,  724,  747. 

Hartington,  marquis  of,  see  Caven- 
dish. 

Hasting,  Danish  chieftain,  75,  76. 

Hastings,  battle  of,  142-144. 
John,    claimant    to    Scottish 

throne,  324. 
Warren,     governor  -  general     of 
India,  931 ;  trial  of,  947. 

Hatfield,  battle  of,  40. 
Synod  of,  45. 

Havelock,  Henry,  march  of,  to 
Cawnpore,  1029,  1030;  relieves 
Lucknow,  1030. 

Heads  of  the  Proposals,  the,  700. 

Healfdene,  61,  62,  64,  65. 

Hearth  tax,  385,  813. 

Ilengist  and  Horsa,  traditional  con- 
quest of  Kent  iby,  19. 

Hengistdun,  battle  of,  59. 

Henrietta  Maria,  queen  of  Charles 
I.,  642,  654;  intrigues  of,  695, 
671.  680. 

Henry,  bishop  of  Winchester,  aids 

Stephen,  203 ;  aids  Matilda,  205. 

cardinal  of  York,    last  of  elder 

line  of  Stuarts,  894. 
eldest  son  of  Henry  II.  of  Eng- 


1084 


IKDEX 


land,     crowned,     223;     rebels 

against  father,  225. 
Henry    IV.,   emperor,    attitude  of 

court  of,  to  Norman  invasion 

of  England,  135. 
v.,  emjDeror,  son-in-law  of  Henry 

I.  of  England,  195,  196. 
VI.,  emperor,  imprisons  Richard 

I.,  235. 
prince  of  Wales,  son  of  James  I. , 

early  death  of,  635. 

I.  of  England,  accession  of,  189; 
policy  of,  189,  197 ;  charter  of, 
189,  190 ;  war  with  brother  Rob- 
ert, 190;  with  Louis  VI.,  of 
France,  191;  quarrel  with 
Anselm,  192 ;  judicial  courts  of, 
194,  195;  taxation  under,  195; 
death  and  character  of,  197; 
education  during  his  reign,  199. 

II.  of  England,  power  in  Nor- 
ma^idy,  208,  209;  accession  to 
English  throne,  210,  211 ;  reor- 
ganization of  kingdom,  212,  213, 
219,  220;  quarrel  with  Becket, 
216-223;  with  his  barons,  225, 
226;  proposes  crusade,  227,  228; 
death  of,  228. 

III.  of  England,  coronation  of, 
266,  271;  assumes  government, 
272;  quarrels  with  barons,  274- 
277;  war  with  Louis  IX.,  276; 
misgovernment  of ,  275-281;  the 
Provisions  of  Oxford,  283;  of 
Westminster,  286;  barons  con- 
trol government,  285-288;  the 
Mise  of  Amiens,  288 ;  war  with 
barons,  288-293;  the  Mise  of 
Lewes,  289;  reaction,  295; 
death,  296. 

IV.  of  England,  prominent 
among  baronage  of  Richard  II. , 
417,  418,  423;  deposes  Richard 
II. ,  and  secures  succession,  425, 
426;  position  of,  433-437;  re- 
presses risings  of  nobles,  431, 
434,  435;  invasion  of  Scotland, 
432;  of  Wales,  433;  death  of, 
438;  relations  with  church, 
439. 

V.  of  England  at  Shrewsbury, 
434;  acts  as  Henry  IV. 's  min- 
ister, 435;  accession  of,  440; 
persecutes  Lollards,  441;  re- 
news war  with    France,    444; 


Yorkist  plot  against,  445  *.  Agin  • 
court,  445-447;  marriage  of, 
448 ;  triumph  of,  448 ;  death  of, 
449. 
Henry  VI.,  birth  of,  449;  accession 
of,  450 ;  character  of,  458 ;  mar- 
riage of,  458;  renewal  of 
French  war,  459;  the  year 
1450,  461-463;  Yorkist  troubles, 
463,  465-473;  renews  war  in 
France,  464 ;  supplanted  by  Ed- 
ward IV.,  473;  second  reign  of, 
481-484;  murder  of,  484. 

VII.  of  England,  Lancastrian 
heir,  490;  overthrows  Richard 
III.  at  Bosworth,  492;  marries 
Elizabeth  of  York,  501;  char- 
acter and  policy  of,  500;  sup- 
presses Yorkist  risings,  501, 
504-507;  foreign  policy  of,  504, 
506,  509,  510;  despotism  of ,  507, 
508;  death  of,  510. 

VIII.  of  England,  marries  Cath- 
arine of  Aragon,  510,  514; 
character  of,  512;  foreign  policy 
of,  514;  French  war,  515;  last 
French  war  of,  555;  alliance 
with  Charles  V.  of  Spain,  520; 
with  France,  517,  521;  divorce 
of,  524, 539 ;  quarrel  with  papacy, 
524-534;  marries  Anne  Boleyn, 
540;  secures  succession  for 
daughter  Elizabeth,  541;  sup- 
presses Pilgrimage  of  Grace, 
545;  the  monasteries,  546,  547; 
third  marriage,  550 ;  fourth  and 
fifth  marriages,  552 ;  tyranny  in 
Ireland,  555 ;  invasion  of  Scot- 
land, 554;  death,  558. 

II.   of    France,     death    of,     322, 

592. 
IV.  of  France,  of  Navarre,  reli- 
gious war  of,  606;  converted 
to  Catholicism, 617 ;  issues  Edict 
of  Nantes,  617. 
of  Trastamara,  wars  with  Black 
Prince,  383,  384 ;  murders  Pedro 
the  Cruel,  384;  accedes  to 
throne  of,  384. 

Hereward,  the  outlaw,  resists  Wil- 
liam L,  166. 

Heriot,  the,  122. 

Herrings,  battle  of  the,  452. 

Hertford,  Synod  of,  45. 

Hexham,  battle  of,  477. 


INDEX 


1086 


High  Commission,  court  of,  insti- 
tuted by  Elizabeth,  591;  abol- 
ished by  Long  Parliament,  677, 
673;  powers  revived  by  James 
II.,  789. 

Hill,  Sir  Rowland,  postal  reforms 
of,  1005,  1006. 

Hoche,  general,  expedition  to  Ire- 
land, 955. 

Hogue,  La,  battle  of,  820. 

Hohenlinden,  battle  of  ,957. 

Holland,  see  Netherlands. 
Edmund,  earl  of  Kent,  conspires 
against  Edward  II.,  346;  death, 
353. 
Thomas,  earl  of  Kent,   supports 
Richard  II.,  416,  417;  rising  of , 
against  Henry  IV.,  433. 
John,    earl  of  Huntingdon,  416. 
417;  rising  of.  433. 

Holy  Alliance,  the,   983,   983,   984, 
986. 
League,  the,  514. 

Homage,  176. 

Home  Rule,  in  Ireland  in  eight- 
eenth century,  939 ;  advocated 
by  Parnell,  1054;  by  Gladstone. 
1060;  Gladstone's  bills,  1060, 
1061,  1063. 

Homildon  Hill,  battle  of,  433. 

Honors,  176. 

House-carls,  instituted  by  Canute, 
133;  at  Stamford  Bridge,  139; 
at  Hastings,  143-144. 

Howard,  Catharine,  queen  of  Henry 
VIII.,  553. 
John,    efforts  at  prison  reform, 

948,  949. 
of  Effingham,  Charles,  lord,  ad- 
miral of  Elizabeth,  610. 
Henry,  earl  of  Surrey,  executed 

by  Henry  VIII.,  558. 
Thomas,  duke  of  Norfolk,  at  Flod- 
den,  515,  534;  enemy  of  Wolsey, 
537;  represents  reactionary  re- 
form party,  548,  549 ;  triumphs 
over  Cromwell,  553,  553;  im- 
prisoned by  Henry  VIII.,  558; 
supports  Mary,  574. 
Thomas,  duke  of  Norfolk,  599, 
601. 

Howe,  admiral,  wins  Ushant, 
953. 

Hubert  de  Burgh,  see  Burgh. 

Hubert  Walter,  see  Walter. 


Hubertsburg,  peace  of,  909. 

Hugh  of  Avalon,  bishop  of  Lincoln, 
339. 
of  Puiset,  bishop  of  Durham,  jus- 
ticiar, 331. 
the  Brave,  346,  276. 

Hundred,  the,  39. 
years'  war,   causes  of,  355;  first 
stage  of,  358-380;  second  stage 
of,  383-388;  third  stage  of,  444- 
449;  last  stage  of,  451-464. 

Huskisson,  William,  president  of 
Board  of  Trade,  981 ;  his  Reci- 
procity of  Duties  Bill,  986 ;  re- 
signs, 991 ;  death,  991. 

Hyde,  Edward,  earl  of  Clarendon, 
chancellor  of  Charles  II.,  746; 
Clarendon  Code,  750,  753;  op- 
poses Dutch  war,  756 ;  fall  and 
death.  757-759. 


Imperialism,  the  modern,  1068. 

Incident,  the,  675. 

Income  tax,  adopted  by  Pitt,  957, 
978;  by  Peel,  1010;  sustained 
by  Gladstone.  1039. 

Independence,  American  Declara- 
tion of,  937. 

Independents,  disputes  with  Pres- 
byterians, 698;  offer  terms  to 
Charles  I. ,  700 ;  as.sume  control 
of  government,  703,  704. 

India,  beginning  of  English  settle- 
ment in,  808;  Clive  in,  899,  900, 
905;  causes  of  mutiny,  1037; 
outbreak  and  extent  of,  1038, 
1039;  results  of  war,  1031. 

Indulgence,     first     declaration    of 
Charles  II.,    758;    second,   764; 
first  of  James  II.,  790;  second 
of  James  IL,  792. 
the  Black,  in  Scotland,  774. 

Industrial  revolution,  the,  911-916. 

Ine,  king  of  West  Saxons,  50 ;  laws 
of,  51. 

Inkerman,  battle  of,  1034. 

Innocent    III.,   pope,    the    quarrel 
with  John,  351-253;  John  does 
homage  to,  354. 
IV. ,  pope,  relations  to  Henry  HI. , 
373,  378,  379. 

Inquest,  see  Arms  and  Sheriffs. 

Instrument  of  Government,  the, 
737-739. 


1086 


INDEX 


Interdict,  the,  imposed  on  England, 
251. 

Intolerable  Acts,  the  American, 934. 

Investiture,' quarrel  over,  176. 

Invincibles,  the  Irish,  1056. 

Ireland,  Norsemen  in,  58;  expedi- 
tion of  Strongbow,  224;  chief- 
tain submits  to  Henry  II.,  224; 
assisted  by  Scots  against  Ed- 
ward III.,  340;  condition  of,  in 
time  of  Richard  II. ,  421 ;  revolt 
under  Henry  VIII.,  505;  the 
Poynings  Acts,  505;  under  Eliz- 
abeth, 603,  614;  Chichester  in, 
632,  633;  the  Plantation  of 
Ulster,  James  I.,  632,  633;  dur- 
ing the  civil  war,  710;  Crom- 
well in,  710-712;  the  Restoration 
in,  753;  the  Revolution  in,  815- 
818;  Home  Rule  in,  939;  the 
union,  955,  957;  the  famine, 
depopulation  by,  517;  landlord- 
ism, 1053,  1054;  rise  of  Home 
Rule  party,  1054;  Gladstone's 
measures  for,  1060-1062;  Salis- 
bury's ineasures  for,  1065. 

Ireton,  parliamentary  general,  700, 
704,  712. 

Irish  Land  Acts,  see  Land  Act. 

Irish  night,  the,  800. 

Iron  mining  in  England  in  eight- 
eenth century,  911,  914. 

Ironsides,  the,  name-  given  by 
Prince  Rupert  at  Marston  Moor, 
688. 

Isabella,  queen  of  Edward  II.,  335, 
345,  346-348,  352. 

Italian  unity,  secured,  1033. 

Jacobites,  conspire  against  William 
III.,  812,  827,  834;  hopelessness 
of  their  cause,  861-863;  rising 
of  in  1715,  868;  rising  of  in  1745, 
892-894. 

Jamaica,  seized  by  Cromwell,  810. 

James  I.  of  Scotland,  held  as  pris- 
oner by  Henry  IV. ,  436 ;  marries 
Jane  Beaufort,  436;  release  of, 
451. 

IV.  of  Scotland,    invades    Eng- 
land, 515. 

V.  of    Scotland,    loses    Solway 
Moss,  554. 

I.  of  England,  James  "VI.  of  Scot- 
land, 599 ;  England  at  his  acces- 


sion, 618-622;  his  character, 
623,  624;  offends  Puritans  and 
Catholics,  626,  627;  offends  the 
Commons,  628,  629,  636,  637, 
639,  640;  seeks  union  of  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  629,  630; 
version  of  Scriptures,  632;  Ul- 
ster Plantation,  633;  favorites 
of,  634,  635;  foreign  poHcy,  634; 
opposed  by  courts,  636,  637; 
death,  642. 

James  II.  of  England,  attacked  by 
Whigs  on  Exclusion  Bill,  772; 
the  "killing  time,"  775;  acces- 
sion, 782;  Monmouth's  rising, 
783-785;  tyranny  of,  785,  786; 
attacks  church,  789;  favors 
Catholics,  787-794;  rouses  Eng- 
lish national  sentiment,  797; 
invasion  of  William  of  Orange, 
798-800 ;  flees  to  France,  801 ;  in 
Ireland,  815,  816;  death,  834. 

Jamestown,  the  settlement  of,  661. 

Jarrow,  49,  64. 

Jeffreys,  judge,  attacks  corpora- 
tions under  Charles  II.,  779, 
780;  the  Bloody  Assize,  785, 
789 ;  on  the  Irish  night,  800. 

Jena,  battle  of,  964, 

Jenkins's  ear,  883. 

Jenkinson,  Robert,  Lord  Liverpool, 
prime  minister,  970;  reaction- 
ary policy,  978;  change  in 
later  policy,  980,  981,  987. 

Jervis,  Sir  John,  admiral,  defeats 
French  off  St.  Vincent,  954. 

Jesuits,  influence  of  order,  598 ;  per- 
secuted by  Elizabeth,  604,  605. 

Jews,  expelled  from  England  by 
Edward  I.,  305. 

Joan  of  Arc,  453;  at  court  of 
Charles  VII.,  454;  raises  siege 
of  Orleans,  454 ;  capture,  trial, 
and  death,  455. 

John,  king  of  England  (Lackland), 
conspires  against  Henry  II., 
228 ;  quarrels  with  Longchamp, 
232,  233 ;  plots  against  Richard 
I.,  235;  accession,  245;  charac- 
ter, 245 ;  comparison  with  Eth- 
elred,  106;  loses  possessions  in 
France,  246,  247;  quarrel  with 
Innocent  III.,  250,  251 ;  struggle 
with  barons,  254-264;  the  Great 
Charter,  260;  death,  265. 


INDEX 


1087 


John  of  Gaunt,  duke  of  Lancaster, 
fourth  son  of  Edward  III.,  his 
French  campaign,  388 ;  intrigues 
of,  389,  390,  393;  in  Richard 
-  II. 's  reign,  394,  396,  403,  407. 
411;  Scottish  campaign  of,  415; 
attempts  to  secure  Spanish 
crown,  417;  in  council  of  Rich- 
ard II.,  422;  death,  423. 
king  of  France,  captured  at  Poi 
tiers,  377,  378 ;  failure  of  ransom 
of,  379,  380. 

Jonson,  Ben,  617. 

Judicature  Act,  the,  1047. 

Junius  letters,  the,  928. 

Junto,  the  Whig,  826 ;  fall  of,  831 ; 
retvirn  to  power,  853. 

Justices  of  the  peace,  origin  of,  353. 

Justices-in-eyre,  first  appointed, 219. 

Jutes,  the,  conquest  of  Kent,  19-21. 

Kabul,  British  disaster  at,  1013. 

Kalisch,  Treaty  of,  972. 

Kay,  John,  inventor  of  flying  shut- 
tle, 912. 

Kenilworth,  Dictum  of,  295. 

Kent,  kingdom  of,  settled  by  Jutes, 
19-21;  accepts  Christianity,  34, 
35,  42;  annexed  to  Wessex,  61. 
see  Holland. 

Khartoum,  captured  by  the  Mahdi, 
1058. 

Killiecrankie,  battle  of,  819. 

King  George's  War,  897. 

Knight's  fees,  the,  175. 

Knox,  John,  Scottish  reformer,  593, 
594. 

Kymry,  see  Welsh. 

Labourers,  Statute  of,  374,  375. 

Lamb,  William,  viscount  Mel- 
bourne, member  of  Wellington 
ministry,  988,  989;  joins  Grey 
ministry,  991;  prime  minister, 
997,  998;  Canada  question,  1000, 
1001 ;  Irish  question,  1001 ;  kept 
in  office  by  Victoria,  1006;  fall 
of  ministry,  1008. 

Lambert,  parliamentary  general, 
715,  724,  747,  749. 

Lambeth,  Treaty  of,  268. 

Lancaster,  house  of,  427,  428. 
John,  duke  of,  see  John  of  Gaunt. 
Thomas,    earl    of,    334;    opposes 
Gayeston,  335,  336;  in  council 


of  Edward  II.,   341,   342;    his 
fall,  343. 

Land  Act,  the  Irish,  1045,  1046, 
1053,  1060. 

Landen,  battle  of,  821. 

Lanfranc,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 179,  184,  186. 

Lan gland,  William,  399;  "The  Vis- 
ion of  Piers  Plowman."  400. 

Langton,  Stephen,  elected  to  see  of 
Canterbury,  254;  supports  bar- 
ons in  struggle  for  the  charter. 
256;  suspended,  263;  obtains  re- 
call of  Pandulf,  269;  death  of, 
272. 

Lansdowne,  marquis  of,  see  Petty. 

Latimer,  Hugh,  bishop  of  Ely, 
under  Henry  VIII  ,  550,  553; 
under  Edward  VI.,  563,  564; 
under  Mary,  581 ;  death,  583. 

Laud,  William,  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, in  London,  651;  re- 
forms of,  657,  658,  662,  663; 
impeachment  of,  671 ;  execu- 
tion of.  693 ;  his  work  (;oni pared 
with  Clarendon's,  752. 

Lauderdale,  755 ;  member  of  Cabal, 
761,  774. 

Lawrence,  Sir  Henry,  at  Lucknow, 
1029.  1030. 

League  of  Hanover,  817. 

Leeds,  duke  of,  see  Osborne 

Leicester,  see  Dudley  and  Montfort. 

Leo  X.,  pope,  and  the  imperial 
election  of  1519,  518;  ally  of 
Charles  v.,  519. 

Leopold  II..  emperor,  in  convention 
of  Pilnitz,  951. 
of  Austria,  imprisons  Richard  I., 
235. 

Leslie,   Alexander,   earl  of  Leven, 
Scottish  general  in  civil  w^ars, 
665,  675. 
David,  Scottish  general  in  civil 
wars,  689-691 ;  694,  713-715. 

Levellers,  the,  708,  709. 

Lexington,  battle  of,  936. 

Lewes,  battle  of,  289. 
Mise  of,  289. 

Liberal    party,    the,    organization 
and  growth  of,  1009,  1018,  1021, 
1037-1039:  disrupted,  1060. 
Union  party,  the,  formed,  1060. 

Liberties,  see  Honors. 

Librate,  the,  175. 


1088 


INDEX 


Lichfield,  archiepiscopal  see 
formed,  53. 

Lilbourne,  "Freeborn  John,"  708, 
709. 

Lillebonne,  Council  of,  135. 

Lillibullero,  826. 

Limerick,  Treaty  of,  816. 

Lincoln,  the  fair  of,  268. 
John  de  la  Pole,  earl  of,  see  Pole. 

Litany,  the  first  English,  557. 

Liverpool,  see  Jenkinson. 

Llewelyn,  prince  of  Wales,  ally  of 
Montfort,  288;  war  with  Ed- 
ward I.,  298;  death  of,  299. 

Lollards,  398,  399,  411-413;  perse- 
cuted by  Henry  IV.,  439,  440; 
by  Henry  V.,  441. 

London,  in  Roman  Britain,  8; 
sacked  by  Boadicea,  9;  makes 
stand  against  William  I.,  146- 
148 ;  during  coronation  of  Wil- 
liam I.,  148-150;  charters  of, 
151,  198;  under  Richard  I.,  238, 
239,  242-244;  supports  barons 
against  John,  264;  against 
Henry  III.,  288,  289;  in  Peasant 
Revolt,  406-409 ;  in  Cade  Revolt, 
461.  462;  supports  parliament 
against  Charles  I.,  683;  the 
Great  Plague  of,  756;  the  Great 
Fire  of,  757;  the  Irish  night, 
800;  in  Anne's  time,  856,  857; 
Gordon  riots,  931;  supports 
Wilkes,  927,  928. 
Treaty  of,  984. 

Londonderry,  siege  of,  815. 

Longchamp,  William  of,  justiciar 
of  Richard  L,  232,  233. 

Long  Parliament,  see  Parliament. 

Loo,  Declaration  of,  799. 

Lords-lieutenant,  680,  683. 

"Lose-Coat  Field,"  battle  of,  480. 

Lostwithiel,  battle  of,  691. 

Lothian,  session  of,  120. 

Louis  VIII.,  assists  barons  against 
John,   264;   retires  from  Eng- 
land, 268. 
IX.,  war  with  Henry  HI.,   276; 

arbitration  of  288. 
XL,  aids  Warwick  against  Ed- 
ward IV.,  481;  w^ar  with  Ed- 
ward IV.,  485. 
XII.,  wars  with  Henry  VIII., 
514;  marriage  with  Mary  Tu- 
dor, 517. 


Louis  XIII.,  war  of  Charles  I,  with, 
642,  643,  646. 
XIV. ,    assists    Dutch    against 
Charles     II.,     756;     policy    of 
French    aggression,    761.    762; 
Treaties  of  Dover,  763;  Dutch 
war,  764-767 ;  persecutes  Hugue- 
nots, 787;    quarrel  with  pope, 
796 ;  aids  James  II. ,  816 ;  accepts 
Peace  of  Ryswnck,  829 ;  renews 
war    with     England,    834,835; 
Treaty  of  Utrecht,  854,  855. 
XV.,   see  Bourbon  Family  Com- 
pacts, and  Austrian  succession, 
war  of. 
XVL,   aids  Americans,   938;   at- 
tempted flight  of,  951;  death, 
952. 
XVIII. ,     restored      to      French 
throne,  972 ;  second  restoration 
of,  974. 
Philippe,  990,  1004,  1017. 

Lovel,  rising  of,  501. 

Loyal  Association,  the,  827. 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  598. 

Lucknow,  .siege  of,  1029,  1030. 

Macon's  Bill,  No.  2.,  970. 

Madrid,  Treaty  of,  895. 

Magenta,  battle  of,  1033. 

Magna  Charta,  see  Charter. 

Magnum  CGncilium^  168;  change  in 
nature  of,  193,  the  last,  667, 
see  Council. 

Magnus  Intereursus,  506. 

Mahdi,  the,  in  Egypt,  1057. 

Mahon,  see  Stanhope. 

Port,   acquired    by  British,   855; 
lost  by  Byng,  900. 

Main  Plot,  the,  625. 

Majuba  Hill,  battle  of,  1056. 

Malcolm  Canmore,  king  of  Scot- 
land, wars  with  William  I., 
158;  does  homage  to  William 
IL,  180. 

Malplaquet,  battle  of,  851. 

Malta,  acquired  by  Britain,  958,  960. 

Malthus,  theory  of  population,  919. 

Maltote,  the,  314. 

Manchester,  earl  of,  see  Montague. 

Manor,  the,  172,  173. 

Mansfield,  chief  justice,  927,  930; 
famous  decision  upon  slavery, 
949,  950. 

March,  see  Mortimer. 


INDEX 


1089 


Mare,  Peter  de  la,  393,  403. 

Marengo,  battle  of,  957. 

Margaret,  of  Anjou,  marries  Henry 
VI.,  458;  her  influence,  463;  in 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  466-485. 
the  Maid  of  Norway,  324. 

Maria  Theresa,  in  war  of  Austrian 
succession,  888-894;  the  Seven 
years'  war,  899. 

Marie  Antoinette, [execution  of,  952. 

Marignano,  battle  of,  517. 

Mark,  the  value  of  the,  188,  note. 

Marlborough,  see  Churchill. 

Marprelate  Tracts,  the,  612. 

Marriage  Act,  the,  896. 

Marshal,  William  earl  of  Pem- 
broke, 259,  263 ;  appointed  gov- 
ernor of  England.  266;  reissues 
the  charter,  267,  268;  issues 
Charter  of  the  Forests,  269 ;  his 
death,  270. 
Richard,  earl  of  Pembroke,  274, 

275. 
William,    the    younger,   earl    of 
Pembroke,  274. 

Marston  Moor,  battle  of,  689,  690. 

Martin  Marprelate  Tracts,  612. 

Mary,  queen  of  England,  568,  569; 
572-574;  early  moderation  of, 
575,  576;  marries  Philip  of 
Spain,  577-579;  restores  papal 
authority,  580;  persecutions  of, 
581-583,  585 ;  war  with  France, 
loses  Calais,  584;  death,  585, 
586. 
daughter  of  James  II.,  marriage 
of,  767 ;  shares  crown  with  Wil- 
liam, 802;  crowned,  803;  death, 
823. 
queen  of  Scots,  marries  Francis 
II.,  561.  592;  returns  to  Scot- 
land, 592;  religious  quarrels, 
594;  marries  Darnley,  598; 
Bothwell,  598;  flight  to  Eng- 
land, 599 ;  the  Ridolfi  plot  601 ; 
death,  608. 

Maryland,  settled  by  Calverts,  662 ; 
religious  toleration  in,  662. 

Maserfield,  battle  of,  41. 

Matilda,  daughter  of  Henry  I. ; 
marries  Henry  V.  of  Germany 
195;  made  Henry  I.'s  successor 
and  marries  Geoffrey  of  Anjou, 
196;  fails  in  securing  the  suc- 
cession to  English  crown,  202, 


SD3;   wars  with  Stephen,   204- 
208, 

Matilda,  queen  of  William  I. ,  158. 
queen  of    Stephen,    204;  defeats 
Matilda  of  Anjou,  207. 

McCarthy,  Justin,  Irish  commander 
at  Newtown  Butler,  816. 
Justin,  Irish  leader,  1062. 

Meanwara,  see  Jutes. 

Mehemet  AH,  revolt  of,  1004. 

Melbourne,  see  Lamb. 

Mercia,  rise  of,  39,  41 ;  Christianity 
in,  42;  divisions  of,  46;  second 
rise  of,  51 ;  Ethelfleda  in,  79-81. 

Merton,  the  battle  of,  63. 

Methodism,  rise  and  influence  of, 
886,  887. 

Methuen  Treaty,  882,  see  also  Gin 
Act  and  Porteous  Riots. 

Metternich,  Austrian  minister,  see 
Holy  Alliance. 

Milan  Decree,  the,  966. 

Militia  Ordinance,  680. 

Milled  edge,  the,  adopted,  828. 

Millenary  Petition,  the,  626. 

Milton,  John,  in  tract  war,  675; 
author  of  "Eikonoklastes,"  705 ; 
advocates  freedom  of  the  press, 
825. 

Minden,  battle  of,  906,  907. 

Minorca,  see  Port  Mahon, 

Moltke  von,  1035. 

Monasteries,  the  early,  34,  35,  40, 
41,  49,  58,  62;  in  time  of  Dun- 
stan,  93-105 ;  in  time  of  Henry 
I.,  198-201;  in  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, 318-321;  for  suppression 
of,  see  Cromwell,  Thomas,  also 
reign  of  Edward  VI. 

Monk,  George,  duke  of  Albemarle, 
711,  715,  719,  732,  744,  746. 

Monmouth,  James,  duke  of,  wins 
Bothwell  Brigg,  775 ;  the  Black 
Box,  776 ;  connection  with  Rye 
House  Plot,  779;  rebellion  of, 
784;  death,  785. 

Monopolies,  attacked  by  parliament 
of  Elizabeth,  613,  614;  by  par- 
liaments of  James  I.,  639; 
abuses  of  under  Charles  I. ,  655. 

Mons  Graupius,  battle  of,  10. 

Montague,  Edward,  Lord  Kimbol- 
ton,  earl  of  Manchester,  parlia- 
mentary general,  683;  at 
Winceby,  687;   Marston  Moor, 


1090 


IN^DEX 


689 ;  at  Newbury,  692 ;  removed 
from  command,  693. 
Charles,  minister  of  William  III. , 
his  administration  of  the  treas- 
ury, 822,  823;  member  of  Junto, 
826;    the    resolutions    of,    828; 
attacked  by  Tories,  831. 
Admiral,  earl  of  Sandwich,  746. 
John,  earl  of  Sandwich,  attacks 

Wilkes,  923. 
Thomas,  earl  of  Salisbury,  451; 
slain  at  Orleans,  452. 

Montcalm,  French  governor  in 
America,  900,  904,  907. 

Montfort,  Simon  de,  earl  of  Leices- 
ter, 284,  285;  leads  barons  in 
war  with  Henry  II.,  287;  at 
Lewes,  289;  his  parliament, 
290;  death  of,  291-293. 
John  de,  claimant  to  duchy  of 
Brittany,  361;  supported  by 
Edward  III.,  383. 

Montrose,  earl  of,  supports  Charles 
I.,  689,  690,  694,  695. 

Moore,  Sir  John,  in  Peninsular 
War,  967. 

Morcar,  138,  146,  150. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  chancellor  of 
Henry  VIII.,  535;  persecutes 
Protestants,  538 ;  refuses  to  sup- 
port Henry  VIII.,  in  revolt  from 
the  church,  540;  the  "Utopia," 
542;  death,  543. 

Mortimer,  Edmund,  earl  of  March, 
390. 
Edmund,  captured  by  Glendower, 

433,  434. 
Roger,  lord  of  Wigmore,  345 ;  plots 
with  Isabella  against  Edward 
IL,   346,   347;   tyranny   of,  350- 
352;  death  of,  352. 

Mortimer's  Cross,  battle  of,  472. 

Mortmain,  statute  of,  420. 

Morton,  John,  bishop  of  Ely,  mem- 
ber of  council  of  Edward  IV. , 
489;  conspires  against  Richard 
III.,  490,  491 ;  cardinal,  532. 

Moscow,  burning  of,  971,  972. 

Mountjoy,  see  Blount. 

Mousehold  Hill,  battle  of,  566. 

Mowbray,  Thomas,  earl  of  Notting- 
ham, duke  of  Norfolk,  one  of 
the  Lords  Appellant,  418,  421; 
exiled  by  Richard  II.,  423. 

Muggletonians,  the,  706. 


Municipal  Bill,  the  Irish,  1001. 
Muscovy  Company,  the,  808. 
Mutiny  Act,  the,  813. 

Namur,  taken  by  William  III.,  825. 

Nana  Sahib,  part  in  Indian  Mutiny, 
1027,  1029,  1031. 

Nantes,  Edict  of,  617;  revoked,  686. 

Napoleon  1.,  see  Bonaparte. 
III.,  Louis,  president  of  Second 
French  Republic,  1017 ;  emperor 
of  the  French,  1020;  part  in 
Crimean  war,  1022;  the  Orsini 
affair,  1032 ;  interferes  in  Italy, 
1033. 

Napoleonic  wars,  relation  of  to  wars 
of  eighteenth  century,  975. 

Naseby,  battle  of,  693. 

Natal,  colonization  of,  1012. 

Navarino,  battle  of,  985. 

Navigation  Acts,  the,  717,  756,  845, 
1019. 

Nechtansmere,  battle  of,  49. 

Nelson,  admiral,  956,  958,  961,  962. 

Neolithic  men,  the,  3,  4. 

Netherlands,  see  under  Flanders 
and  Burgundy;  relations  to 
Elizabeth,  600-602,  600,  607 ;  re- 
lations to  the  commonwealth, 
717-719,  730;  to  Charles  IL,  756, 
761-766;  to  James  II.,  783,  794, 
795 ;  for  alliance  with  England, 
see  the  several  succession  wars 
of  the  eighteenth  century; 
Spanish,  ceded  to  Austria,  855 ; 
overrun  by  French,  950,  952, 
954;  raised  to  a  kingdom,  974. 

Neville,  Anne,  wife  of  Richard  III. , 
488. 
Richard,  earl  of  Salisbury,  ally  of 
Richard  of  York,  465,  466-470; 
executed,  471. 
Richard,  earl  of  Warwick,  the 
"king  maker,"  465,  466;  wins 
St.  Albaas,  467;  Northampton, 
470;  defeated  at  second  battle 
of  St.  Albans,  472;  conquers 
Percy  strongholds,  477;  quarrel 
with  Edward  IV.,  478;  turns 
against  Edward  IV.,  479-482, 
death  at  Bar-  et,  483. 

Neville's  Cross,  battle  of,  368. 

Newburn,  battle  of,  667. 

Newbury,  battle  of,  firs*  687;  the 
second,  692. 


II^DEX 


1091 


Newcastle,  see  Pelham. 

New  England,  early  settlements  in 
661,  662. 

New  Model,  the,  organized,  693;  at 
Naseby,  693,  694 ;  refuses  to  dis- 
band, 698,  699 ;  takes  possession 
of  London,  700 ;  supports  Crom- 
well, 720-738;  disbands,  748. 
the,  ordinance,  692. 

New  Orleans,  the  battle  of,  971. 

New  Style,  adopted  by  English, 
the,  895. 

New  York,  settled  by  Dutch  as  New 
Amsterdam,  809 ;  taken  by  Eng- 
lish and  named  New  York,  756. 

Newtown  Butler,  battle  of,  816. 

Nimwegen,  Treaty  of,  767. 

Ninian,  Celtic  missionary,  14. 

Nonconformists,  see  under  Sepa- 
ratists, Puritans,  Hampton 
Court  Conference,  Laud,  Clar- 
endon Code,  Dissenters,  In- 
dulgence, and  Occasional  Con- 
formity. 

Nonjurors,  the,  814. 

Nonresistance  Bill,  the,  768. 

Norfolk,  see  Howard,  Mowbray,  and 
Bigod. 

Norman  conquest  of  England,  see 
William  I. 

Normandy,   relations  to  Ethelred, 
the  Redeless,  109,  110,   114;  to 
Edward  the  Confessor,  126,  131 
132 ;  wars  of  WiUiam  II.  in,  184 
reunion  with  England,  187,  188 
wars  of  Henry  I.,  191,  192;  lost 
by    John,    246,    247;     won    by 
Henry  V.,  447,  448;    regained 
by  Charles  VII.,  459,  460,  464. 

North,  Frederick,  Lord  North,  min- 
ister of  George  III.,  928,  929; 
the  Regulating  Act,  930;  at- 
tempt to  concijiate  American 
colonies,  933;  grants  legislative 
independence  to  Ireland,  939; 
resigns,  940;  member  of  the 
coalition  ministry,  942. 

Northallerton,  battle  of,  204. 

Northampton,  assize  of,  the,  226. 

Northmen,  the,  58,  59,  see  also 
Danes. 

Northumberland,  earls  of,  see  Percy. 

Northumbrian  Confederacy,  23 ; 
first  kingdom  of,  36 ;  conversion 

«      of,  37;  influence  of  monks  in, 


38;  recovery  of,  40;  second  re- 
covery of,  42 ;  decline  of,  50. 

Northumbrian  risings  against  Wil- 
liam I,  161-165. 

Nottingham,  see  Finch  and  Mow- 
bray. 

Nova  Scotia,  ceded  to  England, 
855;  annexed  to  Canada,  1043. 

Oates,  Titus,  plot,  the,  769,  782. 

Occasional  Conformity  Bill,  842; 
repealed,  880. 

Ockley,  battle  of,  60. 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  enters  parlia- 
ment, 989,  990 ;  opposes  Coercion 
Act,  995;  popular  meetings  in 
Ireland,  1010,  1011;  death,  1011. 

Oda,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  95, 
98,  divorces  Edwy,  99. 

Odo,  half  brother  of  William  I., 
regent,  154;  quarrels  with  Wil- 
liam I.,  183;  driven  out  by 
William  II.,  184. 

Offa,  king  of  Mercia,  53. 

Offa's  dyke,  53. 

Oldcastle,  John,  Lord  Cobham, 
burned  as  heretic,  441. 

O'Neill,  earl  of  Tyrone,  rising  of, 
614. 

Orangemen,  organization  of  the, 
955. 

Ordainers,  Lords,  336. 

Ordeal,  the,  90;  abolition  of,  221. 

Orders  in  council,  the  first,  965 ;  the 
second,  966. 

Ordinary  council,  the,  194. 

Orleans,  siege  of,  452,  454. 

Ormond,  see  Butler. 

Orsini,  the  Don,  affair,  1032. 

Osborne,  Sir  Thomas,  earl  of  Danby, 
766;  his  "system  of  influence," 
767 ;  supports  Nonresistance 
Bill,  768;  relations  to  Louis 
XIV.,  770;  fall  of,  770,  771;  re- 
lease of  from  Tower,  780;  in- 
trigues against  James  II. ,  795 ; 
minister  of  William  IIL,  821. 

Oswald,  41. 

Oswy,  42-45. 

Otford,  battle  of,  116. 

Otterburn,  battle  of,  432. 

Oxford,  Provisions  of,  282,  283. 
earl  of,  see  Harley  and  Vere. 
the  University  of,  320,  321.  324, 
523,  562  and  note,  563,  885,  1014. 


1092 


INDEX 


Paleolithic  men,  in  Britain,  3. 
Pallium,  bishop's,  the,  35. 
Palmerston,  Lord,  see  Temple. 
Pandulf ,  papal  legate  to  king  John, 

263,  269. 
Papal  authority,  attacked  by  Wyc- 
lif ,  395 ;  universally  recognized, 
528;  claims  over  England,  529; 
revolt  of  England  from,  530  and 
following;  see  also  under  Wil- 
liam I. ,  Henry  II. ,  John,  Henry 
III. 
Paris,  Treaties  of,  909,  940,  1025. 
Parish  Councils  Bill,  1063. 
Parker,    Matthew,    archbishop    of 

Canterbury,  589,  602. 
Parliament,  the  Addled,  636. 

Barebones,  see  Nominated  Parlia- 
ment. 

of  Bats,  the,  455. 

the  Cavalier,  749 ;  persecutions  of 
dissenters,  751 ;  becomes  the 
Pensionary,  759. 

the  convention,  745 ;  acts  of,  747. 

the  second  convention,  801,  803, 
821. 

the  Good,  393,  403,  404. 

the  Long,  669;  reforms  of,  672; 
revolutionary  drift  of,  673,  692 ; 
see  also  Rump,  the. 

the  Mad,  281. 

the  Model,  309. 

Montfort's,  290. 

the  Nominated,  725-727. 

the  Pensionary,  759. 

the  Reform,  534,  536,  538. 

the  Short,  660. 

the  Wonderful,  419. 

first  appearance  of  name,  281; 
growth  of,  increase  in  activity 
and  authority,  397;  the  right 
to  fix  succession,  430;  develop- 
ment under  Henry  V.,  441-443; 
parliaments  of  house  of  Lan- 
caster, 474-476;  Elizabeth's  deal- 
ings with,  590 ;  recovers  power 
of  impeachment,  639;  quarrels 
with  James  I. ,  628 ;  early  strife 
of  Charles  I.  with,  643;  de- 
thrones and  executes  Charles 
I. ,  669-704 ;  important  principles 
arising  from  Danby's  case,  771 ; 
secures  control  of  crown  grants, 
832;  significance  of  Whig  rev- 
olution in  growth  of  power  of, 


863,  864;  the  Wilkes  case,  923; 
reform  of,  agitated,  928;  de- 
bates published,  930;  reform 
agitation  renewed,  978,  988; 
the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  991- 
994;  the  second  Reform  Bill, 
1041,  1042;  the  third  Reform 
Bill,  1058,  1059;  as  constituted 
in  1901,  1059;  see  aZso  Witenage- 
mot.  Council,  Magnum  Conci- 
lium, and  Commons. 

Parnell,  Charles  Stewart.  Home 
Rule  leader,  1054,  1062. 

Parr,  Catharine,  553. 

Parsons,  Robert,  Jesuit  agent,  604. 

Partitions,  Spanish,  treaties,  831, 
832. 

Patay,  battle  of,  455. 

Paterson,  William,  devises  plan  of 
Bank  of  England,  823;  origin- 
ates scheme  of  Darien  com- 
pany, 846. 

Patrick,  St. ,  Irish  missionary,  14. 

Patriots,  the,  881,  885. 

Paul,  czar  of  Russia,  ally  of  Bona- 
parte, 957 ;  assassination  of,  959. 

Paulinus,  first  archbishop  of  York, 
37,  38. 

Peasant  Revolt,  the,  406-410. 

Pedro  the  Cruel,  of  Castile,  383; 
restored  by  Black  Prince,  384, 
killed  by  Henry  of  Trastamara, 
384. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  home  secretary, 
980;  opposes  Catholic  emanci- 
pation, 986;  compromises  on 
Test  Act,  988;  first  ministry  of , 
998;  second  ministry  of,  1008; 
position  of,  1009;  restores  in- 
come tax,  1010;  dealings  with 
Ireland,  1010, 1011 ;  repeals  Corn 
Laws,  1015;  resigns,  1016;  the 
Arms  Act,  1016,  1017;  death  of. 
1021. 

Pelham,  Henry,  minister  of  George 
II.,  891;  his  war  policy,  891, 
894;  home  policy,  895;  opposes 
Calendar  Bill,  895;  death,  896. 
Thomas,  duke  of  Newcastle,  min- 
ister of  George  II.,  896;  fall  of, 
901 ;  his  corrupt  methods,  901, 
902;  joins  with  the  elder  Pitt, 
901 ;  end  of  career,  909. 

Pembroke,  see  Marshal,  Valence, 
and  Clare. 


INDEX 


1093 


Penal  Code,  817. 

Penda,  39-42. 

Peninsular  War,  967. 

Perceval,  Spencer,  prime  minister, 
970. 

Percy,  Henry,  earl  of  Northumber- 
land, rising  of  against  Henry 
IV.,  435. 
Henry,  "Hotspur,"  896,  433;  re- 
volt of,  434;  slain  at  Shrews- 
bury, 435. 
Thomas,  earl  of  Worcester,  slain 
at  Shrewsbury,  435. 

Perrers,  Alice,  intrigues  against 
Edward  III.,  389,  393,  394. 

Persian  war,  the,  1026. 

Perth,  the  Articles  of,  664. 

Pesaro,  Cape,  battle  of,  871. 

Peter  the  Great,  of  Russia,  871,  909. 

Peter's  Pence.  181,  536. 

Peterloo,  massacre  of,  978,  979. 

Petition  and  Advice,  the,  736,  737. 

Petition  of  Right,  the,  618,  649. 

Petitioners  and  Abhorrers,  early 
names  of  Whigs  and  Tories, 
773. 

Petty,  William,  earl  of  Shelburne, 
minister  of  George  III.,  940, 
941. 

Philip  I.  of  France,  relations  with 
William  I.,  136. 
II.,  of  France,  aids  Richard  I. 
against  Henry  II.,  228;  in  the 
third  crusade,  233,  234;  plots 
with  John  against  Richard,  235 ; 
wars  with  Richard  I.,  240, 
241. 
IV.  of  France,  war  with  Edward 

I.,  311,  326. 
VI.  of  France,  aids  Scotland 
against  England,  354;  war  with 
Edward  III.,  357-369;  death, 
876. 
II.,  of  Spain,  marries  Mary  of 
England,  579;  proposes  mar- 
riage with  Elizabeth,  592 ;  raises 
Irish  against  Elizabeth,  603; 
war  with  England,  606-612; 
death,  612,  617. 

Philiphaugh,  battle  of,  694,  695. 

Philippa  of  Hainault,  queen  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  389. 

Phoenix  Park  murder,  the,  1054. 

Picquigny,  Treaty  of,  488. 

Picts,  the  ancient,  15,  16. 


Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  the,  545. 

Pilgrims,  see  Separatists. 

Pilnitz,  convention  of,  951. 

Pinkie  Cleugh,  battle  of,  561. 

Pitt,  William,  earl  of  Chatham, 
attacks  Carteret,  882,  896 ;  first 
ministry,  901,  908;  successful 
policy  of,  905,  906 ;  second  min- 
istry, 924,  929 ;  sympathy  with 
"     American    colonists,   935,   938; 

death  of,  948. 
William,  prime  minister,  944; 
strength  of,  944;  peaceful  na- 
ture of  early  part  of  adminis- 
tration, 945,  946;  reforms  of, 
946-949;  foreign  policy  of,  950; 
early  attitude  toward  French 
Revolution,  951,  956;  organizes 
coalition  against  France,  956, 
957 ;  resignation  of,  958 ;  second 
ministry  of,  961;  third  coali- 
tion, 962;  death,  962,  968. 

Pius  V. ,  bull  of,  against  Elizabeth, 
600. 

Plague,  the  Great,  of  1665,  756. 

Plassey,  battle  of,  905. 

Poitiers,  battle  of,  378. 

Pole,  Henry,  Lord   Montague,   in- 
trigue of,  545,  546. 
John  de  la,  earl  of  Lincoln,  revolt 
of,   against    Henry    VII.,  302; 
slain  at  Stoke,  302. 
Michael  de  la,   earl  of   Suffolk, 
minister  of  Richard   II.,   416; 
dismissed,  418. 
Reginald,  papal  legate,  545;  at- 
tainted  by  Henry  VIII.,    546; 
returns  to  England  under  Mary, 
577,  580;  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 582;  death  of,  585. 
William  de  la,  earl  of    Suffolk, 
458,  459;  impeached  and  mur- 
dered, 461. 

Polish  succession,  war  of  the,  883. 

Poor  Law,  the  first,  570;  amend- 
ment act,  996. 

Porteous  riots,  the,  882. 

Portland,  see  Bentinck. 

Postal  reform,  1005,  1006. 

Poyning's  Acts,  the,  505. 

Praemunire,  Statute  of,  390,  398, 
420,  526. 

Prayer  Book  .of  Edward  VI.,  the 
first,  564;  the  second,  570;  re- 
pealed, 576. 


1094 


INDEX 


Presbyterians,  see  under  Reforma- 
tion in  Scotland,  Puritans,  Civil 
Wars,  the,  Long  Parliament, 
Restoration,  Clarendon  Code, 
Dissenters. 

Presentment  of  Englishry,  160. 

Press,  freedom  of,  secured,  834. 

Pressburg,  Treaty  of,  962. 

Preston,  battle  of,  703. 

Preston  Pans,  battle  of,  893. 

Pretender,  see  Stuart. 

Pride's  purge,  703. 

Primrose,  Archibald  Philip,  earl  of 
Rosebery,  successor  of  Glad- 
stone, 1064. 

Printing  in  England,  early,  498. 

Prison  reform,  see  Howard. 

Protection  for  Life  and  Property 
Act,  1054. 

Provisors,  Statute  of,  390,  398,  420. 

Prynne,  William,  before  Court  of 
Star  Chamber,  658,  659. 

Punjab,  conquest  of,  1013. 

Puritanism,  growth  of,  602. 

Puritans,  the,  564,  576,  597,  602,  612, 
624-627,  650,  657,  661,  662,  666, 
674,  675;  see  also  Separatists, 
Nonconformists,  and  Dissent- 
ers. 

Pym,  John,  parliamentary  leader, 
640,  647,  666,  670,  671,  688. 

Pyrenees,  Treaty  of  the,  741. 

Pythias,  voyage  of,  6,  7. 

Quakers,  persecution  of,  752. 
Quebec,  capture  of,  907. 
Queen  Anne's  bounty,  842. 

war,  897. 
Quia  Emptor es,  the  statute  of,  301. 
Quiberon  Bay,  battle  of,  907. 

Radcot  Bridge,  battle  of,  418. 

Raedwald,  king  of  East  Anglia,  34, 
36. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  613,  616;  ad- 
vocates war  with  Spain,  624; 
imprisoned,  626;  South  Ameri- 
can expedition  of,  637;  death 
of,  638. 

Rami  Hies,  battle  of,  844. 

Ranters,  the,  706. 

Rapparees,  the,  754. 

Reading,  battle  of,  63. 

Recissory  Act,  the,  754. 

Recoinage  Act,  the,  827. 


Recusants,  564,  591,  605, 

Reform  Bills,  the,  first,  994 ;  the  sec- 
ond, 1041,  1042;  the  third,  1058. 

Reformation,  the,  in  England,  in- 
troduction of,  528-547 ;  progress 
of,  549-570;    Catholic  reaction, 
571-585;  established,  587-605. 
the,  in  Scotland,  592. 

Regulating  Act,  the,  930. 

Relief,  117. 

Relief  Act,  the,  931. 

Religiosis,  the.  Statute  de,  301. 

Remonstrance,  the  Grand,  676. 

Restoration,  the  Stuart,  745 ;  in  Ire- 
land, 753 ;  in  Scotland,  754. 

Resumption  Bill,  the,  832. 

Retford,  battle  of,  36. 

Revenues  of  the  crown  under  Eliza- 
beth, 631. 

Revocation,  the  Act  of,  664. 

Rich,  Edmund,  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, 275,  278. 

Richard  I. ,  conspires  against  Henry 
II.,  225,  228;  accession  of,  230; 
in  the  third  crusade,  231,  234; 
character  of,  231 ;  imprisonment 
and  ransom  of,  235,  236;  reign 
of,  236-240;  death  of ,  231. 
II.,  troublous  reign  of,  404-425;  in 
the  Peasant  Revolt,  409 ;  defies 
parliament,  418;  assumes  the 
government,  419;  second  mar- 
riage of,  420;  his  Irish  cam- 
paign, 424 ;  is  deposed,  425 ;  im- 
prisoned, 431 ;  death  of,  432. 
III. ,  as  duke  of  Gloucester, 
schemes  to  secure  the  succes- 
sion, 488;  succeeds,  489,  490; 
his  reign,  490,  491 ;  slain  at  Bos- 
worth,  492. 

Richmond,  see  Henry  VII.  of  Eng- 
land. 

Ridley,  Nicholas,  bishop  of  Roches- 
ter, 564;  death,  582,  583. 

Ridolfi  plot,  the,  601. 

Right,  petition  of,  648-650. 

Rights,  Bill  of,  813. 
claim  of,  818. 
declaration  of,  802,  813. 

Rivers,  see  Woodville. 

Rizzio,  David,  murder  of,  598. 

Robert  of  Jumieges,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  128,  129,  132. 
of  Normandy,  eldest  son  of  Con- 
queror,   182,    183;    loses    Nor- 


INDEX 


1095 


mandy,     107;     quarrels    with 
Henry  I.,  190,  191;  death,  191. 

Robert  I. ,  king  of  Scotland,  corona- 
tion, 331 ;  wars  with  Edward  I. , 
327-332;  with  Edward  II.,  338, 
339;  secures  independence  of 
Scotland,  436. 
III.,  of  Scotland,  436. 

Roberts,  general,  "Bobs,"  1056. 

Robinson,  Frederick,  viscount  Gode- 
rich,  chancellor  of  the  ex- 
chequer, 981;  prime  minister, 
987 ;  member  of  Grey  ministry, 
991. 

Rochelie,  La,  battle  of,  387;  Buck- 
ingham's expedition  to,  646. 

Roches,  Peter  des,  bishop  of  Win- 
chester, justiciar  of  John,  257; 
favorite  of  Henry  III.,  267,  271, 
272,  274;  dismissed  from  coun- 
cil, 275. 

Rockingham,  marquis  of,  see  Went- 
worth. 

Roger,  the  Poor,  bishop  of  Salisbury, 
193;  quarrel  with  Stephen,  205. 

Roman  walls,  the,  in  Britain.  11. 

Root  and  Branch  Bill,  674,  675. 

Rosebery,  see  Primrose. 

Roses,  the  wars  of,  466-492. 

Rossbach,  battle  of,  904. 

Rotten  boroughs,  disfranchisement 
of,  see  Reform  Bills. 

Rowton  Heath,  battle  of,  695. 

Royal  African  Company,  809. 

Royal  Marriage  Act,  the,  930. 

"Rule  Brittania,"  origin  of  song, 
878,  888. 

Rump,  the,  704;  ignores  the  agree- 
ment of  the  people,  707 ;  unpop- 
ularity of,  719;  expelled  by 
Cromwell,  720,  721;  restored, 
740;  second  expulsion  and  res- 
toration, 743. 

Rupert,  prince,  682,  684,  685,  686, 
688,  689,  690,  695,  711,  716,  756. 

Rural  life  in  England  in  four- 
teenth century,  372,  373. 

Russell,  admiral  Edward,  wins  La 
Hogue,  820. 
John,  earl,  attacks  Test  and  Cor- 
poration acts,  988;  member  of 
Grey  ministry,  991 ;  prime  min- 
ister, 1016;  colonial  policy  of, 
1018;  factory  reforms,  1019; 
fall  of,  1020,  1021. 


Russell,  Lord  William,  Whig  leader, 

executed,  779. 
Rye  House  Plot,  the,  779. 
Ryswick,  peace  of,  829. 

Sac  and  Soc,  122,  176. 

Sacherevell's  case,  852. 

Saint    Albans,  battle  of,  467;  sec- 
ond battle  of,  472. 
Brice's  Day,  massacre  of,  110. 

Saladin  tithe,  the,  227,  228. 

Salisbury,     see    Cecil,     Montague, 
Neville. 
William  Longsword,  earl  of,  254, 
258,  264. 

Sancroft,  William,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  of  "the  seven 
bishops,"  792;  deposed  as  non- 
juror, 814. 

Sandwich,  see  Montague. 

Sanquhair  Declaration,  the,  775. 

San  Stefano,  Treaty  of,  1051. 

Saratoga,  battle  of.  938. 

Sautre,  William,  first  heretic  burnt 
in  England,  440. 

Saville,  George,  marquis  of  Hali- 
fax, 773 ;  defeats  the  Exclusion 
Bill,  777;  supports  William  IIL , 
777. 

Saxons,  early  conquests  of,  15-22. 

Schism,  the  Great,  413. 

Scotland,  ancient  people  of,  15, 
16;  see  also  Caledonians,  and 
Picts;  relations  of  Norman 
and  Angevin  kings  to,  see  un- 
der contemporary  Scottish 
kings;  the  Reformation  in,  see 
Elizabeth ;  the  Revolution  in,  see 
under  names  of  Stuart  kings; 
union  with  England,  845,  846; 
free  church  movement  in,  1014 

Scrope,  Richard  le,  archbishop  of 
York,  plots  against  Henry  IV., 
435. 

Scutage,  the,  214. 

Sebastopol,  siege  of,  1023,  1024. 

Secretaries  of  state,  the,  868. 

Security,  Bill  of,  the,  847. 

Sedgemoor,  battle  of,  784. 

Self-denying  Ordinance,  the,  692. 

Senlac,  see  Hastings. 

Separatists,  the,  597;  persecutions 
of,  612 ;  the  settlement  at  New 
Plymouth,  661. 

Sepoy  mutiny,  see  Indian  mutiny. 


1096 


INDEX 


Septennial  Act,  the,  869. 

Settlement,  Act  of,  the,  833. 

Seven  bishops,  the  trial  of,  793,  794. 

Seven  years'  war,  the,  begun,  899, 900. 

Seymour,  Jane,  wife  of  Henry 
VIII.,  550. 
Edward,  duke  of  Somerset,  560; 
lord  protector,  560;  his  prot- 
estantism, 561-564;  invasion  of 
Scotland,  561;  fall  and  execu- 
tion of,  567,  569. 
Seymour,  Thomas,  intrigues  of, 
565. 

Shaftesbury,  see  Cooper. 

Shakespeare,  William,  616,  617. 

Shelburne,  see  Petty. 

Sheriff,  the,  69. 

Sheriffmuir,  battle  of,  869. 

Sheriffs,  Inquest  of,  221,  222. 

Ship  money,  levies  of,  655,  656; 
Hampden's  case,  657;  declared 
illegal  by  Long  Parliament,  672. 

Shire,  origin  of,  69,  70. 

Shrewsbury,  battle  of,  434. 

Sidmouth,  see  Addington. 

Sidney,  Algernon,  Whig  leader,  779. 
Sir  Philip,  607,  617. 

Simnel,  Lambert,  the  pretender,  501. 

Six  Acts,  the,  979. 

Six  Articles,  the,  549,  550. 

Slavery,  616;  the  assiento,  855, 
872,  883;  slave  trade,  society 
for  abolition  of,  950 ;  Mansfield's 
decision,  949,  950;  slave  trade 
abolished  in  colonies,  966-  the 
Emancipation  Act,  996. 

Sluys,  battle  of,  359,  360. 

Smith,  Adam,  author  of  "Wealth  of 
Nations,"  influence  of,  918. 
John,    missionary  to  negroes  of 
Jamaica,  987. 

Solio,  iron  works,  established,  914. 

Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  the, 
688. 

Solferino,  battle  of,  1033. 

Somerset,  see  Beaufort,  Seymour, 
and  Carr. 

Soudan,  the,  see  Mahdi. 

South  Sea  Company,  (the  South 
Sea  Bubble  ),  872-874. 

Spain,  see  under  different  Spanish 
kings,  Armada,  Utrecht. 

Spanish  succession,  the  war  of  the, 
causes  of,  832,  835 ;  for  progress 
of  see  under  Churchill. 


"Spectator,"  the,  860. 

Spencer,    John     Charles,    viscount 
Althorp,  996,  1019. 
Henry  de,    bishop    of    Norwich, 

crusade  of,  414. 
Robert,  earl  of  Sunderland,  coun- 
cillor of  Charles  IL,  773;  of 
James  II. ,  788. 
Charles,  earl  of  Sunderland,  853, 
868,  869;  involved  in  South  Sea 
Bubble,  874. 

Spenser,  Edmund,  the  poet,  617, 
634. 

Spurs,  battle  of  the,  515. 

St.  George's  Fields,  massacre  of, 
927. 

St.  John,  Henry,  viscount  Boling- 
broke,  842,  853,  856,  863,  868, 
872,  878,  881. 

St.  Mahe,  battle  of,  326. 

Stadholderate,  the,  restored,  764. 

Stafford,   Edward,    duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, lineage  of,  523 ;  execu- 
tion of,  524. 
Henry  duke  of,  supports  Richard 
III.,  484;  revolt  and  death,  490. 

Stamford  Bridge,  battle  of,  139, 140. 

Stam.p  Act,  the,  923 ;  repealed,  925. 

Standard,  battle  of  the,  204. 

Stanhope,  James,  earl,  minister  of 
George  I. ,  869 ;  his  foreign  pol- 
icy, 870-872 ;  fall  of  ministry  of, 
873;  death,  874. 
Philip  Dormer,  earl  of  Chester- 
field, 895. 

Stanley,  Edward,  earl  of  Derby, 
secretary  for  Ireland,  995 ;  colo- 
nial secretary,  abolishes  slave 
trade,  996;  first  ministry  of, 
1021 ;  second  ministry  of,  1032, 
1033;  third  ministry  of,  1040, 
1042. 

Star  Chamber,  court  of,  502 ;  abuses 
of,  under  Charles  I.,  658;  abol- 
ished by  Long  Parliament,  672. 

Stephen,  king  of  England,  202,  203; 
civil  war  begun,  204;  breaks 
with  the  church,  205 ;  Walling- 
ford,  210;  death,  211. 

Stephenson,  George,  inventor  of 
locomotive,  1002. 

Stewart,  Robert,  viscount  Castle- 
reagh,  member  of  Portland 
ministry,  966;  of  Liverpool 
ministry,  970;  refused  to  enter 


INDEX 


1097 


Holy  Alliance,  982;   death  of, 
981. 

Stigand,  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
132,  133,  147,  149,  154,  179. 

Stoke,  battle  of,  502. 

Stonehenge,  ruins  of,  6. 

Strafford,  see  Wentworth. 

Strongbow,  see  Clare. 

Stuart,  see  under  names  of  sover- 
eigns of  house. 
John,   earl  of  Bute,  minister  of 

George  III.,  908,  921. 
Murdock,  earl  of  Fyfe,  413. 

Subinfeudation,  175. 

Subsidy,  origin  of,  631,  note. 

Succession,  the  war  of  the  English, 
820,  829,  830. 

Suez  canal,  comes  under  British 
control,  1056. 

Suffolk,  see  Pole  and  Grey. 

Sunderland,  see  Spencer. 

Supremacy,  Act  of,  541,  542,  590. 

Surajah  Dowlah,  nawab  of  Bengal, 
besieges  Calcutta,  900;  over- 
throw by  Clive,  904,  905. 

Surrey,  see  Howard. 

Suttee,  abolished  in  India,  1013. 

Sweyn  Forkbeard,  raid  of,  111,  113, 
114. 
son  of  earl  Godwin,  127. 

Tables,  the  Scottish,  664. 

Talavera,  battle  of,  968. 

Talbot,  Richard,  earl  of  Tyrcon- 
nel,  788,  815. 

Talents ,  the  ministry  of  All  the, 
963. 

Tallage,  177. 

Taraworth  Manifesto,  the.  977. 

"Tatler,"  the,  established,  860. 

Tel-el-Kebir,  battle  of,  1057. 

Temple,  Henry,  viscount  Palmer- 
ston,  secretary  of  war,  981,  988; 
Tory  member  of  Grey  ministry, 
991 ;  foreign  secretary  in  Mel- 
bourne ministry,  1003;  policy 
of,  1004;  supports  opium  war, 
1005 ;  foreign  secretary  in  Rus- 
sell ministry,  1016,  1020,  1021; 
in  Aberdeen  ministry,  1022; 
prime  minister,  1024;  second 
Chinese  war,  1026,  1031;  in 
Orsini  affair,  1032 ;  second  min- 
istry of,  1033;  attitude  toward 
American  civil  war,  1034;  the 


Alabama,  1035 ;  attempted 
interference  in  struggle  for  Ger- 
man unity,   1036;    death,  1036. 

Temple,  William,  scheme  for  recon- 
struction of  royal  council,  771. 

Ten  Articles,  the,  548. 

Tenants  in  capite,  175. 

Tenchebray,  battle  of,  191. 

Tenure,  socage,  173. 
military,  174. 

Test  Act,  the,  765;  attacked  by 
James  II.,  788. 

Teutonic  Britain,  institutions,  27; 
rival  confederacies,  32;  Chris- 
tianity in,  42. 

Teutons,  advance  of  the,  24-27;  cus- 
toms of,  30,  31. 

Tewksbury,  battle  of,  484. 

Thames,  the,  70,  88,  174. 

Theodore,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 44-48. 

Thirty-nine  Articles,  the,  596,  814. 

Thirty  years'  war,  outbreak  of,  63S ; 
relation  of  England  to,  see  un- 
der James  I. 

Thugs,  the,  abolished  in  India,  1013. 

Thurkill,  the  Dane,  112,  113. 

Tilsit,  Treaty  of,  964. 

Tithe  Bill,  the  Irish,  1001. 

Tithe  war,  the  Irish,  995. 

Torres  Vedras,  the  lines  of,  969. 

Tory  party,  origin  of  name,  773; 
strength  under  James  II.,  786; 
intrigues  under  William  III., 
see  under  Jacobites ;  disruption 
of  the  ancient,  863;  birth  of 
the  Hanoverian  or  new,  878; 
first  period  of  rule,  911-940; 
second  period  of  rule,  941-945; 
reforms  of,  978;  disruption  of. 
1014,  1016;  replaced  by  Con- 
servative party,  1038. 

Tostig,  son  of  Godwin,  133,  137-139. 

Toulouse,  Henry  II.  "s  war  of,  214. 

Tower,  the,  30,  242,  243;  see  also 
city. 

Townshend,  Charles,  lord,  minis- 
ter of  George  I.,  868,  869;  asso- 
ciated with  Walpole,  870-874; 
quarrel  with  Walpole,  877;  re- 
tires, 878. 

Towton,  battle  of,  476. 

Tractarian  movement,  the,  1014. 

Trafalgar,  battle  of,  961,  962. 

Trailbaston,  courts  of,  353. 


1098 


INDEX 


Transvaal,  annexation  of  the,  1052. 
Trastamara,  Henry  of,  383,  384. 
Treasons  Act,  the,  837. 
Trent  Affair,  the,  1084. 
Trent,  the  council  of,  597. 
Triennial  Acts,  672,  749,  824. 
Triers,  committee  of,  731. 
Trinoda  necessitas,  the,  170. 
Triple  Alliance,  the,  761. 
Tromp,   von,   Dutch  admiral,  718, 

730. 
Troyes,  Treaty  of,  448. 
"True  Born  Englishmen,"  the,  of 

Defoe,  860. 
Tudor  policy,  the,  500. 
House  of,  see   under  names   of 

sovereigns  of. 
system,  the,  620. 
Tulchan  bishops,  the,  663. 
Tyler,     Walter,     connected     with 

Peasant  Revolt,  408,  409. 
Tyndale,    William,     translator    of 

scriptures,  537,  549. 
Tyrconnel,  see  Talbot. 

Uhtred,  earl  of  Northumbria,  115. 

Ulfcytel,  Norman,  bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, 111,  112. 

Ulster,  Plantation  of,  the,  633. 

Undertakers,  the,  712. 

Uniformity,  the  Acts  of,  564,  576, 
590. 

Union  Jack,  first  appearance  of,  849. 
the,   of  England  and    Scotland, 
845-849. 

United  Irishmen,  the  society  of, 
955. 

United  States  of  America,  second 
war  with  Great  Britain,  970, 
972;  boundary  questions,  1012; 
Caroline  affair,  1000;  Palmers- 
ton  ministry  and  the  civil  war, 
1034. 

Urban   V.,   demands    payment    of 
tribute  from  Edward  III. ,  390. 
VI. ,  see  schism. 

Uses,  Statute  of,  544. 

Ushant,  battle  of,  952. 

Utrecht,  Treaties  of,  854,  855,  883. 

Valence,   Aymer  de,  earl  of  Pem- 
broke, 331. 
Van  Arteveldt,  see  Arte  veldt. 
Vane,  Sir  Henry,  the  younger,  670, 

688,  718,  724,  747,  749. 


Vassal,  the,  175. 

Vere,  Robert  de,  earl  of  Oxford, 
marquis  of  Dublin,  duke  of 
Ireland,  416-419. 

Verneuil,  battle  of,  451. 

Versailles,  Treaty  of,  940. 

Victoria,  accession  of,  999 ;  marries 
Prince  Albert,  1006;  epochs  of 
reign,  1009;  death  of,  influence 
of,  1067. 

Vienna,  congress,  972,  981. 
Treaties  of,  877,  879,  883,  968. 

Vikings,  see  Danes  and  Northmen, 

Villain,  the,  173;  emancipation  of, 
410 ;  see  also  Peasant  Revolt. 

Villiers,  George,  duke  of  Bucking- 
ham, minister  of  James  II. ,  635, 
641,  645,  646;  assassination  of, 
652. 
George,    duke    of    Buckingham, 

member  of  Cabal,  731,  766. 
Charles,  prominent  in  attack  upon 
Corn  Laws,  1003. 

Vimiero,  battle  of,  967. 

Vincent,  battle  of  St. ,  954. 

Vinegar  Hill,  battle  of,  955. 

Walcheren,  Chatham's  expedition 
to,  968. 

Wagram,  battle  of,  968. 

Wakefield,  battle  of,  471. 

Wales,  Statute  of,  299. 
first  prince  of,  299. 
not  conquered  by  Saxons,  24; 
wars  with  Northumbria,  23,  36, 
37 ;  vassal  to  Edward  the  Elder, 
82 ;  of  Athelstan,  83 ;  princes  of, 
in  alliance  with  Montfort,  288; 
conquered  and  organized  by  Ed- 
ward I.,  298,  299;  wars  with 
Henry  IV.,  433,436;  reorganized 
by  Henry  VIII.,  553. 

Wallace,  William,  rising  of,  328; 
loses  Falkirk,  329 ;  death  of,  330. 

Waller,  Sir  William,  parliamentary 
general,  683-685,  690. 

Wallingford,  peace  of,  210,  211. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  minister  of 
George  I.,  868,  869;  attacks  for- 
eign policy  of  government,  870 ; 
in  Townshend's  second  minis- 
try, 874;  quarrels  with  Town- 
shend,  875;  "first  prime  minis- 
ter of  England,"  879;  favors 
toleration,  880 ;  the' Excise  Bill, 


INDEX 


1099 


880;  his  policy  of  peace,  882, 
883 ;  war  with  Spain,  883 ;  serv- 
ice to  England,  884. 

Walsingham,  minister  of  Eliza- 
beth, 607. 

Walter  of  Coutances,  archbishop  of 
Rouen,  justiciar  of  Richard  I., 
233;  lays  interdict  on  Nor- 
mandy, 241. 

Walter,  Hubert,  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, 234,  237;  justiciar  of 
Richard  I.,  238-240;  death  of, 
250. 

Waltheof,  earl  of  Northumberland, 
rebellion  of,  162,  163;  death  of, 
166. 

Walworth,  William,  mayor  of  Lon- 
don, auditor  of  popular  levy, 
404;  in  Peasant  Revolt,  406,  407. 

Wandewash,  battle  of,  907. 

Warbeck,  Perkin,  pretender,  504- 
507. 

Wardship,  177. 

Warenne,  John,  wins  Dunbar,  327; 
regent  of  Scotland,  327;  beaten 
at  Cambuskenneth,  328. 

Warwick,  see  Beauchamp,  Neville, 
and  Dudley. 

Washington,  George,  commander 
of  colonial  armies,  937 ;  at  York- 
town,  939. 

Waterloo,  battle  of,  973;  effect  on 
England,  976. 

Watt,  James,  improves  steam  en- 
gine, 913,  914. 

Wedgewood,  Josiah,  potter,  914. 

Wedmore,  Treaty  of,  67. 

Wellesley,  Arthur,  duke  of  Welling- 
ton, in  India,  961;  in  Penin- 
sular war,  967  -  969 ;  invades 
France,  972;  wins  Waterloo, 
973,  974;  prime  minister,  987; 
opposes  Catholic  emancipation, 
987,  988;  accepts,  990;  fall  of 
ministry,  990,  991 ;  attempts  to 
form  a  second  ministry,  993, 
death,  1021. 
Richard,  lord  Mornington,  in  In- 
dia, 961. 

Went  worth,  Charles  Watson,  mar- 
quis of  Rocki^i^ham,  minister 
of  George  III. ,  924 ;  the  Declar- 
atory Act,  925 ;  second  ministry 
and  dearth,  940. 

Wergeld,  2o. 


Wesley,  Charles,  associated  with 
John,  in  Methodist  movement, 
885. 
John,  leader  in  religious  reforms, 
885;  founds  Methodist  church, 
886;  influence  of  Methodist 
movement,  887. 

Wessex,  early  conquests  of  West 
Saxons,  22,  23,  33 ;  organization 
of  kingdom  by  Ine,  50,  51 ;  su- 
preme under  Egbert,  53-56. 

Westminster  Abbey,  148. 
Confession,  the,  698. 
Convention  of,  898,  899. 
Provisions  of,  286. 
Thomas,   earl  of  Strafford,   640: 
attacks  the  abuses  of  the  crown, 
647;    joins   king's    party,    651; 
lord  deputy  of    Ireland,    660; 
added  to  the  council,  666;  im- 
peachment of,  670,  671 ;  death, 
672. 

Wharton,  Whig  leader,  member  of 
Junto,  826,  831,  853. 

Whig  revolution,  782-804;  nature 
of,  803.  804. 
party,  rise  of,  origin  of  name, 
773 ;  William  and  Anne  forced 
to  support,  806;  first  ministry, 
825;  character  of  rule  of,  865; 
constitutional  significance  of 
triumph,  863,  864 ;  split  in  party, 
869;  reforms  of,  978;  later 
schism  of  party,  1038;  see  also 
under  Shaftesbury.  Exclusion 
Bill,  Russell,  Somers,  Mon- 
tague, Wharton,  Junto,  Marl- 
borough, Townshend,  W  a  1- 
pole,  Newcastle,  Rockingham, 
Shelburne,  Grey,  Melbourne. 

Whitby,  Synod  of,  44. 

White  ship,  sinking  of  the,  196. 

Whitefield,  George,  leader  in  reli- 
gious reform,  885,  886 ;  supports 
Calvinistic  wing  of  Methodist 
movement,  886. 

Wihtwara,  settle  in  Isle  of  Wight, 
see  Jutes. 

Wilberforce,  see  slavery. 

Wilfred,  bishop  of  York,  43,  48. 

Wilkes,  John,  921,  922,  923,  926-931. 

William  I.,  the  Conqueror,  parent- 
age of,  130 ;  character  and  early 
training,  130, 131 ;  invades  Eng- 
land, 140;  campaign  of  Hast- 


1100 


INDEX 


ings,  144-148;  coronation  of, 
148-150;  position  of,  after,  150, 
151 ;  London  receives  a  charter, 
151,  244;  organization  of  gov- 
ernment, 151,  152;  confiscations 
of,  152,  153;  policy,  154;  re- 
duces England,  156-165;  taxa- 
tion under,  170;  the  oath  at 
Salisbury,  178;  policy  toward 
the  church,  178-180;  new  con- 
ditions under,  181 ;  quarrel  with 
barons,  182 ;  with  his  sons,  183 ; 
death  of,  183. 
William  II.,  Rufus,  accession  of, 
184;  character,  185;  treatment 
of  the  church,  186, 187 ;  reunion 
of  England  and  Normandy,  187 ; 
death  of,  188. 

III.,  stadholder,  764;  marries 
Mary  of  York,  767;  difficulties 
of  proposed  invasion  of  Eng- 
land, 794,  795 ;  invasion  of  Eng- 
land, 799-801;  coronation  of, 
803;  character  of,  811;  difficul- 
ties of  position  of,  812 ;  dealings 
with  religious  question,  812- 
814 ;  in  Ireland,  816 ;  opposition 
to  in  Scotland,  818-820;  war  of 
English  succession,  820-825 ;  the 
partition  treaties,  831,  832; 
death,  835. 

IV.,  accession  of,  990;  supports 
reform,  991 ;  death  of,  999. 

I.,  emperor  of  Germany,  1035. 

and  Mary's  war,  897. 

Clito,  196. 

Henry,  Fort,  erected  898,  cap- 
tured by  Montcalm,  904. 

Longbeard,  see  Fitz-Osbert. 

Longs  word,  see  Salisbury. 

son  of  Henry  I.,  196. 

the  Lion,  king  of  Scotland,  225, 
226,  231,  252. 

the  Silent,  764. 
Williams,    Roger,     founds    Rhode 

Island,  662. 
Wilmington,  see  Compton. 
Winchelsey,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 311,  312,  336. 
Winchester,  Statute  of,  the,  301. 
Winwood,  battle  of.  42. 


Witenagemot,  defined,  28,  91,  111, 
128,  168,  169. 

Wolfe,  general,  captures  Quebec, 
907. 

Wolsey,  Thomas,  minister  of  Henry 
VIII.,  514,  516;  diplomatic  tri- 
umphs of,  516,  517 ;  relations  to 
Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.,  520; 
decline  of  popularity  of,  521, 
522;  reforms  of,  522,  523;  sup- 
ports Henry  VIII.,  in  seeking 
divorce,  524 ;  fall  of,  525 ;  death, 
526,  527. 

Wood's  Pence,  860. 

Woodville,  Anthony,  lord  Scales, 
earl  Rivers,  479,  death  of,  488. 
Sir  Richard,  earl  Rivers,  treas- 
urer and  constable  of  England, 
479,  death  of,  480. 
Elizabeth,  marries  Edward  IV., 
478;  family  of,  overthrown  by 
Richard  HI.,  488,  489. 

Worcester,  battle  of,  715. 

Worms,  diet  of,  519. 

Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  plans  of,  for 
upbuilding  London,  857. 

Wulfhere,  42,  49,  50. 

Wyat,  Sir  Thomas,  earl  of  Suffolk, 
578. 

Wyclif ,  John,  394 ;  theories  of  social 
order,  395 ;  trial  of,  396 ;  his  re- 
forms, 398,  399,  411-413. 

Wykeham,  William  of,  bishop  of 
Winchester,  minister  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  391.  394,  419,  437. 

York,  monastery  of,  64. 
Edmund,  duke  of,  415. 
Richard,    duke  of,   457,   463;   re- 
turn, 464 ;  seizes  control  of  gov- 
erment,    465;    in    war  of    the 
Roses,  466-471;  slain,  471. 
Yorktown,  capitulation  of,  939. 
Young,  Arthur,  secretary  of  board 
of  agriculture,  917. 
Ireland  party,  the,  1011,  1018. 

ZoUverein,  1035. 

Zulus,  war  with  the,  1052. 

Zutphen,  battle  of,  607. 


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